I'm not much of a reader. I do enjoy reading, but it is very hard for me to find a book that I truly enjoy sitting down with. Today I finished the last few pages of a book that I have been working on since Memorial Day weekend: " '77: Denver, the Broncos, and a Coming of Age", written by Terry Frei, a columnist for The Denver Post. It came out just before last Christmas, and I've wanted to get it since then, but my book budget is pretty much zero. I couldn't find a copy available in the nearby branches of the Denver or Aurora libraries. I was out at a client in Englewood the week before Memorial Day and happened to look online and find that it was available at the Bear Valley branch, which wasn't too far away, so I drove over after work and picked it up. But I guess you didn't necessarily want to know all that.
The book chronicles the 1977 Denver Broncos and how that team changed the city. Pre-1977, the Broncos had played 17 seasons without ever making the playoffs and only enjoying a handful of winning seasons. To the outside world, Denver was viewed as a "cow town" or just another midwestern outpost of little consequence to anyone living on the coasts. Or so I'm told. I was two years old during the 1977 NFL season.
Much of the book is devoted to brief biographies of many of the players from the 1977 team, including the stories of how they became Broncos. I thought it was interesting that most of them, when learning they had been drafted by Denver, either had the thought that they needed to find a map or that they were going to freeze to death. So that kind of reinforces the idea that the average U.S. citizen knew very little about Denver, Colorado in that era.
Of course, Frei goes through the events of the 1977 season. I was impressed that he kept descriptions of the game action brief - there was some real potential to get bogged down there. Throughout the book, he weaves in many significant non-Bronco news events that were happening at the same time the Broncos were making their historic run to the Super Bowl. Some were sports related - in 1977, the Denver Nuggets were transitioning from the old ABA to the NBA and Denver also had a new NHL franchise - the Colorado Rockies. Also during the latter stages of 1977, Marvin Davis reached an agreement with Charlie Finley to buy the Oakland A's and bring major league baseball to Denver, although in the end the deal fell through. What an exciting time it must have been to be a sports fan in Colorado!
As I said before, I was born in 1975, so I have no actual recollection of anything regarding the 1977 team. I first became a Bronco fan as a 9-year-old at the beginning of the Elway Era. That being said, I'm still a huge fan of the 1977 Denver Broncos. I've read the books and seen the highlight videos and I'm envious of anyone who was able to experience that team firsthand and see the Orange Crush defense at its absolute apex.
Probably my favorite story, which Frei does an excellent job retelling in the book, is about Craig Morton leading the Broncos to victory in the AFC championship game over the Oakland Raiders even though one of his legs was seriously messed up. He'd spent the entire week beforehand in the hospital, and the team did everything they could to keep that fact under wraps while the doctors tried, without much luck, to drain blood from the leg. So he shows up at the stadium and his teammates are astonished that he was going to play even though his leg was totally black and blue. So Red Miller has to tie his shoes for him, and he tells his teammates that if he doesn't get hit, they'll win the football game. Which they do, 20-17, to advance to the Super Bowl. He was an aging quarterback who hadn't really had a stellar career and had bounced from team to team, and that was the defining moment of his career. It's just so Hollywood - I can't believe no one has produced the Craig Morton Story for the big screen. The NFL probably wouldn't allow it anyways.
The final point that Frei makes in the book is that the season forever changed how the Denver fan views his teams. The success of the 1977 Broncos was so new, so fresh, so exciting. And things will never be like that again - there can only be one first time. I totally agree - and the Super Bowl championships of 1997 and 1998 only made it more so. For example, I really enjoyed the 2005 version of the Broncos, who went 13-3 and advanced to the AFC Championship game. But because they failed to break through for another Super Bowl victory, that team is already long forgotten. Jake Plummer, an MVP candidate in 2005, was run out of town a year later and regarded as a failure by fans and media alike. And Mike Shanahan, after coaching the team to mediocre finishes in 2006 & 2007, has many of the same folks calling for his firing.
It's kind of sad that any kind of success will go unappreciated by many in Colorado from here on out unless it results in a Lombardi Trophy, the Stanley Cup, or a World Series title. And that is why the 1977 Broncos are special - they were (and are) regarded as champions even though they didn't finish the year on top.
The book chronicles the 1977 Denver Broncos and how that team changed the city. Pre-1977, the Broncos had played 17 seasons without ever making the playoffs and only enjoying a handful of winning seasons. To the outside world, Denver was viewed as a "cow town" or just another midwestern outpost of little consequence to anyone living on the coasts. Or so I'm told. I was two years old during the 1977 NFL season.
Much of the book is devoted to brief biographies of many of the players from the 1977 team, including the stories of how they became Broncos. I thought it was interesting that most of them, when learning they had been drafted by Denver, either had the thought that they needed to find a map or that they were going to freeze to death. So that kind of reinforces the idea that the average U.S. citizen knew very little about Denver, Colorado in that era.
Of course, Frei goes through the events of the 1977 season. I was impressed that he kept descriptions of the game action brief - there was some real potential to get bogged down there. Throughout the book, he weaves in many significant non-Bronco news events that were happening at the same time the Broncos were making their historic run to the Super Bowl. Some were sports related - in 1977, the Denver Nuggets were transitioning from the old ABA to the NBA and Denver also had a new NHL franchise - the Colorado Rockies. Also during the latter stages of 1977, Marvin Davis reached an agreement with Charlie Finley to buy the Oakland A's and bring major league baseball to Denver, although in the end the deal fell through. What an exciting time it must have been to be a sports fan in Colorado!
As I said before, I was born in 1975, so I have no actual recollection of anything regarding the 1977 team. I first became a Bronco fan as a 9-year-old at the beginning of the Elway Era. That being said, I'm still a huge fan of the 1977 Denver Broncos. I've read the books and seen the highlight videos and I'm envious of anyone who was able to experience that team firsthand and see the Orange Crush defense at its absolute apex.
Probably my favorite story, which Frei does an excellent job retelling in the book, is about Craig Morton leading the Broncos to victory in the AFC championship game over the Oakland Raiders even though one of his legs was seriously messed up. He'd spent the entire week beforehand in the hospital, and the team did everything they could to keep that fact under wraps while the doctors tried, without much luck, to drain blood from the leg. So he shows up at the stadium and his teammates are astonished that he was going to play even though his leg was totally black and blue. So Red Miller has to tie his shoes for him, and he tells his teammates that if he doesn't get hit, they'll win the football game. Which they do, 20-17, to advance to the Super Bowl. He was an aging quarterback who hadn't really had a stellar career and had bounced from team to team, and that was the defining moment of his career. It's just so Hollywood - I can't believe no one has produced the Craig Morton Story for the big screen. The NFL probably wouldn't allow it anyways.
The final point that Frei makes in the book is that the season forever changed how the Denver fan views his teams. The success of the 1977 Broncos was so new, so fresh, so exciting. And things will never be like that again - there can only be one first time. I totally agree - and the Super Bowl championships of 1997 and 1998 only made it more so. For example, I really enjoyed the 2005 version of the Broncos, who went 13-3 and advanced to the AFC Championship game. But because they failed to break through for another Super Bowl victory, that team is already long forgotten. Jake Plummer, an MVP candidate in 2005, was run out of town a year later and regarded as a failure by fans and media alike. And Mike Shanahan, after coaching the team to mediocre finishes in 2006 & 2007, has many of the same folks calling for his firing.
It's kind of sad that any kind of success will go unappreciated by many in Colorado from here on out unless it results in a Lombardi Trophy, the Stanley Cup, or a World Series title. And that is why the 1977 Broncos are special - they were (and are) regarded as champions even though they didn't finish the year on top.
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