NOTE: If you would prefer to listen, click here for an audio version of this blog post. When prompted, click the following: Photo 1 Photo 2 Video 1 Photo 3 Video 2 Photo 4 Photo 5 Photo 6 Photo 7 Photo 8 Photo 9 Photo 10 Photo 11
NOTE: Click here for Part 13: Driving in the midst of the majestic Rocky Mountains; click here for Part 15: It’s Broncos vs. Raid-uhs, as 1977 meets 2024!
I had promised Travis I would buy him a “throwback” Broncos cap – one with the 1977 logo; and I wanted to look for something, maybe a windbreaker, etc., for myself as well, so my first stop on Friday afternoon – even before going to my hotel – was the Denver Broncos Store at the stadium. I found the cap that Travis wanted, but couldn’t find anything that suited me, so I went back Saturday morning for another try; I wound up getting myself a different throwback cap, along with a couple of other incidental items. My impression of the Denver Broncos Store at Empower Field at Mile High is – THIS IS LIKE A CANDY STORE FOR BRONCOS FANS! Orange-and-blue as far as the eye can view! Click here for a quick look at the activity in the Broncos Store that Saturday morning.
It’s Sunday morning, hours ‘til kickoff!
The game was on Sunday afternoon, with kickoff at 2:05 p.m. I had bought my ticket, as well as a parking pass, back in June from resellers on StubHub. The ticket had finally arrived in the middle of September, but by Saturday evening my parking pass still hadn’t arrived, and the Broncos web site noted that most parking was already filled up with season ticket holders, etc. I had been promised a parking lot within 1.2 miles of the stadium. This made me a little nervous. After all, the game wouldn’t be over until around 5:15-5:30, the airport was a good half-hour drive – and that’s without traffic, and I had an 8:10 flight home to catch! I started figuring I would need to leave the game early to beat the traffic leaving the stadium, especially if I had a long walk to the parking lot.
My parking pass arrived in my email around 11:00 Saturday evening; I mapped the lot’s location on my phone and discovered that it was over 2 miles from the stadium! This would not work! I checked the Broncos’ website again and discovered that Lot C, right there at the stadium, does credit card sales for passes the day of the game; however, it warned that this is the lot that the tailgaters use, and that they start lining up early. I figured that I would have to “eat” the $30 I had paid for the other parking pass and go the Lot C route. Whereas most of the stadium lots opened at 9:30, Lot C opened at 8 a.m. So I packed everything except toiletries before going to bed, etc., got up at 4:45 in the morning, and was checked out of the hotel and on my way to the stadium by 5:10.
I arrived at the stadium around 5:30 and was pleased to find only one car in line at Lot C. By 6:15, four or five cars had joined the line. Then I started noticing one after another of them back up, turn around, and head the other way. What’s going on here? Around 6:30, a Broncos staffer drove up beside me in a golf cart and told me this wasn’t the line and that we weren’t allowed to “block” the entrance to the lot as we were doing! I needed to turn around and head the other way around the building until I reached the back of the line. Ahhh, that’s why those cars left! About this time, the guy in the car ahead of me, who had been sleeping in the back of his van, poked his head out and received the same news. Turns out, according to the staff person, cars had begun lining up on Thursday afternoon!
So I drove way around the other way until I finally found the back of the line. Though the woman had assured me I would get a parking pass (“we have about 120 spaces to sell”), I was nervous until the line finally started moving around 7:55 – it moved quickly – and I got in and found that, indeed, I had a parking space!
Lot C was the place to be on the morning of a Broncos game. As advertised, this is the lot that the tailgaters use, and there’s a lot of activity. Some fans set up tents with the Bronco logo, but there were also Raiders tents . . . Raiders fans obviously travel, especially to see a game against their longtime rivals. To my surprise, though, there was no trash talk, no trouble between the two camps. Broncos and Raiders fans talked amicably, mingled, and looked forward to a good game. I recorded video of a guy who had a piano set up with amplifiers, etc. – he must do this every week – and he improvised a rap that included both the Broncos and the Raiders, chiding both of their weak offenses by predicting a 3-2 final score. People were gathered around, Broncos and Raiders fans alike, enjoying the entertainment and laughing at the antics of the “rapper.”
At one point, I walked up to Federal Blvd., crossed the street, and ate breakfast at Denny’s Restaurant. This is one of the few things in Denver that I found unchanged, and it brought to mind a very special memory. On Christmas night 1977, a Sunday, I had left my wife of barely a year, as well as my parents visiting from Texas, to spend the chilly night at old Mile High Stadium. Tickets were to go on sale Monday morning for the Broncos’ first-ever American Football Conference Championship Game against the Oakland Raiders, defending Super Bowl champions. I got in line behind three guys who had a tent. They invited me in. Around 2 a.m., a couple of us walked up to Denny’s on Federal Blvd. and had coffee, while the other two guys held our place in line. Later on, we reciprocated while they went to get coffee. So here I was, almost 47 years later, back in that very same Denny’s, awaiting another game with the Raiders, who – since that night in 1977 – have moved to LA, moved back to Oakland, and moved to Las Vegas, all while the Broncos have stayed at the same location, just a different stadium.
Memories of Mile High Stadium, home of the Denver Broncos from 1960-2000
I attended several Broncos games in Mile High Stadium, including a game earlier that season of 1977, on the Sunday after Thanksgiving Day. The Broncos and the Baltimore Colts both came into the game with 9-1 records, tied for the best record in the AFC. The Broncos won, 27-13, with their victory sealed when linebacker Tom Jackson intercepted a Bert Jones pass and ran it back 73 yards for a touchdown.
I wrote earlier of spending Christmas night 1977 at Mile High Stadium, in a tent with three other guys, waiting for tickets to go on sale, the next morning, to the AFC Championship Game against Oakland the following Sunday. Here’s the rest of that story. The box office opened at 9:00 Monday morning. After spending about 12 hours in line, in the chilly Denver weather, would you believe it? I was second in line AFTER they sold out! Yep, I had walked out on my wife and my parents on Christmas night – and for nothing (except a good story that I’m still telling). Later that week, I was able to get a ticket through a classified ad. Face value for my ticket to the AFC Championship Game was – almost unbelievable, considering today’s ticket prices – only $15. My scalper wasn’t greedy. He charged me only $5 over face value, so I wound up paying just $20 to see the Broncos qualify for their first Super Bowl, and I could have stayed home with my family Christmas evening (but missed out on having a good story to tell). If only I had known!
After the Broncos beat the Raiders in that 1977 AFC Championship Game, as I was walking – on my way to my car – across the parking lot of McNichols Arena (home of the NBA’s Denver Nuggets), I passed a couple of guys who had torn down one of the goalposts and had laid it on a sloped knoll on the side of McNichols Arena. They were asking passersby whether anyone had a hacksaw they could borrow. They planned to chop the goalpost into pieces and sell them for $50 each. I asked them whether they would mind posing for a picture. They were more than happy to do so. So I took a picture of them with the goalpost, shooting me the “We’re # 1” sign with their index (yes, index) fingers.
In 1983, the United States Football League – a spring league – was formed. Denver got a franchise, the Denver Gold, that became the league’s pride and joy, leading it in attendance that first year and hosting the league’s inaugural championship game. Unfortunately, the team did NOT lead the league or even make it into the championship game, in which the Michigan Panthers beat the Philadelphia Stars.
It was impossible to get season tickets to the Broncos – they had a waiting list of over 17,000. So when the USFL’s Denver Gold was formed, I jumped at the chance. I was one of the first to call when season tickets became available, so I was able to get two tickets on the 50-yard line, in the field-level tier. Alison was only 15 months when the season started in March, so she didn’t need a ticket. Our seats were perfect – at the very back of the section, so Joanna and I could stand up with Alison when needed, without blocking anyone’s view. It was also an easy walk out onto the concourse if we needed to go to the restroom, concessions stands, etc. We even went to the USFL Championship Game in July.
When I went to the Denver Gold office to pay for our season tickets, I was surprised to see Red Miller – head coach of the Gold, who had been the head coach of the Broncos in that 1977 “Broncomania” season. He was casually chatting with some of the office staff, and here I was, standing not 2 feet from him. I wish I had spoken to him, shaken his hand, even asked for his autograph – but I didn’t. I could kick myself!
When Mile High Stadium was demolished in 2001, the Broncos made seats available for sale to the public. For my 50th birthday, Joanna bought a pair of those seats for me. I was able to request the very seats we had as Denver Gold season ticket holders back in 1983 & 1984. Today they sit on our patio. What a sweet, thoughtful considerate wife!
In September 2001, Travis and I drove up to Denver with Bob Morris to see only the third game in the (then) new stadium – then called Invesco Field at Mile High – that had replaced the old Mile High Stadium (oh, for the days before “naming rights” deals took over the sports landscape). We had hoped to be able to pick up the Mile High seats that I had ordered. (We drove my big GMC van, which had plenty of room for the seats.) It turned out, though, that they weren’t ready for pick-up. (They were shipped to us later that fall.) Nevertheless, the three of us had a great guys road trip. The Broncos lost the game to the Baltimore Ravens, but we got to see Karl Mecklenburg and Dennis Smith, two of my Broncos heroes from the great teams of the late 1980s, inducted into the Broncos’ Ring of Fame. It was only three weeks after the 9/11 tragedy, so security was extremely tight at the stadium.
On that Sunday September morning in 2001, we drove around to the houses where Joanna & I had lived. Bob, always the photographer, started taking pictures as we drove past one of them. It was around 8 a.m., and I feared that people would be getting up, moving around the house, getting ready for church, etc. So I told Bob to quit taking pictures, but he persisted. We rounded the corner and pulled up to a STOP sign. About that time, I noticed a police car pull up behind me, his lights flashing. Sure enough, one of the neighbors had called the police about these people driving slowly through the neighborhood and taking pictures. I had to do some fast talking, explaining to the officer that I used to live here and my friend just wanted to get some pictures for old times’ sake. He was understanding but asked us to refrain from doing any more of this – it made the neighbors nervous. After the officer drove away, Bob continued to defend himself, that he had every right to take pictures. However, my point wasn’t about his rights; it was about being less conspicuous and not doing it in a way that would get us caught! As you’ve seen from some of my previous posts in this series, I took pictures of our old homes on this nostalgia tour – but never got caught! (I’m sneakier than Bob.)