1. Though the Broncos’ first season in the league was 1960, they would not experience their first winning year until 1973.

2. The Denver Broncos were the only original AFL team to have not played in an AFL Championship Game.

3. The original Broncos uniforms included mustard yellow jerseys, brown pants, and verticaly striped socks. These were so hated by fans that two years later when the team changed their uniforms there was a public bonfire featuring the burning of the socks.

4. The first two former Denver Broncos to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame were more closely associated with other franchises; Willie Brown with the Raiders and Tony Dorsett with the Cowboys.

5. The original starting quarterback for the Broncos in their first year of play in 1960 was Frank Tripucka. Tripucka had an interesting career in that before playing for the Broncos he had pro football head coaching experience in the Canadian Football League.

6. In the Broncos first twenty one years in pro football they went through eight different head coaches, in the twenty eight seasons from 1981-2008 they only went through three.

7. In a 1983 game against the Seattle Seahawks, legendary Broncos linebacker Randy Gradishar had one of the statistically best all around games of his career when he recorded an interception, a fumble recover, a sack and a tackle for a loss.

When it comes to teams that began in the AFL and have made the transition to the NFL, few can measure up to the success that the Broncos have had. This is really interesting in the fact that while in the AFL, they were one of the least successful teams in the league. The Broncos strength is in their fans and the stability of their coaching staff, and that shouldn’t be changing any time soon.

1. The city of Denver was named after James W. Denver who had been the Kansas Territorial Governor. The city founder was hoping naming the city after him would carry enough favor for Denver to be named the county seat.

2. Denver’s Grant-Frontier Park sits on the site of the first settlement in the area which at the time was named Montana City.

3. The city of Denver was selected to host the 1976 Winter Olympics, but for the first time ever in Olympics history the voters declined hosting an Olympics and the games were instead moved to Innsbruck, Austria.

4. There have been three United States Navy ships named after the city of Denver. A USS Denver cruiser served from 1904 to 1931, a light cruiser commissioned the USS Denver served from 1942 to 1947, and there is currently an amphibious dock named the USS Denver that was commissioned in 1968.

5. Most of the streets in the older downtown area of Denver run NW-SE and NE-SW. This was by design, giving snow accumulation on both cross streets the ability to be melted off by the sun.

6. The first public school opened in Denver in 1859.

7. Denver does have ties to the American folk music movement as John Denver, Judy Collins and even Bob Dylan all called the city home at one time or another.

Denver has a rich history and has grown from a mining town on the banks of the South Platte River into a powerful and important major city in the west. Denver truly has something for everyone whether they are visiting or choose to live there.

1. John Elway’s last game of college football is famous for a reason completely unrelated to him. His last game was the now famous Cal-Stanford game in which the Cal Bears returned the final kickoff of the game, with the help of five laterals, for the winning touchdown.

2. John and Janet Elway have four children and their names also start with the letter “J”. Their names are Jessica, Jordan and Juliana, and Jack.

3. In his one season of minor league baseball in 1982, John Elway batted .318 and led the team in RBI.

4. At the age of 38, John Elway became the oldest player to score a touchdown in a Super Bowl.

5. There are two number sevens that have been inducted into the Denver Broncos Ring of Fame, John Elway and also the quarterback that preceded him, Craig Morton.

6. During his son’s senior year of high school, John Elway served as his and his team’s quarterback coach.

7. John Elway was the number one overall pick in the 1983 NFL Draft by the Baltimore Colts who later famously traded him to the Broncos after he threatened not to play for them. The players he was traded for were Quarterback Mark Herrmann, Offensive Lineman Chris Hinton, and a first round draft pick that ended up being Offensive Lineman Ron Solt.

John Elway will go down in history as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. He will be remembered fondly, and not just in Denver, as football fans in many cities took a liking to him based on his hard nosed play and successful results.