History

The History of Denver Broncos

Denver Broncos Team History
Denver Broncos Team History

The archives of the Denver Broncos team history  dates back to 1960. The team was authorized as a member of American Football League for the very first time. Back then, the team went title-less for their entire tenure in the AFL.

Things changed for Broncos only after the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. The franchise went on to create some incredible results since then. Broncos went on to win 15 Divisional titles and eight AFC Championships games to enter the Super Bowl. Out of their eight appearances in the Super Bowl, they won the Super Bowl XXXII, Super Bowl XXXIII and Super Bowl 50.Denver Broncos happens to be the only team of AFC West (or AFL West in the past) that never changed its location or name.

Ownerships

The Denver Broncos’ first owner was Bob Howsam. He wanted an NFL team for Denver, but the league refused his proposal. He then went on to build an AFL team, Denver Broncos along with his brother Earl and his fatherLee.

Later in May 1961, Gerald Phipps and Cal Kunz purchased the ownership in Denver Broncos. Phipps became the first non-player enlisted in the Broncos Ring of Fame. It was his reign when the team saw its first Super Bowl. Phipps was the chairman of NFL’s Finance Committee.

Next, the ownership came to Edgar Kaiser Jr. when he purchased it from Phipps in 1981. He then sold 60.8 percent of ownership shares to Pat Bowlen. Bowlen also sold about 10 percent of the ownership to the former Broncos quarterback John Elway. Bowlen has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and the ownership is now to stay with the Bowlen’s family trust.

Coaches

Denver Broncos team history have had in all 16 coaches throughout their history. The current coach of the team is Vance Joseph hired in 2017. Speaking of the most successful coaches, Mike Shanahan gave the team their two Super Bowl Championship titles in 1997 and 1998. He served from 1995 to 2008. The team won an AFC Championship and a Super Bowl under Gary Kubiak in 2015. Other notable contributions are Dan Reeves – AFC Championships (87,88,89), John Fox – AFC Championship 2013, and Red Miller – AFC Championship 1977.

The first NFL game

Denver Broncos debuted in NFL after the AFL-NFL merger. For the first clash, Broncos were up against the Buffalo Bills on September 20. The venue for the game was the War Memorial Stadium which was home for the Bills. Broncos recorded a successful NFL debut with a 25-10 win over the Bills.

Super Bowl – Appearances and wins

Broncos appeared in the Super Bowl for eight times. The team made it to the Super Bowl XII, XXI, XXII, XXIV, XXII, XXXIII, XLVIII, and the Super Bowl 50. Out of these eight appearances, the team won three Super Bowl titles. They grabbed Super Bowl XXXII (31-24 against Green Bay Packers), XXXIII (34-19 against Atlanta Falcons), and Super Bowl 50 (24-10 against Carolina Panthers).

AFC Championships

The Denver Broncos won their first AFC Championship in the season of 1977. They beat the Oakland Raiders 20-17 to clinch the game. Since then, the team went on to win seven more AFC Championship games. Denver Broncos team history marks the  wining  these games for the season of 1977, 1986, 1987, 1989,1997, 1998, 2013 and 2015.

Logos and Uniforms

Denver Broncos team history started off with mustard yellow jerseys and brown pants and brown helmets. They sported vertically striped socks along with that. A couple of years later, they brought bucking horse as their logo. Their uniform changed to orange, royal blue, and white.

The year 1997 saw a radical switch to the logo and uniform of the franchise. A ‘powerful horse with a fiery eye and mane’ was introduced as the logo. It was a horse head with an orange mane and navy blue outlines (the present logo). For the uniform, blue was replaced with navy blue. In 2002 they brought an alternate jersey with orange in place of blue.

It was after 2012 that the alternate jersey became the main uniform for the team. Navy blue now became an alternate uniform.

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