Denver Broncos Changing Faces: From The Start of A Fandom to A Strike Season

I was totally excited when my parents moved from West Des Moines, Iowa to Littleton, Colorado in 1969. I was finally going to be able to root for a "hometown" NFL team. Well, actually, it was a hometown AFL team at that time, but still . . . I had a professional football team in MY town. For a 5th grader -- and his dad -- this was a big deal.

I spent many days, as that first season started learning the names of the various players on the team. Steve Tensi, Floyd Little, Billy Thompson and others became the players that my friends and I would try to emulate in our schoolyard football games. Little did I realize, that those names and faces would change with regularity.

Take a jump with me and recall how the Denver Broncos starters have changed over the years.

Perhaps one of the reasons that I have been able to weather the turbulence of recent Broncos' seasons (the last five to ten) is because I have had both the pleasure and frustration of seeing many of the same kinds of changes over the last forty-two seasons.

When I first became a Broncos fan, the starters for my team were:

QB	Steve Tensi	LDE	Rich Jackson
HB	Floyd Little	LDT	Jerry Inman
FB	Tommy Smiley	RDT	Dave Costa
WR	Mike Haffner	RDE	Paul Duranko
WR	Al Denson	LLB	Carl Cunningham
TE	Tom Beer	MLB	John Huard
LT	Sam Brunelli	RLB	Chip Myrtle
LG	George Goeddeke	LCB	Grady Cavness
C	Larry Kaminski	RCB	Billy Thompson
RG	Bob Young	SS	Charlie Greer
RT	Mike Current	FS	George Burrell
K	Bobby Howfield	P	Gus Holloman

That first season of my fandom, the Broncos went a disappointing 5-8-1 and finished in 4th place (out of five teams) in the AFL West. The only team that finished with a worse record were the 4-9-1 Cincinnati Bengals (that's right, football fans, the Bengals were once in the same division as Denver).

Before the next season began, the Broncos changed three offensive starters, five defensive ones and one special teams starter. The changes were:

QB	Paul Liske	LDT	Paul Smith
FB	Willis Crenshaw	MLB	Fred Forsberg
TE	Jim Whalen	RLB	Dave Washington
		LCB	Cornell Gordon
		FS	Paul Martha
		P	Billy Van Heusen

The Broncos finished a disappointing 5-8-1, in last place, in the newly formed NFL's AFC West.

1971 saw massive changes to the starting lineup -- nine changes on offense, seven on defense and one on special teams. These changes included four players being moved to new positions. The changes were:

QB	Don Horn	LDT	Dave Costa (from RDT)
FB	Bobby Anderson	RDT	Paul Smith (from LDT)
WR	Jack Gehrke	RDE	Lyle Alzado
WR	Jerry Simmons	LLB	Dave Washington (from RLB)
TE	Billy Masters	RLB	Chip Myrtle
LT	Roger Shoals	LCB	Leroy Mitchell
LG	Larron Jackson	FS	George Saimes
C	George Goeddeke (from LG)
RG	Mike Schnitker
K	Jim Turner

These changes did little to improve the fortunes of the Broncos as they finished 4-9-1 and in last place in the AFC West for a second season in a row.

The changes in 1972 were of a more modest degree with only five offensive changes and six on defense. These changes were:

QB	Charlie Johnson	LDE	Lloyd Voss
WR	Rod Sherman	LDT	Dave Costa
LT	Marv Montgomery	LLB	Fred Forsberg (from MLB)
C	Larry Kaminski	MLB	Tom Graham
RG	Tommy Lyons	RCB	Randy Montgomery
		FS	Steve Preece

I was treated to the fourth losing season in a row, though, I suppose I could find some comfort in the fact that the Broncos finished in third in the AFC West, one-half game in front of the San Diego Chargers. Not really much of a comfort, though.

1973 brought modest changes to the offense and significant changes to the defense. These changes led to the first winning season in Broncos' history -- a 7-5-2 record and a second place finish in the AFC West. The changes were:

FB	Joe Dawkins	LDE	Paul Duranko (from LDT)
WR	Haven Moses	LDT	Paul Smith (from RDT)
TE	Riley Odoms	RDT	Barney Chavous
C	Bobby Maples	LLB	Bill Laskey
		RLB	Ray May
		RCB	Calvin Jones
		SS	Billy Thompson
		FS	Charlie Greer (from SS)

The next season saw the Broncos again make modest changes to the offense and more significant changes to the defense. 1974 also saw the Broncos post their second-ever winning season at 7-6-1, along with a second second-place AFC West finish. The changes were:

FB	Otis Armstrong	LDE	Barney Chavous (from RDT)
WR	Billy Van Heusen	LDT	John Grant
LT	Claudie Minor	RDT	Paul Duranko (from LDE)
		MLB	Ray May (from RLB)
		RLB	Tom Jackson
		LCB	John Rowser

In 1975, the Broncos made modest changes to both sides of the ball . . . and took a step backwards:

QB	Steve Ramsey	RDT	Paul Smith
FB	Jon Keyworth	LLB	Tom Jackson (from RLB)
LG	Tommy Lyons (from RG)	MLB	Randy Gradishar
RG	Paul Howard	RLB	Ray May (from MLB)
		LCB	Louis Wright
		FS	John Rowser (from LCB)

Denver dropped to 6-8-0, yet still finished second in the AFC West, edging out the 5-9-0 Kansas City Chiefs and the 2-12-0 San Diego Chargers.

The Broncos changed out about half of their starters as they entered the 1976 season:

RB	Otis Armstrong	NT	Reuben Carter
WR	Rick Upchurch	RDE	Paul Smith (from RDT)
LT	Bill Bain	LOLB	Bob Swenson
LG	Tom Glassic	LILB	Joe Rizzo
RG	Tommy Lyons (from LG)	RILB	Randy Gradishar (from MLB)
RT	Claudie Minor (from LT)	ROLB	Tom Jackson (from LLB)
		P	Norris Weese

The Broncos surged forward in this season, finishing with a 9-5-0 mark. This was good enough for a second place finish in the AFC West, but left them behind the 11-3-0 New England Patriots for the lone wild card playoff spot. They were also behind the 10-4-0 Cincinnati Bengals and the 9-5-0 Cleveland Browns.

1977 was a season of miracles. Modest changes were made to the starting lineup with great results:

QB	Craig Morton	RDE	Lyle Alzado
WR	Jack Dolbin	RCB	Steve Foley
LT	Andy Maurer	FS	Bernard Jackson
C	Mike Montler
RG	Paul Howard
		P	Bucky Dilts

The Broncos finished the 1977 season with a 12-2 record and in first place in the AFC West. They defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 34-21 in a divisional round playoff game. They defeated the Oakland Raiders 20-17 to claim the AFC Championship. I was screaming my head off in my freshman dorm's common room as the Orange Crush defense took on the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XII. Sadly, I had to suffer through the Broncos 27-10 loss in that game. Still, the expectation had been set. Not only had the Broncos made it to the playoffs, they had made it to the Super Bowl.

The next five seasons saw minimal changes to the starting lineup, along with minimal success on the field:

1978		1979		1980		1981		1982
LT	Claudie Minor (from RT)	RB	Rob Lytle	RB	Dave Preston	FB	Rick Parros	QB	Steve Deberg
C	Bill Bryan	WR	Rick Upchurch	FB	Jim Jensen	WR	Steve Watson	RT	Ken Lanier
RT	Tom Neville	RT	Dave Studdard	LOLB	Rob Nairne	RDE	Rulon Jones	LOLB	Jim Ryan
		RDE	Brison Manor	LILB	Larry Evans	LOLB	Bob Swenson	SS	Dennis Smith
		P	Luke Prestridge	RCB	Aaron Kyle			FS	Mike Harden
				FS	Steve Foley (from RCB)			K	Rich Karlis
				K	Fred Steinfort

1978 saw a 10-6-0 record lead to a division title, but also to a 33-10 loss to Pittsburgh in the divisional round of the playoffs. The following season, that same 10-6-0 record was only good enough for a second-place AFC West finish and a wild card playoff spot -- a game which Denver lost 13-7 to the Houston Oilers. The Broncos went 8-8-0, fourth place in the AFC West -- finishing ahead of only the 4-12-0 Seattle Seahawks -- and missed the playoffs. In 1981, the Broncos bounced back to a 10-6-0 record. They tied San Diego for first place in the division, but lost the playoff tiebreaker to the Chargers. The 1982 season was rocked by a fifty-seven day-long players strike that resulted in a shortened nine game season. The Broncos finished a disappointing 2-7-0 and in last place in the AFC West.

Next time: Denver Broncos Changing Faces: The Elway Years