Review by Ed Quillen
Colorado History – April 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
’77
by Terry Frei
Photographs by Kenn Bisio
Published in 2008 by Taylor Trade Publishing
ISBN 978-1-58479-213-5
THE ’77 OF THIS BOOK’S TITLE is short for 1977, the year the Denver Broncos first won a football league championship to earn a trip to the Superbowl. They lost 27-10 to the Dallas Cowboys on Jan. 15, 1978, but after such a spectacular season, it hardly mattered. Denver had finally hit the big time.
That’s the main theme of this entertaining history from Terry Frei, who then and now covered sports for the Denver Post, and along the way he brings up many other Colorado events from those days, ranging from other professional sports teams to politics and campus disturbances.
I’m a fairly devout non-football fan. If I’m visiting someone on a fall Sunday afternoon and a game is on, I’ll watch it. Any excuse for drinking beer and eating junk food with friends is a good one, after all. But it’s not something I go out of my way for, especially given how pleasant our mountains can be on autumnal afternoons.
But as the 1977 Bronco season developed, starting with a player rebellion against coach John Ralston that resulted in the hiring of Red Miller, it was pretty hard not to follow the Broncos if you lived in Colorado. Broncomania became a serious statewide phenomenon, as I watched the Oakland playoff game with friends in Kremmling.
And when I moved to Salida in the spring of 1978, everyone was talking about Red Miller. Well before the Broncos were even playoff contenders, he had accepted an invitation to speak to the annual chamber of commerce banquet here in February. After the great season, Miller had his pick of speaking opportunities, all of which doubtless paid far more than the Salida gig — but he honored his commitment here. Local people were still talking about that months later.
Aside from following the football season, Frei also offers current interviews with some players and coaches who were active then, and their recollections were illuminating, as are their careers after they left football (i.e., guard Tom Glassic became a Girl Scout for a few years — in order to manage a Scout camp).
Frei is an engaging writer, and even though I generally don’t care whether the Broncos win, lose, or tie, the book kept my interest all the way through. It brought back many memories of the year when they should have changed the state’s name from Colorado to Naranja, for Bronco Orange covered just about everything that could be painted or dyed.
I really can’t say whether that football season improved Denver’s position as a prominent city. But it certainly didn’t hurt to have a team playing for a major-league championship, and the excitement was felt throughout the Rocky Mountains, even far into the hinterlands. If you want to know what that season was like in Colorado, either to refresh your memory or to bone up on recent Colorado lore, you’ll enjoy this book.
