The Fan is turning 30! For three decades, the station has been covering Denver sports, serving as a media outlet of record for the biggest events over the past 30 years.
There have been a lot of them. From championships to MVPs, from historic seasons to improbable victories, The Fan has been there for all of them.
What were the best of the best? During a six week span, Denver Sports will chronicle the moments that stood out the most. It’s a countdown from No. 30 to No. 1, in a series called “Mile High Milestones.”
Enjoy the trip down memory lane!
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To this day, sports fans in Denver feel like their teams get slighted. They firmly believe that there’s an East Coast bias, favoritism for teams based in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and a slant toward big markets. Those who play in the flyover part of the country, nestled in the Mountain time zone, get overlooked and shortchanged.
It’s a bit of an outdated perspective. After all, Colorado currently boasts the reigning NBA MVP in Nikola Jokic, the most-recent Hart Trophy recipient in Nathan MacKinnon and the latest Heisman Trophy winner in Travis Hunter. In other words, greatness isn’t getting ignored just because it’s occurring in the Rocky Mountain region.
That said, that perception exists for a reason. And it all goes back to the biggest oversight of all.
Prior to 2004, the Broncos didn’t have a single member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Canton was littered with Giants, Bears, Packers, Cowboys and Steelers. But there wasn’t one player who played the majority of his career in Denver that was enshrined.
It’s not as though the Broncos hadn’t had plenty of great players; they certainly did. And it’s not as though they didn’t have winning teams; they’d been to six Super Bowls and hoisted two Lombardi Trophies at that point.
So there were plenty of reasons to feel like the orange and blue weren’t getting a fair shake. It was pretty evident that they weren’t.
That all started to change in 2004, however. That’s when John Elway, the ultra-talented, uber-competitive quarterback who became the face of the franchise and put the team on the map for a lot of football fans around the country, finally broke through.
No. 7 was a part of that year’s Hall of Fame class, finally earning the Broncos a bust in Canton. And he was certainly a worthy inductee.
Elway threw for 51,475 yards and 300 touchdowns during his illustrious 16-year career. He led Denver to five Super Bowls, winning back-to-back titles in 1997 and ’98. He won 148 games in his career, was one of the most-electrifying players in NFL history, played in nine Pro Bowls and won the league’s Most Valuable Player award in 1987.
He was a great, great player – a shoo-in for Canton. And the presentation made on his behalf during his first year of eligibility illustrated that point.
“Gentlemen, John Elway,” Woody Paige said to the panel of voters, setting the record for the shortest nomination speech at three seconds.
That was all it took. The quarterback coasted into Canton on the first ballot.
It was news that seemed to lift a weight off every Broncos fan. In fact, it changed the way every team in town felt.
No longer overlooked, skipped over or picked on, teams in the Mile High City now had a seat at the table. They had finally joined the club.
As a result, Elway’s enshrinement captivated the city. Thousands of Broncos fans made the pilgrimage to Canton. Every media outlet in town was there, with TV and radio stations broadcasting live throughout the weekend.
And it opened the floodgates. After Elway, teammates such as Steve Atwater, Terrell Davis, Shannon Sharpe and Gary Zimmerman earned gold jackets. So did players who came before him, with Randy Gradishar and Floyd Little getting honored. Team owner Pat Bowlen got elected, as well.
John Elway changed the way Denver was viewed as a sports city. When he arrived, it was a cow town with just the Broncos and Nuggets. By the time he retired, it was one 10 metro areas with a team in all four major professional sports.
His induction in Canton put a bow on his career; it was the cherry on top. And it signified one final time how the most-famous person in the history of Colorado impacted the sports landscape for decades to come.
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THE COUNTDOWN
30: Ubaldo Jimenez has a magical season
29: Todd Helton get enshrined in Cooperstown
28: Valeri Nichushkin goes missing in the postseason – twice!
27: The Avalanche win their second Stanley Cup
26: The Nuggets come back from two 3-1 deficits in the bubble
25: The seemingly never-ending Broncos ownership saga
24: Hurricane Josh hits the Mile High City
23: The Rockies trade Nolan Arenado to the Cardinals
22: The Nuggets reach the Western Conference Finals in 2009
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Wanna hear more about this Mile High Milestone? Tune into “The Rundown” at noon or check out the show on YouTube to hear Richie Carni and a special guest take a walk down memory lane.