It was January 28, 1998.
The Broncos had won their first Super Bowl just three days earlier, and a throng estimated at 650,000 had packed downtown to cheer and honor their heroes.
Owner Pat Bowlen, the polar opposite of Dallas Cowboys self-aggrandizing Jerry Jones or bombastic George Steinbrenner of MLB’s New York Yankees, raised the Lombardi Trophy above his head and shouted to the crowd, simply, “This one’s for John.”
It seemed a gratuitous dedication at the time.
Terrell Davis had been voted the game’s most valuable player for his 157 yards on 30 carries and three touchdowns, a stunning performance compared to Elway’s 12-of-22 passing for 123 yards, no TDs, an interception and a paltry 59.1 QB Rating.
But Bowlen understood what this first Broncos Super Bowl victory meant to Elway’s stature in the game, as well as to the man personally.
Three lopsided losses in previous Super Bowls had weighed heavily on Bowlen’s quarterback. Was he really Hall of Fame material if he never won a Super Bowl?
The Broncos repeated as Super Bowl champs in 1999, and this time Elway was voted the MVP—in what turned out to be the last game of his career. His stat line: 18-of-29 for 336 yards, one TD and one INT, and a 99.2 QB Rating.
Seventeen years later, Elway became the only person in National Football League history to win a Super Bowl as both a player and a general manager when Denver, with Peyton Manning—whom Elway recruited—under center, won SB 50.
At that parade, Elway raised the Lombardi Trophy and, reciprocating his owner’s salute from 1998, shouted, “This one’s for Pat.” (Bowlen had stepped away from his team two years earlier, admitting he was suffering the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease.)
This bit of Broncos history—so familiar to their avid fans—is worth recounting as new ownership takes yet another step toward construction of a new stadium at Burnham Yard to showcase the franchise that Bowlen elevated to one of the NFL’s most prestigious.
A native of Calgary, Canada, Bowlen acquired controlling interest in the Broncos from Edgar Kaiser before the 1984 season. “I want us to be No. 1 in everything,” he said at the time. And he meant it.
When he took over, Denver had compiled a record of 143 victories, 189 losses and nine ties in 24 seasons.
In his first year as owner, the Broncos won their division with the best record in team history (13-3). Across the next five seasons, Denver played in three Super Bowls (but lost them all by lopsided scores).
His regular-season record for three decades was 289-189, and the Broncos made it to a total of five Super Bowls, winning the last two, including the “this one’s for John” triumph.
He was a giant among National Football League owners, too—instrumental negotiating the NFL’s multimillion-dollar television contract and its labor agreement with the NFL Players Association. And he championed what are now an array of international games. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2019.
John Elway, himself a Hall-of-Famer, played 16 seasons for “Mr. Bowlen,” as he always called the boss. In his illustrious career, Elway passed for 51,475 yards and 300 touchdowns.
He said this the year Bowlen was enshrined in Canton:
“Pat’s greatest strength, to me, was how he made you feel. He guided the organization, made decisions, listened to opinions, tried to hire the best people, and made it clear the Denver Broncos were about trying to be world champions all the time.
“But he did it while letting people do their jobs, and he made everyone feel they had a piece in it. And the credit always went to other people from him. But really, he was behind it all.”
Last November I wrote a column calling for the new Broncos home at Burnham Yard to be named Mile High Stadium—no commercial attachment with it, just the iconic name nearly everyone associates with Denver.
I now have another, Erect companion statues of Pat Bowlen and John Elway at the main entrance, each holding a Lombardi Trophy, each inscribed “This one’s for , , ,”
And name the playing surface Bowlen-Elway Field, in honor of the two influential people in Broncos history.
________________
Denny Dressman writes a weekly sports column for The Villager. You can write to Denny at dennydressman@comcast.net.