Miles
Well-known member
- Mar 18, 2019
- 2,455
- 0
In the current NFL, there is wall-to-wall coverage of all topics, including the annual draft.
But it was not always so, nor were the Denver Broncos a team with the glittering championship reputation of today.
Back in the day, the Broncos were a franchise that had never experienced a winning season. As hard as that is to imagine, such was the situation from the inaugural season of 1960 through 1972.
Thirteen years of futility, no matter whom the Broncos drafted.
But in 1972, Denver hired Stanford coach John Ralston to be the general manager head coach, and the player selection process has never been the same. That’s exactly what Ralston's greatest acumen leading the Broncos turned out to be, and Denver's first winning seasons followed in 1973, 1974, and 1976, before he and the Broncos parted ways.
It has long been stated that while Ring of Fame coach Red Miller was the right man to lead Denver to its first Super Bowl, most of the team that he inherited was put together by Ralston, largely due to his drafts.
The five first-round draft choices made by Ralston included tight end Riley Odoms in 1972, running back Otis Armstrong in 1973 (Armstrong is a member of the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame), as well as perennial Pro Bowlers linebacker Randy Gradishar in 1974 and cornerback Louis Wright in 1975, along with guard Tom Glassic in 1976.
When the Broncos went to Super Bowl XII, all five of those first-round picks were starting for the team, a first for any Super Bowl team to have five years of first-round picks starting six years after the first of them was drafted.
Of course, Gradishar and Wright need no introduction to Bronco fans as Ring of Famers.
Each is a legitimate Seniors Committee candidate for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and Gradishar leads all players being considered by the veterans committee with seven Pro Bowl appearances.
This was back in the day before the NFL had a national combine in which all teams evaluated all top players.