The draft is now upon us, from pre-draft through the three days of player selection.

The 78th National Football League draft is again taking place at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City, covered live by the NFL Network and by ESPN, more thoroughly than I ever imagined when I attended my very first draft as a reporter in 1973.

This time of year always kick starts memories of my first draft, which I actually did not work as the Broncos’ public relations director but as a young reporter for KBTR newsradio that year.

This was before the Federal Communications Commission ruled that there could not be radio-TV combined ownership in a single market, and each of the three major television stations in Denver had a major radio station as well.

What is now KUSA was KBTV-KBTR, and the radio side was a true big time news operation, with today’s equal, for comparison purposes, only existing in New York, LA, Philadelphia, and Chicago.

In my last blog, when I was talking about our first radio color man, Jerry Groom, I mentioned that Groom is in the College Football Hall of Fame.

I am a member of the board of Directors of the Colorado Chapter of the College Football Hall of Fame (CFHoF), and it is a great organization. The annual banquet is in New York at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, and it really is a who’s who of college coaches and athletic directors, then and now.

My own mention of Groom got me to thinking.

The Denver Broncos have great representation in the CFHoF, and I thought some of you might be interested in seeing the complete list, with a comment or two here and there.

Alphabetically, inductees in the College Football Hall Of Fame with a connection to the Denver Broncos are as follows:

Are you familiar with the term, “six degrees of separation?”

It was popularized in a Will Smith movie many years ago, and the basis of the concept is something like, you know your grandfather, your grandfather knew someone else, hence an attachment. If you go six degrees into this game, you get some astonishing results.

I have a silly, crazy one regarding the Broncos, and I readily admit at the outset that this is not the most intense, serious blog ever, but some of you might finds it fun and interesting. And I can pretty much guarantee there are a couple of facts you did not know.

A person just has to have a mind open enough to be able to take it all in—however, one of the problems if your mind is too open is that a lot of stuff falls out! But here we go.

Recently I did a blog about how far the draft has come in evolving into such a big part of the year for pro football fans. And I described how that first draft was conducted by the Denver Broncos.

Of course, that was the American Football League draft in 1960, and it led to the first star draftee in Broncos history—but not in the manner one would presume.

There is always a lot of trade activity involving teams moving up or down and trading draft slots to acquire different ones, to get just the player they desire at a given time.

Fans are all familiar with that. One of the things that very seldom happens, however, is the trade of draft choices already made, from one team to another.

Draft mania has officially capture the minds of National Football League fans everywhere, and your Denver Broncos web site is doing a great job of presenting many of the new players.

I am trying to take a slightly different look at how and where we get players, so that everyone can hopefully get a somewhat more balanced perspective.

The Broncos’ first draft was of course the American Football League draft in 1960.

At that time, in an effort to limit the bargaining position of the drafted players, the draftees were announced in alphabetical order, instead of the order in which they had been chosen. I know, I know, it sounds crazy and is crazy, but that is how it happened.

Every team has a list of players they passed on in the draft who went on to be big stars elsewhere, so no one team can moan about players whom they did not choose.

After all, we get to our pick, and we choose. We get to select whomever we want, so no beefing about the guys we do not select.

However, in the early years of the American Football League, which began with the Denver Broncos as one of the eight charter members in 1960, the AFL competed with the well-established National Football League for players.

So there were two drafts from 1960 through 1966. The top players got drafted by both leagues and had a chance to listen to sales pitches on both sides.

Some of the AFL teams in better financial situations that Denver—which was every one, except Oakland—signed some real stars.

Draft mania continues in the NFL among the millions of fans, with countless stories being produced by local and national press.

I thought we might take a slightly different perspective on the draft today.

Most of the attention centers, rightly so, on the first, second and third rounds of the NFL draft, since that is where the best known players are most often selected.

But I was thinking, who are the greatest late round draft choices in Broncos history?

Following is my perspective on this topic. Thanks again for reading.