As one can see just by coming onto DenverBroncos.com, this week’s game against the New York Jets has officially been proclaimed Orange Sunday by Mayor John Hickenlooper.
The Denver Broncos organization is encouraging all fans to wear orange to the game. Broncos players will be wearing the team’s alternate orange jerseys this week, and all fans in attendance will receive an Orange Sunday rally towel, courtesy of U.S. Bank.
There will be a pep rally Friday, cheerleaders, alumni, food, drink, festivities and an “Orange Ride” encouraging fans to ride their bikes to a pregame tailgate party. The mayor will deliver the game ball on his bike, and it will be orange all over.
So, you think you know all about Orange Sunday?
Well, not quite.
What is the story behind the story? How did it start? Where? When?
As is often the case, it is what you learn after you know it all that counts the most.
It was 1971, and Lou Saban was in the fifth year of his 10-year contract as head coach and general manager of the Broncos. Saban was a great coach who had given respectability to the franchise, but he was a notoriously intense and impatient man, and he was losing patience with his building project in the Mile High City.
The Broncos had not had a winning season in his first four and they had begun 1971 with a 10-10 tie vs. Miami at home. Afterward, Saban said that “Half a loaf is better than none,” and he was assailed for that comment. Fans threw half loaves of bread on the field at the next home game, a 16-3 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. The Kansas City loss was the middle one in a three-game losing streak that had followed that tie, so it was the middle of October, the Broncos did not have a win, and Saban was on the verge of chucking his job out of frustration.
Enter Charlie Goldberg, one of Denver’s most influential behind the scenes citizens in the 1970s and ‘80s. Charlie had been president of the Denver Broncos Quarterback Club and was not just a big fan, but a real civic get-it-done guy.
He approached the Broncos and said he felt Saban and the team badly needed a show of support for the Sunday, October 17 home game against the San Diego Chargers. Goldberg got permission from the club to start one of pro football’s great traditions, virtually single-handedly and completely at his own expense.
Charlie went out and bought up all the orange fabric he could find in the city of Denver, had it cut up into small handkerchief-sized pieces, and secured volunteers, many from the Quarterback Club, to hand these orange cloths out to every fan as they entered the stadium on that 62 degree fall day back in 1971.
Floyd Little and University of Colorado product Bobby Anderson scored touchdowns that day and Jim Turner kicked two field goals as the Broncos built up a 20-6 halftime lead and held off the Chargers in the second half to post the first win of the season and create a tradition that continues to this day.
Orange Sunday was born.
Over the years it got bigger, with sponsors involved — Charlie Goldberg did not have to pay for the fabric himself or get the volunteers himself in future years, but he had planted the seeds for a tradition that continued not just here but quickly spread to every other city via television.
Remember, this was before NFL marketing was anywhere near as big as it is today, with color-themed tee shirts and sweatshirts readily available. Before the decade was over Orange Sunday had spawned “Luv Ya Blue” in Houston, the “Terrible Towel” had been created in Pittsburgh and all of a sudden every other NFL city seemed to have its own color-themed day of support.
But it only started one place, one time.
It started with a coach’s frustration and a fan’s desire to do something about it. Charlie Goldberg created Orange Sunday in Denver on October 17 at Mile High Stadium against the San Diego Chargers. There is a bronze plaque honoring Charlie and his memory on the West outside wall of INVESCO Field at Mile High.
By the way, Saban’s frustration continued and he eventually resigned before the end of that 1970 campaign. But not before a tradition was born that Bronco fans will celebrate the 40th year of this week.
Tags: 2010, Bobby Anderson, Charlie Goldberg, Denver Broncos, Floyd Little, Jim Saccomano, Jim Turner, John Hickenlooper, Lou Saban
Thanks for the history lesson Jim! Here’s hoping the orange can swing this team’s season around the same way it did in 71′
Alright I’ll be rocking out the orange Broncos shirt instead of the usual Royal jersey
Anyone have any thoughts on the Broncos picking up a running back before the trade deadline? Seems as though Moreno will never be healthy and Buck and Moroney are not the answer.
Hey Bronco fans,
If you weren’t feeling bad enough I found these awesome stats.
Peyton Hillis: 350 yards, 4 TD’s, 1 REC TD.
Alphonso Smith 2nd place in the NFL with 3 INTS.
Andra Davis 32 TCKLS, 1 FF, 1 INT.
Killerkod-
I don’t think its the RB’s. Its not their fault when they are getting hit 7 yards behind the LOS.
Its the inexperience of the OL.
Nice to hear about when Orange Sunday started, 1971, didn’t know that, so we had the orange towels then, the Steelers invented nothing, it’s just too bad the fans didn’t make it something for every Sunday, the orange towel thing, I think it would be cool even now, unfortunately it would probably be now construed as plagiarism by the Steelers, we missed out on a big thing here in my opinion.
Anyhow, the real big years in all of this was 1962 when we switched from yellow and brown to orange and blue, and of course 1997 when we went to our current jerseys and immediately won SB’s back to back, I always thought that jersey change couldn’t of come at a better time. Maybe all we need to do now is change jersey design again, LOL.
Great article as always Jim! Every Sunday shoud be Orange Sunday!
bay, if we were to pick up another hc next season who would you have in mind. But I feel mcd can make this get better, but what sucks maybe he would need another season. But I want us to atleast make to the playoffs for once. But forget about what I wrote about mcd.
Jon Gruden would be a great head coach for us.
unbelievable….!
And I thought the Orange towel was my idea…. huh
I must say that I have been schooled!
I guess I waisted a thousand dollars on a trademark for nothing!
Touche, Jim.
Jim, any chance of us ever going back to the Orange Jerseys? I love Orange Sunday. It just feels right.
I would be happy with Gruden or Cower. But I still believe McD CAN be a good coach. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
If we do go with a new coach, we need to do it correctly this time and start with an established experienced General Manager, that is the correct order of things, everything else will take care of itself after that. KC has Pioli now, look at the results.
Thanks for sharing this!!!
I would have never known We inspired so many other team’s fans (to be copycats, ha ha!). Good stuff.
I pick 20-19 broncos win. These last couple of weeks I’ve been pretty quick to pick scores. But after the nice piece of humble pie the Ravens served us I was a little tentative. But what the heck.
All I can say is Im excited for orange sunday! Ill be watching this game all the way from Perth, Australia! I have rallied fellow Australians to support the Broncos week in and week out, there is a group of 15 of us who stay up till 4am to watch the game every week! I have promised my group a win this week, and I’m hoping Orange sunday will bring it!
On the note of Mcd, he will finish his contract no matter how poorly he does, Mr. B does not play musical head coaches, and if you look at how well Kyle Orton is playing, it is enough to show there is a method to the madness of Mcd. Even the defense has show glimpses of big improvements. Mr. Will certainly give Mcd his 4 years to prove himself… and if we make it to the playoffs once… dont be surprised if Mcd gets and extention. But those or just my thoughts!
Go Broncos from fans all over the world!
Gruden….. uuuhhhmmmm….
would be nice!
Way to support the Broncos down under thebroncoguy. Aussie aussie aussie oy oy oy (I’m sure I miss spelled something there-LOL). I hope you and your fellow bronco buddies get rewarded this week for staying up until 4am to watch the Broncos.
You guys are all stupid when it comes to hating on Josh Mcd. He’s the best thing out there when it comes to a bright future. Instant gratification is senseless. Be nastalgic and give him some time. Remember how Gruden sucked his last six years as an NFL head coach, and Bill Cower had good teams bc of Lebeau. So shut up! Every coach out there has let go of players that end up having better careers else where. None of those players were ever going to do what we has planned, so you let them go where they fit into a plan. If your going to criticize at least make intelligent thoughts.
Oh Boy! LOL.
awesome now go out there and win and get us to 3-3 and then go get our first afc west win vs oakland and then have fun in london by killing the 49ers no more win,loss,win,loss crap we need to start winning consecutive games if we wanna get into the playoffs this year its getting old getting in and losing is also old the broncos are better then this were an elite team and its time we prove it go out there and play real denver broncos football and we will when alot of games
We’re an elite team? Man, that was twelve years ago with a short not even elite stint in 2005. We are the furthest thing from an elite team right now, I know that’s hard to swallow, but we would be better off facing up to it rather than living on some 12 year old laurels, both us fans and the team. We are a run of the mill team and Bowlen needs to do whatever it takes to take us back to elite status, what he has done of late isn’t cutting it so far, facing the reality of it all is the only way to give ourselves a shot at getting better, calling ourselves elite is completely counter productive in my opinion, just wishful thinking.
Nice history lesson, Jim.
People were asking me in Baltimore last Sunday about my vertically striped brown and yellow socks.