As an Air Force brat in the early and mid 1960′s, jumping from base to base around the world, I adopted the Los Angeles Rams as my favorite NFL team. The main reason being the ram horns on the helmets. I thought that a ram was the perfect symbol for a football team and the ram horns were an obvious and natural fit on a helmet. And it just plain looked cool.

I would spend hours drawing pictures of the Rams, Eagles, Patriots and any other team that I felt worthy of committing to paper, even making up my own helmet designs.

When my Dad secured his last posting in 1966 at ENT Air Force Base, in my eventual adopted hometown of Colorado Springs, Colorado, I remained a Rams fan. As I grew and matured, I realized that, as a true lover of football, I just had to bite the bullet and accept the lowly home-state Broncos. It also didn’t hurt having a friend who berated me into rooting for the home team.

But Denver was the antithesis of “cool”, the exact opposite of the glamourous LA Rams. I hated almost everything about them, especially the logo, colors and uniforms. But- a homer is a homer- they were now my team.

Later I took an almost perverse pride in what I considered a “bush league” look-we were good in spite of our appearance! (Although long resigned to “Bronco Orange” and high schoolish logo, you can only imagine how I felt when you introduced the new look in 1998.)

Now, of course, whatever they wear, they will always be number 1.

In the early 90′s, I was heavy into radio controlled airplanes. I regularly perused the newspaper for used planes and equipment. I came across an ad with a particular World War 1 scale model airplane kit that I’d been wanting for quite some time. The owner lived somewhere in northwest Denver, (Arvada, Westminster, Federal Heights maybe-I can’t remember.) When I got to the house, a kindly older gentleman answered the door. He was wearing a polo shirt with an “NFL Alumnus” logo on the pocket area and introduced himself as Fred Gerhke.

I knew immediately who he was. I knew because as a football fan and professional graphic artist and illustrator, I had actually researched the history of NFL graphics. I was a immediately awestruck, to me this guy was a major source of inspiration. Of course, I started gushing and making a fool of myself, but he was happy to talk about anything I wanted to talk about.

Our entire meeting took place in his garage/workshop. I could have listened to him talk for days about football, but he then continued to amazed me with stories of his career at Northrup Aviation as a technical illustrator. (something I hadn’t come across in my research.) As we talked, I noticed a number of “3 view” technical airplane drawings hanging on the walls. One large 3-view was of the Northrup “Black Widow” Nightfighter. He had done some of the original renderings of this airplane! I was “geeking out” on so many levels it wasn’t funny!

We finally got around to my reason for the visit (the airplane kit) and I asked him why he was selling it. He said he was getting out of the hobby to concentrate on building custom golf clubs. It took a good hour to get to a subject that I WASN’T interested in!

Well, I never bought the kit, even though he offered me a more than fair price. I kind of regret it, even if it would have got me in trouble with the wife.

More importantly, I came away with a fantastic experience that I have cherished for many years. Mr. Gerhke was a consummate gentleman and a pioneer in his own right. To give some guy off the street more than an hour of his time and memories was very generous, although I suspect he was having a pretty good time himself telling “war stories” and talking about things that he was so obviously passionate about.

I’ll never forget that day and I will never forget Fred Gerhke.

Thank you for this well deserved tribute page.

Best regards,

Greg O.

I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…

I am Fred Gehrke’s grandson and I really appreciate you sharing that story with everyone. Not a lot of people know that he is in the Hall of Fame and responsible for painting the rams emblem. I was always to young to really take in his accomplishments both as a player and General Manager, but it nice to know that he left impressions with those people who knew him well. I would like to know if there is someone I could contact within Bronco’s organization for any pictures they may have. Just a side note to your story Fred’s son Dick Gehrke just passed away and is being laid to rest today. Once again thanks for the great story. It was a pleasure meeting you at his funeral.

Travis Russon