I was in my first year with the Denver Broncos in 1978. It was the year following the Broncos’ first AFC Championship and the team’s appearance in Super Bowl XII.
One of the first guys I met that training camp was one I still remember well because he was a great guy beyond being a terrific football player.
Rob Lytle died yesterday of a heart attack in his hometown of Fremont, Ohio, at just 56 years of age.
There have already been a lot of tributes to Rob Lytle, and this is mine.
He was drafted in the second round by the Broncos out of the University of Michigan in 1977, having finished third in the 1976 Heisman Trophy balloting following a banner campaign for the Wolverines. He finished his Michigan career with 3,317 rushing yards and 26 touchdowns at Michigan, where he was an All-American running back.
He saw his pro career with the Broncos hampered by a variety of injuries. They might have slowed his play, but they never slowed his attitude.
Rob Lytle was one of those guys whose smile lit up every room, every time he entered. He was a coach’s dream. He only played and prepared one way: hard, all the time. Josh McDaniels would have loved Rob Lytle. He ran, he blocked, he caught passes, he played hard and sacrificed his body for the Broncos.
When he took the field, he was ready, he played hard, he did not want to ever leave the field, even though frequent injuries forced him to. He was a team guy, team first always, and he backed down from no one.
He had seven productive seasons for the Broncos, scoring 14 touchdowns and gaining over 2,000 yards rushing and receiving even though in his last two years he only played in 13 total games due to a myriad of injuries.
When he left, he privately told me that his only regret as a pro player was that the injuries kept him from reaching his full potential for the Broncos. “The fans never saw me run like I could before the injuries,” Rob confided.
He is remembered mostly for his time at Ann Arbor, where he was an all-time great at one of the country’s legendary football schools.
Football banged Rob up pretty hard. He had several orthopedic procedures over the years following his playing days. Evidently, he was not feeling well on Saturday and was taken to the hospital, where he passed away following his heart attack.
He was on the Broncos’ first championship team, that memorable 1977 team that played in the first of Denver’s six Super Bowls. Lytle started at running back for the Broncos in the 1977 AFC Championship Game, and ironically had a play in which he was tackled at the Oakland 1-yard line, a play highly disputed as a fumble by the Raiders. The Broncos scored on a 1-yard run by fullback Jon Keyworth on the next play. The debate about the nun-fumble festered for years, and it was one of the early plays that prompted the call for review and potential reversal of field calls in pro football.
On September 23, 1979 we were playing the Seahawks in Denver. Broncos Public Relations Director Bob Peck was dying of brain cancer and was watching the game from a wheelchair against the wall of the south stands at old Mile High Stadium. Seattle jumped out to a 34-10 lead when Red Miller took Norris Weese out and replaced him with Craig Morton at quarterback. Morton threw three touchdowns passes in the next two minutes and 34 seconds, bringing the Broncos to within three of Seattle. The next time the Broncos got the ball they drove down for the winning score, which came on a one-yard run by Rob Lytle. Spontaneously, as Rob later described it, he ran to the south stands wall and handed the ball to Bob Peck, seated in his wheelchair. It brought tears to the stadium’s eyes then, and it brings tears to my eyes when I type it now.
Rob Lytle did not have a great career, but he was a great one.
While his career ended in 1983 for Denver, film of Rob in a Bronco uniform lives on in the movies.
My dear friend Bob Smith of NFL Films confirmed this many years ago. When the great football film, “Everybody’s All-American,” was made in 1988, starring Dennis Quaid as the All-American who has a star crossed career and life, producers wanted to give it a realistic look and did so very successfully by integrating actual footage of NFL games as the game action to go along with the story. That’s why the Dennis Quaid character wears No. 41 for the Broncos — because the running back footage is of the Broncos’ own No. 41, Rob Lytle. Bob Smith and NFL Films provided the film, Rob Lytle did the running, and No. 41 of the Broncos was Dennis Quaid — and Rob Lytle — in that movie.
The injuries certainly hampered his career to the point that many fans and NFL people might not remember watching his play today.
But I saw him run, and I knew him as a humanitarian.
And I remember Rob Lytle.
Tags: Denver Broncos, Jim Saccomano, Rob Lytle
Beautifully written piece about a real standout Bronco. I remember him as a player who often made surprising plays and could give the team a jolt of energy. Thanks for the inside look at his life. Condolences and best wishes to all who knew him – he will be missed,.
Oh. Wow.
I think that comeback was the game which made my Mom – not really a sports fan previously – into what would become a die-hard Broncos fan; and so, helped me, and my brother, into our decades-long fanness. Mr. Lytle’s name did ring a bell; but I didn’t realize what I may have owed him. (Or, for that matter, how much more interesting I would find “Everybody’s All-American” if I ever do manage to see it).
Thank you, Mr. Saccomano, for an informative and moving tribute, to someone who sounds like a very admirable person. And thank you and rest in peace, to Mom and to Mr. Lytle
Rob Lytle , dead at 56, exactly my age, what hard wrenching news, I followed him since the start and I always thought he would have hard shoes to follow since he carried basically the same last name as Floyd Little, and the injuries kept piling up but you knew the guy was good, # 41 you will not be forgotten. My deepest condoleances to his family and friends
There’ll be a lot more of these in the years to come, as the early NFLers age … I remember Rob Lytle very well … a truly outstanding Bronco … it’s always nice to be able to be proud of individuals who play for “your” team, and Rob Lytle was one we sure could be proud of … 56 is not very old, right Bay??? … but we get what we get, and each of us better make every year we do get, count … and Jim – super, as usual … you’re someone we Broncos fans can be proud of, too …
I remember Rob as a hardnosed football player the epitome of what BRONCOS football is all about. They say only the good die young and at only 56 and the man he was that certainly applies to him.
Thank you Jim, for the well written tribute for #41 Rob Lytle. I remember the ’77 Team and how Lytle was a bit part of the Teams success that year. Our first championship run….what a magical year it was. I was a sophmore in high school. Broncomania was born…. awesome memories. I remember #41 runnning hard to get us a 1st down or catching swing passes out of the backfield. Rob Lytle did have a great career for the University of Michigan and I was excited to see him join the Broncos in 1977.
My condelences to his immediate family and all his former teammates at the University of Michigan and the Denver Broncos.
Sorry meant “big part” of the Teams success.
Thanks for the memories, Jim. Rob was a Bronco through and through – couldn’t be more proud of him and everything he stood for
Rob was a bruiser for a RB. Alot like Hillis of today. Lytles last year was John Elways rookie year. So John got to play with Rob in 1983. Kind of trippy.
Jim,
Nobody, and I mean nobody, can write a tribute piece like you do, and I can see your heart and soul in this one. I have to say it brought a tear to my eye and it brought to life a Bronco I never knew and I never saw play.
It seems to me that Rob was the ultimate professional who played his heart out for the team.
My sincerest condolences to all that knew and loved him, but in particular to his family who have lost such a wonderful man.
He was a real class act. I was in the South Stands for the game reffered to. It was the most heartwarming act any Bronco play has made. My sincerest condolances to Rob’s family. Thanks, Jim, for recalling a cherished memory.
R.I.P. Rob Lyte
I definitely remember and will always remember #41! As a kid growing up playing football in the streets, I would be Craig Morton when I quarterbacked and Rob Lytle the rest of the time. He is a major player in the history of this great franchise and the start of their championship runs. Thank you Rob Lytle God Bless your family and may you rest in peace.
I remember that Seattle Game. Best of wishes to the Lytle family.
Wonderful tribute, Jim.
Rob Lytle was a terrific guy to watch running. He made the most out of every carry.
Even though that team did not win the big prize, they made us feel like it was possible.
Sad to lose him so early.
In 1977, Rob Lytle’s rookie year, he and his wife Tracy moved in across the street
in the Homestead subdivision. I was six and didn’t know he was a professional football player. He had an Irish Setter named Sheamus O’kelley O’Shea. I didn’t have a dog of my own, so every time I had a chance I would run across the street and play with Sheamus. I remember helping them in their yard and having lunch over there. At the end of the ’77 season, Rob came over to our house and gave me an official NFL football signed by the entire team including Red Miller. My dad never let me play with that football, at the time I didn’t understand why, but now I am sure glad he didn’t.
I still have that football, in a glass case. I take it out every now and then and look at all the names on it, ” Jon Keyworth, Ron Egloff, Tom Jackson, Louis Wright, Billy Bryan and Rick Upchurch.” Wow, can you imagine if we had those guys now? My point is, my parents nor I asked Rob to get that football for me, he just did it because that was the kind of person he was.
I never got to know Rob as well as I liked cause we moved away. The #41 has been my favorite number since I met Rob and still is to this day. I wish there was some way I could get a hold of Tracy and let her know how sorry I am to here of Rob’s passing. My dad passed away when he was 52 from complications of Diabetes, so both Rob and my dad have left us too soon. I would like to think I will see both of them again someday.
Rob you will be missed. And to Tracy and his son, daughter and the rest of Rob’s family, take comfort from friends, family and know that he is always with you, in your hearts. #41 will live on in our memories as a great player and better yet a great human being.
RIP Rob #41
THANK YOU FOR WRITING THIS BEAUTIFUL TRIBUTE TO MY BROTHER.