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email: terry@terryfrei.com
'77: Denver, the Broncos, and a Coming of Age By Terry Frei Kenn Bisio, photos Ron
Zappolo, foreword
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Cover photos: Rubin Carter and Lyle Alzado Red Miller and GM Fred Gehrke leaving the field in triumph following the Broncos 30-7 victory at Oakland Randy Gradishar and defensive coordinator Joe Collier Haven Moses and Craig Morton, the M&M Connection Book includes a 16-photo insert, photos by Kenn Bisio
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NOT MANY PROFESSIONAL SPORTS TEAMS can claim to have changed a city forever. The
1977 Denver Broncos, coached by firebrand Red Miller and led by the stellar “Orange Crush” defense, can—because
they did. In ’77, award-winning author Terry Frei compellingly argues that the AFC champions
of that season were the tipping point for the transformation of Colorado’s capital from an outpost with an inferiority
complex to today’s sports and entertainment mecca. As in his acclaimed earlier books, Frei—a rookie Denver newspaper
reporter in 1977—displays a historian’s ability to place sports within the context of evolving politics, culture,
and society. Drawing from voluminous research, many hours of interviews, and firsthand
knowledge of both the city and football, Frei profiles such legendary '77 Broncos as Randy Gradishar, Lyle Alzado, Louis Wright,
Billy Thompson, Tom Jackson, Craig Morton, and Haven Moses—but he doesn’t stop there. As the often groundbreaking
narrative of that Denver season continues, even the most fervent of Broncos fans from that era will come to more intimately
understand both the stars and the lower-profile players they thought they knew, and the uninitiated will marvel at these compelling
stories up and down the roster. It’s all here: Tom Jackson’s notorious taunt
of Oakland coach John Madden (“It’s all over, fat man!”); the journeymen quarterback and receiver, Morton
and Moses, becoming the “M&M Connection,” and Morton’s amazing courage to even make it on the field
for the AFC Championship Game; and Gradishar and Wright again experiencing the sort of stellar seasons that should have landed
them in the Hall of Fame. Of course, it didn’t happen in a vacuum. Frei describes
Denver’s transformative politics that year—when Richard Lamm was a young and controversial governor and Bill McNichols
was one of the last machine-style mayors—plus the metro-area culture in the late 1970s as the Broncos, for so long one
of the NFL’s most downtrodden franchises, progressed toward their first Super Bowl. The
portrait emerges of a football team as uniquely influential in the transition of a city still smarting over the decision not
to host the 1976 Winter Olympics—a campaign Lamm led as a self-proclaimed “hippie” legislator. Certainly
there have been many other teams in many sports that generated and earned fanatical support, won a lot of games in glorious
seasons, and fleetingly brought a city together, but after this season Denver would never be the same again. And although
the '77 Broncos came up short of an NFL championship, they were part of an atmosphere that was far different than the Denver
of the late 1990s, when the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup and the Broncos won back-to-back Super Bowls. Maybe you had to be there to truly understand it. So if you weren’t, Terry Frei takes you there. If
you were, '77 is a replay from countless heretofore unseen angles. As unique as this tale is, it also has its elements of
universality for readers—not just sports fans—anywhere.
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Above: Billy Thompson and Bernard Jackson break up
a pass against the Raiders. "I was in my second
season with the Browns in '77, but as a Colorado kid - and a long-time Broncos fan - I followed this Denver team and was both
proud and envious when I attended both playoff games in Mile High Stadium. Terry Frei has taken me back, reminding me of many
things I had forgotten or telling me things I didn't know, both about that team and my hometown's growing pains and identity
crisis. I especially enjoyed his in-depth looks at the '77 Broncos' interaction and relationships during that landmark season,
and I found that especially fascinating because I have gotten to know so many members of that team over the years. This is
more than a football book: With all due respect to those who lived in Denver prior to '77, this is about a birth of a city."
Dave Logan, former U. of Colorado All-American, NFL player, voice of the Denver Broncos, and co-host of KOA
Radio's The Ride Home "No
one knows more about Denver and its sports than Terry Frei does, and here in '77, he describes nothing less than
the transformation of a city with a special focus on Denver's most magical team. To know why and how the Mile High City exists
as it does today, this is essential history."
Sandy Clough, sports talk host, FM Sports Radio 104.3, The
Fan
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The rookie reporter's '77 press card. "The games, the politics and the culture with which Frei deals here unfolded 30 years
ago, but they're brought to life again in this book with a clarity and a luster that makes the story of Denver and the Broncos
seem as fresh as the upcoming football season. It's a rite-of-passage tale for a city and a team as they reach and pass the
cusp of the 'Big Time' in tandem. Would one have happened without the other? Maybe. But Denver and its football team grew
up hand-in-hand during this extraordinary season, making this history a must-read for fans of the NFL, of the 1970s and of
the American West. You didn't have to live through it in Denver to appreciate this account of the flowering of a franchise
and its love affair with a town, but this book takes those of us who did straight back to those thrilling days of yesteryear
in unforgettable fashion. Frei has written Denver's version of `Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning.'" -- Michael
Knisley, Senior Deputy Editor, ESPN.com "Frei is an engaging writer, and even though I generally don't care
whether the Broncos win, lose, or tie, the book kept my interest all the way through." -- Ed Quillen, Colorado Living Magazine "Ahh the memories. And they all happened right here in the forgotten time zone. Those magical moments
came back with a rush last week reading '77: Denver, The Broncos, and a Coming of Age. What a fantastic read...'77
is more than just a Bronco football memoir. It was a time when our Centennial State exploded on the national scene...[T]hanks
to Terry Frei's wonderful work, we get to live that magical moment all over again." -- Dick
Maynard, Grand Junction Sentinel
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Bob
Swenson and Randy Gradishar stop the Steelers' Franco Harris
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'77
photographer Kenn Bisio, now a professor at Metro State, and Terry Frei at The Tattered Cover.
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