How They Got Their Name: Denver Broncos

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In 1958, Bob Howsam (owner of the minor league baseball Denver Bears team), inquired about bringing an NFL team to the mile-high city of Denver.  After being shut down, his plan of bringing a professional football team to the city came to fruition two years later, when Denver was awarded an inaugural franchise of the American Football League (AFL).  Early in 1960, Howsam needed to come up with a name for his new team.  Like many other teams did in their beginning, a “name the team” contest was held for residents of the state of Colorado.

Only 162 entries were submitted to name the team, and a total of eight people had chosen the “Broncos.”  Howsam and a group of prominent citizens formed a panel that took all the submitted names into consideration, but the Broncos is the one that really stuck out.  Lakewood, Colorado citizen Ward Vining was chosen as the winner for the “name the team” contest for his brief essay claiming why the Broncos would be a good fit.  In it, he wrote that broncos were tough animals, exemplified the American West, and would be a great fit for a Denver football team.  And it actually wasn’t the first Denver Broncos to ever exist.  In 1921, the Denver Broncos were an independent minor league baseball team.

Garett