So first a bit o’ history… Back in 1993, I founded Endzone Sports Charities (ESC) and launched the organizations web site. The site was an attempt to compile and share all the knowledge I’d accumulated over years of collecting game-used jerseys and researching the history of the Denver Broncos’ uniforms. The web original site was pretty basic in terms of its format/presentation, but it was the best I do with my (very) limited HTML coding skills. Fast forward twenty-plus years and I found that my passion for collecting as well as my efforts to continue maintaining/updating the site had waned. Early on, during that period, I also met and befriended Tom Jacobsen (“TJ”), whose similar passion helped keep me motivated and ESC’s site up and running longer than it may have been otherwise.
By 2013, with other interests calling, I made the decision to divest/sell my collection, the vast majority of which went to Tom and another Broncos’ collector-turned-friend, Dr. James “Jamie” (aka “Dr. J”) Teumer. Also about, this time, while ESC’s website never “went dark”, it did, for the most part go unattended to, and over time became a bit stale. Again, thanks to TJ’s (still) ongoing passion, I was more recently convinced, without much effort, to turn over the website’s domain to him with the intent to not only keep it alive, but also to modernize its format and refreshed its’ content. So now, with that comes the relaunch of this website.
One of the new sites elements that TJ wanted to include was a “Featured Item(s)” blog that would not only highlight some of the items in both his and Dr. J’s collection, but also be open for submissions from others outside of ESC. To share what is in your collection, use the link at the bottom of this page.
How honored I was to have Tom ask me to kick off the newly-update site’s very first blog post! And so, with that somewhat lengthy intro out of the way, here we go…
With the sites new beginning, it seems only fitting that we go back to the beginning—back to 1960. With Lamar Hunt’s failed efforts to land an expansion National Football League team, he along with others, decided to form a competing entity, the American Football League—a venture that would earn the founding owners the nickname, “the foolish club”. While some of the new league’s founders, such as Hunt’s Dallas Texans (who would become, and remain, the Kansas City Chiefs) were well funded, others such as Denver’s franchise—originally owned by Bob Housman—began and were operated on a shoe-string budget. Housman’s pick for a general manager was Dean Griffing—a choice partly because of Griffing’s extensive connections to both college and semi-pro football organizations, but likely also in part due to his frugality. By bringing in Griffing, the Broncos organization also brought in Dean’s access to used (and thus, cheap) uniforms. Regardless of their still unconfirmed origins, the seal brown and light gold unis, were indeed a sight to unsee… Punctuated by their now infamous vertically stiped socks!
In 1962, one of newly-hired GM/head coach Jack Faulkner’s first orders of business was to change the teams’ image. This included dressing the team in new orange, blue, and white uniforms and bidding farewell to the hand-me-down duds of the previous (1960-’61) era. During an intra-squad scrimmage in the summer of ’62, Faulkner, ever the PR man, staged a bonfire during which several of the players paraded by and ceremoniously dropped their socks into the flames. Over the years, this story was exaggerated to suggest that all of the 1960-’61 uniforms went up in flames, but this was indeed an exaggeration as photographic evidence supports that these 1960-’61 duds remained in use as “practice” uniforms for a few years thereafter. At the end of their useful lives, it was likely that they were either just discarded outright or possibly donated, as was a common practice. With both their origins and eventual disposition forever likely shrouded in mystery any piece of memorabilia from these formative years is considered the “holy grail” of many a Broncos uniform collector.
Back in 1998, I happened across an eBay listing for one of these very rare pieces of memorabilia—one of the original brown and gold vertically-striped socks. Recognizing it for what it was, I was determined to make it mine, and armed with this determination, won the auction and obtained this piece for my collection. From the eBay seller, I leaned that this piece had been consigned to him by Larry Fessler—a long-time (dating back to the AFL days) beat writer covering the Bills for the Buffalo Daily News. Subsequently tracking down and contacting Fessler in an attempt to gain more detail as to the origins/provenance of this sock, Larry told me that he’d receive it as a gift from Jack Faulkner. Fessler had recalled that Faulkner had the foresight to stash a few of these socks back, and every time he wanted a favor—in the form of favorable press—he’d say, “You know, I’ve got one last sock…” and he’d gift one of these to the writer. This is how Fessler claims to have come about his, and he further questioned aloud as to just how many “one last” socks were given away in similar circumstances. At the time of its’ 1998 acquisition, this was one of only three known single socks to exist, as the Broncos’ organization held one as did the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Subsequently two others have surfaced and come to light—one held in the Kansas City Chiefs’ museum/collection of exceptional AFL-era memorabilia and another held in a private collection that was said to have, at one time, been owned by a former NFL exec who worked with Faulkner and had received it as a gift from Jack. The later of these two was eventually acquired by ESC’s own Tom Jacobsen, and with Tom’s eventual purchase of mine, he now owns the only known pair!
Also a part of TJ’s collection is a 1960 Broncos’ team-prepared gold and brown home jersey. Research suggest that this jersey was prepared for and worn by offensive end Ken Carpenter. With the early Broncos’ rosters almost constantly in flux, Carpenter was a late-season addition to the inaugural squad playing in the final six games of the 1960 campaign. Carpenter’s first game was on the road in November of 1960 where he would have worn the brown and white road jerseys and subsequent roster inserts for the rest of the season list him as #81. While we know this jersey was prepped for him – evidence of where the nameplate once was is still visible – we don’t know how many games it was worn in. Was there a typo in the roster inserts (a common occurrence during this time with the amount of change happening on the roster) and Carpenter wore this jersey in the remaining home games vs. the listed #81? Sadly, with very few folks left to ask from that time and the lack of many photos from the games played in 1960, we may never know the answers to those questions.
What we do know is that this Rawlings’ tagged rarity features a crew neck design, originally had 3/4-length sleeves and is constructed of a nylon-cotton blend Durene fabric with brown tackle-twill numerical identifiers. While this jersey certainly exhibits signs of use/wear with multiple repairs, the modification of cutting the original sleeves to their current length was almost certainly done for comfort as part of its subsequent service as a circa-1962 (and possibly later) practice jersey.
The last piece from this era is an equipment bag that was used by the equipment staff (which in 1960 totaled one person, that being equipment manager Harvey Stephen) to store and transport practice balls and other associated equipment. These bags were constructed of a brown heavy-duty canvass with a zippered closure. Trimmed with a gold piping they also were emblazed with sewn-on “DENVER BRONCOS” lettering. This rarity stands on its own as one of three known to exist – two in TJ’s collection and one in the Kansas City Chiefs museum. Much like the socks, others may exist that are just waiting to be discovered!
