Over the last 40 years, few teams have had more success than the Denver Broncos. But for nearly the first decade and a half of the Broncos’ history, “successful” may be one of the last words used to describe the franchise.

The Broncos didn’t surpass .500 once from the team’s inception in 1960 as a member of the American Football League, until 1973, reaching a then-franchise-high 7-5-2 mark.

Four years later, the Broncos qualified for the playoffs for the first time and went on to reach the franchise’s first Super Bowl the same season.

Pioneered by defensive coordinator Joe Collier, defensive line coach Stan Jones and linebackers coach Myrel Moore, they developed what would become known as the “Orange Crush” Defense.

The change quickly turned the Broncos from punchline to powerhouse.

Headlining the unit, Champion’s Randy Gradishar.

The 14th overall pick in 1974, it didn’t take long before the team knew what they had in Gradishar. His role steadily increased during his rookie season, and by the end of the season, Gradishar was a starter.

“I knew that being the number one draft pick, it wasn’t going to be long before Randy was going to be our signal caller and our middle linebacker. I think it took him about a half a season or something, maybe, before he had that starting job,” former Broncos linebacker Tom Jackson said. “Then once he got the starting job, all of the elements of his game became obvious, and we realized pretty quickly that we had somebody really special.”

What made Gradishar so special in that unit was that he could do whatever was needed.

Moore mentioned Gradishar’s assignments were sometimes as simple as “do whatever it takes to stop them.” And that was all he needed.

“He was special,” Moore said. “If there was ever a defense that was made for someone, that defense was made for him, the way we ran it. It was really something to see how he matriculated into it and became a leader, and how he was able to run the defense for us. He was just another coach on the field course, and he was really a student of the game. He studied a lot. He would call some of the plays before that quarterback ever started the (snap cadence). He would tell the quarterback where the ball was going. He was something else.

“We had a little model for ourselves. The biggest thing with linebackers was that they get their legs cut out from under them and get knee injuries, or they take on a lot of bigger people, playing against the offensive linemen. We tried to limit them as much as we could, as far as hitting goes, because they were absolutely tremendous on the field. They had no fear, and they played, they played like you had never seen before at all. And of course, Randy, we made the defense so it would suit him to be able to be free enough to make the plays that we know he could make.”

The brainchild of Collier, Jones, and Moore, combined with the on-field prowess of Gradishar, linebackers Jackson, Joe Rizzo and Bob Swenson, defensive linemen Lyle Alzado, Rubin Carter and Barney Chavous, and Billy Thompson, Steve Foley and Louis Wright in the secondary led to the Broncos’ first playoff appearance with a 12-2 record and the franchise’s first Super Bowl appearance.

When Jackson got to Denver for the 1973 season, things couldn’t have been more different.

In the 13 seasons prior to his arrival, Broncos fans had little to show for. A 7-7 mark in 1962 was the lone season in which Denver finished without a losing record, and the franchise-best to that point.

Jackson expected his first time at Mile High Stadium to be like a trip to a morgue, but despite the lackluster results of the past decade plus, the stadium was full.

As the team’s success grew year-by-year, the already passionate fanbase was ravenous. The term ‘Mile High Thunder’ became synonymous with the pounding of the stadium’s metal bleachers and the team’s defensive starters were given orange Ford Broncos with their names on them by a local dealership.

“I knew that they had been losing basically 13 years by the time I came, but even the first preseason game that we played at home, the stadium was packed, and I was like, why is it? Why are these people at this game? You would have thought that the Denver Broncos were defending world champions,” Jackson said. “There wasn’t necessarily a change in the attitude of those fans who were eternally optimistic about the Denver Broncos, but as we began to win, if anything, they became ultra enthusiastic. … We just enjoyed all of the perks. We became the darlings of the city.”

The genesis of what became the Orange Crush was truly formed in 1975. Toward the end of the season, in an already out of reach road game against Oakland, Denver stopped the Raiders on the goal line. While meaningless for the result on the scoreboard, and doesn’t improve what would be a 6-8 mark on the season, something clicked within the minds of the Broncos’ defensive starters.

And when that clicked, it was all gas from that point on, as that unit became one of the most iconic defenses of that era. The “Purple People Eaters,” the “Monsters of the Midway,” the “Steel Curtain,” and now, the “Orange Crush”.

“It was at that moment that I believe the Orange Crush was born,” Jackson said. “It was that moment that all of a sudden we were like, ‘Oh, we got it. We get this. If we all do what we’re supposed to do, what Joe Collier tells us to do, we’re going to be a pretty darn good unit,’ and that’s what happened.”

Thompson cited the group’s closeness as a reason the defense caught fire.

“We had our backs against the wall a lot, and it made us closer. It made us more determined,” Thompson said. “We knew that we had to play well every game. There was no doubt in our minds that we couldn’t have an off day. We weren’t scoring a lot of points, and if we were going to be in the ballgame, we couldn’t give up a lot because we couldn’t come back from a lot of points. It was just a challenge for us. It was something that we enjoyed doing. We didn’t dread it, it was like, ‘This is what we’re going to do. We’re going to shut them out.’ So we went out there every game and that was our approach, to shut them out.”

The largest part of the team’s success came down to the talent the Orange Crush had.

Chief amongst the group was Gradishar, who anchored the Orange Crush, serving as the team’s defensive play caller at middle linebacker. Described as the “heart and soul” of the unit, the six-time All-Pro

“He was very hard to knock off his feet,” Collier said in a 2023 interview with the Denver Gazette. “When the ball was snapped, he would be concentrated on the running back and guys would try to block him, throwing blocks at his legs. But he’d walk over them or jump over them without even looking. … He was like a bat that can get around in the dark. He was that way in which he could avoid blockers.”

An already very good defense led on the field by one of football’s best was a recipe for success. Gradishar’s leadership, both on and off the field, pushed the Broncos over the top.

“He was definitely the leader,” Foley said. “Right smack in the middle of the defense. And the defense was pretty much built around having Randy be able to make most of the tackles, and keeping lineman off of him so he could roam. He was such an instinctive football player, and an incredible tackler, that, if at all possible, you wanted him making that stop. … That defense was just really, really good, and to have him as a leader of that (unit) made him a leader off the field. His personality and his ethics and his faith made him a leader off the field as well.”

Gradishar’s legacy with those Bronco teams is one that is matched by few, both in Broncos’ history, and football history itself.

Five-time All-Pro (first-team in 1977 and 1978), over 2,000 tackles according to records kept by Collier — what would have been an NFL record at the time — an estimated 19.5 sacks, the 1978 Defensive Player of the Year, seven Pro Bowls and 20 interceptions were amassed in his career.

“There are quite a few scouts who will tell you that former Broncos inside linebacker Randy Gradishar was almost as good, even as good, as Jack Lambert,” Pro Football Weekly’s personnel scout Joel Buchsbaum wrote. “Unlike Lambert, Gradishar was not a flashy headhunter, just a great anticipator who was a deadly tackler and great short-yardage defender”

Gradishar not only never missed a game over his 10 year career, but he also never missed a practice.

According to research done by the Broncos, out of the 74 teams that made the first 37 Super Bowls, only one of those teams was without player representation in the Hall of Fame.

With Gradishar’s forthcoming induction, the 1977 Broncos will finally have representation.

For such an iconic defense, a lack of representation has been a sore spot, mainly for those campaigning for Gradishar’s induction.

“I think it’s validating for all of us, but I would be remiss if I didn’t say Randy’s induction is long overdue,” Jackson said. “I am so proud of him, and I am so happy for him, as well as us, the collective unit. We feel like we all have a role in watching and being a part of what’s happening for Randy now, and yes, it’s validating for us. I think that we’ve all, in our own way, been waiting for some sort of validation of what we did when we were on the field.”

There may be no one that hopes more that Gradishar will be the first of multiple to receive the nod to Canton, than Gradishar himself.

“There are no words to express how important this is,” Gradishar said. “We always knew we were a phenomenal defense; it’s mind-boggling why it took this long. There are several Orange Crush teammates, I won’t mention any names, but several who should be in the Hall of Fame. It’s been said a million times, and I agree, it’s long overdue. But the Orange Crush era is finally getting what we have richly deserved for over 30 years; a Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee.”

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