Bowlen steps down as Broncos boss
Former Edmonton businessman battling Alzheimer’s disease
ENGLEWOOD, COLO. — Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen is giving up control of the team because of Alzheimer’s disease.
The 70-year-old Bowlen, a former Edmonton businessman who bought the National Football League team in 1984, will no longer be a part of the club’s daily operations, the Broncos announced Wednesday. Team President Joe Ellis is adding the title of chief executive and will have final say on all matters.
The Broncos say the ownership of the franchise is held in a trust Bowlen set up more than a decade ago in hopes that one of his seven children will one day run the team.
“As many in the Denver community and around the National Football League have speculated, my husband, Pat, has very bravely and quietly battled Alzheimer’s disease for the last few years. He has elected to keep his condition private because he has strongly believed, and often said, ‘It’s not about me,”’ Annabel Bowlen said in a statement Wednesday.
“Alzheimer’s has taken so much from Pat, but it will never take away his love for the Denver Broncos and his sincere appreciation for the fans,” she added.
The team issued a statement offering “our full support, compassion and respect to ‘Mr. B,’ who has faced Alzheimer’s disease with such dignity and strength.”
Business is expected to go on as usual at Broncos headquarters.
Bowlen was born in Prairie du Chien, Wis., in 1944 and grew up in Alberta, where his father Paul — a graduate in petroleum engineering at the University of Oklahoma — was making his fortune in the oil business.
Pat Bowlen played junior football with the Edmonton Huskies as a tight end in the early 1960s, and earned degrees in business and law later that decade at Oklahoma.
He returned to Canada in the late ’60s, first practising law in Calgary for a year then joining his father’s Edmonton-based company, Regent Drilling.
After another year, he and Peter Batoni founded Edmonton’s Batoni-Bowlen Enterprises, and entered the real estate and construction business.
Among the Edmonton landmarks Bowlen has built are the Edmonton Coliseum, now Rexall Place, and the pyramid-topped skyscraper at Jasper Ave. and 102 St. now known as the Enbridge Tower.
Bowlen had reduced his public appearances in recent years, although he was still a fixture at the team’s Dove Valley complex and at all of its games. After acknowledging in 2009 that he suffered short-term memory loss, he stepped back from dayto-day operations in 2011 when he promoted Ellis to president.
For the first time this offseason, Ellis represented the Broncos at the annual owners meetings.
Under Bowlen’s guidance, the Broncos won six AFC titles and two Super Bowls. At 307-203-1, Bowlen and New York Giants founder Tim Mara are the only threedecade owners in pro football history to win 60 per cent of their games.
The Broncos’ 186 home victories are the most in the NFL since he bought the team in 1984, when John Elway was his quarterback, not his front office chief, and the Broncos’ five losing seasons during those 30 years are the fewest in the league over that span.
Elway, now the team’s general manager, once said Bowlen’s competitive nature as a triathlete when he was younger translated into his business life “and how he ran the Broncos.”
Bowlen was known as much for his humility as his competitive fire, doing his best to stay out of the spotlight even as he built a winning culture and a fan base that extends through out the Rocky Mountain region.
His style endeared him to employees and players alike.
“Words can’t express the love, respect & gratitude I have for Pat Bowlen. He set the standard for team ownership. Keep Mr.Bin your prayers,” former Broncos receiver Ed McCaffrey tweeted.