Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen dies at 75.
Pat Bowlen, the Denver Broncos owner who transformed the team from also-rans into NFL champions and helped the league usher in billion-dollar television deals, died late Thursday, just under two months before his enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was 75.
In a statement posted on the Broncos’ website, Bowlen’s family said he died peacefully at home surrounded by loved ones. They did not specify a cause of death. Bowlen suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for several years.
Bowlen was the first owner in NFL history to oversee a team that won 300 games — including playoffs — in three decades. He had as many Super Bowl appearances (seven) as losing seasons, and Denver is 354-240-1 since he bought the club in 1984.
Under his stewardship, the Broncos won Super Bowls in 1998, 1999 and 2016.
“His soul will live on through the Broncos, the city of Denver and all of our fans,” Bowlen’s family said in its statement Thursday night. “Heaven got a little bit more orange and blue tonight.”
During 35 seasons with him as owner, Bowlen’s teams compiled a .596 winning percentage — tied for second-best in the NFL during that span. Among professional franchises in the four major North American sports, only the San Antonio Spurs, New England Patriots and Los Angeles Lakers were better, according to the Broncos.
Bowlen served as a sounding board for NFL Commissioners Pete Rozelle, Paul Tagliabue and Roger Goodell. He was crucial to the league’s growth as a member of 15 NFL committees, including co-chairing the NFL Management Council and working on network TV contracts, including the league’s ground-breaking $18 billion deal in 1998.
Ownership of the franchise is held in a trust Bowlen set up more than a decade ago in hopes one of his seven children will one day run the team. Bowlen’s daughter Brittany is hoping to do just that, but the succession plan and the trustees’ oversight of Bowlen’s estate has been challenged in state district court in the last year by some members of the Bowlen family.