Are you familiar with the term, "six degrees of separation?"
It was popularized in a Will Smith movie many years ago, and the basis of the concept is something like, you know your grandfather, your grandfather knew someone else, hence an attachment. If you go six degrees into this game, you get some astonishing results.
I have a silly, crazy one regarding the Broncos, and I readily admit at the outset that this is not the most intense, serious blog ever, but some of you might finds it fun and interesting. And I can pretty much guarantee there are a couple of facts you did not know.
Back in 1951 the Chicago Cardinals used their number one draft choice, the number six pick overall, on a linebacker/defensive lineman from Notre Dame named Jerry Groom. Jerry Groom had been an All-American at Notre Dame and he went on to have a five-year career with the Cardinals, being named to the Pro Bowl in 1954.
Who cares? End of story, right?
Not so fast.
Everybody knows that Dave Logan and Ed McCaffrey call the games for the Broncos on KOA. Everybody knows that. Ed McCaffrey was an outstanding player at Stanford, as well as for Broncos and the 49ers as well.
Logan used to be the Broncos' color man before he moved over to the play-by-play seat. And before Logan the Broncos color man was Larry Zimmer, sitting next to Bob Martin for many, many years.
David Diaz-Infante, Brian Griese, and Scott Hastings also did the color on Broncos broadcasts at various times over the years.
But back in the day, when Bob Howsam first became a charter member of "The Foolish Club," which is what the first American Football League owners were dubbed (by themselves), the Broncos in 1960 were on the radio station owned by the Howsam family—KHOW.
And the very first color man on Denver Broncos broadcasts was Jerry Groom. He was known as "The Boomer," by the way, but that had nothing to do with his voice, it was all about him knocking guys around on the football field at Notre Dame.
Almost nothing is known by almost any Bronco fan about Jerry Groom. But that is why I did the blog.
For some readers, if they care about the team, they are interested in stuff. And as highly respected as is Dave Logan, people should have at least some general awareness that generations precede each other, and that the "begat" section of any bible starts at the very beginning.
And for Broncos fans, the very first time they ever turned on the radio to listen to a game, they tuned into 630 on the dial—as shocking as it might seem to some, partnerships do sometimes change and the Broncos were not always on KOA—and the voice doing color was Jerry Groom.
By the way, Jerry Groom is was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1994 for his great career in college football, and Groom is one of 18 members of the College Football Hall of Fame with Bronco connections. My next blog, by the way. Some interesting guys there.
One of my favorite sayings is that sometimes it is what you learn after you figured you knew it all that proves most fascinating.
Until next time, thanks for reading.
