- 1983
- 1985
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Gold Team Formation
The team’s original owner, Denver real estate mogul Ron Blanding, held fast to USFL founder David Dixon’s original blueprint for the league. He kept tight controls on expenses (including player salaries) while heavily marketing the team in the Rockies. The Gold’s original coach was Red Miller, who led the National Football League’s Denver Broncos to their first-ever Super Bowl. However, ... -
Competing with the Broncos
Unfortunately, just after Davis took over, the USFL announced that it would switch to a fall schedule for the 1986 season. Knowing that the Gold could not even begin to compete directly with the Broncos, Spedding was one of two owners (the other being Tampa Bay Bandits owner John F. Bassett) to vote to stay on a spring schedule. His ...
History of the Gold
The Denver Gold was a franchise in the United States Football League, an attempt to establish a second major professional football league in the United States, playing a springtime season, from 1983 to 1985. The Gold played their home games at Mile High Stadium in Denver, Colorado; co-tenants in the spring with the Triple-A Denver Zephyrs baseball team (Denver Bears prior to 1984).
When the USFL was first organized, league officials identified Denver as a critical market. However, they had a difficult time finding an owner. Ultimately, the league's first operations chief, John Ralston, got in touch with local real estate magnate Ron Blanding, an old friend from his days as head coach of the National Football League's Denver Broncos. After some pleading, Blanding agreed to sign on.
Blanding was easily the poorest owner in the league. He held fast to USFL founder David Dixon's original blueprint for the league, keeping tight controls on expenses (including player salaries) while heavily marketing the team in the Rockies.
The Gold's original coach was Red Miller, who led the Broncos to their first-ever Super Bowl and had known Blanding for several years. Miller was still a very popular figure in the area; fans were still smarting at how the Broncos fired him after the 1980 season. However, Miller bristled at Blanding's bargain-basement approach to running the team. The players used rented cars from Rent-a-Wreck, some of which were in rather a poor condition. They had to rely on bare-bones meals, traveled to training camp in old school buses, and only had 100 uniforms for the 120 men they invited to camp. Blanding also balked at signing any of the Gold's first seven picks in the 1983 draft. It got to the point that an irate Miller once threatened to quit unless Blanding decided to "act like a fucking owner of a professional football team."
Established
1983
City
Denver
League History
1983 – 1985 / United States Football League
Team History
1983 – 1985 / Denver Gold
Nickname
Gold – There’s gold in those Rockies. Refers to the “Gold Rush” in early years of our country. The Denver franchise using the nickname "Gold" is perfect with their close proximity to the Rocky Mountains.
Original USFL Team
Yes
Final USFL Team
No
Team’s Final Outlook
Doug Spedding knew that the Gold could not hope to compete with the Broncos; shortly after the 1985 season, he cut a deal to merge the Gold with the Jacksonville Bulls.
Championship
USFL Championship 0
Stadium
1983 – 1985 / Mile High Stadium
Owner
1984 – 1985 / Doug Spedding
1983 / Ron Blanding
Coaches
1985 / Mouse Davis (11 wins – 8 losses)
1983 – 1984 / Craig Morton (12 wins – 12 losses)
1983 / Red Miller (4 wins – 7 losses)
To qualify as the greatest player for this team, the player must have played one season for this team. If not, we will remove the player.
* verifies that player has played for this team as an added player by a fan.
Accomplishments
1985 / Division Championship Game (vs Memphis Showboats 7 – 48)
Averaged 41,736 in 1983, 33,953 in 1984 and 14,446 in 1985 (51,706 seat stadium)
*Blue is this team’s history