History of the Arena Football League in Denver

In 1987, businessman and then-owner of the Denver Nuggets Sidney Shlenker announced the forming of the Denver Dynamite.[1] The franchise played in the inaugural four-team "demonstration" season of 1987.[1] Despite the team and league's doubters,[2] the Dynamite tied for the best record in the league with the Pittsburgh Gladiators, going 4-2.

Denver Dynamite (1987, 1989–1991)

On August 1, 1987 the team participated in ArenaBowl I, which they won 45-16 over the Gladiators.[1] The Dynamite were led on offense by quarterback Whit Taylor,[3] and wide receiver Gary Mullen (Mullen won ArenaBowl I MVP).[1][4] After winning the ArenaBowl, Head Coach Tim Marcum was named the league's first ever Coach of the Year.[1] Despite averaging the league's best attendance with over 12,000 a game,[1] it did not return for the league's second season due to Shlenker refusing to abide by the AFL's financial rules.[1]

The franchise was restarted in 1989, with the ownership purchased by Englewood, Colorado investment banker Gary Graham for $125,000.[1] Graham's first move was to hire former NFL and AFL coach, Babe Parilli as the team's head coach.[5] The team struggled to earn money during the 1989 season due to only hosting one home game.[1] The team finished with a 3-1 regular season record, and lost in the first round of the playoffs, 37-39 to the Gladiators.[6]

With the same coaching staff in place from 1989, the Dynamite got off to a hot 4-1 start during the 1990 season. The Dynamite would finish the season with a record of 4-4, good enough to clinch the 3rd seed. The team lost 25-26 to the semi-finals to the Dallas Texans.[7] The attendance had been steadily rising during the season, with the final home game's attendance listed at 10,587. This was later found to be skewed as around 3,000 people were admitted for free.[1] The AFL stepped in and began to question the Dynamite operations and financial stability as some of the player's checks began to bounce during the season.[1] Graham cited that the only problem came from a bookkeeping error.[1]

Despite the financial turmoil that occurred the season before, the Dynamite once again fielded a team in 1991. The team finished 6-4 during the regular season,[8] again clinching the 3rd seed for the playoffs. The team lost to the relocated Gladiators, who became the Tampa Bay Storm, in the semi-finals. After the season, the franchise filed for bankruptcy after being sued by their public relations firm.[1] When he learned of the situation in Denver, AFL commissioner Jim Foster has this to say, "Three things can happen. One, he finds a buyer, or we find him a buyer, and the team stays in Denver. Two, a buyer is found and moves to another city. Three, no one is interested and the franchise goes down."[1] The Dynamite went up for sale, but with the city far more interested trying to attract investors to land a Major League Baseball franchise (Colorado Rockies), the team did not attract potential buyers.[1]

The owners retained the rights to operate an Arena Football franchise, however, which they sold in 1996 to a Nashville, Tennessee-based group which started the first Nashville Kats franchise (later the Georgia Force) the next year.[1]

Denver received a new arena football team in 2003, when the Colorado Crush, owned by Pat Bowlen and John Elway, was established.[1] That franchise has since folded and the Crush name was acquired by the Indoor Football League team for its name change in 2015 from the Colorado Ice, leading many to wonder if the Dynamite may return to the AFL in the future.

Colorado Crush (2003–2008)

On August 8, 2001, the team entered an application for expansion into the Arena Football League.[9] In June 2002, it was announced that John Elway (Co-Owner and Chief Executive Officer), with Stan Kroenke, owner of the Avalanche, the Nuggets, the Rapids, Pepsi Center, & the Altitude Sports network and the majority Broncos owner Pat Bowlen would be bringing an arena football team to Denver.[10] The Crush competed in the Central Division of the American Conference. After a bad inaugural season in 2003, in which they finished 2-14, the Crush rebounded to go 11-5 and make the playoffs in their second year. On June 12, 2005 they won ArenaBowl XIX (19) in Las Vegas' Thomas & Mack Center over the Georgia Force 51-48, in only their third year of existence.[11]

In their fourth year the Crush ended up 11-5, with the American Conference Central title for the second year in a row. In the Divisional Round however, the Crush lost in an upset to the fifth-seeded (and eventual ArenaBowl champion) Chicago Rush 63-46.

The team's mascot was an anthropomorphic bull named "Crusher."[12]

On July 15, 2015, the Indoor Football League franchise previously known as the Colorado Ice announced that they would change their name to the Colorado Crush, but would have no ties to the former AFL franchise. According to team owner Tom Wigley, the trademark of the Crush name expired the year before meaning that the original Crush ownership no longer had a say in the use of the name.

See also

References
  1. Joey Bunch (October 22, 2012). "Denver Dynamite exploded in Arena League's first season, then fizzled out". The Denver Post. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
  2. Buddy Martin (June 20, 1987). "Arena football: Try to avoid the temptation". Star-News. Retrieved January 28, 2013.
  3. Brent Wiseman (December 2, 2003). "Whit Taylor to be honored as "SEC Legend"". www.vanderbilt.scout.com. MSN. Archived from the original on March 3, 2012. Retrieved January 28, 2013.
  4. "Arena Football League Championship : Taylor Leads Dynamite, 45-16". Los Angeles Times. August 2, 1987. Retrieved February 1, 2013.
  5. "ON THE SIDELINES : Parilli Named Dynamite Coach". Los Angeles Times. June 27, 1989. Retrieved January 28, 2013.
  6. "1989 Denver Dynamite Team History". www.arenafan.com. ArenaFan. Retrieved January 28, 2013.
  7. "1990 Denver Dynamite Team History". www.arenafan.com. ArenaFan. Retrieved January 28, 2013.
  8. "1991 Denver Dynamite Team History". www.arenafan.com. ArenaFan. Retrieved January 28, 2013.
  9. "Elway expected to land Denver AFL team". www.oursportscentral.com. OurSports Central. August 8, 2001. Retrieved July 19, 2017.
  10. "Elway to bring Arena Football team to Denver". Lodi News-Sentinel. June 19, 2002. Retrieved March 14, 2014.
  11. "Crush wins 1st Arena title". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. June 14, 2005. Retrieved March 14, 2014.
  12. http://coloradocrush.com/content/index.cfm?&ATCLID=153624&DB_OEM_ID=3500&fuseaction=showContent&contentID=105&navID=108 Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine
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