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Gerald Phipps was a businessman, President of Gerald H. Phipps, Inc., a construction company, and owner of the
Denver BroncosThe Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently members of the West Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
American footballAmerican football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
club from 1961 to 1981.
Phipps and Cal Kunz purchased the Broncos from founder
Bob HowsamRobert Lee Howsam was an executive in American professional sport who, in 1959, played a key role in establishing two leagues — the American Football League, which succeeded and merged with the National Football League, and baseball's Continental League, which never played a game but forced...
in May 1961. Phipps was chairman of the
National Football LeagueThe National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
Finance Committee from 1970 to 1981. During Phipps' tenure as owner, the Broncos earned their first trip to the
Super BowlThe Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
(in 1978) participating in
Super Bowl XIISuper Bowl XII was an American football game played on January 15, 1978 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana to decide the National Football League champion following the 1977 regular season...
and saw a significant rise in Denver Broncos popularity, called “Broncomania.” In 1975, Phipps became the first non-player to be inducted into the Broncos Ring of Fame. He is also a member of the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame.
Phipps was also the owner of the Denver Bears minor league baseball team. He was a director of Rocky Mountain Empire Sports Inc., which owned the Denver Bears minor league baseball team from 1947 to 1984
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