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Pat Bowlen, Whose Denver Broncos Won Three Titles, Dies at 75

Pat Bowlen, Whose Denver Broncos Won Three Titles, Dies at 75

(Bloomberg) -- Pat Bowlen, whose Denver Broncos won three Super Bowls and was a seminal figure in generating the National Football League’s soaring television revenue, has died. He was 75

Bowlen’s family announced his death Friday in a statement on the Denver Broncos website. He received a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease in 2006 and stepped back from operations in 2014.

“Our family wishes to express its sincere gratitude for the outpouring of support we have received in recent years,” the Bowlens said. “Heaven got a little bit more orange and blue tonight.”

No NFL owner during the past 35 years had more winning seasons (21) and playoff berths (18) than Bowlen, who helped Denver become the only team with 90-plus wins over each of his first three decades of ownership. He was scheduled to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame later this year.

Bowlen granted great latitude to his head coaches -- notably Dan Reeves and Mike Shanahan -- but didn’t hesitate to fire them when they failed to produce wins.

“I understand that the NFL is in the entertainment business and the players and the coaches are the entertainment,” Bowlen said in 1998, according to a New York Times profile. “I am a producer.”

The team won the National Football League championship after the 1997 and 1998 seasons, led by quarterback John Elway, who became a close friend of Bowlen’s. In 2011, Bowlen hired Elway as executive vice president and general manager of football operations. The Broncos won the Super Bowl again after the 2015 season.

Pat Bowlen, Whose Denver Broncos Won Three Titles, Dies at 75

In 2001, Bowlen achieved his longtime goal of replacing Mile High Stadium with a $400 million, mostly taxpayer-funded venue. He had threatened to sell the team if Denver didn’t provide the new venue known as Sports Authority Field at Mile High.

TV Profits

Bowlen helped propel the league’s jump in fees for television broadcast rights, according to former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, the Denver Post reported in 2014. TV revenue soared to $5 billion in 2014 from $473 million in 1989, the years he served on the NFL’s broadcast committee, according to Julie Frank, an analyst at Chicago-based Navigate Research, a sports marketing consulting firm.

The higher fees improved the quality of the broadcasts, said Bowlen, who was chairman of the committee from 2001 to 2006.

“It’s all going to look like Monday night, only Monday night is going to be better,” Bowlen said, according to a Denver Post story in 1998, shortly after the NFL reached an eight-year, $17.6 billion contract agreement with TV broadcasters. “With the amount of money the networks have invested, they have to take it to a higher level.”

Early Life

Patrick Dennis Bowlen was born Feb. 18, 1944, in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. His parents were Paul Dennis Bowlen, a Canadian oil wildcatter and founder of Regent Drilling Ltd., and the former Arvella Woods, according to Marquis Who’s Who.

He spent his early years in Canada, before returning to Prairie du Chein to attend Campion Jesuit High School, where he was a starting wide receiver, played hockey and ran track. He received a bachelor’s degree in 1966 from the University of Oklahoma, and graduated from its law school in 1968.

Bowlen opened a law practice in Edmonton, Alberta, and worked in his family’s business, expanding into real estate, construction and banking. He and his father owned the Seminole Harness Raceway near Orlando, Florida, which they sold in 1979, the Globe and Mail reported at the time.

In 1984, Bowlen bought a majority stake in the Broncos from Edgar F. Kaiser Jr. At 40 years old, he was among the youngest owners in NFL history. According to ESPN, Bowlen and his family paid $71 million total for the Broncos in two separate transactions ($51 million for the 61.8% interest in 1984 and $20 million for the remaining 39.2% in 1985). The franchise is now valued at $2.7 billion, according to Forbes.

He soon became a familiar figure in Denver, stalking the Broncos sidelines during practice and on game days. A year later, his family helped him buy the remainder of the team.

Bowlen’s influence within the NFL wasn’t confined to television agreements. He promoted closer cooperation with the players union, pioneered the movement toward more telegenic venues and helped extend the NFL brand around the world, commissioner Tagliabue told the Denver Post. Bowlen served on the finance and labor committees, in addition to the broadcast panel.

In 2009, Bowlen told the Denver Post that he was experiencing short-term memory loss and that “some of the memories of the Super Bowl championships are fading.”

Since he stepped away from the Broncos’s day-to-day operations, the team has been controlled by the Bowlen Family Trust. At some point a permanent owner will be chosen by the trustees (Bowlen had said he wanted it to be one of his children), but that process has been marred by legal challenges.

“Alzheimer’s has taken so much from Pat, but it will never take away his love for the Denver Broncos,” his wife, the former Joan Annabel Spencer, said in a statement in 2014.

The couple had five children: Patrick, John, Brittany, Annabel and Christianna. He also had two daughters from a previous marriage, Amie Klemmer and Elizabeth Wallace.

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