Broncos/Trumbles/Newspaper

From: Dan Trumble

Sent: Friday, December 22, 2006 12:25 PM

Subject: Broncos/Trumbles/Newspaper

This is an article that starts on the front page of the Metro section of the January 21, 2006 Gazette (the local paper in Colorado Springs). The article mentions me and the lady who lives across the street from us (June Nash). The article is copied below. The version in the newspaper includes a picture of me and some of the kids but the online version does not include the picture. Here is that picture.

a staged picture that was not in the newspaper but is pretty good, nonetheless

And yet one more that is also not in the paper.

Here’s the article:

Dearly devoted
By CAROL McGRAW - THE GAZETTE

They swaddle themselves in team colors. They grow shaggy beards not even a mother wolverine could love. They collect lucky charms that only work if they are positioned just so on the coffee table. All this makes them endearingly irritating to friends, family and strangers alike. It also makes them the best of Broncos fans.

Mayor Lionel Rivera has proclaimed this Broncos Weekend for Colorado Springs and is urging everyone to wear the orange and blue. The AFC Championship Game against the Pittsburgh Steelers — deciding who goes to the Super Bowl — is Sunday at 1 p.m.

If you’re not sure how to join the stampede, study how these Broncos maniacs do it:

- There are fans and then there is Reggie Lopez. Pat Holmes found that out plenty fast when he purchased Don’s Auto Body Shop, 202 S. 21st St. in Old Colorado City, about eight years ago. “Reggie came with the business. I offered them $10,000 more to take him, but they wouldn’t,” joked Holmes, a transplanted Californian who races antique motorcycles.What would make a boss say that? Well, Holmes wanted his new place to sparkle, so he told Lopez, the parts man, to paint over the doors adorned with gigantic Broncos logos. No way, Lopez told his new boss. The logos stay. The first had been up since Broncos quarterback Craig Morton’s era in the ’70s. Lopez painted the second after they won the 1998 Super Bowl. “Wild horses couldn’t have dragged me to paint the doors,” Lopez said. Holmes now understands he bought a landmark. Broncos fans ask to have their photos taken out front. Customers tell him they chose the shop because of the logos. Holmes, now a fan, said, “The only way I could ever get rid of Reggie would be to paint a Raiders logo on the third door.”

- Sunday is June Nash’s 72nd birthday, and the greatgrandmother of five will be in a seat overlooking the south end zone at Invesco Field on Sunday. She and her three sisters have had tickets since the ’90s. Sometimes she gives her tickets to son-in-law Doug Dean, but not this weekend. “There wasn’t a chance,” she said. Nash has a photo of herself with Broncos superfan Barrel Man, two seats from the old Mile High Stadium and a Broncos throw that her daughter crocheted. She’ll take a bus from Colorado Springs to the stadium, lugging her Broncos blanket, padded Broncos seat and Broncos pompoms in her Broncos tote. She’ll wear her gold Broncos earrings with tiny bells that chime when she shakes her head after a touchdown, plus Broncos garb head to toe. What does she want for her birthday? “A win.”

- Barry Dunlap, chef at Garden of the Gods Gourmet, has watched Broncos football since he was knee high to a Viking (stove, not Minnesota). “I remember the Broncos getting beat by the Cowboys in 1978,” the 32-year-old said. “That’s what made me the fan I am today.” Alas, he’ll have to watch the game on a 5-inch TV while he quarterbacks gameday fare for customers: Mile High Blue margaritas; blue corn nachos with Mike Vanderjagt cheese; Tom Brady’s Green with Envy Chili; and Smothered Ground Roethlisbergers with a “sack” of chips. (Don’t get the joke? Ask any fan, who’ll be thrilled to explain in excruciating detail).

- You could call Dan Trumble’s Broncos fever a-mazing. He has laboriously — and apparently joyfully — spent hours drawing Broncosthemed mazes for friends and family. Trumble, who works for Compassion International, is hopeful the “indoctrination” of his kids will work. Four-yearold Stephen already knows the difference between the classic Broncos logo, with the big D, and the new one.

- Camille Colt Mills has worn her John Elway jersey for every game since about 1998 — and hasn’t washed it because that would be unlucky. “It doesn’t smell too bad,” she said. “I use Febreeze and wear a turtleneck under it, and I’ve been careful with the beer.” Mills, 27, who works for a defense contractor, grew up eating pumpkin seeds and watching Broncos games with her mom, Joanne Colt, owner of Giuseppe’s Depot Restaurant downtown. Mills’ husband is deployed to Iraq, so she’ll watch the game with Leo, her golden retriever. “He pretends to be watching to make me feel better,” she reported.