GREELEY - Horace Greeley, former editor of the New York Tribune,coined the phrase, "Go west, young man," nearly 140 years ago.
Tribune agricultural editor Nathan Meeker, who heeded that adviceand founded the town named after his editor, probably didn't go farenough.
Greeley sits just far enough east of the Front Range that it seemsmore a part of western Nebraska than Colorado, a place wheremountains are visible only from the tallest of buildings - of whichthere aren't that many in this town of just more than 76,000 people.
At nearly 2,000 feet lower than Colorado Springs, Greeley oftendoesn't feel like Colorado in the summer when the heat and humiditycombine with a nasty smell to create an atmosphere less thaninviting.
That could be why, for most of the year, Greeley is all butforgotten except by those who live here.
The atmosphere changes for a few weeks in July and August whenGreeley becomes the center of the Colorado sports universe.
Greeley once again is home of the Denver Broncos, who hold theirpreseason training camp at the University of Northern Colorado.
"It's our time to shine," Greeley Mayor Jerry Wones said. "Itbrings so many people here who might not otherwise come to Greeley,so it allows us to show off our town as an up-and-coming communitythat has a lot of things going for it.
"But it's also a big morale boost for local folks, something theymark on their calendars every year. The Broncos have had such apositive impact on us in so many ways."
This is the 21st year the Broncos have made Greeley their homeaway from home. Players report to camp Thursday. Twice-a-daypractices start Friday and continue until training camp breaks Aug.17.
The Broncos, 8-8 last season, open the preseason Aug. 10 atChicago, and the first regular-season game is Sept. 8 at home againstSt. Louis.
"It's hard to keep employees at work when the Broncos are intown," said Sarah MacQuiddy, president of the Greeley Convention andVisitors Bureau.
"People either call in sick or take the morning off to watch apractice. It's definitely the thing to do in town."
When the Broncos take the field for their two-hour, morning andafternoon practice sessions, they're surrounded by thousands of fans.
The largest crowd last year reached 5,000, with no fewer than1,000 showing up for any session.
Not all of those fans are locals.
License plates from Nebraska, Wyoming and Kansas are sprinkledalong the streets.
So are the television satellite trucks, not only from Denvernetwork affiliates but from national networks such as ESPN.
Reporters from Sports Illustrated and USA Today join the averagefans who come for a closer-than-usual look at their favorite team.
"It's such a nice setting to be able to get so close that you canhear the players talking to each other, and you're right there whencoach (Mike) Shanahan yells at them," said Bill Duerre, manager ofthe Best Western Regency Hotel.
The Best Western, Greeley's largest hotel, stays busy duringtraining camp but not as full as it is during the annual IndependenceStampede. That festival in early July, featuring concerts and arodeo, attracted almost a half-million people this year.
"We get people in from Nebraska, some from Wyoming and Kansas, tosee the Broncos while they're on their way to Rocky Mountain NationalPark or Denver," Duerre said.
"The big thing we see during camp are a lot of single-night visitsfrom fans around Colorado, from places like Durango, Grand Junction,Colorado Springs and Pueblo."
Fans come early and stay late.
Hundreds start arriving at the practice field about 6a.m. - almostthree hours before the day's first session - to wait in an autographline that snakes its way to two players each day.
Most fans stick around for both practice sessions.
During the two-hour lull, they're hungry, thirsty and in need of acool place to rest.
Many find it at the Smiling Moose, a restaurant and bar a blockfrom campus, where business increases by more than 35percent with theBroncos in town.
The Moose is popular with fans because it's popular with theBroncos, who never wander far from their dormitory because of astrict curfew.
After dinner and film sessions, they walk to the Moose in groupsto have a few drinks and play pool.
Players attract a crowd, but the Moose is a "no photo/no autographzone."
Signs posted throughout the restaurant warn customers they will beasked to leave if they approach players.
"You can have a normal conversation with a player as long asthey're not being bothered, as long as you don't pull out a pen,"Moose general manager Ed Tucker said.
"The players enjoy having a place where they can just be normalguys, where they can just enjoy themselves without anyone making abig deal over them.
"I'm a huge Broncos fan. I bleed orange and blue. (Linebacker)John Mobley is my hero on the field. But here, he's just another guysitting at a table, eating a chicken sandwich."
Other businesses benefit from the Broncos.
Every year, as players pull up to their UNC dorm in chrome-encrusted SUVs, they're greeted by a local rental center, which has atruck full of big-screen televisions waiting to be unloaded.
The players only rent the TVs, but team officials buy all theheavy equipment provided by Bi-State Machinery;every year about twodozen tractors, lawn mowers and other John Deere vehicles are on theteam's shopping list.
"Our relationship with the Broncos brings us a lot of business,"said Duane Whallin, a company salesman. "We even provide them withsnow blowers for the new stadium."
Greeley is the agricultural capital of northeast Colorado, and thearoma from feed lots on the town's fringe - a thick, musty mix thatseems a combination of manure and three-day-old road kill - is aninfamous side of training camp.
"I'm so tired of coming out here and smelling this cow manureevery day," Broncos linebacker Al Wilson said a year ago although thearoma was milder last summer.
"We used to have a feed lot right on the east side of town, and ifthe wind blew the wrong way and there was rain, yes, you'd get afilter of stockyard coming right into the community," said MacQuiddyof the Convention and Visitors Bureau.
"It's been moved farther out of the city. It's still something youhear periodically, but I think most people realize it's old news.
"I've lived here for so long, I don't even notice it."
- Kamon Simpson may be reached at 636-0215 or ksimpson@gazette.com
BRONCOS TRAINING CAMP
Dates: Practices at 8:45 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. from Thursday throughAug.17 at the University of Northern Colorado. Sessions are free.Vendors sell drinks, but be sure to wear sunscreen because no shadeis available on the practice field. There is a brief autographsession with two players per day after practices.
Practice information: www.DenverBroncos.com or call a recording at(970) 351-1099
DRIVING DIRECTIONS
Approaching Greeley, veer left on Business 85, which becomesEighth Avenue after you go under U.S. Highway 34. Continue on EighthAvenue until 23rd Street. Take a left at 23rd, which leads directlyto the UNC campus.
Greeley's TIME to SHINE/ Broncos bring town to life every summer with training camp
GREELEY - Horace Greeley, former editor of the New York Tribune,coined the phrase, "Go west, young man," nearly 140 years ago.
Tribune agricultural editor Nathan Meeker, who heeded that adviceand founded the town named after his editor, probably didn't go farenough.
Greeley sits just far enough east of the Front Range that it seemsmore a part of western Nebraska than Colorado, a place wheremountains are visible only from the tallest of buildings - of whichthere aren't that many in this town of just more than 76,000 people.
At nearly 2,000 feet lower than Colorado Springs, Greeley oftendoesn't feel like Colorado in the summer when the heat and humiditycombine with a nasty smell to create an atmosphere less thaninviting.
That could be why, for most of the year, Greeley is all butforgotten except by those who live here.
The atmosphere changes for a few weeks in July and August whenGreeley becomes the center of the Colorado sports universe.
Greeley once again is home of the Denver Broncos, who hold theirpreseason training camp at the University of Northern Colorado.
"It's our time to shine," Greeley Mayor Jerry Wones said. "Itbrings so many people here who might not otherwise come to Greeley,so it allows us to show off our town as an up-and-coming communitythat has a lot of things going for it.
"But it's also a big morale boost for local folks, something theymark on their calendars every year. The Broncos have had such apositive impact on us in so many ways."
This is the 21st year the Broncos have made Greeley their homeaway from home. Players report to camp Thursday. Twice-a-daypractices start Friday and continue until training camp breaks Aug.17.
The Broncos, 8-8 last season, open the preseason Aug. 10 atChicago, and the first regular-season game is Sept. 8 at home againstSt. Louis.
"It's hard to keep employees at work when the Broncos are intown," said Sarah MacQuiddy, president of the Greeley Convention andVisitors Bureau.
"People either call in sick or take the morning off to watch apractice. It's definitely the thing to do in town."
When the Broncos take the field for their two-hour, morning andafternoon practice sessions, they're surrounded by thousands of fans.
The largest crowd last year reached 5,000, with no fewer than1,000 showing up for any session.
Not all of those fans are locals.
License plates from Nebraska, Wyoming and Kansas are sprinkledalong the streets.
So are the television satellite trucks, not only from Denvernetwork affiliates but from national networks such as ESPN.
Reporters from Sports Illustrated and USA Today join the averagefans who come for a closer-than-usual look at their favorite team.
"It's such a nice setting to be able to get so close that you canhear the players talking to each other, and you're right there whencoach (Mike) Shanahan yells at them," said Bill Duerre, manager ofthe Best Western Regency Hotel.
The Best Western, Greeley's largest hotel, stays busy duringtraining camp but not as full as it is during the annual IndependenceStampede. That festival in early July, featuring concerts and arodeo, attracted almost a half-million people this year.
"We get people in from Nebraska, some from Wyoming and Kansas, tosee the Broncos while they're on their way to Rocky Mountain NationalPark or Denver," Duerre said.
"The big thing we see during camp are a lot of single-night visitsfrom fans around Colorado, from places like Durango, Grand Junction,Colorado Springs and Pueblo."
Fans come early and stay late.
Hundreds start arriving at the practice field about 6a.m. - almostthree hours before the day's first session - to wait in an autographline that snakes its way to two players each day.
Most fans stick around for both practice sessions.
During the two-hour lull, they're hungry, thirsty and in need of acool place to rest.
Many find it at the Smiling Moose, a restaurant and bar a blockfrom campus, where business increases by more than 35percent with theBroncos in town.
The Moose is popular with fans because it's popular with theBroncos, who never wander far from their dormitory because of astrict curfew.
After dinner and film sessions, they walk to the Moose in groupsto have a few drinks and play pool.
Players attract a crowd, but the Moose is a "no photo/no autographzone."
Signs posted throughout the restaurant warn customers they will beasked to leave if they approach players.
"You can have a normal conversation with a player as long asthey're not being bothered, as long as you don't pull out a pen,"Moose general manager Ed Tucker said.
"The players enjoy having a place where they can just be normalguys, where they can just enjoy themselves without anyone making abig deal over them.
"I'm a huge Broncos fan. I bleed orange and blue. (Linebacker)John Mobley is my hero on the field. But here, he's just another guysitting at a table, eating a chicken sandwich."
Other businesses benefit from the Broncos.
Every year, as players pull up to their UNC dorm in chrome-encrusted SUVs, they're greeted by a local rental center, which has atruck full of big-screen televisions waiting to be unloaded.
The players only rent the TVs, but team officials buy all theheavy equipment provided by Bi-State Machinery;every year about twodozen tractors, lawn mowers and other John Deere vehicles are on theteam's shopping list.
"Our relationship with the Broncos brings us a lot of business,"said Duane Whallin, a company salesman. "We even provide them withsnow blowers for the new stadium."
Greeley is the agricultural capital of northeast Colorado, and thearoma from feed lots on the town's fringe - a thick, musty mix thatseems a combination of manure and three-day-old road kill - is aninfamous side of training camp.
"I'm so tired of coming out here and smelling this cow manureevery day," Broncos linebacker Al Wilson said a year ago although thearoma was milder last summer.
"We used to have a feed lot right on the east side of town, and ifthe wind blew the wrong way and there was rain, yes, you'd get afilter of stockyard coming right into the community," said MacQuiddyof the Convention and Visitors Bureau.
"It's been moved farther out of the city. It's still something youhear periodically, but I think most people realize it's old news.
"I've lived here for so long, I don't even notice it."
- Kamon Simpson may be reached at 636-0215 or ksimpson@gazette.com
BRONCOS TRAINING CAMP
Dates: Practices at 8:45 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. from Thursday throughAug.17 at the University of Northern Colorado. Sessions are free.Vendors sell drinks, but be sure to wear sunscreen because no shadeis available on the practice field. There is a brief autographsession with two players per day after practices.
Practice information: www.DenverBroncos.com or call a recording at(970) 351-1099
DRIVING DIRECTIONS
Approaching Greeley, veer left on Business 85, which becomesEighth Avenue after you go under U.S. Highway 34. Continue on EighthAvenue until 23rd Street. Take a left at 23rd, which leads directlyto the UNC campus.
