Woody Paige: Broncos' Hall of Fame candidate Randy Gradishar will always be the 'Orange Crusher'

FILE - In this Oct. 31, 1976, file photo, Oakland Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler looks for room under pressure from Denver Broncos linebacker Randy Gradishar during an NFL football game in Oakland, Calif. Stabler, who led the Raiders to a Super Bowl victory and was the NFL's Most Valuable Player in 1974, has died as a result of complications from colon cancer. He was 69. His family announced his death on Stabler's Facebook page on Thursday, July 9, 2015. (AP Photo/Jim Palmer. File)

While writing this column I’m enjoying a drink.

Orange Crush.

In 1906, J.M. Thompson of Chicago was credited with creating a soda he called “Orange Crush," but it didn’t sell. For four years Los Angeles chemist Neil Callen Ward, who had lost an eye in an explosion, upgraded the formula and mixed ingredients, flavors, sugar and orange peels into a perfected process that was introduced nationally as "Ward’s Orange Crush."

In 1976, I nicknamed the Denver Broncos' “Orange Crush’’ during the season after brilliant defensive coordinator Joe Collier changed the alignment from the 4-3 (four linemen) to the 3-4 (four linebackers) and adopted the philosophy that the Broncos would give up 17 or fewer points in every game. The Broncos allowed exactly 17 in the opening game at Cincinnati, then 3, 13, 0, 17, 17, 26, 19, 13, 0, 13, 38 (at New England), 16 and 14 for a total in 14 games of 206 points — a 14.7 average.

The next regular season the moniker caught on in Colorado, then nationally, after the Broncos shut out the St. Louis Cardinals (and offensive genius coach Don Coryell, who has just been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame) in the first game, 7-0, with new head coach Red Miller. The defense then permitted just 6, 13, 7, 7, 13, 24 (against the Raiders), 7, 14, 7, 13, 14, 9 and 14 (to the Cowboys, who would defeat the Broncos in their first Super Bowl). Collier’s cry to his defense succeeded in 13 of 14 games, and opponents scored only 148 points (a per-game average of 10.6).

The Broncos beat the Steelers in the franchise’s first playoff game ever 34-21, then held the Raiders to 17 points in the AFC Championship before bowing to the Boys’ 27-10 in the New Orleans Superdome. Afterward, Cowboys defensive lineman Harvey Martin crushed an Orange Crush can on his forehead.

A season later, the “Orange Crush’’ surrendered only 198 points in the NFL’s first 16-game regular-season schedule (12.4 points per), and the beverage company released a special set of 32 cans featuring Broncos players. The Broncos organization copyrighted “Orange Crush Defense."

In three years (1976-78) the Broncos had given up 552 points (12.5 per) and were in the NFL galaxy with the Dallas Doomsday I and II defenses, the Pittsburgh Steel Curtain defenses, the Fearsome Foursome of the Rams, the Purple People Eaters of the Vikings and the No-Name Dolphins defense.

Even the Broncos of the Super Bowl-winning seasons of 1997-98 and the Super Bowl 50 victory, with the “No Fly Zone" defense, never eclipsed the original Orange Crush, which had its beginnings in 1973 when the Broncos finished with a winning record for the first time in franchise history with defensive players Lyle Alzado, Barney Chavous, Paul Smith, Tom Jackson and Billy Thompson.

That team of 50 years ago is being celebrated by the current Broncos this week, and many of the players were at the team’s training camp practice Tuesday and recognized in coach Sean Payton’s press conference.

The late John Ralston wasn’t a sensational coach, but he was the team’s best general manager ever with his drafting skills. He was without both jobs after the ’76 season over a veteran players’ “Mutiny On The Broncos."

Yet, in 1974 he had selected Ohio State middle linebacker Randy Gradishar in the first round, and before and by 1977 the defense also included Rubin Carter, John Grant, Bob Swenson, Joe Rizzo, Steve Foley, Bernard Jackson and No. 1 pick Louis Wright.

Gradishar became the heart and T.J. (Tom Jackson) the soul of the Orange Crush.

Famed eminent nicknamed defenses in Miami, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Minnesota and other cities have multiple players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

But none from Denver and the Orange Crush.

In 2003, as a member of the Hall’s selection committee, I pulled every political ploy to get Gradishar to the finalist list, then in the voting meeting, pleaded for his approval to represent the Broncos (who had no player in Canton, Ohio) of all time and especially one of the league’s premier defenses of the 1970s-80s. Randy’s inclusion indefensibly fell just short, just as it has three more times.

We must hope 20 years after he first deservedly belonged in the Hall of Fame in the state where he was born and played high school and college football, and where he once returned an interception 93 yards against the Browns in old Cleveland Stadium for a Broncos’ record, the obtrusive omission should have been rectified in balloting Tuesday by the senior committee, whose choice will be announced Wednesday.

Randy Gradishar always will be the Orange Crusher.

Woody Paige has been a sports and general columnist in Colorado with the Rocky Mountain News, The Denver Post, The Colorado Springs Gazette and The Denver Gazette since 1974. He has been a commentator for the ESPN network on six different shows for 20 years. woody[email protected]

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