The run on Denver Broncos Ring of Famers continue again today with the 48th greatest Bronco of all-time: Gene Mingo.
We’re moving through Mile High Report’s Top 50 Denver Broncos of all-time quickly and already hitting our 48th greatest Bronco here today with Gene Mingo.
Gene Mingo was a halfback, placekicker, and return specialist for the Broncos from 1960-1964. Mingo’s incredible AFL story went from high school dropout to joining the Navy without ever playing football in between. He read in the local newspaper that the newly organized Broncos franchise had signed a recruit out of the Army, so he wrote a letter.
After three years with the Navy, Gene moved back to Akron and got a job at the Goodyear plant where his mother and father had once worked. He figured his football days were over. But, one day in 1960, Gene was reading the paper.
“As good as I could read,” he says. “And I saw that the American Football League was being formed. And there was a player out of Fort Carson Army base that had signed with the Broncos.”
Gene figured that if an Army player could make the Denver Broncos, so could he. So he decided to write a letter to Broncos general manager, Dean Griffing. He spent a long time on it — looking up words in the dictionary and getting help from his older sister.
He sent his letter to the Denver Broncos, and then he waited.
Gene didn’t have to wait long. The AFL was in direct competition with the NFL for players. AFL teams were desperate to sign anyone with experience. Griffing responded personally.
“He sent me a contract for, ah, $6,500. That was in 1960,” Gene says. “I signed it right quick. I didn’t know that I was going to make history a little later on.”
His entire story was one of chance. Those chances led to kicking extra points and field goals, then to returning kickoffs and punts, and ultimately as the teams running back. He would go on to win the first ever AFL game with a punt return for a touchdown to lift the Broncos over the Boston Patriots, 13-10.
In one game, he threw a 50-yard bomb to Lionel Taylor and would kick the extra point right after. He led the AFL in points in both 1960 and 1962, earning All-Star honors in both seasons.
He would leave the Broncos after 1964, playing for the Oakland Raiders, Miami Dolphins, Washington Redskins, and Pittsburgh Steelers before retiring in 1970. He was finally inducted into the Denver Broncos Ring of Fame in 2017.