Timeline 25: Remembering the biggest Colorado sports stories of 1996

The first major professional championship in the history of Denver sports highlighted a year that featured good, bad, controversy and more

BY JAMES MERILATT

May 7, 2020, 6:25 AM Updated: 6:54 am

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On March 6, 1995, The Fan was born. In the 25 years since, a lot has transpired on the fields, courts and ice in Colorado, giving the hosts and listeners who’ve been part of the station during that time plenty to talk about and debate.

During the course of the next few weeks, we’ll take a look back at that history, remembering the good times and the bad, the winners and the losers, the successes and the failures. It’s a series we’re calling “Timeline 25” and it continues today with a look back at a very memorable year in Colorado sports – 1996:

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Title Town

The Broncos played their first season in 1960. They had never won a championship. The Nuggets started play in 1967. They also hadn’t won a title. And during their first three years of existence, the Rockies hadn’t won it all, either.

That’s 68 combined years of play by those three franchises without a major professional sports champion being crowned in the Mile High City. Throw in the six years in which the original Colorado Rockies were a laughingstock in the NHL and the total nearly reaches three-quarters of a century without a title.

The streak finally ended in 1996, however, when the Avalanche hoisted the Stanley Cup. In just their first season in Colorado, they reached the pinnacle, bringing unbridled joy to long-suffering sports fans throughout the Rocky Mountain region.

They did it by finishing the regular season with a 47-25-10 record, good enough for first place in the Pacific Division and the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. They scored 326 goals, the second-most in the NHL. When that firepower was coupled with the addition of goaltender Patrick Roy, Colorado was an immediate contender.

In the postseason, the Avalanche took six games to dispose of Vancouver, Chicago and then Detroit, establishing a rivalry with the Red Wings that would continue for the next decade. And then in the Stanley Cup Finals, Colorado swept Florida in four games.

When Uwe Krupp found the back of the net in triple overtime to give the Avs a 1-0 win in Game 4, the celebration began. In the wee hours of the night, Monday, June 10 turned into a party.

For the first time ever, a pro sports team in Colorado had won a championship!

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The Start of a Mini-Dynasty

The season would end in heartbreaking fashion (see next week’s recap of 1997), but that doesn’t mean it was meaningless. Quite the contrary.

In reality, the Broncos 1996 campaign became the springboard for their back-to-back championship seasons that would follow. The way it came to a disappointing finish provided the motivation that would drive the players, coaches and front office the next two seasons. But the positives also served as a catalyst, as it proved that Denver was among the elite teams in the league.

Gone were the days of 7-9, 8-8 or 9-7. In just the second year under head coach Mike Shanahan, the Broncos had turned into a dominant football team.

They started the season 12-1, with their only loss coming in a 17-14 setback at Kansas City, and had nine players selected to the Pro Bowl. By December 1, Denver had already clinched home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs.

And that was part of the problem. The Broncos had a month to kill, playing out the string in three meaningless games, trying to keep their edge and not get anyone hurt at the same time.

Ultimately, they went 1-2 down the stretch, losing at Green Bay and at San Diego. Those L’s didn’t mean anything in terms of the standings, but they were important. When coupled with a bye week before the Divisional Playoffs, they were part of a five-week gap between games that counted for the Broncos, a layoff that ultimately proved to derail their season.

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Taking an Unpopular Stand

The Nuggets 1995-96 season wasn’t going well. They got off to an 0-6 start, digging a hole from which they could never dig out. By early March, they were 26-35 after a home loss to the Nets.

What happened on the floor against New Jersey wasn’t the biggest story that emerged from that game. It was the start of a controversy that would become news from coast to coast.

Prior to the game, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf didn’t stand during the playing of the national anthem. As “The Star-Spangled Banner” was sung, the Nuggets guard sat quietly on the bench.

When asked why he didn’t stand, Abdul-Rauf told reporters that he believed the flag to be a symbol of oppression and represented a long history of tyranny by the United States. Not surprisingly, this didn’t go over very well with a lot of the public.

Forced to react, the NBA suspended the Nuggets guard on March 12. He missed one game before a compromise was reached; Abdul-Rauf would stand for the anthem, but he’d close his eyes and look downward.

That solution didn’t appease anyone. Both sides of the argument remained upset and Abdul-Rauf was a lightning rod in every arena Denver visited.

Looking to rid themselves of the controversy, the Nuggets traded the guard to the Kings at the end of the season. One of the best pure shooters in the history of the league, a player who had Steph Curry-like skills in a day and age when they weren’t as easy to display on a nightly basis, was shipped out of town for Sarunas Marciulionis and a second-round pick.

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The End of Mt. Mutombo

During his five seasons with the Nuggets, Dikembe Mutombo was the face of the franchise. The popular center helped Denver go from one of the worst teams in the league to respectable, including a pair of playoff appearances.

Individually, he was very productive. During those five campaigns, Mutombo averaged 12.9 points, 12.3 rebounds and 3.8 blocks, becoming one of the best big men in the game. He was selected to three NBA All-Star teams and won the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award in 1995.

For some reason, however, Denver let him leave prior to the start of the 1996-97 season via free agency. Mutombo signed a five-year, $55 million contract with Atlanta, as the Nuggets got nothing in return for one of the best players in franchise history.

It was a colossally bad decision by the front office. During the next three seasons, Denver would post records of 21-61, 11-71 and 14-36, the worst stretch in franchise history. They wouldn’t return to the postseason until 2003-04, Carmelo Anthony’s rookie year.

Meanwhile, Mutombo would lead the Hawks to records of 56-26, 50-31 and 31-19 during his first three seasons in Atlanta, reaching the playoffs in each campaign. In addition, the center would win three more NBA Defensive Player of the Year awards after leaving Denver (1997, 1998 and 2001).

In the history of professional sports in Denver, the decision to let Dikembe Mutombo walk in exchange for nothing in return remains one of the worst ever made. Ultimately, it cost general manager / head coach Bernie Bickerstaff his job, and rightfully so.

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Nomo Throws a No-No

Coors Field has always been a hitter-friendly park. But in 1996, it was an especially tough place to pitch.

That year, the Rockies and visiting teams combined to post a 7.06 ERA at the stadium. That’s the highest single-season ERA for any ballpark in the history of Major League Baseball.

This fact is what makes what Hideo Nomo did on a cold, damp September evening even more amazing. Facing a Colorado lineup that led all of baseball in home batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, hits, doubles, triples, home runs, runs scored and stolen bases, the Dodgers pitcher managed to pitch the only no-hitter in the history of Coors Field.

That night, Nomo threw just 110 pitches, striking out eight and walking four hitters en route to the only shutout and complete game pitched at the ballpark that season. Officially, attendance for the game was 50,066. But due to the rain delay and 46-degree temperature at first pitch, significantly fewer than that were actually in the building to witness the best pitching performance in the history of Coors Field.