Pat Bowlen

Pat Bowlen, the influential owner of the Denver Broncos, under whose 35-year stewardship the team won all three of its Super Bowl titles, died on Thursday June 13 2019 night at his home in Englewood, Colo. He was 75. Pat Bowlen, who had owned the Broncos since 1984, battling Alzheimer's. Bowlen stepped down as controlling owner of the Broncos in July 2014. The Pat Bowlen Trust -- which is controlled by trustees Joe Ellis, the Broncos’ chief executive officer and president; Rich Slivka, the team’s general counsel, and attorney Mary Kelly -- has been authorized to appoint one of Pat Bowlen’s seven children to become his successor as the Broncos’ principal owner. To earn the right to succeed their father, the child must become qualified according to the criteria written by Bowlen himself before he was afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease, and carried out by his trustees. Mr. Bowlen was the longtime chairman of the owners’ broadcast committee, the league expanded its television footprint to include the wildly successful “Sunday Night Football” in 2006. He also encouraged Fox, then a newcomer in broadcast television, to enter the bidding for a package of games on Sunday. The price paid for the league’s television rights accelerated drastically starting in 1994, the year Fox outbid CBS. Mr. Bowlen also led N.F.L. Enterprises, which includes N.F.L. Films, and he sat on several other powerful committees, including the financial committee, the international committee and the compensation committee, which determines the compensation for the commissioner and other top league executives. Patrick Dennis Bowlen was born on Feb. 18, 1944, in Prairie du Chien, Wis. Mr. Bowlen was sent to boarding school in Wisconsin, where he was a hockey star in high school and played some football. He went to the University of Oklahoma, where he failed to make the cut on the freshman football team. His days as a player were numbered, so he focused on obtaining an undergraduate degree in business and then a law degree. After graduation, he moved to Calgary to practice law. With the oil industry booming, Mr. Bowlen became president of Regent Drilling, a company his father founded. He married Sally Edwards Parker in 1968, and had two daughters, Aime Bowlen Klemmer and Beth Bowlen Wallace. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1973. Mr. Bowlen married his wife Annabel in 1980 and had five more children, Patrick III, Johnny, Brittany, Annabel and Christiana. His wife and children survive him. He landed the Broncos with the help of his three siblings when he bought 60 percent of the team from Edgar F. Kaiser Jr., who had paid less than half that amount for the team in 1981. Over time, Mr. Bowlen would buy out the minority shareholders who owned the remaining 40 percent, as well as two of his three siblings: his sister, Mary, and his brother, Bill. John Bowlen still holds 25 percent of the team. While the ownership tussle is worked out, the team continues to be run by Joe Ellis, the team’s president, and John Elway, the vice president of player personnel.