From Adams Street to the Super Bowl

The Rock catches up with NFL retiree Ron Egloff

By Brad Emons

Ron Egloff looks back fondly upon his eightyear NFL career, which included an appearance as a rookie tight end with the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XII. For the Plymouth native, the memories still resonate and are cherished forever.

Egloff grew up three houses off the tennis courts on Adams Street, just a stone’s throw from old Plymouth High School, which is now the PARC (Plymouth Arts & Recreation Complex). The youngest of four brothers, he was indoctrinated in sports as a youth.

“My younger days – just remembering Adams Street and all the guys that grew up on Adams Street and everybody was playing sports,” said Egloff, who has called Denver his home since his NFL playing days ended in 1984. “In the summer time, everybody was out on the baseball fields playing pick-up games. We had all those facilities right in our own backyard. “I just remember that growing up – all the memories of the Adams Street gang they called us, all the guys from Adams Street and the neighborhoods surrounding,” he continued.

Egloff attended old Plymouth High School as a sophomore before moving over to the newly constructed Salem High where he was part of the school’s second graduating class (1973). He was a standout in football (first-team All-State) and basketball. In 2016, Egloff returned to his alma mater with his wife Julee to be inducted into the Salem Athletic Hall of Fame.

“At the high school we had a group of us guys that hung out together all the time,” he said. “Some of these guys aren’t with us anymore. We just had a great group of guys that we all played sports and we all hung out. Really good buddies, lost a few of them and fortunate enough to keep in contact with a few of the others.”

BADGERS COME CALLING

Egloff earned a football scholarship to the University of Wisconsin from coach John Jardine where he was used primarily as a blocking tight end. He appeared in 33 total games for the Badgers catching a total of 29 passes for 395 yards. As a senior he had 20 receptions for 308 yards and four TDs.

Before he signed with Wisconsin, Egloff vividly remembers the day Michigan coach Bob Schembechler made a recruiting visit to Salem, only to learn that Egloff was not around.

“They had just opened a McDonald’s in Plymouth, down on Ann Arbor Road,” Egloff recalled. “Me and a couple of buddies went down and had lunch, and I get back from having lunch and they said, ‘Schembechler was here to see you.’ I said, ‘Whatever, sure.’ And they said, ‘Yeah, he was.’ He and (assistant coach) Bill McCartney came by. Bill became coach at the University of Colorado and I would see him sometimes after that.”

Egloff recalls Bo “making some comments” that resonated with Egloff during his recruiting visit.

“Bo made an honest mistake in conversation,” Egloff recalled. “He kind of said, ‘Yeah, we’re really excited about you coming to Michigan. You’ll be the third tight end we brought in this year.’ And I was like, ‘Well, I’m number three. Geez, I don’t want to be number three. I want to play,’ and so I’ll always remember that.”

Wisconsin athletic director Elroy “Crazylegs” Hirsch was in Egloff’s living room twice making a counter pitch.

“His biggest sell to me was that ‘you’ll be able to play when you’re a sophomore,’” Egloff said.

On his recruiting visit, Egloff was impressed by the whole atmosphere in Madison which was remembered for eating dinner at a big steakhouse highlighted by a huge ribeye.

“I went to a hockey game Friday and Saturday night,” Egloff said. “Back then they were number one in the nation…just the school spirit, and I just said, ‘Man, that’s where I’m going to go.’”

Egloff usually tries to catch a Wisconsin game every year and stays connected as a football alum and loyal fan following his four seasons (1973-76) with the Badgers.

HEAD WEST YOUNG MAN

After suffering a knee injury during the offseason before his senior year, the 6-foot-5, 227-pound Egloff was not up on many NFL draft boards even though he played in the BlueGray and All-American bowl games.

“I wasn’t the fastest guy in the world to begin with, and blowing out a knee back then… and surgeries certainly different then they are now,” he said. “And, of course, not a very good rehab program to get you back. The goal now is to get you back better than before you had the surgery. Back then it was a little different.

“I don’t think I was anybody they wanted to take a chance drafting me, so I basically had two choices–one was the Atlanta Falcons and one was the Denver Broncos. I had never been out west, never been west of the Mississippi–and I said, ‘Let me go to Denver, see what that is all about,’ and glad I did.”

Signed as a free agent in 1977, Egloff made the cut and went on to play seven seasons in Denver through 1983 where he started 25 of his 93 games as a tight end catching 64 passes for 747 yards and four touchdowns, including a memorable fourth-quarter gamewinner from Steve DeBerg in a season-opening 14-10 victory at Pittsburgh in 1983.

Some of his teammates during Egloff’s time in Denver included Hall of Famer John Elway, Lyle Alzado and Tom Jackson.

But his rookie season (1977) was most memorable–to say the least–as the Broncos captured the AFC Championship and appeared in their first Super Bowl in New Orleans losing 2710 to Dallas.

Super Bowl XII, which was played in January of 1978 at the Louisiana Superdome, turned out to be a no-frills event.

“What a circus it is now, it’s night and day,” Egloff said. “We practiced at the old Tulane Stadium and it was being torn up. We got half the field to practice with. We stayed at the Sheraton, out by the airport, and we had to literally take yellow school buses. We had to put our practice gear on in our hotel room because the Tulane Stadium didn’t have showers, nothing was working.

“We had to get on a yellow school bus with our pads on to the practices and shower at our hotel room. There were cock roaches at the hotel. It was just totally different. We didn’t make near the money that they are making now. The Super Bowl has come a long way.”

After retiring from the NFL, Egloff returned to Denver and was a partner in the restaurant chain Jackson Hole Sports Grill for 20 years.

“We had 10 locations in the Denver metro area,” he said. “The last one we built was right across the street from Coors Field, right across the home plate entrance. That was our last one I was involved in. Twenty years was enough for me and I got out.”

After leaving the restaurant business, No. 85 has worked as a recruiter for Colorado Mortgage Holding and also as a community liaison and marketer for 24/7 Home Health Care.

Now 65, Egloff said he may retire next year and take Social Security, but for now he still enjoys working.

“Doing some marketing here and there, slowing it down pretty good, just kind of staying busy,” he said. “Got this guy I’ve been working with for almost 20 years now with the mortgage business and also home health care. I think I’ll completely shut it down next year.

“We like to travel so much. We like to go somewhere once a month. It’s kind of a good mix. I get to call my own hours, do what I need to do and yet I can say I’m still working a little bit.”

Egloff remains highly active with the Broncos Alumni Association where he serves on the board as the secretary of its 16-member council.

“We do a ton in the community helping out different causes going to as many charity events as we can,” Egloff said. “We’re at every home game. We’re signing autographs everywhere. The biggest event we run is our annual golf tournament, which last year we had to put on hold. It’s always the first Monday in June. We’re going to have to see if we’ll have it in 2021. It’s our biggest fundraising event of year. I’m the co-chair of the golf committee with Mike Harden. We played together. He played at Michigan, he’s a Detroit guy. He came a few years after me. We’re pretty good buddies. We take care of folks and do things that need to be done.”

INJURIES TAKE TOLL

Like many NFL players, Egloff had his share of injuries during his eight years of professional football. And it took a toll.

“I was pretty beat up to be honest with you,” Egloff said. “Hard to walk, hard to get out of bed. It was becoming increasingly difficult.”

Egloff then became a patient and spokesperson for the Premier Stem Cell Institute.

“I had stem cell injections in both knees, right hip, my shoulders, my neck and my lower back,” he said. “That was about six years ago. I guarantee that saved me. I was able to go play golf again. It really took care of the pain and the conditions I was having. The pain is not near as bad as it was.”

Egloff has strong opinions about what the NFL is doing and not doing financially to help out its former players with its pension plan, which is tied to the collective bargaining agreement.

“For me, the pension is key,” the former tight end said. “It allows you to retire when you feel like it, if you played enough years. Some guys had to take their pension early and it’s not near as much, so they have to keep working. The thing that is disappointing to me is that they sign these collective bargaining agreements now 10 years apart. So, the next one doesn’t come up for another 10 years. I’ll be 75 years old then, if I’m still around. They used to sign them every five years…but the last one they did it for 10 years so these guys are stuck with their situation for the next 10 years.”

Some former NFL players have dementia while others are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, not to mention CTE.

“Slowly, but surely they’re trying to get programs in place, but it’s been a long time coming,” Egloff said. “These poor guys that played before me – they don’t have anything. Two hundred former players die every year. And a lot of those guys are guys that pioneered the game. They paved the way for the success these guys are having now.”

Egloff would like to see the modern day players give a little more to help their former brethren.

“A lot of these guys that are playing now – you just shake your head,” he said. “You just wonder what is wrong with these guys? They’re just so money hungry and so spoiled with their training camps so to speak…they don’t have training camp. Back when I played, we had six weeks of two-a-days in full pads. And we played six preseason games. They’re so well protected now, so the league has done that and tried to protect players, which we didn’t have any of that. It’s slowly coming along, but it’s too little and too late for some guys.”

CONTENT IN DENVER

Ron and his wife Julee raised three sons, including his oldest Dayton, middle son Adam and youngest Elliott.

“We have a Jimmy John’s in Montrose, Colorado with our oldest son and his wife. We drive over there like once a month to stay there and see my (2-year-old) granddaughter, check on Jimmy John’s and see if everything is good,” he said.

Although Adams Street and Plymouth remain as his roots, Denver is where he plans to stay.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Egloff said. “This is where I made my name and this is where we make our home and our family. We live in a high-rise condo in downtown Denver, which we love, it’s like living at a resort and that’s what we wanted. And anything is a plane ride away… we’re not moving anywhere. We’re going to stay right here.”