The Broncos won’t have to wear an “18” patch Sunday to honor the franchise’s first quarterback.
The No. 18 will be displayed prominently and proudly on the jersey of the Broncos’ current quarterback. Peyton Manning is a living tribute to Frank Tripucka, who rested in peace Thursday at his home just 10 miles west of MetLife Stadium.
Old quarterbacks don’t die; they just pass on and on and on.
Peyton’s dad, Archie, was born the same year, 1949, that Frank played his first NFL game for the Detroit Lions. Tripucka would win that season at New York City’s Polo Grounds against the Giants and famed Charlie Conerly, one of Archie’s and son Eli’s predecessors at quarterback for Ole Miss.
Like Peyton, Frank made his own football comeback with the Broncos in 1960 — throwing the first touchdown pass in the new AFL (in the inaugural Friday night game) — and becoming the first pro quarterback to throw for more than 3,000 yards in one season. Last year, in his return, Peyton Manning threw for 4,659 yards.
Frank’s last start in New York was 51 years ago this month in a 32-10 victory over the Titans (now Jets). In the second half, Frank dislocated the thumb on his right hand as the Broncos reached the 1-yard line. In the huddle, he jerked the thumb into place, took the snap and busted in for a touchdown.
Frank once threw for 492 yards — and also had five TD passes in a game.
Peyton threw for 462 yards and seven touchdowns in the Broncos’ season opener.
Without Peyton, the Broncos wouldn’t be Super Bowl favorites.
“Without Frank, there wouldn’t have been Broncos,” his favorite receiver, Lionel Taylor, said long ago.
At Bloomfield (N.J.) High School, Tripucka was a legendary athlete, earning all-state honors in football and baseball. The 6-foot-2, 172-pound Tripucka, nicknamed “Paul Bunyan,” threw for 15 touchdowns and rushed for 14 in leading Bloomfield to the state championship.
He chose Notre Dame, even though the Irish already had future Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Lujack. Frank didn’t start until his senior season. The Irish finished 9-0-1 and No. 2 in the country, and Tripucka was an All-American and a first-round draft pick.
Years later, Notre Dame heavily recruited Peyton Manning, but wasn’t alone.
“We had a file cabinet full of letters from schools offering Peyton a scholarship,” his coach at New Orleans’ Isidore Newman High, Tony Reginelli, told me by phone Saturday. “We put them in alphabet order — from A for Alabama to W for Wyoming. But the decision came down to two — his dad’s college and Tennessee. He asked my opinion, but I wasn’t about to say. All I knew was whatever school got him was getting the best there was. Those Ole Miss folks sure were mad, but Eli going there sort of helped make up for it.”
Reginelli retired after Peyton’s senior season. He said, “Seemed like it made sense to go out at the same time, and let someone else get the chance to coach his kid brother.”
When he watches Manning Bowl III on Sunday, Reginelli will “cheer for whichever’s on the field” and “I’ll be wearing my Newman coaching cap for both.”
At 79, Reginelli is old enough to remember Frank Tripucka.
“I used to watch those (NFL) games on a 4-inch screen with a snowy picture. My daughter’s got one of those big flat-screens I can watch the boys play on. (Tripucka) was one of those great passers, too. My sympathy for him. I’m facing fourth-and-1 myself.”
The majority of Broncos fans aren’t old enough to have seen Tripucka play at Bears Stadium. He could pass. Frank had a 96-yard touchdown (second-longest in Broncos history).
Most only know of one 18 — Manning — because the number was retired in respect to Tripucka. But when Manning, No. 18 with the Colts, joined the Broncos, and the two talked, Tripucka said he “would be honored” if Manning unretired his number for a while. Manning, a quarterback historian, told me he “really appreciated that significant gesture.”
The hope had been for Peyton and Frank — who suffered with Alzheimer’s for years — to meet, appropriately, at the Broncos-Giants game Sunday and be photographed wearing their 18 jerseys.
Sadly, the “young” No. 18 must carry the torch for and the memory of ol’ No. 18 on his jersey and in his thoughts Sunday.
The Broncos must win one for Frank.
Woody Paige: wpaige@denverpost.com or twitter.com/woodypaige
