Lionel Taylor, an original player for the Broncos and a member of the team\u2019s Ring of Fame, died on Aug. 6, the team announced Wednesday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was 89.<\/p>\n
Taylor was part of the 1960 Broncos squad, which was the first to play in the newly formed AFL.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was also a two-time Super Bowl-winning wide receiver coach with the Steelers in the 1970s under head coach Chuck Noll.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Taylor was the first receiver \u2014 in the NFL or AFL \u2014 to record at least 100 receptions in a single season and ended his seven campaigns with the Broncos as their record holder in receptions (543), receiving yards (6,872) and touchdown catches (44).<\/p>\n
Lionel Taylor (87) was an original member of the Denver Broncos. Bettmann Archive<\/p>\n
The first two records stood for more than 30 years, and he remains in the franchise\u2019s top five in receptions, receiving yards and touchdown receptions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are saddened to learn of the passing of #BroncosROF wide receiver Lionel Taylor,\u201d the Broncos said in a post on X. \u201cAn original Bronco and one of the most dominant players of his era, Taylor had a tremendous impact on the franchise during his seven seasons in Denver (1960-66). Our hearts go out to Taylor\u2019s family and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
He started his football career with the Bears \u2014 originally as a linebacker \u2014 before going on to spend seven seasons in Denver and switching to the offensive side.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lionel Taylor is in the Broncos\u2019 Ring of Honor. Denver Post via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Lionel Taylor in February 1970. Denver Post via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Taylor retired from football after the 1968 season, following two years with the Houston Oilers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a guy [who had] hands like vice grips,\u201d AFL historian and author Dave Steidel said, per the Broncos\u2019 website. \u201cIf a pass was near him, he was getting it. He caught double-digit passes [per game]. Nobody was catching 10, 11, 12 in a game back then in either league.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taylor was inducted into the Broncos Ring of Fame in 1984.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lionel Taylor, an original player for the Broncos and a member of the team\u2019s Ring of Fame, died…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,53168,1256,593,31481,1241,85],"class_list":["post-66828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-deaths","tag-denver-broncos","tag-nfl","tag-obituaries","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}