ENGLEWOOD – About 24 hours after he called offensive plays for the Broncos in their Monday night game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Bill Musgrave took off on a 4-hour drive to Grand Junction to say goodbye to the greatest man he had ever known.
Terry Musgrave -- a former high school basketball star and a longtime optometrist who improved the vision of thousands of men, women and children in Grand Junction and its surrounding area -- was in hospice after a year-long battle with cancer.
Terry’s oldest son Bill took off driving toward the Western Slope after he had finished putting together the Broncos’ game plan with his offensive coaches for their contest this Sunday against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
Bill arrived at his dad’s bedside about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. He stayed a little more than hour, then got back to his Denver-area home about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday.
His father passed a few hours later. Bill was back at work with the Broncos.
“It really hasn’t hit me, yet,’’ Musgrave said following practice Thursday. “I guess it’ll sink in at some point down the road. It was nice to hold his hand one more time.’’
Terry Musgrave, 78, grew up in Decatur, Ill. and was a fraternity brother of Jerry Colangelo at the University of Illinois where they were teammates on the freshman basketball team.
After his freshman year, Terry Musgrave decided to return home to finish his college degree at Millikin University, then went to optometry school in Chicago before serving in the Air Force.
Terry and his wife Mary Day moved to Grand Junction in 1964. Their future Gold Helmet award winner as Colorado’s top high school football player was born in 1967 and another son, Doug, came along three years later.
“They’ve been in Grand Junction for 54 years,’’ Bill said as tears welled. “He loved helping people correct their vision. He loved checking eyeballs. He enjoyed working with young people.’’
Dad was Bill’s coach in Little League baseball and Pee Wee basketball.
“Basketball was his sport,’’ Bill said. “He enjoyed coaching us kids aged anywhere from 8 to 14 before we got into high school.’’
Bill Musgrave said it’s helped that his job as offensive coordinator has kept him busy. In his 20th season as an NFL offensive coordinator or quarterbacks coach, Musgrave is known as one of the best offensive play designers in the league.
He will call plays for quarterback Case Keenum and the Broncos offense from the coaches’ box Sunday in the Meadowlands. He will attend his father’s services Monday in Grand Junction.
Then it will be on to game-planning for the following week’s game against the Los Angeles Rams.
