Ronnie Bill and Mile High Stadium go back a long way.

Since Oct. 2, 1960, when the Denver Broncos dispatched the Oakland Raiders in their first game at what was then called Bears Stadium, Bill has been to 316 of the 317 professional football games played there. Surgery on a hernia denied him a perfect attendance record.

That's on top of another 1,120 or so Denver Bears games between 1953 and 1968.

Ronnie Bill, 61, cleans Broncos helmets before the game against the Seahawks at Mile High Stadium. Bill has been the assistant equipment manager for the Broncos since 1960.

And yet.

"I'm always missing touchdowns," said Bill, a silver-haired, bespectacled 61-year-old Denver native. "I have to ask people what the score is."

It's not that he can't see or that he can't hear.

It's just that Bill has often been too busy to watch, setting out drinks and orange slices in the locker room just before halftime, working behind the scenes to make sure the stars on the field have all the equipment they need to perform.

A graduate of North High School, Bill went to work for the Denver Bears as a teen-ager at the invitation of his next-door neighbor, who parked cars at the stadium. Bill's father had just died, and the neighbor saw it as a way to get him out of the house.

His career began slowly, working the scoreboard and serving as a ball boy. Later, he was on the grounds crew for the Bears, raking the infield, chalking the foul lines. Still later, he worked in the visiting locker room, unpacking and then packing gear.

In 1960, he joined the newly formed Broncos as a part-time member of the equipment staff. In 1968, he left the Bears and went to work for the Broncos full-time. These days you can find him in the locker room before a game, before halftime, and late in the game, making sure everything's done that needs to be done.

After all those years, after all those games, he cherishes one memory above all others.

"When we went to the first Super Bowl," he said.

It's not his only memory.

There was the time a sideline heater burned a hole in defensive coordinator Joe Collier's polyester pants. Or the time Bill wrestled a football out of the hands of a fan on a cold day, only to recoil in shock when he realized the fan was a girl.

Or the time he had to dig into the gravel drainage system, encountering remnants of the stadium's former life as a city dump.

Now Bill is facing his last game at the stadium where he's spent so much of his life.

"I'm going to just have a funny feeling," he said. "We're not going to come back."

South Stands

Question: What has 16,192 hands and feet, lungs that can fuel a roar a couple hundred decibels strong, orange fingernails and hair, and enough beer to drown a couple of frat houses?

A shirtless Ed Ramsey defies temperatures in the teens during the Dec. 10 game.

Answer: the fans of the South Stands at Mile High Stadium.

In one seat, you've got 26-year-old Ed Ramsey of Denver. It's about 15 degrees during the Seattle game Dec. 10, and the only thing bluer than the Broncos uniforms is Ramsey's skin, bare from the waist up.

"I've been doing it for the last five years," he said proudly, his mustache colored blue and his goatee orange. "You've got to go out and support the team."

Behind him sits Littleton's Roberta Denham, 55 "and proud." A 16-year veteran of Mile High, she's been sitting in her South Stands seat for six years.

"There's enthusiasm here," she said. "People get involved in the game here. There's camaraderie here."

She's interrupted by a scream from down the row. It's her daughter-in-law, Corri Denham, 26, of Buena Vista.

"It's right here in your face," she said of the South Stands. "It's unbelievable."

In another part of the 8,096-seat section sits Ann Joy of Denver, who has had these bleacher seats since 1965.

She was happy to talk about the South Stands.

"Just don't ask me how old I am," she said.

"We love it," she said. "It's been lively."

Not far away is Jeff Larson, 32, of Evergreen. His family has had these same three seats since 1963.

"I was coming here since I was," he said, ending his sentence by holding his hand knee-high.

Then there's Churchill Clark, 36, of Denver, his face painted blue and orange.

"I love the South Stands," he said. "It's one big, happy family. They don't care what you do. You're at a football game."

NFL photographer

When Sam Allen heads to the stadium, he craves two things more than anything else.

More than a close game. More than a raucus crowd.

And he's not particular — if he gets one or the other, that's fine with him.

"You pray for rain," said Allen, a photographer for NFL films. "You pray for snow.

Sam Allen shoots film for the National Football League during the Dec. 10 Broncos game. Allen has been shooting NFL games for 20 years.

"Because you become a hero because you get the shots everybody else misses."

Allen, 54, has been shooting games in Mile High Stadium 28 years, first as a photographer for KUSA-Channel 9, and, since 1980, for NFL Films.

He got his most memorable shot in the stadium five years ago, on a day when his prayers were answered.

It was Oct. 22, 1995. Wet snow swirled. Players fought for footing on the muddy, mucky field.

The Kansas City Chiefs drove deep into Denver territory, heading for the south end zone.

Allen set up beneath the goalpost. The Chiefs ran their play. The first running back ran a fake. Allen, his viewfinder foggy, didn't bite, holding steady on the pile at the line of scrimmage. He instinctively pulled back his view a little bit.

Just then, Marcus Allen came over the mass of blockers and tacklers, scoring his 100th career touchdown.

It wasn't until later that night, on a highlights show, when Allen saw his film and knew, finally, that he'd gotten the shot.

Orange Crush hats

High in the northeast corner of Mile High Stadium, where the wind whistles on a cold Colorado football day, is the seat 74-year-old Bill Webster calls home.

It looks like any other seat in the stadium. But Webster doesn't look like many other fans.

Resting atop his head is a hat. Fashionable it is not.

Crafted out of tin panels cut from Orange Crush cans and knitted together with bright orange yarn, it's a throwback to 1977 and the explosion of love between a city and its football team.

Webster, who lives in Aurora, still wears it to every game.

Beside him is his wife, Shirley. She wouldn't dare wear such a thing in public — for fear that something might happen to it. So her companion hat stays at home on game days.

Regulars at Broncos games for more than 35 years, the Websters fondly remember Denver's first playoff game, on Christmas Eve 1977, when the Broncos beat the Steelers. They not-so-fondly remember the 1984 Green Bay game, when snow swirled so thick they never saw a score.

"I think that's the first time I ever left early," Bill Webster said.

Mostly, they remember great joy from a hundred Sunday afternoons in a concrete and steel structure where their favorite team toiled, first in frustration and later in glory.

Upper-deck duty

Perched atop the upper deck at Mile High Stadium, J.C. Tyus exchanges handshakes and high-fives.

He winks and flashes his wide smile. Gray hair peeks from under his cap.

Denver policeman J.C. Tyus, who works the fifth level at Mile High Stadium during Broncos games, shares his perspective on the game with a fan.

In the 33 years he's been at the stadium, no one has seemed to mind that a gun is always by his side.

After all, Tyus is Detective Tyus of the Denver Police Department.

"Boy, I love this place on game days," a bundled-up Tyus said on a recent Sunday as he attached antennas to police radios and handed them to his fellow officers. "I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing."

Tyus, 57, has voluntarily patrolled Broncos games since 1967 — two years after he joined the department. He's worked the stadium longer than any other current officer in the city.

His Mile High memories are mostly of Beach Boys concerts and crucial football playoff games. In 1977, he led quarterback Craig Morton off the field after Denver defeated the Oakland Raiders to advance to the team's first Super Bowl.

"I run out there and (Morton) turns to me and says, 'My knees are killing me.' So me and another officer pick him off the ground and carry him away. It was one of the best times of my life."

Tyus has been a fixture on the 500 level since the mid-1970s. Broncos fans sitting in sections 510 and 511 consider him a friend.

"I call him once a month and we exchange Christmas cards," said Jeffrey Forman, 37, of Denver, a season-ticket holder for 23 years. "You can't compare J.C. to anyone you've ever met."

And when Mile High is gone, some people in Tyus' section have asked, will he work at the new stadium?

"You bet," he said. "I want the upper deck again."

It's the people

Mile High Stadium is a little like home for Ron Hayden Jr.

Since 1964, he's been to nearly every Broncos home game, planting himself and his wheelchair wherever he can get a clear view.

These days, he's usually decked out in Broncos regalia near the concourse in Section 323, directly behind the north end zone.

From there, he sees everything — and everyone.

"The people here treat me like I'm part of their family," the bearded Hayden said during the Dec. 10 game. "If you stay here for a while, the people really grow on you."

Hayden, 42, was born with only his left leg, which was amputated when he was 5 because it wasn't growing properly.

A few years later, he was at the first of the 250 or so football games he's seen at Mile High.

"It's really incredible how he's always here rooting for his team," said Mike Rawles, 38, of Brekenridge, who joins Hayden at two to three games a year. "He might be the coolest guy I've ever known."

During a game, Hayden will chat with at least 10 people he's never met before.

Security guards, ushers and vendors greet him with a pat on the back or a hug.

And while most fans reflect on games the Broncos won or lost at Mile High, Hayden has a different perspective.

"For those of us who have been here for a long time, our memory is of this place and of the people in it," he said. "You couldn't ask for a better bunch of people."

'Best experience possible for fans'

Kellie Javery works 100 yards from the field at Mile High Stadium, yet she's never seen an entire game.

For 21 years, she has done everything from serving hot dogs to chasing raccoons and cats.

Kellie Javery has worked at Mile High Stadium during Denver Broncos games for more than a decade. She is in charge of beverage services for the ``sky boxes.''

Mile High feels like home.

"Sometimes I say I'm not going to miss it, but I don't really mean it," said Javery, 35, an Aramark Inc. beverage coordinator for luxury suites. "I can't think of my life without this stadium."

For the Dec. 10 game, which started at 2:30 p.m., she arrived from her Thornton home at 9 a.m. and put on some gloves and a jacket. By halftime, she was filling dozens of orders for pop and liquor in a mesh cage with a 7-foot-tall cooler in the back.

She left 10 hours later, after seeing only a few minutes of the game.

Her most vivid memories are of the bitter cold that sometimes sweeps through the building during football games. Her happiest time was during the Colorado Rockies' first season, in 1993.

Javery said her crew put in 14-hour days, sometimes weeks on end. Everything had to be perfect.

"We had to make it the best experience possible for the fans. It ended up being the best experience we've had."

And then there were the times when things weren't so perfect.

In the early '90s, raccoons and vermin hid in the stadium, destroying food and tipping over garbage cans. She found herself chasing wild animals.

"Not fun."

Javery knew the time would come when her stadium would have to go.

She will watch it come tumbling down.

"I'm losing a big part of my life," she said with tears in her eyes. "I need to say goodbye."

One game missed in 28 years

The only thing that could keep Ike Kerley away from his beloved Denver Broncos and Mile High Stadium was a heart attack.

And when it happened in September 1999, Ike, 72, and his wife, Bonnie, 71, missed their first game in 28 years.

The Broncos lost to the Miami Dolphins 38-21.

"I know Ike was pretty upset about not going," said Bonnie. "We got his heart checked out and made it to the next game. It started a whole new streak."

With season ticket No. 6892, the Sedalia couple could get better seats than the ones they have at the corner of the north end zone in section 316, row 16.

But they've never thought about moving since they first sat there in 1981.

The people are too nice, Ike said.

"Bonnie and I love the fans around us," he said. "We're like one big family."

Ike and Bonnie will be in their seats, covered with their Broncos blanket, when the team plays its last regular-season game Friday in Mile High. They know this might be the last time they step foot inside the place where they met many of their closest friends.

"I'll leave with a smile," Bonnie said.