Trigger Bucky Bronco Empower Field

Denver, Colorado, United States

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Public art

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

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Bucky the Bronco is a 27-foot, 1,600-pound fiberglass rearing horse that the Broncos and the Gazette reported back on the scoreboard at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver in May 2023. Jim and Mildred Rorie of Fiberglass Menagerie made it in 1974 to 1975 from the mold of a Trigger tribute; it was restored and returned that month.

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Trigger Bucky Bronco Empower Field

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Site-level location · 39.7439° N, 105.0201° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

A white fiberglass horse has reared above Denver's football stadium since 1975 (with a break for restoration in 2023), and it began life as a tribute to a movie star's horse.

Bucky the Bronco was made by Jim and Mildred Rorie, who ran Fiberglass Menagerie in Alpine, California, and built oversized figures from 1962 to 1985. In the mid-1960s Western star Roy Rogers commissioned them to make a tribute to his palomino, Trigger, and they made a mold. According to the Denver Broncos, Denver approved a bond in 1974 to expand Mile High Stadium and its scoreboard; the scoreboard's builder, Stewart-Warner, apparently wanted a distinctive element and called the Rories, who reused the mold. The team cites a 1993 Rocky Mountain News article saying Rogers agreed on the condition that the new horse not be called Trigger. Mildred Rorie told The Denver Post in 1997 that the mold was destroyed afterward.

The Broncos give the finished horse as 27 feet tall and 1,600 pounds. Jim Rorie drove it about 1,000 miles to Denver, and it was in place by the summer of 1975. In 2023 restorers found San Diego Union pages dated November 15, 1974 tucked in its hooves.

The name is less settled. A local radio station ran a naming contest in September 1975, and the Denver Post later quoted one of its judges as saying the winning entry was Bucko, not Bucky. A stadium-district spokesman said in 2001 that they were sticking with Bucky, with Bucko likely used as a nickname.

Bucky came down by crane in January 2023 so the scoreboard could be enlarged, was restored by a Broomfield sign company and its subcontractors, who added a fiberglass layer to double its original thickness, and went back up in May 2023. With the taller scoreboard, the Broncos said in May 2023 that he stands 161 feet above the field.

Bucky was reported atop the scoreboard of a stadium that hosts events in 2023, so check the venue's rules before planning a visit.

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PRACTICAL

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WHAT TO EXPECT

In May 2023 the Broncos and the Gazette reported Bucky back on the scoreboard above the south side of the stadium.

ACCESS

Reported mounted on the scoreboard at Empower Field at Mile High, Denver, in May 2023; the stadium hosts events. Check the stadium's event and parking rules before visiting.

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WHAT'S NEXT

Find another Big Thing nearby

A 40-foot blue bear sculpture, officially titled "I See What You Mean", peers through the glass windows of the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. Lawrence Argent's fibreglass-over-steel work was installed in 2005, according to Visit Denver, which calls it an unofficial city mascot.

Public art

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1.8 km away

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