Mike Pritchard leaving Las Vegas to pursue football analyst gigs

He was one of the stars of Colorado’s 1990 national championship football team, and caught 422 passes in the pros with the Atlanta Falcons, Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks, for 5,187 yards and 26 touchdowns.

One could look all of this up.

In fact, one would have to look it up, because Mike Pritchard never would mention any of it.

“Mike is by far the most humble of pro athletes I have ever met,” said the Review-Journal’s Ed Graney, who hosted a sports talk show on ESPN 1100 Las Vegas with Pritchard. “All you need to do is see the pride and joy in his face when talking about his family and you realize the type of man he is. I respect him as much or more than anyone I have ever met in our business.”

Friday was Pritchard’s last day on the air here, either as a talk show host or UNLV football analyst. He’s moving back to the Denver area to pursue opportunities as an NFL and Power 5 conference analyst.

“One thing I’ve always been interested in over the years is challenging myself, and just seeing how far I can go,” the unassuming Rancho High grad told his listeners. “Vegas is home and it always will be home. But for me, it’s just how far can I go with this.”

If I have a favorite Mike Pritchard story, it was chatting with him for a column about the famous Fifth Down Game against Missouri during Colorado’s national championship season. On Oct. 6, 1990, the Buffaloes beat the Tigers 33-31 at Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri, when the referees lost track of the downs, and Colorado scored the game-winning touchdown on what later was revealed to be fifth down.

Does anybody really know what down it is? Does anybody really care?

“Missouri didn’t know either,” Mike Pritchard said. “All they had to do is call a timeout (to rectify the situation).”

Earlier in that game, Pritchard had scored touchdowns on a 68-yard run and a 71-yard pass, neither of which he mentioned. I had to look it up. Without those TDs, the refs could have given Colorado 10 downs during that last series and they wouldn’t have won the game, or the national title.

So at 47, he’s leaving Las Vegas again, to once again challenge himself. Here’s wishing Mike Pritchard all the success in the world, and another fifth down should he need it. Which he probably won’t.

o:03

— No more than eight hours after I wrote a column Wednesday about guys from Las Vegas getting thrown out of major league ballgames, and stating that Bryce Harper was on better behavior recently, he got tossed again for debating balls and strikes. Harper blamed it on the rap musician Logic. He said listening to his song “5AM” had gotten him too fired up during his pregame routine, that perhaps he needed to chill out with “one of those jazz bands.” The next day, Harper made fellow Las Vegan Mike Blazek feel like Dizzy Gillespie by smacking home runs off the Milwaukee spot starter his first two times up — two of six allowed by Blazek in 2 1/3 innings.

— You can add Minor League Baseball’s chief executive to the list of baseball people who believe the 51s need a new ballpark posthaste. “Cashman (Field) has served a purpose for a long, long time,” said Pat O’Conner, MiLB President & CEO who was in town to announce a new initiative catering to Hispanic and Latino fans. “But like most physical plants, there is a useful shelf life. And I’m afraid that if Cashman has not passed that time, it’s close to passing that time.” O’Conner also said the decision to play minor league pro soccer at Cashman beginning in 2018 “did not do Minor League Baseball any favors.”

— When the Washington Nationals put Stephen Strasburg on the disabled list and called up Erick Fedde to replace him in the starting rotation, I received an email from John Thielen, a member in good standing of the 335 Club, UNLV’s longtime unofficial baseball booster club. Attached was a photo of six pitchers in the UNLV bullpen displaying “Rally Pants” during a 2014 game against UC Riverside. The one on the far left with his baseball pants drawn around his ankles was No. 20, Erick Fedde, who I’m sure was (mostly) proud of that photo.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.