CINCINNATI — Art Hauser last Saturday sat in his favorite armchair at his Cincinnati home 5 miles from Paycor Stadium and watched on television as the Bengals took on the Broncos.

Hauser paid special attention to Denver guard Quinn Meinerz since both are graduates of Hartford (Wis.) Union High School. Of course, they attended the school 70 years apart.

Hauser, 95, is the oldest living former Broncos player. Then a 6-foot, 237-pound defensive tackle, he concluded a seven-season pro career by playing for Denver in 1961 before he retired to go into the insurance business in Cincinnati.

“He did a nice job,’’ Hauser said after watching Meinerz, 26, in the Broncos’ 30-24 overtime loss. “He’s a player. They got a good one.”

Hauser, a 1947 graduate, and Meinerz, a 2017 graduate, are the only players from Hartford Union to make it to the pros. Hauser had been informed before the game that Meinerz last July signed a four-year, $80 million contract extension.

“Ask him if he needs a driver when he’s in town,’’ joked Hauser, who made $12,000 in 1961 as one of the Broncos’ top defensive players. “But don’t tell him that I gave up driving.”

Hauser stopped driving a few years ago. Overall, though, he said he’s doing as best as one could expect for his age.

Hauser was born July 19, 1929, in Rubicon, Wis., 5 miles west of Hartford and 45 miles northwest of Milwaukee, and grew up during the Great Depression. He’s proud of the distinction of being the oldest living former player for the Broncos, who began play in 1960 in the fledgling American Football League.

“The dear Lord has been good to me over the years,’’ said Hauser, who has been married 71 years to Joan, 90, and has six children. “With my family and my friends, I’ve got so much to be thankful for.”

After graduating from Hartford Union, Hauser had a job in ice harvesting at nearby Pike Lake, using his strength to haul it. He then enrolled in 1950 at Xavier University in Cincinnati, which disbanded its football program in 1973. He starred for the 1951 Musketeers, helping them to a 9-0-1 season in which they outscored foes 305-46.

Hauser was a fifth-round draft pick by Rams in 1954 and moved into the starting lineup as a rookie. He played with the Rams from 1954-57, and for the Chicago Cardinals and the New York Giants in 1959.

Hauser’s time in the NFL included playing in championship games in 1955 with the Rams and in 1959 with the Giants. The Rams lost to the Cleveland Browns 38-14 and the Giants fell to the Baltimore Colts 31-16, but Hauser considered it a “big thrill” to play in those games.

“I did well for my size,’’ Hauser said. “When I played for the Rams, somebody said I was pound-for-pound the strongest guy in the NFL. I was a good pass rusher.”

Hauser joined the Boston Patriots of the AFL in 1960, when one of the defensive assistants under head coach Lou Saban was Joe Collier. Saban went on to coach the Broncos from 1967-71 and Collier was their famed defensive coordinator from 1969-88.

Hauser then moved on to Denver. The Broncos, easily the worst team in the 10-year history of the AFL, went just 3-11 in 1961, but Hauser was a formidable player. While sacks didn’t become an official pro statistic until 1982, ProFootballReference.com has gone back and credited Hauser with having 5.5 while playing all 14 games in 1961.

“He was a smaller player on the defensive line even back then but he was quick, and that was the biggest thing he had going for him,’’ said Lionel Taylor, then a star Broncos receiver. “We called him, ‘Big Hands.’ He used his big hands to keep people off him.”

Hauser didn’t have much help on defense for the Broncos, who gave up 30.9 points per game. But he did what he could for a team that wore second-hand uniforms purchased from the Copper Bowl, a defunct college all-star game in Tucson, Ariz., that were brown and mustard yellow and featured vertically striped socks.

“People would laugh at us with the striped socks,’’ Hauser said. “It was a lot different after having come from the Rams and Giants. It was just thrown together. It was run very poorly for a pro team.”

Hauser said players would come and go and salaries were low, but his teammates were generally “a bunch of great guys.” The coach was Frank Filchock, who as a player was once suspended by the NFL for three years for associating with gamblers and who went 7-20-1 leading the Broncos their first two seasons.

“He was a tough cookie,’’ Hauser said. “He was obsessed with sit-ups. We’d be on the field doing sit-ups, and if somebody wasn’t doing it right, he’d go, ‘One, two, three, three, three, three.’”

Hauser that season was 32 and had four children. He was going back and forth from the family home in Cincinnati to Denver and decided it was too much. He drove home after the 1961 season in a snowstorm then decided to retired.

“I got into the insurance business and I became (an assistant) coach at Xavier for two years,’’ Hauser said. “I thought I wanted to be a coach but after I got in, I didn’t really like it.”

The insurance gig worked out well, though. He opened Art Hauser Insurance in Cincinnati during the early 1960s before finally selling the business in 1995, when he was 66.

That company is now known as Hauser Insurance. But his son in 1996 opened Chris Hauser Insurance in Cincinnati.

“I haven’t really officially stopped working,’’ Hauser said. “I’m still pretending to work. My daughter (Colleen Hauser) picks me up every day and I go to the office. But I do fall asleep over there.’’

Colleen Hauser, though, said her father doesn’t disturb anyone when he nods off at his son’s company.

“He never snores,’’ she said. “He’s just very quiet. His head doesn’t drop much. He’ll be watching TV and then you’ll notice that his head has dipped a little.”

Overall, she said her father is doing well.

“He looks great for 95,’’ she said. “He is very cognizant of everything that’s going on around him. He’s had a double knee replacement surgery. The aches of being a professional player are catching up with him. He’s walking slower, typical of somebody his age.’’

Hauser has prostate problems and his hearing is a bit impaired. He called mobility the biggest issue he faces.

“I’ve got to be careful I might fall,’’ Hauser said. “I’ve fallen a couple of times and I’ve got to get my family to come over to my house and come pick me up off the floor.”

Hauser for many years had Bengals season tickets before mobility issues led him to stop attending games. But he did take in a Cincinnati Reds game last September.

Hauser watches the Bengals and other NFL games from his armchair, which has above it a framed photo of when he played for the Rams. Hauser liked what he saw from the Broncos against the Bengals even though they lost.

“The Broncos have got a good team,’’ Hauser said. “I mean, they’re for real. But Joe Burrow has just been off the charts.”

Burrow, Cincinnati’s star quarterback, threw for 412 yards and three touchdowns against Denver. His 3-yard touchdown pass to Tee Higgins with 1:07 left in overtime won the game.

While Hauser was paying plenty of attention to Burrow when Cincinnati was on offense, he checked out Meinerz when Denver had the ball. Hauser went to Hartford Union High School in a building that long ago was torn down while Meinerz attended a newer facility. But Hauser is happy to see a player from the school on the Broncos six decades after he suited up.

“I’m pulling for him,’’ Hauser said. “Go Broncos.”