In 1965, wide receiver Lionel Taylor looked on as his Broncos selected star Illinois linebacker Dick Butkus in the AFL draft.

He didn’t think much of it.

“I knew we weren’t going to sign him,’’ said Taylor, who played for the Broncos from 1960-66 and made their Ring of Fame. “They drafted big names back then that they knew they weren’t going to get, but it looked good in the paper.”

From their first AFL season of 1960 through the final AFL-only draft of 1966, the Broncos didn’t sign a single one of their top picks. Three of those picks went on to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame in defensive tackle Merlin Olsen, who signed in 1962 instead with the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, tackle Bob Brown, who joined the Philadelphia Eagles, and Butkus, who signed with his hometown Chicago Bears after being taken with the No. 3 pick in the NFL draft.

Butkus went on to become one of the greatest linebackers in NFL history and died Thursday at the age of 80.

The death of Butkus stirred memories about the Broncos having selected him with the No. 9 overall pick in the second round of the eight-team AFL draft after not having a selection in the first round. Longtime team historian Jim Saccomano, who was then a student at Mt. Carmel High School in Denver and was the Broncos public relations director from 1978-2013, followed that draft closely through the media.

“The AFL was the most successful second league in history but at that time the Broncos hadn’t even climbed to the level of mediocrity,’’ Saccomano said. “They knew they weren’t going to get their top draft choice, and everyone knew it.

“So they drafted Dick Butkus with the idea they could make it a promotion, and they said, ‘We’re going to offer him any amount of money. We’re not going to be outbid.’ So the Broncos for several days said, ‘We’ve drafted Butkus and we’re going to sign him.’’’

According to media reports, the Broncos did offer Butkus more than the Bears, but Saccomano said the cash-strapped team would have had to “scrape together money” had he stunningly chosen to sign with Denver. The Chicago native joined the Bears for what was reported to be an overall contract worth $200,000.

“The Bears probably countered by saying, ‘We’re offering a guy a chance to go play for Chicago and (legendary coach) George Halas and you’d go play in the Rocky Mountains with a team that you don’t even know will be in business,’’’ Saccomano said.

The Broncos never had a winning record until 1973, the fourth season after the AFL-NFL merger, and that played a role in them initially not being able to sign any of their top picks. The first one they signed was running back Floyd Little, but that was after the first AFL-NFL combined draft in 1967, so he had no option then to join an NFL team.

Butkus starred for the Bears from 1965-73, and terrorized opposing offenses with his fierce play. He faced the Broncos twice after the merger with both games being in Denver, a 6-3 Chicago loss in 1971 and a 33-14 win in 1973.

Taylor was long retired as a player by then. But he recalled going against Butkus and the Bears in the opening game of 1971 when he was wide receivers coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“That’s when his knee was really going downhill but we had a (15-3) lead on them and then Butkus went through the line and hit (quarterback Terry) Bradshaw and he fumbled and they scored a touchdown,’’ Taylor said of Ross Brupbacher returning the fumble 30 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to 15-10 and the Bears eventually winning 17-15. “The guys in the box said, ‘He’s limping.’ I said, ‘Thank God he’s limping because he would kill somebody if he wasn’t limping.”’

With that in mind, Taylor was asked if he ever met Butkus.

“I was scared of him,’’ Taylor said. “I didn’t want to meet him.”