Business in the fast lane: 35 years of innovation, entrepreneurs and eureka moments in Colorado.

AuthorCote, Mike
Position35 YEARS OF COLORADOBIZ

The energy crisis.

George Steinbrenner buys the Yankees.

James Bond hits theaters in "Live and Let Die."

Jack Nicklaus becomes first golfer to earn $2 million in a year.

Colorado Business magazine debuts.

Hey, 1973, meet 2008. You have a lot in common. We have another energy crisis, George Steinbrenner still owns the Yankees, and 007 returns to theaters this month.

But a few things have changed.

Roger Moore retired his 007 suit many years and several Bonds before Daniel Craig got the job; Tiger Woods made $22 million in prize money and nearly $100 million off the course last year, and Colorado Business has been publishing as ColoradoBiz for nearly a decade.

To mark our 35th anniversary, we're celebrating 35 years of business innovation and entrepreneurism in the Centennial State.

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Colorado's business history is rich with diversity. We've been innovators in real estate, telecommunications, aviation, banking, bioscience, energy, tourism, agriculture, aerospace and architecture. Name a sector, such as say, funny foam shoes, and we've probably made our mark.

Like the aforementioned historical footnotes from 1973, we had plenty of episodes to choose from and left a lot of good scenes, such as the $340 million expansion of the Colorado Convention Center, on the cutting room floor. And some watermark events fell just outside our timeline, such as the founding of Celestial Seasonings tea in Boulder (1969) and the first liver transplant in the world, performed by Dr. Thomas Starzlof at the University of Colorado in Denver (1963).

We hope we hit most of the best highlights, but we're ready for the heat if we've missed some. After 35 years, we still publish a letters page.

--Mike Cote, ColoradoBiz editor

1 RE/MAX International lifts off in 1973. David and Gail Liniger wanted to change the way real estate companies operated, with a system where agents would share overhead and pay management fees in exchange for franchise services and maximum commissions. The company, still owned by its founders and recognized by its iconic hot air balloons, oversees a network of more than 100,000 agents in more than 65 countries with more than 7,000 offices.

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2 A passage to the Western Slope: The Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel. After five years of construction, the westbound bore of the highest vehicular tunnel in the world opened on March 8, 1973, paving the way for greater access to Colorado's ski resorts and pumping up the state's burgeoning tourist trade. The tunnel traverses the Continental Divide at an average elevation of more than 11,000 feet. The eastbound Edwin C. Johnson Memorial Tunnel was completed six years later.

3 The rise of cable. Tele-Communications Inc. founder Bob Magness recruited a young John Malone to run the fledgling Denver-based cable company in 1972, and the following year Malone became its president and CEO. Malone is credited with building the company into a powerhouse by using shrewd, hardball business tactics, helping to secure Denver's national reputation as an epicenter for the cable industry along with earlier pioneers Glenn Jones and Bill Daniels. Malone sold TCI in 1998 for $48 billion and now chairs Liberty Media.

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4 A vintage year for Colorado wine: 1974. Six years after the launch of the first modern Colorado winery by Gerald Ivancie in the Grand Valley, Colorado State University's Orchard Mesa Research center began vineyard research in Grand Junction, according to coloradowine.com. Three years later the Legislature enacted the Colorado Limited Winery Act which creates a special permit for small "farm wineries" and planting the seeds for the state's wine industry, now a notable part of the Western Slope's economy.

5 Rock 'n' roll returns to Red Rocks in 1976. After a five-year ban following a riot during a Jethro Tull concert, rock ruled once again at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison. You can thank legendary concert promoter Barry Fey, who took the city to court over the shutout. Fey has been largely credited with creating the Denver concert scene music fans enjoy today and booked hundreds of concerts at Red Rocks during his reign, including Bruce Springsteen and U2. And if that's not innovation to you, I guess you haven't watched the city lights shine from row 43 in a while.

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6 New energy before its time. The June 2008 cover story of ColoradoBiz by Associate Editor Rebecca Cole featured a Ph.D. candidate at the Colorado School of Mines testing algae for use as a biofuel--picking up on work first undertaken 30 years ago by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden. The primary laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development began operating in 1977 as the Solar Energy Research Institute and was rechristened NREL in 1991. NREL's Technology Transfer Office and its work with private and public partners has gained increasing importance as Colorado embraces a "new energy" economy.

7 Rocking downtown out of the doldrums. In 1977, the city of...

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