Eight days ago, after the Broncos’ last pre-Super Bowl practice that was held at Dove Valley, team president and CEO Joe Ellis addressed the players. He told them about Pat Bowlen, the Broncos’ longtime owner. He told them what Bowlen means to the franchise and how his message and ways laid the foundation for the team’s daily operations.

Super Bowl 50 is the Broncos’ seventh since Bowlen purchased the team in March 1984. But it will be the first he cannot attend. Bowlen resigned control of his day-to-day duties with the team in 2014 because he has Alzheimer’s disease.

Although Bowlen won’t be at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., for Super Bowl 50, those who know him best and have been alongside him the longest say his presence will be felt. Here are some of their favorite “Mr. B” stories:

Jane Elizabeth “Beth” Bowlen Wallace

Daughter

“I remember everyone went to the Super Bowl party the night we beat Green Bay (in January 1998), and you have to understand, we had been to three losing Super Bowl parties, where the band was playing but no one was on the dance floor. So we go to the party this time, and it’s a great one.

“I left probably around 1 a.m., and I noticed a light on underneath the door of my dad’s suite, so I knew he was still up. So I knocked and he came to the door and he had been up in his room for a while, so I think he was getting ready to retire for the evening. I look and there’s this big, James Bond-like trunk in the foyer of his suite. I’m like, ‘Dad, is that it?!’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah.’ I’m saying, ‘Well, let’s get it out!’

“It took us forever to figure out how to open the darn trunk, but we got it opened and, sure enough, there was the Lombardi Trophy. There was no selfie stick back then, but I had a disposable camera and we took selfies with the trophy. We kept looking at it, then looking at each other and cracking up, because you’re like, ‘Is this for real?’

“That was my most memorable and favorite story ever. Ever. I went back to my room and went to sleep with a lasting image of the trophy in my mind, and I have no doubt that he probably put the trophy on his bedside table and fell asleep.”

Brittany Bowlen

Daughter

“At Super Bowl XXXII, I had just turned 8 and I knew that my dad worked with the Broncos and was in a very important role, but I didn’t know exactly what he did. When we traveled to Super XXXII, the first thing I noticed was how big the NFL is, but I also got to see him interact with players and employees and the fans, and things really started to materialize for me.

“I think the reason I hadn’t really realized it before was because he had always raised us to believe that the Broncos belong to the community. I really believed that when I was 8 years old.

“It was at that Super Bowl that I realized my father is actually the owner, but what really stood out to me was that he really loved this team. It was in those moments, watching him dance at the postgame party with my mom or shake an employee’s hand on the field and give them a pat on the shoulder, that I realized that this is really what he loves.”

Mike Shanahan

Broncos offensive coordinator, 1984-87; offensive assistant, 1990-91; head coach, 1995-2008

“After we had our parade downtown (following Super Bowl XXXII), we had dinner over at the Denver Chophouse. All the players went over there and the coaches, and we just had a fantastic evening.

“But Pat told me after we got there, he says, ‘Hey, Mike, the president is going to call me.’ At the time, it was Bill Clinton. He said, ‘He’s going to call at about 5 p.m.’ And I told him, ‘Great, that’s fantastic.’ He said: ‘But I’m not going to be there. I want you to talk to him.’ I said: ‘What do you mean? Why do you want me to talk to him?’ He said, ‘Well, I’m going to go get my workout in.’ It just shows you the type of guy that he was. He was very disciplined. Just an unbelievable owner that you would love to work for, and he did all the little things that gave you a chance to win that people don’t realize.”

Joe Ellis

Broncos president and CEO

“It was January of ’99. It was pregame, and we do this every year — we have a brunch before the game that Pat hosts. I said to him, ‘I’m going to go over to that and be there with my family, and I’ll see you around kickoff time.’ He said: ‘That’s fine. Get something to eat, but hurry back, and let’s go on the bus and go to the game.’ So I went on the bus and we got there early, like four hours before kickoff. I remember going out just to see the field, and I went over there to our bench area, and he sat down next to me. We just chatted about all kinds of stuff for about an hour. Hours later we were world champions, but it had nothing to do about football. It was all family and what we were going to do in the summer and growing up playing ice hockey, which he did — all kinds of things. I’ll never forget it.”

Gary Kubiak

Broncos quarterback, 1983-91; offensive coordinator, 1995-2005; head coach, 2015-present

“When we were players and we got to the playoffs, Mr. Bowlen, if you were the player of the game in the playoffs, he gave you a trip to Hawaii. Naturally, John (Elway) would be the player of the game, so if a guy got it twice, they would go to the next guy at his position, so I was one of the few guys Mr. Bowlen gave a free trip to Hawaii and I never played a down.”

Shannon Sharpe

Broncos Hall of Fame tight end, 1990-99, 2002-03

“For me to be a part of a team that gave him his first Super Bowl (victory) and to know that’s a memory that no one can ever take away from me, it’s a great feeling. I was one of his favorites.

“There were a couple of occasions on Thursdays, when he would always come down and ask Greek (Broncos trainer Steve Antonopulos) about the injuries. I knew he would come down, so I went up to his office and I stole his glasses, and you know he had those short shorts? I got me a pair of scissors and I cut some short shorts. I got me some tube socks and a tight shirt like he would wear. So when he came down, I was sitting in his chair with my feet up on Greek’s desk like he would be. And he got a kick out of that. He laughed so hard.”

Fred Hemmings

Longtime friend, former member of Broncos board of directors, former professional surfer and Hawaii senator

“Pat, first and foremost, is a family man, but he’s also, for us here in Hawaii, what we call a ‘local boy.’ We used to do a lot of jogging. I never jogged anywhere with Pat — and we’ve jogged a lot of different places — where it didn’t end up being a race.

“There’s a volcano in Hawaii called Haleakala. It’s on Maui, 10,000 feet. We had (Bowlen’s wife) Annabel and my wife drop us off at the summit one morning, about 5 a.m., and we watched the sun come up — it’s absolutely beautiful — and then we literally ran through the volcano. We ran down what’s called sliding sand across the crater floor, through the lava fields and up a switchback trail cut into the side of a cliff and then to the outer rim of the crater and into the parking lot. It ended up being close to a 13-mile run. We always had these adventures.”

Tom Jackson

Broncos linebacker from 1973-86; current NFL ESPN analyst

Sometimes being on the golf course with Pat in Hawaii, it’s his home course, but being on that course with him a few times where he’s walking barefoot — he was the only person really ever allowed to play golf on the course barefoot — and just being with him for four or five hours of time and being in a totally relaxed atmosphere away from the game of football certainly qualifies as one of my favorite moments with him.”

Nicki Jhabvala: njhabvala@denverpost.com or @NickiJhabvala