I hate the caucus system in this state. Unless you have a day to waste on it, you don’t get to participate in selecting who the candidate is. Wish we could go to primaries.

FAMILY OF VALOR “Bus” Bergman, war hero and prominent Colorado athlete, dead at 89

Decorated World War II hero and hall-of-fame athlete and coach Walter “Bus” Bergman of Grand Junction died today. He was 89 years old.

He is the father of former Colorado lieutenant governor and U.S. Senate candidate Jane Norton of Denver. He also is survived by another daughter, Judy Black of Alexandria, Va., and a son, Walt Bergman Jr. of Grand Junction.

Funeral arrangements are pending, his son said.

“Everywhere you went people knew him or knew of him, which always sort of paved the way for us,” Walt Bergman said of he and his siblings. “There was just something about him. He always had this smile that made people feel like they knew him.”

Bus Bergman was a star athlete at Denver’s North High School and Colorado A&M (later renamed Colorado State University) and a legendary coach at Mesa State College 1950 through 1980, according to Mesa State.

The athletic fields at Mesa State are named in his honor. Bergman also is credited with helping bring the National Junior College Athletic Association baseball tournament to Grand Junction in 1959, where it is still played each year.

A star halfback at Colorado A&M, he rejected a professional football from the Philadelphia Eagles to enlist in the Marines.

During World War II, he was a major in the 229th Sixth Marine Division and received the Bronze Star for heroism during the bloody battles at Okinawa and Sugar Loaf Hill,

In a 2004 article in the Denver Post, Norton said her father never boasted of his heroism in the war, and when pressed by his children to discuss it, he told them, “The heroes are the guys who never came back.”

A three-sport athlete at North High, Bergman hit the winning basket that gave his team the state hoops championship in 1938, while earning all-city and all-state honors.

At Colorado A&M, he earned varsity letters in baseball, basketball and football, as well as serving as student body president.

At Mesa State, his coaching record in football was 102-63-9, with three conference championships. His baseball teams were 378-201, with 20 conference championships. He coached from 1947 to 1950 at Fort Lewis College in Durango, while he played semi-pro football for the .

He is a member of six athletic halls of fame, including his induction into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 1995 and the Colorado State University Hall of fame in 1993.

Jane is the daughter of Elinor Pitman Bergman, a retired Grand Junction public school teacher and native of Pueblo, and Walter F. “Bus” Bergman, a native of Denver and retired Mesa College coach. Jane’s father, Major Walter “Bus” Bergman, United States Marine Corps, Retired, served in the 229th- 6th Marine Division during World War II.

Bergman was awarded the Bronze Star for extraordinary heroism during the capture of Okinawa and the Battle of Sugar Loaf Hill. On October 25, 1945, he participated in the ceremony at the surrender of Japanese military forces in Tsingtao, China.

Bergman is a member of the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame.

Jane was born (October 12, 1954) and raised in Grand Junction with sister Judy Black of Washington, DC and brother Walt Bergman, a retired public school teacher in Grand Junction.

She has lived in Fort Collins and Greeley and currently resides in Englewood. She began teaching middle school in Fort Lupton after graduating from college.

Jane is married to Mike Norton, former US Attorney of Colorado. She is the mother of two grown children (Lacee and Tyler Artist), two step-children, and enjoys seven grandchildren, one of whom is serving in the US Army.

Norton serves on the board of Denver Seminary; teaches the 2 year olds with her husband at their church, Smoky Hill Vineyard; and is an avid hiker and skier.

.» Remembering Walter “Bus” Bergman | 5280 Magazine

Remembering Walter “Bus” Bergman
Some remember Walter “Bus” Bergman for his many contributions to sports across Colorado over the course of more than half a century. And some remember him for his valor during World War II, when he earned the Bronze Star for heroism during the Battle of Okinawa as a Marine major.

Bergman died yesterday at the age of 89, leaving behind a loving family and a trail of people who have nothing but kind words for the man.

Grand Junction’s Daily Sentinel notes that Bergman is among a small group of people responsible for bringing the Junior College World Series to Grand Junction in 1959, an annual event the city continues to host. He was the director of tournament play when the event began, a position his son, Walter Junior, now holds.

The two are the only father-son duo in the Junior College Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame, one of six halls of fame in which Bergman’s name is included among the honorees. The others are the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame and the halls of fame at Mesa State College, Fort Lewis College, Colorado State University, and Denver’s North High School.

According to The Denver Post, Bergman was a star three-sport athlete at North and went on to earn letters at Colorado A&M (now CSU) in football, baseball, and basketball. He then became a stellar two-sport coach at Mesa State, compiling a 102-63-9 record in football with three conference championships and a 378-201 record as a baseball coach, earning 20 league titles.

Bergman is survived by his wife, Elinor; two daughters, former Colorado Lieutenant Governor Jane Norton (also a U.S. Senate candidate) and Judy Black; his son, Walter; six grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and his half-brother.

Buck can’t raise a Buck.

Seriously though he stinks at fundraising. ALL of his airtime has been bought by a series of rotating DC-based front groups. They’re all receiving significant payoff amounts to funnel money for the large CO-based FEDERAL CONTRACTING company.

Oh, yeah. And Buck used to work for them for a SHORT TIME before they funded his DA race.

No joke. This one will blow up in our faces if he gets through the primary…

Not a Conservative. He’s more Murtha than Reagan.