“Here comes Rocky!”

The many thousands of local fans over the years 1948-2005 recognize this call summoning their all-time favorite rabbit.

Not a little bunny in danger, Rocky was instead the zippy metal mechanical rabbit apparatus streaking around the track in front of the dogs to start each race at Rocky Mountain Greyhound Park. At the instant the Rocky voice starts, all betting on the race stops and greyhounds take off as the crowds scream the names of the dogs they bet on. Local radio personality Andy Nisito was the Rocky voice for a number of years.

The 28-acre North Nevada Avenue location has quite the history and was one of five Colorado greyhound racing sites after Colorado voters approved dog and horse racing in 1948. Gazette stories tell of breakneck speed as a prefab steel grandstand was quickly put together in six weeks for a sold-out crowd of more than 2,500 on opening night July 21, 1949. Opening-year glitches for what began as Rocky Mountain Kennel Club even included the possibility of a foreclosure, according to the newspaper.

By 1971, the familiar large grandstand with its Cloud 9 Room, Rocky’s Roost, large betting areas and fully modern areas for the dogs was completed.

The popular family credited in the more than 50 years of history of Rocky Mountain Kennel Club was headed by Don and Patricia Cloud. According to Gazette stories, the couple had been junior high sweethearts and married in 1954. Patricia’s father, Jerry Wagner, was president of Transit Mix Concrete Co., and when difficulties arose during advance planning for the greyhound park he took stock in the company and won the contract for the track in 1949. He and wife Red were part of that original ownership group and he headed management of the track.

Don and Patricia had worked at the track as teens. As years went by they married and had five children, all of whom worked at the greyhound business with their parents. Don told The Gazette, “It really has been a family thing for a lot of years. All I think of is all the memories we have there for 50 years.”

There was a delight that the whole three-month racing season drew so many families for so many years. There were greyhound owners and their children, teens were employees and the grandstand areas were filled with whole families as adults bet on the dogs and youngsters visited the snack bar, practiced saying the best dog names and for fun filled their pockets with losing tickets that had been tossed on the ground.

In 1977 the name was officially changed to Rocky Mountain Greyhound Park instead of Rocky Mountain Kennel Club. Often the reason, given with a smile, was people thought the “kennel club” meant they could bring their pets to race. That was reality just once a year at the hilarious Mongrel Marathon time when the non-greyhounds in the area competed for bragging rights on the track. Add to that the popular weiner dog races.

Betting on the races was big business. The Gazette reported: “By 1955, attendance was reported at a record 165,929 for the three-month season. The track reached $6 million in wagers in 1961, and by 1988, the annual total wagered approached $50 million.”

Major changes began, especially after Colorado voters approved legalized gambling in 1990 and nearby Cripple Creek opened its first casinos in 1991. Gambling was strong in Central City as well. Greyhound and horse racing sites started turning instead to year-round off-track betting.

The Cloud family, now including grandchildren, sold the park in 2001. For almost 20 years and until 2017, they had a sports entertainment and off-track betting complex in Sheridan, named Red & Jerry’s for their parents-grandparents-great-grandparents.

Rocky Mountain Greyhound Park was closed down for a time, trashed out, and split up into small businesses like airsoft competitions, storage for a trucking company, Waste Management, marijuana sales and more. It is now owned by Copart Inc. with several hundred cars on the lot. The Texas-based company is nationwide and has vehicles that are auctioned after being damaged or even totaled and are resold for owners such as rental agencies, insurance companies, dealers and others. Auctions are online and buyers claim them at the storage sites such as the old greyhound park.

In 2014, the governor signed law a measure banning live greyhound racing, followed by 2021 when Colorado voters banned greyhound racing and related activities like its off-track betting altogether. The Proposition 16 issue was passed nationwide with the exception of West Virginia, which still has two greyhound racing locations, neither of which can legally be simulcast in Colorado. Among the reasons cited for banning greyhound racing were concerns about the safety of the dogs, a large number of injuries, allegations of performance-enhancing drug use, the number of dogs euthanized at the end of careers, the underground use of live small-animal lures and betting at the proliferation of casinos across the country.

All five of Colorado’s greyhound parks were closed by Jan. 1, 2008, and all off-track betting was over by March 1, 2014.

Colorado greyhound parks ran three-month seasons consecutively, allowing fans time to spend time one to another. They were:

Loveland, Cloverleaf, 1955-2006, Here comes Whizmo.

Byers, Interstate, 1971-2006, Here comes Gusher.

Commerce City, Mile High, 1948-2008, Here comes Rusty.

Rocky Mountain Greyhound Park, 1949-2005, Here comes Rocky.

Pueblo, 1949-1999. Here comes Sparky.

The whole world of greyhound racing can be experienced at the Greyhound Hall of Fame in Abilene, Kan., where visitors are greeted at the door by happily retired dogs. There are trophies, medals, photos, films and even bobblehead dogs. Information is available about former racing dogs available for adoption, including in Denver. greyhoundadoption.com