
The Broncos' defensive coordinator, and pro tem head coach last season, possesses a dedicated work ethic, determination and competitiveness defined by the Del Rio ancestry.
In 1907 a young Spaniard, whose last name meant "Of The River," and his wife were crammed with 2,200 other emigrants into "animal-like cages," it was reported then, in the hold of steamship Heliopolis docked at Malaga on the Mediterranean Sea. They were bound for a new life in the Pacific Ocean.
Forty-seven miserable days later — a voyage across two oceans and around the Strait of Magellan — the dazed passengers arrived in Hawaii. Fourteen babies had been born, but 19 children died. The Del Rio couple were among the 8,000 "contract employees," who had endured hunger and unrest in southern Spanish villages, lured to an "island paradise" with promises of a house, an acre of land, medical care and 20 gold pieces a month.
"My great-grandfather was a pineapple picker," Jack Del Rio told me.
The imported workers had not understood they would labor 16 hours a day 26 days a month at the blooming pineapple plantation on the northwest side of Maui.
http://www.denverpost.com/paige/ci_2...rio-made-right
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