BOONTON, N.J. — Michelle (Kriley) Tripucka plans to root for the Denver Broncos to win Super Bowl XLVIII Sunday.

Tripucka, who lives about 32 miles from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., knows her father-in-law Frank Tripucka would have loved it.

The Broncos retired Tripucka’s No. 18 when he retired in 1963 after quarterbacking the Broncos for their first four seasons.

When Peyton Manning came to Denver in 2012, he contacted Tripucka about un-retiring his number.

“When he found out that Frank wore the number, he called him and asked if he could wear it,” said Michelle, who graduated from Butler High School in 1973. “Frank didn’t realize Peyton knew who he was and thought he was classy. He said he could wear it as long as he brings us home a Super Bowl.”

Michelle’s mother, Dorothy Kriley, 87, still lives in Renfrew. Michelle married Frank’s son, Todd, in 1977.

They met at Lafeyette University, where Todd played basketball.

Frank Tripucka died at age 85 last September. He was more than happy to let Manning have the number 18.

“It’s been retired for 50 years,” he told The Star-Ledger of Newark in 2012. “That’s enough.”

Tripucka played 15 seasons of professional football, including stints with the Philadelphia Eagles, Detroit Lions and Chicago Cardinals in the NFL.

He also played for the Ottawa Rough Riders and Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL.

In Denver, Tripucka was supposed to be a quarterbacks coach.

That changed during a scrimmage leading to the Broncos’ first game.

“They had a game at Colorado Springs and the other quarterbacks were playing bad,” Michelle said. “So the owner turned to my father-in-law and asked him to play quarterback. He threw three touchdown passes and ended up starting in the first AFL game.”

He started the AFL’s first game for the Broncos against the Boston Patriots on Sept. 9, 1960.

Tripucka went on to become the first AFL quarterback to throw for more than 3,000 yards, finishing with a career-best 3,038 yards and 24 touchdown passes in 1962. That earned him his lone All-Star selection.

Tripucka finished his NFL/AFL career with 10, 282 passing yards and 69 touchdowns.

Tripucka’s son, Kelly, played college basketball at Notre Dame and went on to play professionally for the Detroit Pistons, Utah Jazz and Charlotte Hornets.