Pro baseball player at bat in Bogey’s Sports Bar

Sandwiched between two houses off of Ivy Street and Moraine Avenue sits a trio of red shipping containers. Inside lies a fully functional sports bar, owned by former professional baseball player Terry Bogener, his son Cam, and wife Carolyn Newberry. 

Bogey’s Sports Bar gets its name from Terry’s playing days. While at the University of Oklahoma, he was given the nickname Bogey, a riff from his last name. His path to playing Division I ball, then in the Big Eight Conference, actually came from a different sport.

Growing up, baseball was his favorite sport. But in his hometown of Palmyra, Mo., the high school didn’t have a team, so he ran track and joined the basketball team instead. After graduating from high school in 1974, he was recruited by Coach John McCloud, who was at the University of Oklahoma at the time. 

“He asked me. Said, you know, ‘play basketball?’ I go, “No, I want to play baseball,’ even though I didn’t play baseball in high school. And so he told the baseball coaches,” Bogener said.

At Oklahoma, he was a starter all four years and was drafted by the Texas Rangers in 1978 after his senior year in the sixth round of the MLB draft. 

He competed in nine different cities around the country, mostly playing AAA. In 1982, at 26, while playing for the Denver Bears, he was promoted to the MLB and hit a home run in his first at-bat with the Rangers.

After nine years playing pro ball, he got the boot. “They have a way of telling you’re too old, ‘we’re not going to sign you again. You’re too old,’” Terry said.

He and Carolyn moved around the Midwest. He worked in facilities management and became a park director for a suburb outside Kansas City. But in 2008, wanting a change, he and his wife moved to Estes. Cam attended Estes Park High School while Terry and Carolyn started a short-term rental business. 

For several years, Cam and his mom toyed with opening a sports-centric bar in Estes. Cam thought there was a void in the community for sports fans to gather after Time Out Sports Bar closed more than a decade ago. 

“I love sports, so I always thought it would be a good and profitable niche to fill in the Estes Valley to make a sports bar,” Cam said.

Instead of moving into a current storefront, they built their own. They found a run-down house at 281 W. Riverside Dr. and had it razed. They chose the site because if they built a deck, an entrance off Morraine Avenue would be possible. 

Terry’s father ran a construction company, and he knew that a conventional multi-story building wouldn’t be feasible. So they found a couple of old shipping containers. 

They hired a company to cut and weld two shipping containers into one unit for the bar. Another container has two restrooms. They also built a rooftop deck above the bar and a patio with two outdoor flat-screen TVs.

Construction started in February 2024 and was finished by August. They found immediate success with the college football season, particularly from University of Nebraska fans visiting Estes.

“Without those people, we would have had a rough winter,” Terry said, “The Nebraskans really supported us, and then as time went on, we started getting a more diverse crowd.”

The bar was able to stay open all winter. Terry and Cam attribute that to football and, more importantly, the town.

“I grew up in this valley, so all my friends came through for the entire winter, and it really helps us out, man, like this, this community really does good,” Cam said.

The bar offers a variety of beers along with some basic bar food options: hot dogs, nachos, and pretzels. Several restaurants are nearby, and often, a food truck is nearby. Outside food is allowed. 

“It’s not like there’s a big need for a really good restaurant. There’s a big need for a great sports bar,” Cam said. 

Terry plans to add cloth shade coverings on both patios for the summer. The unique sports bar at 281 W Riverside Dr. is open daily from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.