DENVER - Jerry McMorris, one of the instrumental figures in bringing the Colorado Rockies to Denver, has died, the team said in a statement.

The team said that Mr. McMorris died Tuesday in Denver of cancer. He was 71.

Mr. McMorris was part of a group that purchased a controlling interest in the club in 1992, a year before the team started play. He served as chairman, president, and chief executive of the team until 2001. He was part of the team’s ownership group until 2005.

“I believe it is fair to say without the efforts of Jerry, there may have never been Major League Baseball in Denver,’’ said Dick Monfort, the Rockies’ owner and chief executive.

Mr. McMorris was a limited partner when the original ownership group was formed. He stepped up when members of the original group in the deal for the expansion team ran into financial and legal trouble. Mr. McMorris assisted in making up a $20 million shortfall on the $95 million expansion fee. He also garnered other support for the team, bringing on board Charles Monfort and the late Oren Benton.

Major league owners approved Denver and South Florida as new members on July 5, 1991. The Rockies played their first home game on April 9, 1993, when a crowd of 80,227 packed into old Mile High for an 11-4 win over Montreal.

“I don’t think you can say enough about him, what he’s meant to this organization,’’ longtime Rockies first baseman Todd Helton said in a recent interview.

Commissioner Bud Selig echoed those feelings.

“I am very saddened by the loss of my friend Jerry McMorris, whose efforts were integral to bringing Major League Baseball to Colorado in 1993,’’ Selig said in a statement. “Under Jerry’s leadership, the Rockies attracted more than three million fans in each of the club’s first nine years and became a first-class franchise in a wonderful ballpark.