College years
It didn't take long for John Elway to make an impact on the Stanford football program.
At his first practice, he was impressive enough to send quarterbacks Babe Laufenberg and Grayson Rogers packing. Soon he also sent wide receiver Don Longsinger to the trainer with a bullet pass that cut his finger to the bone.
By the end of his freshman year, Elway had played in nine games and ranked among the Pac-10's top 10 passers.
A year later, he became a national star, setting league records for touchdown passes, completions and touchdowns while becoming one of the rare sophomore quarterbacks to earn All-America honors.
Elway's junior season was a different matter. The Cardinal lost to Purdue (27-19), Ohio State (24-19), Arizona (17-13), Southern Cal (25-17), Arizona State (62-36), Washington (42-31) and, hardest of all, to Jack Elway's San Jose State team (28-6).
John was dazed and bloodied after that game. Privately, Jack bitterly criticized the Stanford coaches for subjecting his son to continued abuse. Later he learned John had insisted on playing.
Stanford finished with a 4-7 record -- its worst since 1963. The Cardinal running game was ineffective, and near the end, Elway argued with offensive coordinator Jim Fassel some days and withdrew into silence on others. "Until we won a few in the end, John was being consumed by his own competitive instincts," Fassel said.
In 1982, Elway led Stanford to a 43-41 win over No. 1-ranked Washington and finished second to Herschel Walker in Heisman Trophy voting. His 24 touchdowns were the most by any quarterback in the country. His 3,242 passing yards earned him unanimous All-America honors.
During the summer of 1982, John Elway played for the New York Yankees' New York-Pennsylvania Class A team in Oneonta, N.Y. He opened the season June 18 in right field and didn't get his first hit until the third game. He was 3-for-27 in his first eight games, hitting .111 in the Nos. 3 or 4 spots.
But he ended the six-week stint with a .318 average, a team-leading 24 RBI and no errors in 42 games. That was good enough for Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who wanted to make Elway "the next Mickey Mantle."
H
IGHLIGHT
During a game in Norman, Okla., Elway threw for four TDs and ran for another during a 32-24 upset of Oklahoma. Said Sooners coach Barry Switzer: "John Elway put on the greatest exhibition of quarterbacking I've ever seen on this field."
CONTROVERSY
Elway's final game ranks among the most bizarre in NFL history. On Nov. 20, 1982, with California leading 19-17 and time fading, Elway led Stanford on what appeared to be the winning drive. With four seconds left, Stanford's Mark Harmon kicked a 35-yard field goal to lift the Cardinal to a 20-19 lead.
On the ensuing kickoff, California's Kevin Moen fielded the ball on the 43 and ran out the clock -- or so the Stanford band thought as it poured onto the field. But the Bears began a series of laterals that advanced the ball to deep in Cardinal territory, where the Stanford band kept defenders from tackling the Bears' ball carriers. Moen knocked over a trombone player and barged into the end zone. Cal won 25-20 in one of the strangest conclusions to any athletic event in American sports history.
"That was one of the most unpleasant times of all," Elway said.
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