John Albert Elway Jr. (born June 28, 1960) is an American former professional football quarterback and executive who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons with the Denver Broncos. Following his playing career, he then spent 11 years with the Broncos in various front office positions, eventually being promoted to general manager. Elway and former backup quarterback and head coach Gary Kubiak are the only individuals to be associated with all three of the Broncos' Super Bowl wins.
Elway is widely regarded as one of the best quarterbacks in the history of the sport. At the time of his retirement in early 1999, Elway had the most victories by a starting quarterback and was statistically the second most prolific passer in NFL history. He was also a prolific rusher of the ball, being one of only two players to score a rushing touchdown in four different Super Bowls (the other being Thurman Thomas) and the only quarterback to do so.
While playing college football at Stanford, Elway set several career records for passing attempts and completions and also received unanimous All-American honors. He was the first selection in the 1983 NFL draft, famously known as the "quarterback class of 1983", where he was taken by the Baltimore Colts before being traded to the Denver Broncos. In January 1987, Elway embarked on one of the most notable performances in sports and in NFL history, helping engineer a 98-yard, game-tying touchdown drive in the AFC Championship Game against the Cleveland Browns, a moment later dubbed "The Drive". Following that game in Cleveland, Elway and the Broncos lost in Super Bowl XXI to the New York Giants.
After two more Super Bowl losses, the Broncos entered a period of decline; however, that ended during the 1997 season, as Elway and Denver won their first Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XXXII. The Broncos repeated as champions the following season in Super Bowl XXXIII. Elway was named MVP of that Super Bowl, which was the last game of his career, and in doing so Elway set a then-record five Super Bowl starts which was broken in February 2015 when Tom Brady of the New England Patriots started Super Bowl XLIX. After his retirement as a player, Elway served as general manager and executive vice president of football operations of the Broncos, which won four division titles, two AFC Championships, and Super Bowl 50 during his tenure, making Elway a three-time Super Bowl Champion with the Broncos–two as a player and one as an executive. Elway was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004.
Elway and his twin sister Jana were born on June 28, 1960 in Port Angeles, Washington, to Janet (née Jordan) and Jack Elway, then the head coach at Port Angeles High School. Their sister Lee Ann, is a year older than the twins. They moved in 1961 to southwestern Washington, where Jack was the junior college head football coach at Grays Harbor Community College in Aberdeen for five seasons. As a youth, John lived in Missoula, Montana and Pullman, Washington, when his father was an assistant coach at Montana and Washington State, respectively.
In February 1976, Jack Elway joined the staff at Idaho, a Palouse neighbor, but a month later became the head coach at Cal State-Northridge, a Division II program in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. The family moved after John's freshman year at Pullman High School, and he then played his final three years of football at Granada Hills High School in Granada Hills, under head coaches Jack Neumeier and Tom Richards. Despite missing five games with a knee injury as a senior, he ended his high school career with 5,711 passing yards and 49 passing touchdowns, and was named to the Parade All America High School Football Team, along with future NFL stars, quarterback Dan Marino and running back Eric Dickerson.
Known as a dual-threat quarterback, meaning he was accomplished at running and escaping pressure with an impressive passing ability, he was amongst the top recruited high school players in the country, receiving numerous scholarships. One of those offers was from his father, who became the head coach at San Jose State following the 1978 season. Also an accomplished baseball player, Elway was selected by the Kansas City Royals in the 18th round of the 1979 Major League Baseball draft. The Royals also selected Marino in the fourth round of the same draft.
In 1979, Elway enrolled at Stanford University, playing for both the football and baseball teams. Rod Gilmore recalls that the football team expected Elway to be a backup quarterback for three years before starting, like Turk Schonert and Steve Dils. After seeing the new player in preseason practice, Babe Laufenberg and another backup transferred, knowing that Elway would be above them on the depth chart. Stanford was where the legend of the "Elway cross" began; after the freshman broke two players' fingers on the first day of practice, receivers began catching Elway's passes with their bodies instead of hands, leaving a cross on their chests from the ball's seams.
Elway spent his freshman season in 1979 as backup to future NFL quarterback Schonert, playing in nine games as the team went 5–5–1. After Schonert graduated, Elway became the starting quarterback as a sophomore in 1980, threw 27 touchdown passes (2nd in the Division I-A), and led the team to a 6–4 record heading into the final week of the season. In the Big Game at 2–8 California, Stanford was upset 28–23, dropping them to 6–5 and costing them a chance to play in a bowl game. In 1981, Elway had another fine season, ranking seventh in Division I-A with twenty touchdown passes, but Stanford had a dismal season; the upset of UCLA was their only win through October, but they won all three games in November to climb to 4–7.
In his senior season in 1982, Stanford was 5–5 and needed to win its final game, The Big Game at 6–4 Cal, to secure an invitation to the Hall of Fame Classic bowl game. With two minutes remaining in the game, Stanford was down 19–17 and had 4th-and-17 on their own 13-yard line. Elway completed a 29-yard pass and drove the ball downfield to the 35-yard line, where Mark Harmon kicked what appeared to be the winning field goal. However, the clock had four seconds remaining, so Stanford had to kick off. What followed is now simply known as "The Play", in which Cal players lateraled the ball, rugby-style, five times – two of them controversial – and scored a touchdown to win the game, 25–20. Elway was bitter about the game afterward, stating that the officials "ruined my last game as a college football player." Stanford athletics director Andy Geiger said the loss cost Elway the Heisman Trophy. Twenty years later, Elway came to terms with The Play, saying that "each year it gets a little funnier."
Although Elway never led his team to a bowl game, he had an accomplished college career. In his four seasons (1979–1982) at Stanford, he completed 774 passes for 9,349 yards, 77 touchdowns, and 39 interceptions, while also scoring 5 touchdowns rushing the ball. Stanford had a 20–23 record during his tenure. Elway's 24 touchdown passes in 1982 led the nation, and at the conclusion of his career, he held nearly every Pacific-10 record for passing and total offense. He won the Pac-10 Player of the Year honors in 1980 and 1982, was a unanimous All-American, and finished second in Heisman balloting as a senior. In 2000, Elway was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame. In 2007, Elway was ranked #15 on ESPN's Top 25 Players In College Football History list. He passed for over 200 yards in 30 of his 42 collegiate games.
Elway also excelled as a baseball player. He was selected by the New York Yankees in the second round of the 1981 Major League Baseball draft (52nd overall, six spots ahead of future Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn), and received $150,000 for playing for the Yankees' short season affiliate Oneonta Yankees in the New York–Penn League in the summer of 1982. Many scouts saw Elway as a good baseball player, but not as likely a star as in football. Yankees scout Gary Hughes believed, however, that if Elway concentrated on baseball "the sky was the limit … he would've been off the charts". Yankees owner George Steinbrenner—who aggressively sought Elway's services—reportedly planned to make him the Yankees' starting right fielder by 1985, which Elway—aware of Steinbrenner's opinion—later described as "a tremendous [and] exciting thought".