John Elway

After Schonert graduated, Elway became the starting quarterback as a sophomore, threw 27 touchdown passes (2nd in the NCAA), and led the team to a 6–4 record heading into the final week of the season.

In the Big Game against a 2–8 California team, Stanford was upset 28–23, dropping them to 6–5 and costing them a chance to play in a bowl game.

John Albert Elway Jr. (born June 28, 1960) is an American former professional football quarterback who spent his entire 16-year career with the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL).

Following his playing career, he then spent 11 years with the Broncos in various front office positions, eventually being promoted to general manager.

Elway, along with 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.

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.

The family of five included sister Lee Ann, a year older than the twins.

They moved the following year 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, Elway lived primarily in Missoula, Montana, and Pullman, Washington, when his father was an assistant coach at Montana and Washington State, respectively.

In February 1976, Jack joined the staff at Palouse neighbor Idaho, but a month later became the head coach at Cal State-Northridge, a Division II program in Southern California.

The family moved after John's freshman year at Pullman High School to the San Fernando Valley, where he 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, where he played for the Stanford Cardinal football and baseball teams.

Rod Gilmore recalled 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 as backup to future NFL quarterback Schonert, playing in nine games as the team went 5–5–1.

In 1981, Elway had another fine season, ranking 7th in the NCAA with 20 touchdown passes, but the team finished the year with a dismal 4–7 record.

In his senior season in 1982, Stanford was 5–5 and needed to win its final game, The Big Game against Cal, to secure an invitation to the Hall of Fame Classic bowl game.

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 by defeating the Green Bay Packers 31–24 in Super Bowl XXXII.

The Broncos repeated as champions the following season in Super Bowl XXXIII by defeating the Atlanta Falcons 34–19.

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.

Elway was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004.

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.

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."