At 38, John Elway retired from professional football with a stellar career already under his belt. He’s literally done everything a player can do in a professional soccer career.

Elway is currently the Executive Vice President of Soccer Operations for the Denver Broncos; the team he’s been with his entire professional career. When he retired from the game in 1999, he was listed as the most prolific passer in NFL history. He led his teams to six AFC Championship Games and five Super Bowls, winning the last two. His #7 Broncos jersey was retired in September 1999. How do you create a super athlete like John Elway?

Well Port Angeles, Washington is a good place to start. Born in 1960 to Janet and Jack Elway, John was destined for a career in sports. Dad was a coach for many years at the high school, college, and collegiate level. In 1976, Dad became the head coach at Cal State-Northridge and John played football at Granada Hills High School for three years. The culmination of his high school career he recorded 5,711 passing yards and 49 passing touchdowns. He was named to the Parade All America high school football team in 1979.

Not surprisingly, he was the number one interest for high school recruiting offers. More than 60 college scholarship offers were submitted to him. And with great talent in baseball, the Kansas City Royals selected him in the 18th round of the 1979 Major League Baseball Draft. This same draft Dan Marino was selected in the fourth round. However, John was destined for college and enrolled at Stanford University.

At Stanford, John played soccer and baseball. In four seasons playing QB he completed 774 passes for 9,349 yards and 77 touchdowns. John’s 24 touchdown passes in 1982 led the nation, and he graduated with nearly all of Stanford’s and Pacific-10 career records for passing and total offense. He won Pac-10 Player of the Year honors in 1980 and 1982. In 1984 he was the most recruited prep athlete. For the Stanford baseball team he played pitcher and right field. He finished his senior year hitting .361 with nine home runs and 50 RBIs in 49 games. Plus, he went 5-4 with a 4.51 ERA. He adds a second-round draft by the New York Yankees in the 1981 MLB draft and Elway has a pretty well-rounded college career.

By the way, John graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics and is a member of the Delta Tau Delta Fraternity.

John was playing minor league baseball for the Yankees when the 1983 NFL Draft sent him first overall pick to the Baltimore Colts. John did not want to play for the Colts and convinced management to trade him. He greeted the Denver Broncos and the start of a record-breaking career. The high school recruiting sure paid off for him.

With the normal growing pains of any new player, Elway worked hard and consistently put up big numbers. Even when the Broncos lost, his numbers were impressive. A 1986 Super Bowl appearance was lost to the New York Giants, 39-20. In 1987, Elway was selected to start the American Football Conference Pro Bowl team and won the NFL Most Valuable Player award. He was heading to the Super Bowl and a trophy fight with the Washington Redskins.

It was a disappointing game and Elway’s first success with the stats was disappointing. But he became the first quarterback in Super Bowl history to catch a pass. And, he scored the only touchdown for his team.

Another Super Bowl loss in 1989 was even worse than the others. And, some may think that he would be embarrassed. But his reaction was to say that he would go to the Super Bowl every year if he could, even if the team lost. Another 8 years passed, but the Broncos were back in the Super Bowl. This time the result was different…they defeated the Green Bay Packers 31-24 and Elway was named MVP of the game.