Elway and his twin sister were born in Port Angeles, Washington, to Janet (nee Jordan) and Jack Elway, then the head coach at Port Angeles High School on the Olympic Peninsula. 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.
1983 NFL Draft
In the 1983 NFL Draft, Elway was selected as the first overall pick by the Baltimore Colts. Elway was wary of playing for the Colts, among the worst teams in the league at the time, and his father advised him against playing for head coach Frank Kush, who had a reputation as a harsh taskmaster. While Elway preferred football, his agent Marvin Demoff later stated that baseball was "a true option" for him at the time. The possibility gave Elway leverage in negotiations with the Colts.  After unsuccessfully attempting to negotiate a private agreement with the Colts in which Elway would cite his alleged desire to remain on the West coast to explain the team trading him, Elway publicly threatened to join the Yankees full-time if the Colts did not trade him; Demoff wrote in his journal, published three decades later, that "he would be a garbage collector before he'd play for Baltimore." Elway's refusal to join the Colts was controversial-- Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw denounced him, stating "you should play baseball ... he's not the kind of guy you win championships with"--but many other NFL teams began negotiations with the Colts for the quarterback. One possibility was trading Elway for the San Francisco 49ers' Joe Montana, whose team had had a poor season in 1982. Another was a trade with the San Diego Chargers, which was negotiating a new contract with its star quarterback Dan Fouts. The New England Patriots were interested, but the Colts did not wish to trade Elway to a team in the same division.  The Colts' general manager Ernie Accorsi wanted Elway as, Accorsi later said, he did not foresee the 1984 Draft as producing any first-round quarterbacks. Accorsi announced Elway as the team's choice as soon as possible during the 15-minute window on draft day, surprising observers. Elway that day reiterated his wish to not play for the Colts at a press conference, saying "As I stand here right now, I'm playing baseball". (When a reporter pointed out that the Yankees were not based on the West coast, Elway replied "They play baseball during the summertime".) The Colts, however, were interested in offensive lineman Chris Hinton, who the Denver Broncos had chosen as the fourth pick in the first round. On May 2, Colts owner Robert Irsay and Accorsi agreed to trade Elway for Hinton, backup quarterback Mark Herrmann, and a first-round pick in the 1984 Draft. The Colts controversial relocation to Indianapolis the following year would later prove to somewhat vindicate Jack Elway's concerns, and that franchise would largely struggle until the arrival of Peyton Manning during Elway's last season as a player.
Where did Elway go to college?
unknown
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