The Phoenix Of Palo Alto

A marvelous paradox of this football season is that the college quarterback most prized by the pros plays for a team with one of the most god-awful records in the country. The quarterback is John Elway, and he throws bullet passes with cross-hair accuracy. The team is Stanford, which has been beaten by Purdue 27-19, San Jose State 28-6, Ohio State 24-19, Arizona 17-13, Southern Cal 25-17, Arizona State 62-36 and Washington 42-31. Last Saturday's 63-9 victory over Oregon State was only the second of the year for Stanford; on Oct. 10 the Cardinals squeaked by UCLA 26-23. Nevertheless, despite such massive insult and occasional injury—Elway has been bothered by a sprained right ankle, a chipped bone in his left hand and a mild concussion—the embattled young man has made the pros covet him all the more. In this hellish season he has thrown the ball 309 times and completed 175 passes for a .566 percentage and 2,202 yards. Fifteen of his passes have gone for touchdowns. That performance, following a sophomore season in which he completed 65.4% of 379 passes for 2,889 yards and 27 touchdowns, has put him near the top of the quarterback heap at a school renowned for its passers.

As the season began, of course, there was no reason to foresee doom and gloom for the Cardinals, and the mood at Palo Alto was light and loose.

The locker-room conversation sounded pretty depressing, to be sure. "Cliffs in jail," Rob Moore said to Elway, "and it looks to me like the kid isn't his, either." Elway shook his blond head in mock concern, situating himself atop a training table for the pre-practice ankle-taping ritual, a chore performed at Stanford by attractive young women trainers. "Too bad about your friend," a concerned bystander said. "What friend?" Elway said. "Cliff. The guy in jail. The cuckold." Raucous young laughter. "Oh, that's a soap-opera character. Rob and I always keep track of his latest tragedies. I guess he is a friend in a way."

Moore reappeared with more bad news. "And I had a flat last night out "by the lake." Elway laughed. "Rob is his own soap opera," he said. "Let's see, what've you had now—a broken neck, a bum knee and a flat tire. Not bad for three years of football."

"They're taking money to see when I'll go down this year," Moore, a fullback, said, smiling gravely.

Moore and Elway were joined by Darrin Nelson, the bubbly nonesuch halfback, whose hand was being bandaged by one of the trainers. "How'd that happen?" Elway inquired. "Well," said Nelson, warming to the occasion, "these three big dudes had me cornered last night, and by the time I'd punched them all out, my hand got hurt." He paused reflectively, checking the reaction of the comely trainer. "Actually, I banged it against a doorknob."

College football players, particularly those attending schools like Stanford, where classroom attendance is considered de rigueur, are a curious bunch out of armor—giant bodies topped by the heads of earnest schoolboys. From the neck up, Elway, who is considered by professional scouts to be the hottest college passer since Bert Jones, could be Andy Hardy, or Jody Baxter in The Yearling. His hair falls like straw over an unlined forehead. His blue eyes are clear and his mouth, thick-lipped, is filled with alabaster teeth. That's the head. The rest of him is pure pro quarterback—lanky (6'4", 202), long-limbed, the chest of a weightlifter. Watching him fire his passes, reading about his record-shattering performances, one is likely to forget that this superman is, at 21, still a boy.

Jim Fassel, Stanford's offensive coordinator, addressed the offensive unit before the final practice the week of Stanford's opening game with Purdue. He spoke football-ese. "They play very soft in the secondary on the Zebra formation.... Passes should be called away from the roll of the Cowboy coverage.... If they're playing the short post, we'll go to the shake...." Elway and Moore were sitting together, kids in class foggily absorbing the arcanum. The coach reverted to English. "Let's have some fun out there. Hey, we're good. Practice is short today, one hour. We'll finish with the two-minute drill." Elway, daydreaming, became a Bob & Ray creation. "Uh, will we be doing the two-minute drill?" he asked. "He just got through saying that," Moore said, gleefully jumping on the gaffe. "Our peerless leader," the front row moaned in chorus. "I don't know how I missed that," said the red-faced peerless leader.

Elway may be inattentive on occasion, but he is, according to the experts, a forward passer possibly without peer. Last season he set Pac-10 Conference records for touchdown passes, completions, touchdowns running and passing (31; he ran for four) and total offense (2,939 yards) plus a single-game mark for TD passes (six against Oregon State) and TD passes in a quarter (four, also against the Beavers), which also equaled an NCAA record. He was one of the handful of quarterbacks ever to be named All-America as a sophomore. Against Purdue this year he set personal highs by completing 33 of 44 passes for 418 yards. Against Ohio State he rallied Stanford to a near-upset by completing 21 of 27 second-half passes, including nine in a row late in the third and early in the fourth quarters. Only a fumble after a reception by second-team Halfback Vincent White stopped a last-minute Stanford drive and preserved Ohio State's win.

Alas, his ankle injury, which he suffered against Purdue, sorely limited Elway's mobility and forced him to alter his passing motion—instead of throwing with his whole body, he was using almost all arm and wrist—in the first four games, and he played less than a half against Arizona State in the seventh game, albeit completing 10 of 17 passes for 270 yards and three touchdowns, before chipping the bone in his hand and suffering the concussion. Despite all of these handicaps, his performance has been, in its own way, fully as remarkable as the gaudier one of the previous season.