Jack Elway - Head Coaching Career

Head Coaching Career

In late March 1976, Elway was introduced as the head coach at Cal State Northridge in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. At the time, Elway's son John was a budding high school quarterback, finishing his freshman year at Pullman High School. He transferred to Granada Hills High School at the start of his sophomore year, and his play over the next three football seasons invited scores of scholarship offers; he selected Stanford and enrolled in 1979.

After three seasons at Northridge, Jack Elway moved up the California coast (and up to Division I) to San Jose State following the 1978 season, where his first offensive coordinator was Dennis Erickson. They employed the spread offense, which Elway had picked up from his son's high school coach, and then used at Northridge. San Jose State had considerable success, especially against Stanford, where son John was the starting quarterback through the 1982 season. Jack Elway's Spartans won three consecutive games over Stanford from 1981–83, and he compiled an overall record of 35–20–1 (.634) in five seasons.

After John's graduation, Jack Elway moved the few miles up the peninsula to Stanford in 1984, where he was head coach for five seasons and compiled 25–29–2 record (.446). In 1991 he coached the Frankfurt Galaxy of the WLAF during the team's first two years. Elway later worked in the Denver Broncos scouting department from 1993–99, the last five as director of pro scouting.