1960

June 28
John Albert Elway is born in Port Angeles, Wash.

1978-79

As a senior at Granada Hills (Calif.) High School, Elway's prowess in football and baseball makes him one of the most sought-after athletes in the nation. He's drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the 18th round of the baseball free-agent draft, but he opts to attend Stanford on a football scholarship.

1980

Elway is named quarterback on The Sporting News' All-America first team.

1982

After being selected by the New York Yankees in the 1981 baseball draft, Elway spends his summer playing Class A baseball with Oneonta. He hits .318 with a team-high 25 RBIs in 42 games. That fall, Elway finishes his college football career with the Cardinal. As a senior, Elway is again The Sporting News' quarterback on the All-America first team and is the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy.

1983

April
The Baltimore Colts select him with the first overall pick of the NFL Draft. Elway is the first quarterback selected in the famed "Class of '83". The others: Todd Blackledge, Jim Kelly, Tony Eason, Ken O'Brien and Dan Marino. However, Elway makes his feelings known that he doesn't want to play for the Colts.

May
The Colts trade the rights to Elway to the Denver Broncos for QB Mark Herrmann, the rights to OL Chris Hinton and a first-round pick in the 1984 draft.

September 4
Elway makes his first career start in a season-opening win at Pittsburgh. Elway is far from impressive as he completes just 1-of-8 passes for 14 yards. He is intercepted once and sacked four times.

September 18
Elway throws the first touchdown pass of his career, a 33-yarder to Rick Parros.

October 9
With just one touchdown pass and five interceptions, a struggling Elway is removed from the starting lineup in favor of Steve DeBerg. Elway would sit for the next four games.

December 11
In the highlight of his rookie season, Elway engineers the first of his 47 career comebacks as he leads the Broncos to a home win over the Colts, the team he demanded to be traded from. The Broncos trail 19-0 but Elway throws three late touchdown passes, including the last one on fourth down to Gerald Willhite, to rally his team to a 21-19 win. For the game, he throws for 345 yards with no interceptions.

1984

Elway leads his club to a 12-2 regular-season record in his 14 starts.

1987

January 11
Starting at his own 2-yard line, Elway directs the Broncos to a game-tying touchdown in the AFC Championship game at Cleveland. With 37 seconds remaining, Elway throws a 5-yard scoring strike to Mark Jackson to cap the 15-play, 98-yard series that will forever be remembered as "The Drive." Denver wins the game, 23-20, in overtime on a Rich Karlis 33-yard field to send the Broncos to the Super Bowl.

January 25
In his first Super Bowl, Elway passes for 304 yards but the Broncos are beaten by the Giants. New York scores 24 consecutive points to start the second half to break open a game that Denver led 10-9 at halftime. The 1987 regular season is marred by a strike, but Elway shines bright as he is named the NFL MVP by the Associated Press and the quarterback on The Sporting News' All-Pro team.

1988

January 17
Elway beats Marty Schottenheimer's Browns in another tight AFC Championship game, this time at Mile High Stadium.

January 31
Playing in a second-consecutive Super Bowl, Elway gets things started fast as he throws a 55-yard touchdown to Ricky Nattiel on Denver's first play from scrimmage. Things unravel from there, though, and Washington rolls to a 42-10 victory.

1990

January 11
For the third time in four seasons, Elway leads the Broncos to the AFC title. In the conference championship game, he leads Denver past the Browns by passing for 385 yards and three touchdowns in the 37-21 win over Cleveland.

January 25
One of the low points of his career, Elway's Super Bowl record drops to 0-3 as the Broncos are blitzed by the San Francisco 49ers, 55-10.

September 17
On 4th-and-10 with the clock winding down in the fourth quarter, Elway completes a 49-yard bomb to Vance Johnson to set up a game-winning field against the hated Kansas City Chiefs.

1992

October 4
At Mile High Stadium, the Chiefs lead the Broncos 19-6 with less than four minutes remaining. But Elway throws touchdown passes to Mark Jackson and Vance Johnson to pull off the stunning victory.

January 4
Elway flashes more postseason magic in a come-from-behind win over Houston at Mile High Stadium. After losing 21-6 at one point, the Broncos trail 24-23 with the ball on their own 2-yard line with 2:07 remaining and no timeouts remaining. On the ensuing drive, Elway scrambles for a first down on a 4th-and-6 play and has a 44-yard completion to Vance Johnson to help set up the game-winning field goal by David Treadwell. Elway calls the pass to Johnson the "ugliest pass of my life." Call it "The Drive II."

1993

Dan Reeves, who had an often-contentious relationship with Elway, is replaced as Denver's coach by Wade Phillips.

Elway leads AFC with a 92.8 passer rating, 551 attempts, 348 completions, 63.2 completion percentage, 25 touchdown passes and 4,030 yards. This season stands as the lone 4,000-yard campaign in Elway's 16-year career.

1995

Mike Shanahan, who served as a mentor for Elway as a Denver assistant early in Elway's career, takes over for Wade Phillips as the Broncos' coach. Elway becomes just the seventh player in pro football history to pass the 40,000-yard mark in total passing yards and is the fourth-fastest player to reach that plateau in terms of games played.

September 17
Elway heaves a Hail Mary pass that Rod Smith catches for a 43-yard touchdown as Denver defeats Washington, 38-31.

1996

Elway leads Denver to a sparkling 13-3 regular-season record. On a personal level, he becomes only the third player in NFL history to throw for 45,000 yards in a career.

1997

January 4
In Denver's first trip to the postseason since the 1993 season, the Broncos are shocked at Mile High Stadium by the Jacksonville Jaguars, who are in just their second season of existence. Elway tried to rekindle his fourth-quarter magic by throwing a touchdown pass to Ed McCaffrey in the game's final minutes to cut the Jaguars' lead to 30-27. But Jacksonville kills the rest of the clock to preserve the upset.

Regular season
Elway sets a personal high by tossing 27 touchdown passes as he leads Denver to a 12-4 regular-season mark. Elway also becomes just the second quarterback in NFL history to eclipse the 50,000-yard mark in total offense.

December 27
Avenging the upset loss to Jacksonville a year before, Elway throws for 223 yards and a touchdown to lead the Broncos to a 42-17 thrashing of the Jaguars.

1998

January 4
Trailing 10-7 early in the fourth quarter, Elway completes a 43-yard pass to Ed McCaffrey to the Kansas City 1-yard line. Two plays later, Terrell Davis scores on a run to help the Broncos upset the host Kansas City Chiefs, 14-10.

January 11
Playing their second consecutive playoff road game, the Broncos defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 24-21, to advance to the fourth Super Bowl of Elway's career. Two second-quarter scoring strikes from Elway gave Denver a 24-14 halftime lead.

January 25
Finally, the ring. Despite only passing for 123 yards, Elway shows his customary grit and leadership in guiding the Broncos to a 31-24 Super Bowl win over the favored Green Bay Packers. This is the first Super Bowl championship in Denver's history. At 37, Elway becomes the oldest player to score a touchdown in the Super Bowl, scoring on a 1-yard run around right end in the second quarter to give Denver a 14-10 lead. Another Elway run is perhaps the game's most memorable play, as he does a helicopter spin in midair while scrambling for a first down. After the game, upon receiving the Vince Lombardi Trophy, owner Pat Bowlen exclaims, "This one's for John!"

November 22
Elway completes a 5-yard pass to Willie Green against the Oakland Raiders to join Dan Marino as the only quarterbacks to throw for more than 50,000 yards in a career.

December 6
Elway throws a touchdown pass to Shannon Sharpe to give the Broncos a 35-31 win over the hated Chiefs. This is the 47th -- and final -- game-winning drive of Elway's career. This game also marks the top yardage game of his career, as he throws for 400 yards.

December 27
In what turns out to be his final regular-season home game, Elway goes out in style by flipping four touchdown passes against AFC West rival Seattle. That caps a 14-2 regular-season record for Denver. Those touchdown passes allow Elway to reach 300 touchdown passes for his career. This is also the 148th regular-season win for Elway, an NFL record.

1999

January 9
In a showdown with Miami's Dan Marino, the last remaining active member of the quarterback "Class of '83", Elway and the Broncos avenge a regular-season loss by trouncing the Dolphins, 38-3.

January 16
Elway earns his fifth Super Bowl trip by rallying Denver from a sleepy first half to trip up the New York Jets, 23-10. The Broncos are held scoreless in the first half, but a 47-yard completion to Ed McCaffrey sets up an 11-yard scoring pass to Howard Griffith to get the Broncos rolling. In his final game at Mile High Stadium, Elway is prodded into taking a victory lap around the field where he starred since 1983.

January 30
In a made-for-Jerry Springer setting, Elway faces off against an upstart Atlanta Falcons team coached by Reeves, Elway's former coach and sparring partner. Elway's shining moment comes in the second quarter, as he fires an 80-yard touchdown to Rod Smith to give the Broncos a 17-3 lead that they would not relinquish. That would turn out to be the final touchdown pass of his career, but he would add a rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter to help seal a second consecutive Super Bowl championship.

April 24
While playing in a golf tournament, Elway all but tells a Denver TV station that he is retiring, saying: "For so many years everything in my family has revolved around me. It's time for that to change. I really accomplished everything I wanted to. There's no real upside to coming back."