|
Elvis M. Grbac (; born August 13, 1970) is a retired American football quarterback who played in the NFL. During his career he was a starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, the Kansas City Chiefs, and Baltimore Ravens. In college he was a three-time passing efficiency champion, a Sammy Baugh Trophy-winner and the quarterback for Heisman Trophy-winner Desmond Howard. Drafted by San Francisco 49’ers in 1994, and serving in his rookie year as the backup to Steve Young on a Super Bowl championship team, he went on to play seven more seasons, starting 70 of the 106 games he played for San Francisco (1994–96), Kansas City (1997-2000) and Baltimore (2001). During his career, Grbac was on one Super Bowl-winning team with the 49ers, and won one AFC West title in 1997 while quarterbacking the Chiefs. He still holds six All-Time records with the Chiefs, including: Most touchdowns passes in consecutive games (15), Lowest percentage, passes had intercepted (3.04), and Most yards gained in a single game (504). He currently makes his home in Chagrin Falls, and is now an assistant quarterbacks coach for Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland, Ohio. ==Early life== Grbac was born in Cleveland to Ivan and Cecilija Grbac His father was born in Lanišće, near Buzet, Istra, Croatia, and his mother was also from Istra. His parents left Croatia in 1967 with their two eldest children, Maria and Engelbert (Elvis's eldest sister and brother) seeking the freedom to practice Catholicism and a life free from communist rule. Growing up in Cleveland, he did not learn to speak English well until kindergarten, having been raised with Croatian as his mother tongue. Grbac has always been proud of his Croatian heritage, and of his Istrian roots. His whole family particularly suffered the Croatian Conflict, when they picked up the newspaper or watched the TV news and saw their ravaged homeland and the malnourished Croatians in Serbian detention camps, the Grbacs were thankful that their village, Lanišće, located in an Istrian mountain valley off the Alps range (in the province of Buzet), was not a battle site. In an interview his mother, Cecilija, declared about the situation of the Croatian people in the War, that: ''"we know they must stay and fight for what they have"'', Elvis added ''"we know the country is not being run right, and we understand the history of hatred between Croatia and Serbia. But they have always lived simple life of hard work, a family-oriented survival. And that will continue."'' Grbac began to practice alone in football already at the age of four, admiring what could happen by airing out his arms toward a moving target. It all started with a chicken; at his grandmother's house in his homeland, Istra, at four years old he threw a rock at a chicken and killed one, the chicken was 15 yards away and Grbac hit it perfectly.〔 It was apparent soon after Grbac arrived at St. Joseph High School that the storied athletic power on the shores of Lake Erie had landed another special talent to compete in the Columbus blue and scarlet. The sturdy 6-5 youngster made his first impact in basketball, then added football to his resume in his junior year in 1987. Although playing in a run-oriented offense, featuring a remarkable talent named Desmond Howard, he attracted enough attention on the gridiron to earn honorable mention All-Ohio honors and a decade later would become the first Viking athlete to be honored be having his numbers retired in two sports – # 12 in football and # 53 in basketball.〔http://clevelandsportshall.com/grbac-elvis/〕 Originally interested in continuing his football career at Ohio State, he changed his mind when the Buckeyes fired Head Coach Earl Bruce and opted instead to join teammate Howard at Michigan. It was a great move for both Michigan and Howard. As a four-year starter for the Wolverines, Grbac led them to four Big 10 titles, leading the conference in passing in 1990, 1991 and 1992 while setting nine Michigan passing records. In 1991 he threw the legendary pass to Howard which sealed a 24-14 victory over Notre Dame and led to Howard’s now immortal “Heisman Pose” in the end zone celebration.〔 In that memorable game Grbac even completed 20 of 22 passes, a record for a Notre Dame opponent. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Elvis Grbac」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|