A Quarter Century Later Espinoza Looks Back

AMES, Iowa – Even a quarter of a century later, the legacy of former Iowa State quarterback Alex Espinoza burns bright in the Cyclone football record book. He still ranks third in Iowa State history behind Bret Meyer (9,499) and Austen Arnaud (6,777), having thrown for 5,307 yards between 1984 and 1986. His 33 touchdown passes ranks fourth all time. Both were school records when his Iowa State career had ended a quarter of a century ago. The 1986 Iowa State graduate, who hailed from East Los Angeles, still retains warm feelings for his alma mater.
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“Iowa State was the best choice for me,” Espinoza said. “Iowa State was probably the turning point in my life. Living 1,500 miles away from home I became a man and did things on my own and had to be responsible for my own actions. It was a good choice for me and I have nothing but love for the city of Ames.”

But the road to Ames was anything but straight for the football slinger from the streets of East Los Angeles. The son of a Southern Pacific Railroad forklift operator, Espinoza faced all the challenges common to a boy growing up in a community of gangs and significant crime activity.

“In order to survive, you've got to have a good head on your shoulders,” Espinoza said. “There's a lot of peer pressure, a lot of violence.”

Espinoza started playing football as an eight-year-old and had another ace in the hole, his family.

“There were adversities to overcome and somehow I did it,” Espinoza said. “My family was the big reason I was steered away from the gangs.”

It was Espinoza's older brother Johnny who arranged for Alex to attend St. Paul High School in Santa Fe Springs, Calif. St. Paul, 20 miles from the Espinoza family home, was a state powerhouse under head coach Marijon Ancich, the winningest prep coach in state history.

“I ended up winning the starting job at quarterback, coach Ancich gave me a fair shake,” Espinoza said. “I lost only one game in high school."

With Espinoza, St. Paul went 12-1 his junior season and 14-0 en route to the 1982 California prep title in his senior campaign. In total, Espinoza threw for a total of 3,899 yards and 35 touchdowns at St. Paul.

His success opened the door for college recruiting trips. Future San Francisco and Detroit NFL head coach Steve Mariucci, then the quarterbacks coach at Cal State-Fullerton, sold Espinoza on staying in the greater Los Angeles area and he signed with the Titans.

“I went with my heart at the time, not knowing what kind of program it was going to be,” Espinoza said. “Cal State-Fullerton was also only 15 minutes away from where I was in L.A.”

Espinoza started the last half of the 1982 season at Fullerton, throwing for 1,800 yards. But he wanted more.

“It wasn't the type of program I was really searching for,” Espinoza said. “We only had 3,500 fans show up for our games and it was not what I really wanted. I decided to search elsewhere. I already knew Boise State coach (Jim) Criner, who had met me recruiting before I went to Fullerton.”

At a convention in Los Angeles where coaches could look at tapes of many prospects, Espinoza met up again with Criner, who had taken the Iowa State head coaching job.

“We met in the lobby,” Espinoza said. “He ended up recruiting me again and brought me in during April of 1983. It was a shock but I sat out the season and got to learn from watching (ISU quarterback and future NFL signal-caller) David Archer. He was a very smart quarterback and he took me under his wing. He was only there a year when I was there but I could learn a lot from him in meetings and being around him. He was a top-notch quarterback who taught me a lot.”

Iowa State opened the 1984 season at Iowa. Iowa won the game but Espinoza came off the bench to replace Alan Hood and threw a trio of TD passes. Espinoza became the starter. He completed 55 percent of his passes (143-of-262) for 1,580 yards and 10 touchdowns. In the first night game in Iowa State history, the Cyclones nearly upset No. 1 Oklahoma before falling 12-10 before a national ESPN audience.

“We had them on the ropes,” Espinoza said.

During the 1985 season, the Cyclones were an up and down team. The season finale however was a 15-10 victory in frigid Ames over No. 7 Oklahoma State.

“Oklahoma State's team had Barry Sanders, Thurmon Thomas and Hart Lee Dykes,” Espinoza said.

Iowa State finished the season with a 5-6 record. As a junior, Espinoza threw for 1,704 yards. The Cyclones went 6-5 his senior season, in an up and down fall. With two games remaining in the 1986 campaign, Criner was fired. The following week, Espinoza hit on 14-of-26 passes for 286 yards and threw four TD passes in a 48-19 win at Kansas State. But the coaching staff was done at season's end and that had an impact on Espinoza's future
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“We really did not have an opportunity as athletes to have the support from the coaching staff in trying to market our skills to the NFL,” Espinoza said.

After a year with Winnipeg of the Canadian Football League, Espinoza was released. But opportunity knocked in the form of the NFL player strike in 1987. NFL teams scrambled to sign whole new teams which ended up competing for three weeks before the strike was settled.
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“The Kansas City Chiefs called and gave me the opportunity to play in the strike games,” Espinoza said. “I had a chance to play against the Miami Dolphins. They actually signed me for the following season.”

The NFL strike made for interesting experiences.

“It was wild and crazy,” Espinoza said. “Every practice we had to take a different route so the picketers wouldn't meet up with us. We would take the east gate one day and the west gate the next day and we would not tell people how we would get in. We would bus in, so we would not have our own vehicle parked in the parking lot where players park and walk in.”

The NFL was creating the World League of American Football (WLAF) as a spring developmental league. Espinoza was assigned by the Cardinals to the league's Frankfurt (Germany) Galaxy. It was an experience that exposed Espinoza to unique events and a whole new culture and fan base.

“In 1991, we were among the first Americans to see our soldiers coming home from Desert Storm,” Espinoza said. “It was a really exciting time in Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall.”

The WLAF teams in Europe had loyal support.

“The fans were wild and fun,” Espinoza said. “Every European team's fans had their own way of doing things. Frankfurt fans cheered for everything, penalties, interceptions, they cheered for everything. Barcelona, they loved whistling. They had 104,000 fans in the Camp Nou Stadium and they all had a whistle. We couldn't hear anything on the field. They had to make an announcement that only the officials could blow their whistles. It was fun.”

Late in the season, Espinoza suffered a deep hip pointer.

“I ended up playing out the season but had to take medication and injections just to get up and do normal things,” Espinoza said. “I had to make an executive decision and ask myself 'should I continue doing this, taking the injections and medications or should I just hang up the cleats?' I hung up the cleats, the right decision.”

Today, Espinoza is the father of a 13-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter.

“My kids are active in their sports,” Espinoza said. “They are getting in tune with what dad did in the past. With the internet and all, they are asking a lot of questions.”

Espinoza works for a security company.

“We do a lot of high-profile protection working for production companies in the L.A. basin," Espinoza said. "It involves getting people to their locations. It keeps us busy.”

For Espinoza, Iowa State was more than a good choice, it was the best choice.