Wranglers QB finds success at ACC

Austin Community College doesn't have any sports programs because of its small size, but one student attending the school could be an honorary all-time quarterback. John Fitzgerald is the starting quarterback for the Austin Wranglers of the Arena Football League.

This is Fitzgerald's second semester at ACC, and his second year with the Wranglers. Before coming to Austin, he played with the Dallas Desperados.

As the Wranglers' season ended in May 2006, Fitzgerald took a different approach to the off-season than what most athletes might have. Instead of hitting the weights all summer and fall, he decided to tackle the books.

Fitzgerald has already been enrolled at ACC for one semester and is continuing his education this fall. He already has college hours under his belt. In fact, Fitzgerald has acquired enough to earn a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Tulsa. Fitzgerald attended the school on a football scholarship. He red-shirted his first year and played the next four years, graduating from the university in 1999. Fitzgerald has played in many cities and states. During one stop in Florida he used his degree to teach math to high school students during the off-season.

"I taught honors algebra, geometry and anything else that needed to be taught," he said.

Fitzgerald has been playing football since he was 5 years old in Oklahoma. He says that the degree of fun varies at each level.

"In high school it was about Friday nights; college was about the learning process and professionally, you got to travel and meet new people," he said. Growing up a Broncos fan and admiring quarterback John Elway, Fitzgerald saw himself one day making the National Football League. As soon as he graduated from Tulsa, though, his number wasn't called upon. The climb as an un-drafted player to an NFL team was not an easy road to travel. Then, almost immediately, Fitzgerald began his arena football career. The reward of playing football professionally for Fitzgerald has been the countless relationships that have been created. For him those can never be replaced.

Along the road Fitzgerald has noticed one thing about the game.

"Football showed me no stability," he said.

Looking out for the best interests of his family, Fitzgerald would like to create a stable foundation for life down the road. With the constant moving around and business aspect of professional football along with the realization that you can't play professional sports forever, Fitzgerald has once again taken on another field of play.

He has begun taking classes at ACC to fulfill prerequisites for medical school. This is the first time he has gone back to school since graduating from Tulsa.

Fitzgerald has not chosen a medical school to attend yet but would go anywhere that accepted him. His brother and dad, who both work in emergency rooms, went to the same medical school in Oklahoma. He says he would favor going to school back in Oklahoma but could stick around the Lone Star state.

"My wife is from Texas, so I could stay in-state," he said.

Once in medical school, he would like to keep the sports theme going by studying sports medicine or orthopedics. Traveling a lot, along with learning new offensive systems, could often seem overwhelming. Not so for Fitzgerald, who said the return to school looks to be more intimidating than an opposing defense.

"I have 25 years of football experience behind me, [and] the six years out of school makes [returning] tougher," he said.