John Paye is a former American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 quarterback

Quarterback

Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...

 in the National Football League

National Football League

The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

 and a high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 coach

Coach (sport)

In sports, a coach is an individual involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a sports team or of individual sportspeople.-Staff:...

.

Early life

A graduate of Menlo School

Menlo School

Menlo School, also referred to simply as Menlo, is an independent college preparatory school in Atherton, California, near the heart of Silicon Valley. Menlo comprises a middle school that includes grades 6–8 and a high school that includes grades 9–12...

 in Atherton, California

Atherton, California

Atherton is an incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States. Its population was 6,914 at the 2010 census. In September 2010, Forbes magazine placed Atherton's zip code of 94027 at #2 on its annual list of America's most expensive zip codes, with a median home price of $4,010,200...

, Paye lettered in baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

, basketball, and football

High school football

High school football, in North America, refers to the game of football as it is played in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both of these nations....

. In his senior year of 1983, Menlo won the California Interscholastic Federation

California Interscholastic Federation

The California Interscholastic Federation is the governing body for high school sports in the state of California. It mirrors similar governing bodies in other states; however, it differs from some of the others in that it covers most high schools in the state of California, both public and...

 (CIF) Division II basketball championship. One of Paye's teammates was Eric Reveno

Eric Reveno

Eric Reveno is an American college basketball coach and the head men's basketball coach at the University of Portland. He was named the West Coast Conference coach of the year for the 2008–09 season after a third place finish in conference....

, who played with Paye on Stanford's

Stanford Cardinal

The Stanford Cardinal is the nickname of the athletic teams at Stanford University.-Nickname and mascot history:Following its win over Cal in the first-ever Big Game in 1892, the color cardinal was picked as the primary color of Stanford's athletic teams...

 basketball team and is currently the basketball head coach

Head coach

A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches...

 at the University of Portland

University of Portland

The University of Portland is a private Roman Catholic university located in Portland, Oregon. It is affiliated with the Congregation of Holy Cross and is the sister school of the University of Notre Dame. Founded in 1901, UP has a student body of about 3,600 students...

.

College and professional career

Paye continued as a starter

Starting lineup

A starting lineup in sports is an official list of the set of players who will actively participate in the event when the game begins. The players in the starting lineup are commonly referred to as starters, whereas the others are substitutes or bench players.The starters are commonly the best...

 in football and basketball at Stanford

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

, and became the starting quarterback in his freshman year of 1983. That year, Paye also started at point guard

Point guard

Point guard , also called the play maker or "the ball-handler", is one of the standard positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position – essentially, he is expected to run the team's offense by controlling the ball and making sure that...

 for Stanford's basketball team. Paye was the last NCAA Division I athlete to start in both football and basketball as a freshman.

In the 1984 season, he shared time at quarterback with Fred Buckley, and became the starter for the 1985 and 1986 season. In 1986, Paye led Stanford to the Gator Bowl

Gator Bowl

The Gator Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Florida. Held continuously since 1946, it is the sixth oldest college bowl, as well as the first one ever televised nationally...

 against the Clemson Tigers

Clemson Tigers

The Clemson Tigers are any team that represents Clemson University as a member of the NCAA's Division I or in the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference....

. This was Stanford's first bowl appearance in 8 years, but Paye was unable to play due to a shoulder injury. Backup Greg Ennis started instead, and Stanford lost a close game 27-21.

He was selected in the 10th round of the 1987 NFL Draft

1987 NFL Draft

The 1987 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 28–29, 1987...

 by the San Francisco 49ers

San Francisco 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...

 and stayed two seasons with the 49ers, being a member of their 1988

1988 San Francisco 49ers season

The San Francisco 49ers 1988 season was their 43rd season in the National Football League. The season was highlighted by their third Super Bowl victory. In 1988, the 49ers struggled. At one point, they were 6-5 and in danger of missing the playoffs but rose to defeat the Washington Redskins on a...

 Super Bowl team.

Coaching career

After leaving football, Paye returned to Menlo as the girls' basketball coach, coaching his sister Kate

Kate Paye

Kate Paye is a former collegiate and professional basketball player. She is currently an assistant coach for the women's basketball team at Stanford University.- Early life and college career :...

. Paye guided the team to three CIF Division V state championships from 1989-1991. Paye coached boys' basketball at Woodside Priory School

Woodside Priory School

The Woodside Priory School, sometimes known as The Priory, is an independent, coeducational, Roman Catholic, college preparatory, day and boarding school in the Benedictine tradition located in Portola Valley, California in the United States...

 in the 1995-1996 season and coached girls' basketball at Notre Dame High School

Notre Dame High School (Belmont, California)

Notre Dame High School, Belmont is a private, All-Female, Catholic, college preparatory high school located in the San Mateo County suburb of Belmont, California. The school is operated by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur for the Archdiocese of San Francisco...

 girls' basketball team in Belmont, California

Belmont, California

Belmont is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States. It is in the San Francisco Bay Area, located half-way down the San Francisco Peninsula between San Mateo and San Carlos. It was originally part of the Rancho de las Pulgas, for which one of its main roads, the Alameda de las Pulgas,...

before returning to coach the sport at Menlo School in 2008.