Have any professional athletes come from Chandler?

Chandler has a long history of producing outstanding athletes.  Several early Chandlerites played college ball at Arizona State and University of Arizona. 

The first to break into the professional ranks was Eddie Wilson.  The 1958 Chandler High graduate excelled in football and baseball.  Despite an offer to play for the Boston Red Sox, he attended the University of Arizona, where he earned induction into the school’s Ring of Honor quarterbacking the football team.  He was drafted by the Dallas Texans of the AFC and the Detroit Lions of the NFC, signing with Dallas.  He played one year there, three in Kansas City, and was traded to the Boston Patriots, where he got his shot to be the starting quarterback before his career was cut short by an illness. 

Other athletes followed him – Green Bay Packer Gordon Rule, Cincinnati Red Dave Van Gorder, Packer and San Francisco 49er Sanjay Beach, who caught Brett Favre’s first pass that wasn’t to himself. 

The floodgates have opened as Chandler has grown, with more professional athletes than you can count coming from Chandler: WNBA players Lindsay Taylor and Christina Wirth, 2012 NCAA Volleyball Player of the Year Alaina Bergsma, NFL star Adam Archuleta, NBA’s Markus Howard, MLB’s Cody Ransom, National League MVP Cody Bellinger, and a host of NFL players including former Arizona Cardinal Dontay Moch, 2^nd overall draft pick Dion Jordan, Pro-Bowler Cameron Jordan, All-American wide receiver Markus Wheaton, Super Bowl Champion Bryce Perkins, and NFL Defensive Player of the Year and Super Bowl Champion Terrell Suggs all call Chandler home.