Dwayne Armstrong (born March 18, 1971) is an American former sportsman who played

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

and Australian rules football.

College football career

Armstrong played college football for Iowa State in 1991 and 1992,

lettering Lettering is an umbrella term that covers the art of drawing letters, instead of simply writing them. Lettering is considered an art form, where each letter in a phrase or quote acts as an illustration. Each letter is created with attention to de ...

in both years. He was a member of the

Los Angeles Raiders The Los Angeles Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994 before relocating back to Oakland, California, where the team played from its inaugural 1960 season to the 1981 season and then agai ...

practice squad, but did not get activated to the main squad.

Australian rules football

The

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

athlete is best known for converting to Australian rules football. Armstrong met Melanie Oakley, the daughter of

Ross Oakley Ross Graham Oakley (born 30 September 1942) is an Australian businessman and former Australian rules footballer with St Kilda in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He is CEO of the Victorian Rugby Union and was appointed CEO of the new the ...

, the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

of the Australian Football League (AFL). He convinced Essendon Football Club coach Kevin Sheedy to recruit Armstrong, the first American raised athlete to switch to professional Australian rules football. He showed some promise and was put on Essendon's supplementary list. Although he did not debut at senior AFL level, he played several reserve grade and pre-season games. He also spent a season developing his skills with Russell Jeffrey at the Wanderers Football Club in Darwin, Northern Territory. Following his AFL attempt, Armstrong took a job with Ross Oakley's company that had acquired the license to sell NFL products in Australia. He became the NFL development manager for

Australasia Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologi ...

and was involved in arranging the NFL to be televised in Australia, the 1999

American Bowl The American Bowl was a series of National Football League pre-season exhibition games that were held at sites outside the United States between 1986 and 2005. The league started the ''American Bowl'' series in 1986 primarily to promote American ...

game between the San Diego Chargers and the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...

in Sydney and the ''Superpunt'' punting talent search that led to

Mat McBriar Mat McBriar (born 8 July 1979) is an Australian former American football punter in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers and the San Diego Chargers. He played college football fo ...

winning a scholarship to the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Armstrong, Dwayne Living people American expatriate sportspeople in Australia Iowa State Cyclones football players American players of Australian rules football VFL/AFL players born outside Australia Wanderers Football Club players 1971 births