Four years ago, NIU graduate Dan Rosado tossed his dress shoes and briefcase into the closet and pulled out his spikes along with his dreams.

The 29-year-old Rosado, who was on the rise with a cushy corporate sales manager job at Pepsico, is now competing in the bump and grind with dozens of other San Diego Chargers' hopefuls in an NFL training camp.

It's not as though the former Huskie football player has been in spring training since he left Huskie Stadium his senior year in 1979.

On the contrary, when Rosado decided he was going to return to football in 1984, he referred to himself as the "250-pound martini-lunch-belly businessman" in an article written in the San Diego Union by NIU graduate T.J. Simers.

Despite his age, Rosado is slowly but surely turning a fairytale story into reality. Now benching 505 pounds, the strongest Chargers' player, Rosado has caught the eye of coach Al Saunders.

"If we had to make the cuts today," Saunders said in Simers' article, "he'd have a spot on this football team. That's how much he has improved."

Rosado received his urge to play ball again after watching a USFL game in 1984.

He decided he didn't want to be a "could've been," so he began intense training. Before he knew it, he was signed up with the Houston Gamblers as a guard.

Shortly after the season started, the USFL folded, but Rosado did not.

He signed with the Miami Dolphins, only to be one of the last people cut. Rosado was too set on getting into the NFL to go back to Pepsi, so he joined the list of 109 names on the training-camp roster for the Chargers.

"I know they are going to make this team up with people with a lot of tenacity that are smart and aggressive," Rosado said in the Simers' story, "and I'm that person. I'm one of those 47 who will make it."

If Rosado's chances banked on the success of his former teammates' post-college football careers, he'd have a lock on a spot on the Chargers' roster.

Among Rosado's peers from the offensive line who continued were Randy Clark, who played for the Chicago Bears in 1980 and then moved to the St. Louis Cardinals as a starting center in 1983; Jim Hannula, who left NIU as a first-team All-Mid America Conference tight end to play for the Cincinnati Bengals in 1981; and Max Gill, who went to the Detroit Lions as a free agent.

"(Rosado's class) was the best recruiting class I think we'd ever had," said former head coach Pat Culpepper. "They were outstanding rookie youngsters, good students, good leaders and they really pushed each other."

Mike Korcek, NIU sports information director, recalls when Culpepper referred to Rosado's offensive line as "The Force" in reference to the Star Wars movies popular at that time.

Culpepper said that while Rosado was a tough individual, he was a "special kind of kid."

"There was something different about Danny. He had a lot of pride, and he took pride in the way he dressed.

"I think that had something to do with his poor background. I think if (Rosado makes the Chargers), a lot of it will have to do with that pride."