By Sue Jones
Napa Valley, California, is known to wine connoisseurs for its scenic beauty, plentiful grapes, and remarkable wineries. But ASU football fans may be surprised to find out that it is also a great place to catch up with one of their Sun Devil alumni.
After squashing opponents as a linebacker for ASU, Justin Dragoo has traded in his helmet and cleats for his long time passion of fine wine. This past June, he was appointed President and General Manager of the Gargiulo Vineyards in Napa. Crushing grapes has been a familiar part of Dragoo’s old stomping grounds. He grew up in Napa Valley and played football for the Vintage High School Crushers.
Dragoo’s love of wine stems from an early age when his parents owned a winery in Napa and he was often involved in the family business. His love of football also came from family ties. Dragoo’s father played college ball as a guard for Nebraska. The incredible talent that was passed on by his father was acknowledged by several universities, one of which was Arizona State. A combination of the beautiful weather, outstanding facilities, and immeasurable support persuaded him to pack his bags for Tempe.
Dragoo was also impressed by the people at the business school and what so many other ASU graduates had gone on to accomplish before him.
“It was a great experience, and it was the passion I saw in the people, plus all of the investments that were going into Arizona State overall, to make it world class both as an athletic and academic institution, and it really sold me,” he said.
Dragoo achieved both his undergraduate degree as well his MBA from ASU, and considers himself, “A Sun Devil in every way.”
He excelled both on and off the field while attending college, gaining recognition through numerous awards. He was named Bill Kajikawa Freshman of the Year in 1991. He was also honored with the Clyde B. Smith Academic Award four straight years from 1991-1994. Dragoo’s perseverance led to his success as an Academic All-American.
On the field, 1995 proved to be an outstanding year for Dragoo as well. He was named an outstanding defensive player of the game, was selected to play in the East-West Shrine Game and was elected as one of the Sun Devils’ team captains. He also achieved Letterman status in 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1995.
Dragoo’s proudest scholastic honor came when he won the Pac 10 Medal of Honor, which is a prestigious award for excellence in academics and athletics presented to one male student-athlete at each Pac-10 Conference institution. This award came with a scholarship which Dragoo used to help fund his MBA.
While working towards his goal of getting an MBA, he built long-standing friendships with both coaches and players, under the strong leadership of the late Sun Devils Coach Bruce Snyder, who passed in April, 2009. Dragoo says he still keeps in touch with many of those people today, and considers them to be some of his closest friends.
“You could really feel the team chemistry building, and how things really were changing for the better and becoming an elite program under Coach Snyder. It was a great honor to be a part of that whole building process,” Dragoo said.
He goes on to say that it was very rewarding to know that he helped build the foundation for the following year when the team went undefeated in the regular season.
Dragoo said that one memory he will never forget was when he sprinted out of the Sun Devils’ tunnel for the first time. He felt the true passion of the fans and it was an experience he had never quite felt before.
“Coming out of the tunnel, at that point, was the most energized feeling I had ever had,” he remembers.
One of his other favorite memories of playing college football was when the Sun Devils beat their archrivals, the University of Arizona Wildcats, after a long losing streak against their neighbors from the south. He said he doesn’t have many regrets in life, but jokingly adds that his one regret was not getting a chance to beat them again in his final season at ASU.
As a former student-athlete, Dragoo feels it is important to give back to the Sun Devil Club. ASU has always had great facilities and maintaining, improving and building new facilities can only be done through private donations. Facilities are an important component in recruiting talented student-athletes to ASU. The construction of the Dickey Dome, for example, is a necessity for the health of our student-athletes as well as a combatant to negative recruiting by other schools. Contributing to the Legacy Program is how alums and community members can insure the competitive advantage for our student-athletes in the recruiting process and when they are training and competing on the field.
Dragoo’s passion for football and amazing talent gave him the unique opportunity to play for a short time in the NFL with the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos. He said the way to describe the level of talent was “exponential” in the movement from high school to college, and then from college to the NFL. His professional football career was unfortunately cut short due to knee injuries, but while some people would have chosen to have sour grapes about this situation, Dragoo looked at it as a way to change his direction and explore other avenues.
This other avenue opened up when he accepted an offer to work at IBM in New York City after obtaining his MBA. He spent 12 years there as the Vice President of Global Technology Services. Dragoo said he thoroughly enjoyed being a part of a large, well-run corporation and it gave him the good fortune to explore and travel the world.
After being with IBM for more than a decade, Dragoo said he was pulled away to follow his lifetime passion of fine wine.
His journey started to come full circle. What was once a beloved hobby became something else. From the beginning when he helped at his family’s winery, to his part-time job at a wine store in college, he knew the wine business was his destiny. He had even become an avid wine collector with his own brand named “Revelry,” from 2001-2004.
His new career path at Gargiulo Vineyards gave Dragoo and his family the chance to “move back home to one of the most amazing places in the world.” With wife Alison by his side, they continue to feel blessed and raise their two children; Austin, age 4 and Hayden, 4 months old.
Dragoo said the greatest thing about being a dad is, “the innocence of (the children), discovering something new for the first time.”
Dragoo continues to practice the life lessons he gathered while at ASU, and is forever thankful for his time there. Across the board, Dragoo can be considered one of Arizona State’s true success stories.