The Indiana University quarterback Fernando Mendoza he has made headlines for his work on and off the field.
Fernando, 22, has not only led the Hoosiers football team to a historic season in 2025, winning the school its first Big Ten Championship since 1967, but has also made it his mission.
Fernando and his younger brother Alberto (who also plays soccer at IU) joined to raise money for the National MS Society in support of his mother, Elsa Mendoza.
They partnered with two restaurants in Bloomington, Indiana, BuffaLouie’s and Gable’s Bagels, to launch separate menu items with proceeds going directly to the National MS Society.
2025 Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza has taken the Indiana University football team to new heights, but the athlete couldn’t have done it without his supportive family. “My lifelong partner, Alberto, my brother, my closest confidant. Whom I trust more than anyone to get through a hard, hard day (…)
“My mom means the world to me, she is the most caring and positive person I know, and I will continue to do everything I can to support her and others living with MS,” Fernando wrote. through the fundraising website. The siblings’ fundraiser has raised nearly $150,000 in donations.
Keep scrolling to learn all about Elsa Mendoza’s MS battle:
Who is Elsa Mendoza?
Fernando’s mother, Elsa, is also Alberto’s mother and Max Mendoza. He previously played tennis at the University of Miami.
When was Elsa Mendoza diagnosed with MS?
According to a December 2025 letter he wrote for the Players standElsa revealed that she was diagnosed “about 18 years ago”. However, she and her husband Fernando Mendoza Mr.they decided not to share the news with their children until years later.
“You and Alberto were so young, and I was doing well,” Elsa wrote to Fernando. “And most of all, I didn’t want you to worry. It seemed like an impossible thing to put on you. On my sweet boys.”
When did Fernando Mendoza find out about his mother’s MS?
Elsa wrote that “about 10 years ago” she broke her ankle and knee in a skiing accident, but has yet to share the news about her MS. That came later.
“Even after that, I wasn’t quite ready to tell you, just that my leg wasn’t fully healed, that’s why your mom had a limp,” he wrote. “It wasn’t until five years ago, when I got Covid, that things started going downhill in a way where there was no more hiding.”
He continued, “That’s when I knew you and your brother had to sit down. No years could have prepared me for the tough conversation that turned out to be.”
Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza is looking back on going viral with an emotional postgame interview following his Big 10 Championship win. “It was a genuine raw emotion,” Mendoza, 22, admitted to People in an interview published on Friday, December 12. “Maybe it was a little too much.” After the victory of his Indiana Hoosiers over (…)
What treatments has Elsa Mendoza had for her MS?
The same Players Tribune publication revealed that Elsa “had to go through chemo” at one point during her health battle.
“When you have to walk me up the stairs … you always had the same sparkle in your eyes,” she wrote to her son. “No matter what kind of state I’ve been in, or what day it’s been, you’ve never looked away. You’ve never treated me like I’m shameful, or deficient, or anything other than someone you love and stand by.”
She added: “Even though my condition has worsened and our lives continue to change around this fact – you manage to make me feel like I’m still every bit of myself.”