Danny Wuerffel - Heart of a Champion
Wednesday, September 10, 2008 | Football
By: Kelly Reynolds, UF Communications
One of the most decorated players in the history of Florida football, Danny Wuerffel became Florida's second Heisman Trophy winner in 1996 under head coach and Gator alum Steve Spurrier, the 1966 Heisman recipient. Wuerffel finished his career with the Orange and Blue as the holder of four NCAA records, 12 SEC marks and 32 school records, leading the nation in touchdown passes with 39, while also topping the national record books in yards per completion, totaling 17.5.
Upon Wuerffel's receipt of the most prestigious award in college football exactly 30 years after Spurrier, and proceeding to lead the Gator squad to the 1996 National Championship, the quarterback duo made history in multitudes. Not only did Spurrier become the first Heisman winner to coach a Heisman recipient, but Wuerffel, 12 years later, is just one of 12 Heisman winners to lead his team to a national championship.
Wuerffel's athletic and academic accolades during his tenure as a Gator are bountiful, including numerous trophies and awards to line his shelves, following outstanding statistics that wow the Gator football faithful. As the quarterback of Florida's first National Championship team, a tremendous amount of pride radiates from all things associated with the gunslinger that jumped into the UF record books and led the Gators to a perfect 8-0 SEC record in 1996. En route to the team's fourth-consecutive SEC Championship, Wuerffel tied an SEC record with six touchdown passes against Alabama's top-rated defense in the SEC Championship game prior to a 52-20 pummeling of one of UF's biggest archrivals, “the team out West,” for the national title.
That year, Wuerffel threw for 3,625 yards, contributing to his 10,875 career passing yards, while reeling in First-Team All-America honors for the second-consecutive year and collecting the Heisman and the Vincent dePaul Draddy Trophy, awarded to the player with the best combination of academics, community service and on-field performance. Wuerffel was the first player ever to take the Heisman and Draddy trophies in the same year. But that wasn't it. Wuerffel captured the Davey O'Brien Award in both 1995 and 1996, the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, the Sammy Baugh Trophy and the Maxwell Award in 1996.
As soon as his Florida glory days were over, Wuerffel's football career continued in the NFL on the roster of the New Orleans Saints, the Green Bay Packers, the Chicago Bears and the Washington Redskins. When his seven-year professional football stint ended in 2004, he began devoting his time to Desire Street Ministries, an organization serving to train and send leaders to revitalize impoverished neighborhoods through spiritual and community development.
With his football days behind him, Wuerffel has proved he can be a champion in his community, in addition to on the football field. As the Executive Director for Desire Street Ministries in New Orleans, La., Wuerffel has fulfilled both aspects of the mission of Desire Street, to transform the Desire neighborhood into a desirable place to live, and to replicate that ministry model in other places across the country.
Another focus of DSM and Wuerffel's efforts in New Orleans is the Ninth Ward, where the organization is working to revive and rebuild the community's homes and lives as a whole, including spiritual healing of the emotional aftermath, devastation and distress following Hurricane Katrina in the city. After the effects of Katrina, Desire Street rallied over 1,200 volunteers to help with the clean-up effort and various rebuilding projects within the community, allowing Desire Street to play a vital part in rebuilding New Orleans.
To multiply its efforts, DSM has engaged in partnerships with multiple outreach groups, including the Christian Community Development Corporation and CURE. Together, the three organizations have collaborated to ensure that the New Orleans community is heard throughout its redevelopment, while also ensuring means to monetarily reasonable housing for impoverished residents affected by Katrina.
Expanding to Baton Rouge, La., Desire Street has additionally re-established Desire Street Academy, which serves to educate African-American males who took refuge in Baton Rouge following Katrina. The Academy has also moved to extend its outreach to the Baton Rouge community as well.
Not only has he used his resources and ministry to refurbish and develop communities within New Orleans and the state of Louisiana's communities, but Wuerffel and Desire Street Ministries are currently in the process of expanding the community ministry to Atlanta where the board will continue to devote time to improving impoverished neighborhoods through spiritual and community work.
Twelve years after winning the Heisman and the Draddy Trophy, awarded to the player with the best combination of academics, community service and on-field performance, Wuerffel has proved he truly is worthy of the award recognizing all aspects of a stellar student-athlete, and he has translated those characteristics into his life after football.
To honor Wuerffel's successes on and off the field, the All Sports Association of Fort Walton Beach, where he attended high school at Fort Walton Beach High School, established an award in Wuerffel's name in 2005. The Wuerffel Trophy has since been given annually to the college football player who best combines exemplary community service with athletic and academic achievement.
A Gator football legend forever, Wuerffel co-authored a book with Spurrier, who crafted the foreword, in 2004 called Tales from the Gator Swamp, a portion of which Wuerffel can't help but reminisce about being a Gator quarterback despite his extreme success in the community following his athletic career.
On Sept. 30, 2006, Wuerffel was inducted into the University of Florida Ring of Honor, a permanent keepsake inside “The Swamp” reminding the University of all that Wuerffel has accomplished as a Gator. For Wuerffel, this honor speaks highly to commemorate the pride he has brought the school and the Gator football program, both as a student-athlete and a contributing and outstanding member of society.
-UF-
