Danny Wuerffel

For the interim IRS commissioner, see Danny Werfel.
Danny Wuerffel

refer to caption

Wuerffel speaking at Eglin Air Force Base
in February 2009.
No. 7, 17
Position: Quarterback
Personal information
Date of birth: (1974-05-27) May 27, 1974
Place of birth: Fort Walton Beach, Florida
Height: 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Weight: 212 lb (96 kg)
Career information
High school: Fort Walton Beach (FL)
College: Florida
NFL draft: 1997 / Round: 4 / Pick: 99
Career history
Career highlights and awards
Career NFL statistics
TD–INT: 12–22
Passing yards: 2,123
Rating: 56.4
Player stats at NFL.com

Daniel Carl Wuerffel (born May 27, 1974) is an American former college and professional football quarterback who won the 1996 Heisman Trophy and the 1996 national football championship while playing college football for the University of Florida. After graduating from Florida, he played for four National Football League (NFL) teams, and retired from professional football in 2002. Immediately following his football career, Wuerffel joined Desire Street Ministries in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward, a nonprofit with a mission to revitalize one of America’s most impoverished neighborhoods through spiritual and community development. Wuerffel became executive director in 2006 and under his direction, Desire Street Ministries moved its headquarters to Atlanta and expanded its outreach beyond New Orleans to impact hundreds of children and families living in other southern inner cities. (www.desirestreet.org) In 2013, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Early life

Wuerffel was born in Pensacola, Florida in 1974,[1] the son of a Lutheran minister who was a chaplain in the U.S. Air Force. While he was growing up, he and his family lived in South Carolina, Spain, Nebraska and Colorado before he attended Fort Walton Beach High School in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.[2] Wuerffel was a standout high school football and basketball player for the Fort Walton Beach Vikings. In football, he led the Vikings to an undefeated season as a senior quarterback, while winning the Florida Class 4A state football championship in 1991 and earning the No. 2 national ranking in USA Today. Wuerffel was widely considered the top high school football recruit in the state of Florida, and USA Today's high school player of the year in Florida during his senior year.[3] He graduated from high school as his class valedictorian.

College career

Wuerffel accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he played quarterback for head coach Steve Spurrier's Florida Gators football team from 1993 to 1996.[4] One of the most decorated players in Florida's football history,[4] he was a key member of the Gators teams that won four consecutive Southeastern Conference (SEC) titles between 1993 and 1996.

Wuerffel on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

The Gators roared through the 1995 regular season; their closest victory margin was 11 points—a feat all the more remarkable since they upended three teams who were ranked in the top 10. The Gators defeated Tennessee by so many points it landed Wuerffel on the cover of Sports Illustrated, even though it had supposedly planned to get Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning on the cover.[5][6] He led the Gators to the Bowl Alliance national championship game following the 1995 season, but ultimately lost 62–24 to the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the Fiesta Bowl. Wuerffel won the 1996 Heisman Trophy,[7] as the outstanding college football player in America, while quarterbacking the Gators into their second consecutive Bowl Alliance national championship game with help from teammates Fred Taylor at running back, Reidel Anthony, Ike Hilliard and Jacquez Green at wide receiver, and Jeff Mitchell on the offensive line. Wuerffel and the Gators won the 1996 national championship in decisive fashion by defeating the Florida State Seminoles 52–20 in the Sugar Bowl.[4]

Wuerffel was a first-team All-American in 1995, and a consensus first-team All-American in 1996.[4][8] He received the Sammy Baugh Trophy in 1995, the Davey O'Brien Award in 1995 and 1996, and the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award in 1996,[4] and was named the Quarterback of the Year by the Touchdown Club of Columbus in 1996.[9] Wuerffel declined to be included on Playboy magazine's All-America team as well as its Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, saying, "That's not the type of person I am or would like to portray myself as."[10][11] His Gators teammates picked him as the squad's most valuable player in 1995 and 1996; his coaches chose him as one of the Gators' team captains.[4] He was later named to The Gainesville Sun's Florida Gators Team of the Century in 1999, was chosen by the Sun as the No. 1 player in the first 100 years of Gators football, and was listed as a member of the Florida Gators 100th Anniversary Team in 2006.[4][12]

He finished his Gator career by completing 708 of 1,170 passes for 10,875 yards with 114 touchdown passes, the best in SEC history and second-most in major college history.[4] His career pass efficiency rating of 163.56 was the best in major college history and his percentage of passes which went for a touchdown (9.74) ranked first in collegiate history. In 1995, his efficiency rating of 178.4 set a single-season collegiate record. During his Heisman-winning season of 1996, he completed 207 of 360 passes for 3,625 yards (an SEC record at the time) for thirty-nine touchdowns (leading the nation) and his efficiency rating of 170.6 made him the first quarterback to ever post a rating of 170 or better in back-to-back years.

He is one of only two Heisman Trophy winners to also receive the Draddy Trophy, which is presented annually by the National Football Foundation and the College Football Hall of Fame to the nation's top football scholar-athlete. Wuerffel was also a first-team Academic All-American in 1995 and 1996.[4]

Wuerffel graduated from the university with a bachelor's degree in public relations, and was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 2006.[13][14]

Statistics

Year Comp Att Comp % Passing TD INT
1993 159 273 58.2 2230 22 10
1994 132 212 62.3 1754 18 9
1995 210 325 64.6 3266 35 10
1996 207 360 57.5 3625 39 13

Career statistics at Florida

Most Pass Attempts

Most Pass Completions

Most Pass Yards

Professional career

The New Orleans Saints selected Wuerffel in the fourth round of the 1997 NFL Draft,[15] and he played for the Saints for three seasons from 1997 to 1999.[16] After playing a single season for each of the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears and Washington Redskins, Wuerffel retired. One highlight of his professional career was winning the MVP award in World Bowl 2000 while playing for Rhein Fire in NFL Europa, the Fire winning by 13–10 over the Scottish Claymores.

Life after the NFL

Wuerffel began work at Desire Street Ministries, a non-profit, faith-based, organization focusing on spiritual and community development in areas of New Orleans. He also speaks to college groups, such as the University of Florida Fellowship of Christian Athletes. In 2004, Wuerffel co-authored a book called Tales from the Gator Swamp, in which he covers his college football career.

The All Sports Association of Fort Walton Beach created the Wuerffel Trophy in his honor in 2005. Florida sculptor W. Stanley Proctor created the design which commemorates Danny Wuerffel, "as he prays after a touchdown.[17][18] It is awarded annually by the All Sports Association of Fort Walton Beach, Florida to the athlete who best exemplifies Wuerffel's character on the field of play and in the classroom.[17][18]

A small stretch of road between the Mid-Bay Bridge and Highway 98 in Destin, still his parents' home,[19] has been dedicated as "Danny Wuerffel Way" by the Florida state legislature.[20]

Hurricane Katrina destroyed Wuerffel's New Orleans home and the Desire Street Ministries facilities. He drew national attention with his efforts to rebuild Desire Street Ministries and New Orleans.

On September 30, 2006, Wuerffel was inducted into the Gator Football Ring of Honor alongside his former coach Steve Spurrier and two other former Gator players, Jack Youngblood and Emmitt Smith.

In June 2011, The Gainesville Sun reported that Wuerffel was suffering from Guillain–Barré syndrome, a disorder of the nervous system, and was undergoing treatment for it.[21]

Wuerffel was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2013.[22][23]

In 2014, Emerald Bay Country Club in Destin, Florida hosted the 1st Annual Danny Wuerffel Golf Classic, known as the "Danny Cup."[24]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Pro-Football-Reference.com, Players, Danny Wuerffel. Retrieved July 9, 2010.
  2. ↑ databaseFootball.com, Players, Danny Wuerffel. Retrieved July 9, 2010.
  3. ↑ https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=LV4eAAAAIBAJ&sjid=o8gEAAAAIBAJ&dq=danny%20wuerffel&pg=3754%2C3843337
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 2011 Florida Gators Football Media Guide, University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 83, 86, 88, 93, 97, 99, 100–103, 125, 158, 159, 162, 173, 186 (2011). Retrieved September 1, 2011.
  5. ↑ https://www.gatorcountry.com/florida-gators-football/peyton_manning_never_beat_florida/
  6. ↑ http://www.tnjn.com/2015/09/25/greatest-moments-tennessee-florida-football/
  7. ↑ Sports-Reference.com, College Football, 1996 Heisman Trophy Voting. Retrieved April 26, 2012.
  8. ↑ 2012 NCAA Football Records Book, Award Winners, National Collegiate Athletic Association, Indianapolis, Indiana, pp. 10 & 14 (2012). Retrieved September 14, 2012.
  9. ↑ "NCAA Quarterback of the Year". Touchdown Club of Columbus. April 6, 2009.
  10. ↑ http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1996-05-10/sports/9605090896_1_wuerffel-playboy-offer-scholar-athlete
  11. ↑ "SPORTS PEOPLE: COLLEGE FOOTBALL;Florida's Wuerffel Spurns Playboy Honor". The New York Times. May 10, 1996.
  12. ↑ Robbie Andreu & Pat Dooley, "No. 1 Danny Wuerffel," The Gainesville Sun (September 2, 2006). Retrieved March 30, 2013.
  13. ↑ F Club, Hall of Fame, Gator Greats. Retrieved December 15, 2014.
  14. ↑ Robbie Andreu, "Wuerffel, Doering to enter UF Hall," Ocala Star-Banner (April 21, 2006). Retrieved July 22, 2011.
  15. ↑ Pro Football Hall of Fame, Draft History, 1997 National Football League Draft. Retrieved April 7, 2011.
  16. ↑ National Football League, Historical Players, Danny Wuerffel. Retrieved April 7, 2011.
  17. 1 2 Cobb, Sue M.; McCarthy, Allison (March 8, 2006). "W. Stanley "Sandy" Proctor to be Inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame" (Press release). Tallahassee, Florida: Division of Cultural Affairs, Secretary of State of Florida. Retrieved August 21, 2014.
  18. 1 2 "The Wuerffel Trophy news". Fort Walton Beach, Florida: All Sports Association. 2014. Retrieved August 22, 2014.
  19. ↑ "1st Annual Danny Wuerffel Golf Classic". Destin Magazine. Retrieved January 14, 2016.
  20. ↑ http://election.dos.state.fl.us/laws/97laws/ch_97-314.pdf
  21. ↑ Pat Dooley, "Wuerffel leaves hospital after treatment for nervous system disorder," The Gainesville Sun (June 15, 2011). Retrieved June 15, 2011.
  22. ↑ Ivan Maisel, "Heisman trio highlight Class of 2013," ESPN (May 7, 2013). Retrieved May 7, 2013.
  23. ↑ "NFF Proudly Announces Stellar 2013 College Football Hall of Fame Class," National Football Foundation (May 7, 2013). Retrieved May 7, 2013.
  24. ↑ "1st Annual Danny Wuerffel Golf Classic". Destin Magazine. Retrieved 14 January 2016.

Bibliography

External links

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