Florida, 1997
• 1995 Academic All-America® First Team
• 1996 Academic All-America® First Team
Danny Wuerffel was inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame on June 15, 2015 in Orlando, Fla.
Danny Wuerffel reached the summit of success both on the field and in the classroom during one of the most highly decorated collegiate football careers in history at the University of Florida. Wuerffel guided the Gators to the 1996 national championship with a 52-20 victory over rival Florida State in the Sugar Bowl just weeks after joining his coach, Steve Spurrier, as the school’s recipient of the Heisman Trophy.
A two-time first team GTE Academic All-America® during his junior and senior campaigns of 1995 and 1996, Wuerffel guided Florida to four straight Southeastern Conference crowns and back-to-back appearances in the national championship game. A two-time All-America honoree, Wuerffel also was a two-time recipient of the Davey O’Brien Award and received both the Sammy Baugh Trophy and the Johnny Unitas Golden Award Award. Wuerffel threw for nearly 11,000 career yards. This included 3,625 yards and 39 touchdowns as a senior during a season which featured a 462-yard effort against Arkansas during the Gators’ run to the national championship. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2013.
Selected in the fourth round of the 1997 NFL draft, Danny played three seasons for the New Orleans Saints and a single year each for the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears and Washington Redskins. He was the most valuable player of World Bowl 2000 while playing for the Rhein Fire in NFL Europe.
Wuerffel earned a degree in public relations from Florida and was inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006. An active member of his New Orleans community, Wuerffel serves as director of Desire Street Ministries, whose goal is to transform impoverished neighborhoods into flourishing, healthy communities across the nation. Undaunted after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his home and Desire Street’s facilities, Danny drew national attention to his efforts to rebuild the Ministries and to assist in rebuilding the city of New Orleans and the region as well.