GAINESVILLE, Fla. – College Football Hall of Famer Danny Wuerffel was named the 2021 Wooden Cup Professional Athlete Award recipient. Wuerffel will be honored at the 16th Annual Coach Wooden Citizen Cup Awards on Thursday, April 29, at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.
Wuerffel’s Hall of Fame head coach, Steve Spurrier, will present the prestigious award. Prior to the ceremonies, the two Gator legends will hold a conversation moderated by Athletes for a Better World Board Chair, Steve Petyerak, about the Wooden Citizen Cup and more. The discussion will be live-streamed and available on social media from the Gala at 5 p.m. To watch the conversation, click HERE.
Wuerffel has been named to the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame and the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame. The 1996 Heisman Trophy winner 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 Arm Award. Wuerffel threw for nearly 11,000 career yards. This included 3,625 yards and 39 touchdowns as a senior during a season that featured a 462-yard effort against Arkansas during the Gators’ run to the national championship.
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.
Founded by Athletes for a Better World (ABW), a non-profit organization that celebrates the unselfish generosity of many participants in American sports, the Wooden Cup is unique in that it is open to all athletes in all high school, college and professional or Olympic sports.