Posted by
Billy on Friday, December 26, 2008 4:14:59 PM
University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow has added to an already impressive collection of national football awards, garnering the 2008 Wuerffel Trophy, the Maxwell Award and the Disney Spirit Award.
Tebow is a member of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, where his parents, Bob and Pam Tebow, are longtime members and, as missionaries to the Philippines, head up the Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association.
A college junior, Tebow, who last year was the first sophomore to win the Heisman, college football's most prestigious honor, finished last among this year’s three finalists but had the most first-place votes.
The 1996 Heisman winner, Danny Wuerffel, notified Tebow Dec. 11 that he had won the trophy named for him (Wuerffel), which is awarded to the college football player who best combines exemplary community service with athletic and academic achievement.
Tebow, who will lead Florida against the Oklahoma Sooners in the Jan. 8 BCS National Championship Game in Miami, was recognized for spending his 2008 spring break as a missionary in the Philippines with his dad's ministry. In April 2008, he organized a flag football tournament to raise awareness for orphans in Gainesville and around the world. He has spoken at a business conference in Croatia and was invited by the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board to speak to missionaries in southern Asia. He also has spoken at several prisons across the state of Florida.
Mac Brunson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, said he and the church are "incredibly proud" of Tim and "how much his leadership has come to the top."
"We talk about Timmy the runner, we talk about Timmy the passer, we talk about Timmy the football player, but I think what everybody has seen this year is the leadership quality," Brunson told the Florida Baptist Witness. "Everything rises and falls on leadership, and after the Mississippi game [Florida's lone loss], he just kind of rose to leadership."
(Good for this young man who at a young age is already making an impact for good and the things of God. Here's more from Baptist Press.)