Healthy, happy Wuerffel enters Hall of Fame

COLLEGE FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME

Class of 2013

Players

Ted Brown (N.C. State)

Tedy Bruschi (Arizona)

Ron Dayne (Wisconsin)

Tommie Frazier (Nebraska)

Jerry Gray (Texas)

Steve Meilinger (Kentucky)

Orlando Pace (Ohio State)

Rod Shoate (Oklahoma)

Percy Snow (Michigan State)

Vinny Testaverde (Miami)

Don Trull (Baylor)

Danny Wuerffel (Florida)

Coaches

Wayne Hardin (Navy/Temple)

Bill McCartney (Colorado)

Aside from the painful experience of watching his Florida Gators play football and the loss of one of his more enduring records to Georgia’s Aaron Murray, 2013 has been very good to Danny Wuerffel.

He feels better than he has in a couple of years, having weathered the worst of Guillain-Barre Syndrome. His Atlanta-based Desire Street Ministries continues to spread its good works — launching a new multipurpose center in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward and a ministry in Mobile, Ala. And Tuesday night in New York, the 1996 Heisman Trophy winner, leader of the Gators ’96 national championship, will be part of a large, distinguished group of College Football Hall of Fame inductees.

Best of all, when the new Hall opens in Atlanta — scheduled for next fall — it will be a but short drive from his Decatur home for Wuerffel whenever he’s in a mood to visit his stuff. He can practically be an interactive display himself.

Unlike when he won a Heisman as a college senior, the Hall of Fame honor comes along at a time when Wuerffel has the life experience to truly savor the moment.

“It’s pretty exciting,” he said last week. “One, it’s going to be fun to celebrate it with so many people — my family, a lot of the folks from the University of Florida and Desire Street. I could equate it to one of those significant birthdays or anniversaries where it’s just fun to have a celebration.

“One of the reasons it’s unique from other (honors) is because it’s later. I think even five or 10 years ago, I wouldn’t have been in the place that I’m in now where I’d be able to reflect and sit back and let some of those things sink in that did happen.”

Wuerffel, 39, put together all the requisite glittering statistics at Florida for Hall of Fame inclusion: 708-of-1,170 passing, 10,875 yards, 114 touchdowns, 42 interceptions. He is one of two players to win both the pre-eminent college trophies for on-field performance (the Heisman) and for academics and community service (now called the William Campbell Trophy). The other was another Florida quarterback you may have heard of, Tim Tebow.

His touchdown total was a SEC standard until Murray broke through this season. “I feel a little schizophrenic about that,” Wuerffel said. “There’s a big part of me that’s happy for him, and it’s great for college football, and I’m happy for Georgia. But to be completely honest, there’s a human part of myself that would love to see my records stand, too.”

He has not spoken to Murray since the Bulldog threw his 115th career touchdown pass against Appalachian State, or since Murray blew out his knee against Kentucky. The one time they did meet was pure chance, last spring when some of the Bulldogs were doing community service at the YMCA where the Wuerffels work out. “It was fun to run into him when he was doing something to help other people; I appreciated that,” he said.

Significantly, Wuerffel will have sufficient energy to enjoy all the Hall functions, as well as a New York fundraising dinner for his Desire Street charity and his return the following week for Heisman festivities. Diagnosed in 2011 with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a rare autoimmune condition that can lead to temporary partial paralysis, pain and fatigue, Wuerffel went through the full wringer of symptoms and has emerged largely recovered.

“The last several months I’ve been really blessed, looks like most of that is in the rearview mirror,” he said. “Fortunately Guillain-Barre is not a chronic type of syndrome. It was tough, but hopefully it’s gone.”

He may want to wear some body armor to the induction to deflect whatever rocks and arrows one of his dais-mates may choose to hurl his way. For among those in his Hall class is the quarterbacking counterpart — Nebraska’s Tommie Frazier — who put on Wuerffel and his Gators one of the epic losses, a 62-24 whipping in the Fiesta Bowl (Jan. 2, 1996).

The pain of that has subsided through the years. Somewhat. “I still got some frustrations to take out on him. And he probably has some jokes to tell,” Wuerffel said.

A little more current was the experience of watching this year’s Gators play. They lost their last seven games, fell out of bowl eligibility and suffered the ignominy of losing to Georgia Southern. Rather than suffer too profusely, Wuerffel decided to treat this season as an aberration as well as a reminder to spoiled Gators fans such as himself of those pre-Spurrier days when disappointment was a staple.