Tim Tebow

Classroom

Tebow boasts a 3.66 grade point average while working toward a degree in family, youth and community sciences. Tebow was named an ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American for the second year in a row in 2008. Tebow became just the fourth UF football player to achieve Academic All-America recognition in consecutive seasons. He was also named the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the SEC coaches after the 2008 season.

Character

Tebow radiates as a leader for the Gator football program, not only on the field of competition, but in the classroom, community and in his off-the-field activities.  Tebow’s maturity and dedication to all things in his life sets a standard of excellence that his teammates, coaches and fans admire respectfully. As an example, Tebow was recognized as a member of the 2009 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team for his off-the-field achievements and contributions to the community.  He was voted by his teammates as a 2008 team captain of the Gator football squad, and he was also a member of the 2008 UF Football Leadership Committee, composed of current Gators, which serves to help make decisions that better the team as a whole. Additionally, amongst his bountiful awards, honors and recognitions, Tebow received two awards last season that had special focus on non-football related honors that depict his character best. Tebow reeled in the Wuerffel Trophy, given annually to the college football player who best combines exemplary community service with athletic and academic achievement. He also won the Disney Sports Spirit Award in 2008, distributed to college football’s most inspirational player. In addition, Tebow was recognized by the University of Florida this year for his outstanding character and accomplishments by being inducted into the UF Hall of Fame, while also being selected as a Florida Blue Key inductee during spring 2009.

Community

Nationally recognized for his work in the community, Tebow selflessly uses his platform as a Gator and football player to positively impact local, national and international communities. His position on the Florida football team and as a Heisman Trophy winner have little to do with the level of dedication that he has to performing community service. Tebow and his four siblings were raised providing service for those in need. As part of his father’s foundation, the Bob Tebow Evangelical Association, Tim has spent almost every summer of his life preaching and providing support, not only in the Philippines where he was born, but across the world. According to Tim, he was in the seventh grade when he began to speak with locals in the Philippines, not just spreading the word of God, but spreading universal messages of hope, faith and perseverance. With his recent success with the Florida Gators, the opportunities for Tebow to reach out to community have obviously amplified. Although his busy schedule prevents him from fulfilling all of his requests, Tebow has spent more than 500 hours of community service and appearances in each of the past two years, including making phone calls to sick children and going on hospital visits to pediatric wings. Tebow cites his priorities in this order: faith, family, academics and then football. He uses his success on the football field as a platform to spread his message. He understands that football provides him an opportunity to make positive changes in peoples’ lives and he takes advantage of that platform every chance he gets. In the past year, Tebow has taken advantage of his breaks from school to go abroad on missions trips and through his involvement with UF’s Goodwill Gators program, he has made many hospital visits and attended community service functions throughout Gainesville. In addition, he has taken it upon himself to schedule his own visits to hospitals, schools and prisons during his off-weekends.

Competition

On the field, Tebow is just as inspirational as he is off the field, always rallying his teammates and providing positive and energetic encouragement as a leader and team captain. Tebow continued to break records on the playing field during the 2008 season as he led the Gators to their second SEC Championship and second national championship appearance in the last three years. He was named the Offensive MVP of the 2009 FedEx BCS National Championship and the SEC Offensive Player of the Year by both the media and the coaches, also earning first-team All-SEC honors by both outlets. In 2007, Tebow became the only sophomore ever to win the Heisman Trophy, the Sullivan Award, the Davey O’Brien Award and the Maxwell Award (2007), is the only player in NCAA history to rush and pass for at least 20 touchdowns in a season (2007), was the first sophomore in UF history to be named an All-American (2007)and was the second player to repeat as Maxwell Award winner in 2007 and 2008. Tebow has thrown for 6,390 yards and 67 touchdowns in three seasons, while having also gained 2,037 yards on the ground with 43 rushing touchdowns, both school records by a Florida quarterback. He is the only quarterback in school history to have rushed for 100 yards in three games. In 2008, Tebow achieved a first-place ranking in the school’s record book for the most career rushing touchdowns (43) and tied for sixth in the SEC in rushing touchdowns. Tebow has enjoyed breaking Florida records as a dual threat quarterback in both rushing and passing. Tebow has already made his mark at Florida, both as a good person on and off the football field, and has one more year to utilize college football as his platform, both on the field, in the classroom, and in the community.