Danny Wuerffel, Jeremy Foley inducted into Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame

The Allstate Sugar Bowl will introduce four legends as the sixth class of the Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame in conjunction with the 90th annual Allstate Sugar Bowl on January 1, 2024. This year’s class of Hall of Famers includes two College Football Hall of Fame players, a legendary coach, and a longtime award-winning director of athletics.

“All of us at the Sugar Bowl are thrilled to recognize this outstanding group,” said Bowl president Richard Briede.  “Their collective contributions to the history of college football and the Sugar Bowl itself are legendary, and we’re so pleased to be able to honor them in conjunction with this year’s CFP Semifinal game.”

The members of the sixth class of the Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame, or their representatives, have all been invited to New Orleans for this year’s Allstate Sugar Bowl. Honorees and their guests will participate in select Sugar Bowl VIP activities and will be recognized on the field during pregame ceremonies leading up to the annual Sugar Bowl Classic.

Allstate Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame – Class of 2024

Jeremy Foley was the director of athletics at the University of Florida for 24 years (1992-2016), a stretch of unparalleled success for the Gators that included six Sugar Bowl appearances. Florida’s first Sugar Bowl appearance under Foley’s leadership came in the 1994 game as the Gators rolled to a 41-7 victory over West Virginia. After a loss to archrival Florida State in the 1995 Sugar Bowl, Foley and the Gators gained revenge in the 1997 Sugar Bowl as they defeated the Seminoles, 52-20, a blowout victory that secured the first football national title in Florida history. Recognized for making excellent coaching hires, including Urban Meyer in football and Billy Donovan in basketball, Foley directed Gator teams to 27 national championships, including football (3), men’s basketball (2), women’s soccer, and softball. Florida ranked among the top five athletic programs in the country for 18 of Foley’s 24 years.

Danny Wuerffel enshrined

Danny Wuerffel earned essentially every honor that a college football player could collect during his legendary career at Florida. An under-the-radar accomplishment for the star quarterback from Fort Walton Beach, Fla., is that he threw for more yards than any quarterback in Sugar Bowl history with 700. He had 306 yards and three touchdowns and earned the Miller-Digby Award as the Sugar Bowl MVP when the Gators rolled to a 52-20 win over Florida State to clinch the national championship in the 1997 game. Prior to that, he had thrown for 394 yards (then a Sugar Bowl single-game record) and a TD in the Gators’ 1995 loss to FSU. A two-time First-Team All-American, Wuerffel claimed the 1996 Heisman Trophy, the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award, and the Maxwell Award. The two-time SEC Player of the Year posted a 45-6-1 career mark as a Gator, finishing his career with nearly 11,000 passing yards and 33 school records, taking Florida to bowl games in each of his four seasons. He also earned the William V. Campbell Trophy, the National Football Foundation’s top honor which is recognized as the Academic Heisman.
 
The New Orleans Mid-Winter Sports Association was founded in 1934 by a group of civic-minded businessmen and professionals interested in promoting amateur athletic events geared toward bringing visitors to New Orleans during what had traditionally been a slow period for tourism. Now known as the Sugar Bowl Committee, the organization remains a voluntary group whose members serve without remuneration.