Joaquin Gonzalez Wins "Academic Heisman"
Dec. 12, 2001
NEW YORK, N.Y. (www.hurricanesports.com) – University of Miami senior offensive tackle Joaquin Gonzalez was named winner of the “Academic Heisman,” the HealthSouth Draddy Award, in a ceremony honoring 16 national scholar-athletes at the National Football Foundation’s 44th Annual Awards dinner Tuesday night at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
The HealthSouth Draddy Award, known as the “Academic Heisman,” is the ultimate honor a college football scholar-athlete can achieve. With the honor, Gonzalez joins an elite list of previous winners including Peyton Manning of Tennessee (1997), Danny Wuerffel of Florida (1996), and Kyle Vanden Bosch of Nebraska (2000).
The Vincent dePaul Draddy Trophy provides the winner with a $25,000 scholarship towards postgraduate study. Since 1990, 11 scholar-athletes have been fortunate to walk away from the Awards Dinner with this much-acclaimed trophy.
One of the nation’s top offensive tackles and a major factor in an offensive line that yielded only five quarterback sacks over the span of the 2000 and 2001 football seasons, Joaquin Gonzalez epitomizes the term “scholar-athlete.”
The 6-foot-6, 298-pound Dean’s List member is a three-time Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Team member, being named to the First Team in 2000. Gonzalez is a three-time BIG EAST Academic All-Conference selection and was an Iron Arrow inductee in 2000 (the highest academic honor bestowed to any UM student or staff member). He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration in May of 2001.
Athletically, Gonzalez’s accomplishments are equally impressive. The Football Writers Association named him First Team All-America two times, in 2000 and 2001, and he has been named a second-team All-American numerous times. Gonzalez was selected to the First Team All-BIG EAST in both 2000 and 2001 and was the BIG EAST Rookie of the Year in 1998 – the first recipient of the award to earn All-Conference Academic honors in the same season.
Gonzalez is extremely active in the community as well, serving as a motivational speaker at local elementary schools and participating in the “Read To Win” program.
