SEC Storied documentary series to spotlight Danny Wuerffel with Wuerffel's Way

Former Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel will be the subject of the first of the next slate of "SEC Storied" documentaries produced by ESPN and the SEC Network, the SEC announced Tuesday.

The film, Wuerffel's Way, will focus on Wuerffel's post-football life as the leader of Desire Street Ministries in New Orleans — and especially on his efforts to rebuild and minister in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Wuerffel's Way, unlike the rest of the slate of films, will premiere on ESPN at 7:30 p.m. Eastern on August 28, one day prior to the 10th anniversary of Katrina's landfall on the Gulf Coast and the beginning of the devastation of New Orleans and much of the rest of the region. It will then re-air on Tuesday, September 1, in the 9 p.m. slot on the SEC Network that will be home to four other "SEC Storied" films in the month of September.

Here's a summary of Wuerffel's Way, as provided by the SEC.

"Wuerffel's Way" - Directed by Jim Jorden

Danny Wuerffel was on top of the world at the end of the 1996 college football season. The University of Florida quarterback had just won the Heisman Trophy and led the Gators to a National Championship. But drafted by the New Orleans Saints in the spring of 1997, he struggled to attain the same kind of success in the NFL. It was in that first year as a pro that he began volunteering in New Orleans' Desire neighborhood, one of the poorest locales in the country. After Hurricane Katrina devastated his Desire Street Academy in late August 2005, Wuerffel took the lead in tracking down his students, established a new location for the school in Florida, and expanded his outreach to help several more communities in the southeastern United States. He continued his efforts while battling a life-threatening illness. Now, ten years removed from the costliest natural disaster in American history, Wuerffel returns to New Orleans to dedicate the rebuilding of the Desire Community Square and further the cause he joined two decades ago.

Wuerffel's story is the third related to the Florida Gators to be featured in an "SEC Storied" documentary, following The Play That Changed College Football, a look at the 1992 SEC Championship Game featuring Alabama and Florida that first aired in 2011, and Abby Head On, a look at Abby Wambach's career that premiered in 2013.