SELINSGROVE, Pa. — Susquehanna University senior center Dave Wonderlick (Shenandoah, Pa./Shenandoah Valley H.S.) has been selected as a National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete for 2000 and will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship.
Wonderlick will be honored at the Foundation’s 43rd annual Awards Dinner on Tuesday, December 12 at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City along with 15 other recipients from Divisions I, II and III and the NAIAduring induction ceremonies for the College Football Hall of Fame class of 2000.
Among the other recipients of this year’s Scholar-Athlete award are Purdue quarterback Drew Brees, Florida State quarterback Chris Weinke, and Nebraska defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch. This year’s winners, chosen from a pool of 182 nominees, were selected based on superior academic performance, outstanding football ability, strong leadership and citizenship. Student-athletes must be senior or graduate students in their final year of eligibility and have a minimum 3.0 grade-point average on a 4.0 scale.
“I cannot think of anyone who represents the ideals of the student-athlete better than Dave,” said 11th-year Susquehanna head coach Steve Briggs. “He has been an outstanding football player on the field and in the locker room, but his academic accomplishments are what truly makes him special. Dave is what Division III athletics are all about.”
Wonderlick is the second Susquehanna football player to earn Scholar-Athlete recognition, joining Gerry Huesken ‘77 as winners of the prestigious grant.
The 5-10, 245-pound Wonderlick, a tri-captain who was a GTE First-Team Academic All-American as a junior, earned MAC Commonwealth League Second Team All-Star honors last season, and was also the team’s Bob Pittello Offensive Lineman of the Year Award recipient. He made both the MAC Commonwealth League Academic Honor Roll, as well as the GTE Academic All-America District II College Division Football Team.
This season, Wonderlick has helped the Crusaders lead the Middle Atlantic Conference in passing offense (268.8 yards per game) and rank second in total offense at 410.3 yards per contest. Should the Crusaders finish the season as the number-one passing attack, it would be the first time that Susquehanna has led the MAC in passing since 1969.
Earlier this season, the offensive line was recognized by D3football.com as members of its “Team of the Week” after Crusader backs gained positive yards on 36 of 39 running plays and sophomore quarterback Mike Bowman threw for a then career-high 306 yards in a 24-13 win over Dickinson on September 23 in the first game at Susquehanna's new Nicholas A. Lopardo Stadium.
In his first season as a full-time starter in 1999, Wonderlick became one of the top performers on a line which helped Susquehanna finish second in MAC rushing offense (163.5 yards per game), and fifth overall (345.7 yards per game). Wonderlick did not allow a sack in 289 pass plays, giving up just three-and-a-half hurries.
Wonderlick is the top student in the senior class with a perfect 4.0 cumulative grade point average as a public relations major and a legal studies minor. In addition to his perfect academic record, he’s also a University Scholar, was inducted into Alpha Lambda Delta (freshman honor society), is active in the campus chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America, and has been a corresponding sports writer for both The Pottsville Republican and the Reading Eagle-Times, near his hometown. He was also one of five students chosen for a Susquehanna All-Star team for College Bowl — “the varsity sports of the mind.”
Wonderlick has helped the Crusaders win two consecutive Commonwealth League championships during the 1998 and 1999 seasons, and has helped the Crusaders clinch their 15th consecutive non-losing season this year.
He is the son of Len and Louise Wonderlick.
