.png&width=42&height=42&type=webp)
University of Minnesota Athletics
Travis Recognized For Work Off Field
7/13/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
Follow Gopher Football on: |
Minnesota defensive back Damarius Travis is a nominee for the 2016 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team and for the Wuerffel Trophy, the organizations announced Wednesday.
The Allstate AFCA Good Works award is one of the most coveted off-the-field honors in college football. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the award, which was established in 1992 to recognize a select group of college football players who have made a commitment to service and enriching the lives of others.
In honor of the 25th anniversary, Allstate and the AFCA will add three additional spots to this year's team and announce a final roster of 25 members in September.
The Wuerffel Trophy, known as "College Football's Premier Award for Community Service," is presented annually by the All Sports Association in Fort Walton Beach Florida. Named after 1996 Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Danny Wuerffel from the University of Florida, the Wuerffel Trophy is awarded to the FBS player that best combines exemplary community service with athletic and academic achievement. The formal announcement of the 2016 recipient will be on December 6 at the National Football Foundation's press conference in New York City.
Travis interned with the Gophers student athlete development department throughout all of last year and was outstanding in his service efforts. He was a constant presence in visiting hospitals and schools and encouraged him teammates to give back to the community as well.
One of the biggest projects he took on was providing leadership with Gopher R.E.P.S. (Relationships Empowering Professionalism and Success) for football.
He assisted in putting together a financial wellness session where Gopher great Bob Stein was a featured speaker addressing basic budgeting, simple savings, debit cards vs. credit cards, establishing credit, compound interest, and more. At the event the current roster of student-athletes also engaged in meaningful dialogue with other former Gopher football players on this topic as well in smaller breakout groups in the suites at TCF Bank Stadium.
After starting against TCU last year Travis missed the rest of the season with an injury. He is back after being granted a medical hardship waiver from the NCAA to compete in the 2016-17 season. Travis has played in 40 career games recording 107 tackles, which includes 60 solo stops and 4.0 tackles-for-loss. He also has nine career pass breakups, two interceptions and has forced and recovered one fumble. Athlon Sports named him to their preseason 2016 All-Big Ten team.
Travis has already earned his degree in sport management and is pursuing postgraduate studies in human resource development.
