Heismann Trophy winner Tim Tebow may not be popular with Buckeye fans but he sure has a very fascinating story:
Home Schooled Tebow Beating the Odds
(Heisman Candidate Dodged the Abortion Knife)
By Pat Shannan
American Free Press 12/3/07
Because a physician's advice to abort a fetus was rejected, Tim Tebow may become the first sophomore in history to win the Heisman trophy, given annually since 1935 to a player judged to be the best in college football. The award will be presented in New York on Dec. 8.
The coveted Heisman trophy is awarded each December to the nation's outstanding college football player. It usually goes to a senior, occasionally to a junior, but it has never been awarded to a sophomore.
As a freshman last year, Tebow shared the starting QB duties with senior Chris Leak and the two of them led the Florida Gators to the national title, blasting the favored Ohio State Buckeyes 41-14 in last January's championship game.
This year, the six-foot-three, 240-pound speedster became the first quarterback in NCAA history to both run and pass for 20 or more touchdowns. This makes him the favorite to win the coveted Heisman trophy at New York's Downtown Athletic Club.
Tebow is the fifth child of Bob and Pam Tebow, both University of Florida graduates and Bible-believing Christians who became Baptist missionaries, which eventually took them to the Philippine Islands. Here—against the will of the family's doctor—Tim was born in 1987. His family remained in the Philippines until he was five years old. Doctors advised he be aborted, but his faithful parents refused.
Pam had contracted an amoeba—from food or water, perhaps, but she doesn't know for sure—that had a continuing, debilitating effect on her health. When she became pregnant with Tim, she was advised by her doctors to terminate the pregnancy. Then they decided that Pam had a molar pregnancy and told her that the baby within her was not alive and that she was carrying only a "mass of cancerous fetal tissue."
She again refused an abortion, relying on her faith in God, fearing the worst but praying for the best. After seven months, an American-trained doctor in Manila confirmed that she was carrying a live fetus, and on Aug. 14, 1987, Pam Tebow gave birth to Superboy.
Back in Florida, the Tebows homeschooled all five of their children, stressing strong character through reading of the Scriptures. In the early 2000s Tim was a growing teenager who developed a love for sports. In 1996, legislation was passed in Florida allowing home-schooled students to compete in local high school sporting events. The Tebows lived in Duval County where Tim played linebacker and tight end for Trinity Christian in Jacksonville, but his dream was to be a quarterback.
For the next two years, Tim and his mother lived in an apartment down the street from Nease High School in St. Johns County—a team that needed a passing quarterback, and a legal residency that satisfied the regulators. With the rest of his family living on a farm in Jacksonville, Tim began playing quarterback for Nease High School in Ponte Vedra Beach and his performance soon be­gan to turn some heads. His senior season he led Nease to the state champion­ ship.
Meanwhile, father Bob was director of the Jackson­ ville chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and continued to re­turn a half dozen times a year to the Phil­ip& shy;pines to look after the orphanage he started when the family lived there.
On Jan. 7, 2007, Tim was featured prominently in an ESPN Outside the Lines TV chronicle on home-schooled athletes seeking equal access to high school athletics in other states. In fact, his popularity inspired "equal access" supporters in Alabama to name their bill in the Alabama legislature "The Tim Tebow Bill." The bill, which is pending, would allow Alabama home school athletes to play for their local high school teams just as Tebow did in Florida.
Win or lose the Heisman, Tim Tebow is without peer as a Christian athlete. He does not smoke, drink, or curse. He may be the first athlete in decades to fit the true meaning of "role model" for the younger kids.
You can bet that the folks at Wheaties can't wait to get his picture on their cereal boxes.
