National Football Foundation

Head and shoulders the most prolific wide receiver in Division III, Michael Zweifel has used the same work ethic that has produced his on-field success to secure an academic record rivaled by few. He becomes Dubuque's first NFF National Scholar-Athlete.

Hailing from Whitewater, Wis., Zweifel is a Dubuque Spartan Achievement Award recipient and a two-time Academic All-Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference honoree. Named the winner of Dubuque's Presidential Academic Student-Athlete Award for the student-athlete with the highest GPA across all sports, he was honored by Who's Who Among College Students in 2010.

Zweifel comfortably leads the nation in all major receiving categories with 102 grabs for 1,517 yards and 18 touchdowns, putting him on pace to shatter NCAA Division III single-season records. He leads the country in receptions per game by nearly two grabs per outing (12.75), and holds a 40-yard edge over his closest competitor in receiving yards per game (187.63). He is a two-time Second Team All-American, a 2010 D3football.com Senior Classic First Team All-American, a 2009 D3football.com First Team All-West Region, and a three-time All-IIAC honoree. Zweifel led Division III with 152.2 receiving yards per game and placed second with 11.1 catches per game in 2009, and he currently holds nine Dubuque and IIAC records. In one season at Wisconsin-River Falls, Zweifel set six single-season records, including the NCAA record for catches by a freshman with 97 receptions. A team captain as a junior and a senior, Zweifel ranks third among all divisions in career receptions.

Zweifel represented all IIAC athletes at the NCAA Student Leadership Conference, and he annually leads the Spartan football team on a community park clean-up effort. A finalist for the 2010 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team, he is the chair of the Senior Gift committee; has facilitated Kid's Athletics Day in the Greater Dubuque community; and has helped with Special Olympian Day on campus. Zweifel earned his master's in kinesiology from the University of Texas at Tyler and is currently the owner and head of sports performance of Building Better Athletes, a sports and fitness training facility in Dubuque, Iowa.