Tim Tebow announced on social media that his father died on Thursday. Bob Tebow was 78 years old and had been dealing with Parkinson’s Disease for the past 10 years. Recently, he was confined to a wheelchair.
“Heaven ushered in a hero of the faith last night as my Dad was welcomed home!” Tebow wrote on social media. “Many will say sorry for your loss but the truth is he’s not lost, we know exactly where he is. He’s home. Forever!”
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Bob Tebow and his wife met as students at the University of Florida and married in 1971. The couple later moved to the Philippines in 1985 to serve as Baptist missionaries and started a ministry. Two years later, Tim Tebow was born — the youngest of five children — and the family moved back to the United States in 1990, settling in Jacksonville.
As a high schooler, Tim Tebow was ranked as a five-star recruit and the top dual-threat quarterback nationally at Nease High School in Ponta Vedra Beach, Florida. He played at Florida where he was a part of two national championship teams in 2006 and 2008 under head coach Urban Meyer, and won the 2007 Heisman Trophy.
Following his college career, Tim was a 2010 first-round selection of the Denver Broncos. He also played with the New York Jets, New England Patriots, Philadelphia Eagles and Jacksonville Jaguars during his NFL career before also attempting to play professional baseball with the New York Mets.
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Going back to his college days, Tim helped establish a charity to raise funds for an orphanage in the Philippines founded by his father’s nonprofit association.
Tebow revealed his father’s Parkinson’s diagnosis in a 2016 interview with People magazine. Bob Tebow returned to the Philippines to visit orphanages, prisons and the hospital that Tim helped establish with CURE International.
“When you see Dad in a third-world country with hurting people, you’re like, ‘That’s what he’s meant to do,'” Tebow told People’s Steve Helling. “It’s his most comfortable place to be in the world.”