Great Floridians

The Great Floridian 2000 program honored deceased individuals who made "significant contributions in the history and culture" of Florida (many times within a local community),[1] the new program is more restrictive by selecting persons, dead or alive, who made "major contributions to the progress and welfare" of Florida.

The historians on the Great Floridians 2000 Committee approved or rejected applications, which included a section for specifying an appropriate historical property on which the marker would be mounted.

[3] Under the Statute, each year at least two people who have had an outstanding impact on Florida are nominated by an ad hoc committee of representatives of the Governor, each member of the Florida Cabinet, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Director of the Division of Historical Resources.

[3] Ten persons named in the new program were previously included in the Great Floridian 2000 program: Mary McLeod Bethune, Lawton M. Chiles, Henry Morrison Flagler, John Gorrie, Ben Hill Griffin, Jr., Spessard Holland, Zora Neale Hurston, May Mann Jennings, Dick Pope, Sr. and James Van Fleet.

On April 12, 2013, Governor Rick Scott presented Tim Tebow with the award at TPC at Sawgrass, just prior to Tebow's charity gala and golf tournament, attended by numerous celebrities and sports figures.