Former University of Florida walk-on football player and Pompano Beach Blanche Ely High School graduate Lamar Abel died late Saturday, apparently from heart failure, according to school officials and others familiar with the situation. He was 21.

Abel, a third-year finance major, was participating in a roadside cleanup project with Omega Psi Phi Fraternity for much of Saturday when he began to feel ill.

He regressed through the day and eventually was taken to Shands hospital in Gainesville, and died shortly thereafter, according to UF spokesman Steve Orlando.

A police report on Abel's death will not be made available until Monday at the earliest, according to UF campus police.

Abel was a social and behavioral sciences major from Sunrise. The 6-2, 260-pound defensive lineman was in uniform for five games in 2007 and and dressed for the Gators' BCS national championship victory in the 2008 season.

Greg McGirt, now the head coach at Blanche Ely, was an assistant when Abel graduated from there in 2007. He got news of the death Sunday morning, learning that Abel had died of cardiac arrest.

''He was a kid with a great attitude,'' McGirt said. ''He always hustled. Was very respectful to the coaches, never talked back. Just a great teammate.

''He always did the right thing.''

Although word of Abel's death had not been released by authorities as of late Sunday afternoon, his Facebook page had transformed into a virtual condolence book.

That's how Anthony Campbell, a drafting teacher at Ely, learned of Abel's death early Sunday.

''It threw me for a loop,'' said Campbell, who also is a minister. ''He was so young, vibrant. I just saw him in March up in Gainesville. It's something tough to deal with. It has people questioning and thinking about a lot of things.''

Abel, who also ran track at Ely, was a Miami Herald All-Broward scholar-athlete nominee his senior year with a 4.10 grade point average.