Introducing a new occasional column that will bring fans of Black college sports updates and insights on teams, players and coaches with a primary focus on the SWAC, MEAC and HBCU Athletic Conference (HBCUAC).
Charlie Ward’s parents met as undergrads at FAMU — his father Charlie, Sr. was a standout football player. Charlie’s older sister also is a FAMU alumnus.
Charlie Ward, Jr. attended Florida State, where he became the school’s first Heisman Trophy winner (1993), averaged a college career-high of 10.5 points and 4.9 assists as the basketball team’s point guard after his stellar senior football season concluded. Ward also became the second college football player to win the Sullivan Award as the nation’s top amateur athlete.
MSR earlier this fall asked Ward, now in his first season as FAMU’s men’s head basketball coach, on whether his players know about his legendary exploits, including a 12-year NBA playing career after going undrafted by the NFL.
“A lot of them weren’t alive when I played,” he said smiling. “They have Google and YouTube and all those things where you can go back and look, so they understand and know the history of my career.”
Former AD Angela Suggs “reached out to me,” explained Ward on his first college HC position when he was hired this past April. “I wasn’t looking for this job. The opportunity came … FAMU chose me,”
After retiring as a player, Ward began coaching in the NBA as an assistant under Jeff Van Gundy for two seasons in Houston. Then he took an assistant basketball coaching and head football coaching position at Westbury Christian School in Houston.
Ward later returned to Florida when Booker T. Washington High School in Pensacola, Fla. named him head football coach. Then he moved to Florida High School, where as HC he led the school to its first state football championship since 1963.
But college basketball, especially in this age of the transfer portal and NIL, is another thing altogether, stressed Ward. “There are a lot of moving parts. I was coaching in high school for a long time. When you’re in high school, you have parents.”
Now, in college, “You have alumni, you have fundraising, you have all the different components of building your team,” he pointed out.
“Now you’re responsible for these guys, and so putting procedures and different things in place to make sure that they have what [the players] need,” continued the FAMU coach. “Having to deal with just all the different things that you have to go through. That’s been the biggest difference.”
Florida A&M starts conference play January 3 at Bethune-Cookman.
“Our goal is to make sure we give ourselves a chance to win by going out and competing at a high level,” said Ward before the season began. “I don’t know how many wins we’ll have this year, but one thing we can say is we’ll compete.
“We’ll grow from each experience, and the goal is to see how we can become better from game one to the end.”
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.