Willis Ward

Though George Jewett had broken the race barrier as Michigan's first African-American football player in 1890, Michigan had not played another African-American in the 40 years after Jewett.

During Fielding Yost's tenure as coach several African-American students joined the football team, but records indicate that none of them ever saw game action and only one earned even a "reserve letter".

Some reports attribute the de facto segregation of the football team to racism on the part of Yost, who was the son of a Confederate soldier.

While in high school, Ward had decided to attend Dartmouth College.

With head coach Harry Kipke's assurance that he would be given full opportunity to play football, Ward enrolled at Michigan.

Kipke had played with African-American athletes in high school and was eager to have Ward on his team.

According to John Behee, the author of a book on the history of African-American athletes at Michigan, Kipke "threatened to fight, physically fight, those alumni and fellow coaches who opposed his playing Ward."

Behee wrote that "on several occasions Kipke took off his coat and was prepared to fight with those who bitterly opposed having a Negro play for Michigan."

Willis Franklin Ward (December 28, 1912 – December 30, 1983) was a track and field athlete and American football player who was inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1981.

Ward was the Michigan High School Athlete of the Year, after setting a national prep record in the high jump.

Ward was born in Alabama in 1913.

His father, Henry R. Ward, was an Alabama native who moved to Detroit and worked there in a Ford Motor Company factory.

His mother, Bessie, was a Georgia native.

Ward attended Detroit's Northwestern High School where he excelled in both track and football.

As a high school junior, he was named Michigan High School Athlete of the Year, after setting a national prep record in the high jump at 6–4.5.

He was city champion in the low hurdles (with a time of 13.0) and the high hurdles (with a time of 15.8).

Ward also won the 220 hurdles at Ann Arbor (with a time of 25.9) and Class A (with a time of 26.1).

Ward attended the University of Michigan from 1931 to 1935, where he became one of the most successful track athletes in the school's history.

In football, Ward was only the second African-American to win a varsity letter for the Michigan Wolverines football team, lettering in 1932, 1933, and 1934.

As a freshman in 1932, Ward's specialty was the high jump.

Ward won the NCAA high jump championship in June 1932 with a jump of 6–7 1/3.

He jumped as high as 6-7-1/2 in his freshman year.

Ward's best jump in 1932 was two inches above the mark that won the gold medal at the 1932 Summer Olympics (Canada's Duncan McNaughton won the gold with a jump of 6 feet, 5½ inches), but Ward did not qualify for the team.

Ward's accomplishments were not limited to the high jump.

An Associated Press article in 1932 noted: "His specialty is the high jump for which he has a mark of 6 feet 7½ inches. He can run the high hurdles and the low hurdles. He has broad jumped 22 feet without training in that event. He put the 16-pound shot over 43 feet without prior experience, and it believed he might be developed into a world champion weight man. He unquestionably could be trained to do the springs. He is only 19. Ward has an ideal build for a track man, six feet, one inch tall, 185 pounds of well-distributed weight, good legs, natural co-ordination. He is quiet and unassuming, and popular with coaches and fellow members of the squad."

When Ward decided to try out for the football team as a sophomore, Michigan track fans worried that Ward would be injured.

The Associated Press reported: "University of Michigan track fans do a lot of worrying these days because a Negro boy from Detroit insists on playing football. Willis Ward, they believe, will be the greatest track man ever to compete for the Maize and Blue—if he doesn't get hurt. … Ward is a good football player and loves the game. . . . Well wishers even have told him about the advantages of competing only in track and staying away from the gridiron, but he is determined to play on the eleven, and he is good enough to make the grade."

Michigan's track coach, Chuck Hoyt, noted that "Ward is his own boss and football is his recreation."

In addition to the concerns of track fans, Ward's decision to try out for the football team raised issues of race.

Ward got the opportunity to prove himself in spring football practice in May 1932.

According to one account, Kipke ordered his veterans to pound Ward "without mercy" during practice.

"If, at the end of the week", said Kipke, "he doesn't turn in his uniform, then I know I've got a great player."

The United Press reported on the results of spring practice: "Three young freshmen at the University of Michigan—Jerry Ford, of Grand Rapids; Russell Oliver, of Pontiac, and Willis Ward, Detroit Negro—displayed such brilliance during spring football practice that they are expected to become important cogs next fall in the Wolverine varsity eleven."

At the University of Michigan, he was a collegiate champion in the high jump, the long jump, the 100-yard dash, and the 440-yard dash, and finished second in the voting for the Associated Press Big Ten Athlete of the Year award in 1933.

In track and field he was a three-time All-American and eight-time Big Ten champion.

In 1934, a controversy developed when Georgia Tech refused to play if Ward took the field, and university officials opted to keep Ward out of the game.

Teammate Gerald R. Ford reportedly threatened to quit the team in response to the university's decision.

After being excluded from the Georgia Tech game, Ward went on to score all 12 of Michigan's points that year outside of the Georgia Tech game, without another Wolverine even having an extra point or a field goal.

Ward later became a lawyer in Detroit and up through World War 2 he worked for Ford Motor Company in the Service Division as a voice for black workers, but also helping Ford oppose labor unions; later he was a member of the Michigan Public Service Commission from 1966 to 1973, serving as chairman from 1969 to 1973.

He also served as a probate court judge in Wayne County, Michigan.