For Arizona State football, coordinator Brian Ward's boxing past shapes a strong defense
"The way he prepares and the way he studies offenses ... in my mind, it all correlates back to boxing," says an ASU assistant of Ward.
TEMPE, Ariz. — Cornerback Keith Abney II notices it every time Arizona State defensive coordinator Brian Ward runs from one drill to the next.
“He’s got kind of a little boxer jog,” Abney said. “He’ll be up on his toes.”
Defensive lineman Anthonie Cooper says that, every so often, Ward will mess around with players, and one will give the coordinator a playful shove.
“He’ll turn around and throw some hands with them,” Cooper said. “It looks real. I’m not messing with him.”
In his third year at Arizona State, Ward, 52, has established himself as one of the Big 12’s premier defensive minds. With this season’s offense suffering key injuries, the defense remained strong, leading the Sun Devils to eight wins and a date against Duke in Wednesday’s Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas. Ward’s influence played a significant role.
His roots are unique. Ward once boxed professionally. In 1998, at age 24, he defeated Thomas Allen in a four-round decision at Graham Central Station in Phoenix. Ward retired with a 1-0 record, but his boxing experience, in some ways, shaped him as a coach.
“There’s a science to football, just like there’s a science to boxing,” Ward said. “It’s not for everyone to see with the naked eye because things happen so fast.”
Eastern Michigan coach Chris Creighton first met Ward in the 1990s, when Ward was just learning the profession. Creighton hired Ward at Wabash, a Division III school in Indiana, and later at Drake. Their families grew close.
During their first season at Wabash, Ward showed his boxing match during a team meeting. Creighton said it had to do with the program’s theme for the week, something along the lines of “Fight to the Finish.” There was Ward, dressed in white trunks and blue gloves, working his jab before ducking and delivering a hard right to Allen’s midsection.
“Oh, it was unbelievable,” Creighton said. “We showed the entire fight. The guys were going crazy.”
A still from a video of the fight shows a 24-year-old Brian Ward (facing the camera) boxing in his only pro fight, in 1998. (Courtesy of Brian Ward)
Boxing was part of Ward’s childhood. His dad, Patrick E. Ward, a World War II veteran, trained boxers while the family lived in Minneapolis. Some from Chicago actually lived with the Wards in their basement, waiting for upcoming competitions. Through his father, Ward met future greats Evander Holyfield, Thomas Hearns and George Foreman.
He also learned to box.
Once the Wards moved to Arizona, Ward competed in state tournaments, the Junior Olympics and other events held at the state fair near Veterans Memorial Coliseum, where the Phoenix Suns played. As a football player at McPherson College in Kansas, Ward, a recently married linebacker, signed up for the Wichita Tough Man contest, for which competitors had little training. Ward cruised.