Football lore is littered with tantalizing stories. After all, the “what if” and “what might have been” debates have long been fodder for tailgate parties and sports talk radio. 

Charlie Ward, the 1993 Heisman Trophy winner and former Florida State quarterback, has one of the more tantalizing “what if” stories in football. 

Ward was a dynamic, dual-threat athlete who led the Bobby Bowden coached Seminoles to the 1993 NCAA National Championship. His elite talent allowed him to star on the gridiron and hardwood while at Florida State. Prior to the NFL Draft, Ward was indecisive regarding which sport he planned to commit to and play professionally. Even with his elite athletic talent, the hesitation may have resulted in Ward going undrafted by the NFL.

“I was good at all types of ball growing up,” said Ward. “I loved playing and I loved competition. I got into football in the sixth grade and was the quarterback for pretty much my whole career. I loved competing, in football, but I also loved basketball.”

Instead, Ward was drafted into the NBA by the New York Knicks in 1994. He spent the next 12 years starting in the NBA and competing for the NBA Championship in 1999. After nine seasons in New York, Ward was part of a blockbuster trade that sent him to San Antonio. He would play one season with the Spurs, followed by two more with the Houston Rockets and retire in 2005. 

“The decision [to go into the NBA] wasn’t a difficult one for me really,” he said. “The opportunity to play and provide for my family was an easy. I had options. I never really got an offer to play in the NFL once I was in the NBA. There was never an opportunity to play pro football and I really didn’t have a need for that as I was concentrating solely on football. I had no regrets at that point.”

Ward was able to translate the skills he learned while playing football and utilize them during his NBA career.

“I think the football mentality was the best thing I was able to take into basketball,” he explained. “Football is a physical game and I was able to take that mentality with me. Also, being the quarterback, that made my job as a point guard easier. I was used to being in charge of the offense. Being out there and competing and having already developed leadership skills, all those things helped me find success.”

Now retired from basketball, Ward has found himself back on the gridiron in Pensacola, Fla., this time as the head coach of the Booker T. Washington high school Wildcats. He transitioned back from roundball to pigskin in 2014 as a result of a vacancy at the school. 

“Once I finished playing and coaching in the NBA, for a few years with the Rockets, I started coaching basketball in high school at Westbury Christian School in Houston,” he said. “I started coaching basketball and my first year there [in 2007], their football team needed a head football coach.”

Now in his third season with the Wildcats, Ward has long ago knocked off the rust after being away from the game for so long. While playing collegiately and professionally, Ward had the experience of learning from some of the best coaches in football and basketball. Now he is applying those lessons to his current squad. 

“Once I got back into it, I called up some of my coaches from college and they helped me out,” he said. “They helped me put together systems and things like that and I was grateful to them for helping me. One of the reasons why I was reluctant to coach [football] was because so much of what I did was because of my athleticism. I didn’t think that was something you could coach. Now, I just try to find out what each of my kids do best and try to put them in a place where they’ve got a chance to be successful.”

After a long and winding road, Charlie Ward is back in the game of football. He is leading and molding a new group of young men and imparting the life lessons that football offers. Ward was once a high school athlete learning these very same lessons, lessons that stuck with him for his entire life.

“Football is like life in that it’s a journey,” he said. “You have to go through what you have to go through in order to get where you want to be. We have to enjoy the process. We have to enjoy winning, which I did a lot in college and with some success in the pros. You have to understand that it takes work to win and never take that for granted,” Ward said.