Elmer Henry "Bear" Ward (October 13, 1912 – March 26, 1996) was an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

player. Ward was born in Willard, Utah, and attended

Box Elder High School Box Elder High School (BEHS) is a public high school located in Brigham City, Utah. Part of the Box Elder School District, it serves approximately 1,500 students in the 10th through 12th grades in Utah's Box Elder County. The school's boundaries ...

Brigham City, Utah Brigham City is a city in Box Elder County, Utah, Box Elder County, Utah, United States. The population was 19,650 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, up from the 2010 figure of 17,899. It is the county seat of Box Elder County. It l ...

. He then enrolled at Utah State Agricultural College where he played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the

Utah State Aggies football The Utah State Aggies football team is a college football team that competes in the Mountain West Conference (MWC) of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA Division I, representing Utah State University. The Utah State college football pr ...

team. He was selected by the

Newspaper Enterprise Association The Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) is an editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1902. The oldest syndicate still in operation, the NEA was originally a secondary new ...

as a first-team center on the 1934 College Football All-America Team. He also played professional football for the NFL champion

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. The team plays their home game ...

during the 1935 NFL season. He was Utah State's first All-American athlete in any sport, and he was inducted into the Utah Sports Hall of Fame in 1984. He has also been inducted into the Utah State University Hall of Fame.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Elmer 1912 births 1996 deaths American football centers Utah State Aggies football players Detroit Lions players Players of American football from Utah People from Willard, Utah Sportspeople from Box Elder County, Utah