By Chuck Boice and George Edmonston Jr.

When in the fall of 1990 the University of Colorado’s football program was ranked No. 1 in the nation, the name of one of Oregon State’s all-time gridiron greats kept cropping up as sports writers recalled the relatively brief history of the Buffaloes in "big time" college football. The person they were referring to was Dallas Ward, a 1927 Oregon State graduate from the days when OSU was known as OAC or Oregon Agricultural College. Ward coached at Colorado for 11 seasons, from 1948 to 1959, and finished his tenure in the Rocky Mountain state with an impressive 63-41-6 record. Under his direction, Colorado clearly became, for the first time in school history, a Big Seven Conference powerhouse. Not a few scribes claimed it was Ward who deserved most of the credit for bringing the Buffaloes into national football prominence.

Dallas Ward, '27

Of most significance, he coached CU to its first-ever bowl victory, a 27-21 win over Clemson in the 1957 Orange Bowl.

As an Oregon State student in the 1920s, Ward ranks as one of the top student-athletes of his generation. Though one of the smallest football ends on the West Coast, he started every game for the Beavers during his years of varsity eligibility and made All-Coast his senior year. In addition, he played basketball his freshman year but had to give up the sport his sophomore season because of his numerous off-campus jobs and heavy class load. Ward was back on the court for his junior and senior years and also found time to put in three years with the Beaver baseball team. So good was he on the diamond that many felt the hard-hitting outfielder might be destined for a major league career.

But there was much more to Dallas Ward than his prodigious sports schedule and part-time jobs. A vocational education major, he ranked as one of OAC’s top students, holding memberships in five honorary organizations, including Phi Kappa Phi, the national scholastic honorary.

He also held the rank of colonel in ROTC and served as president of his Phi Delta Theta social fraternity. He won the award as the school's top junior and was vice president of the student body in his senior year.

Dallas Ward grew up in the small Oregon town of Lexington. His home was located on one of the large wheat ranches in the area, and he worked in the summer as a farm hand as early as age 12.

Even with a life at college that was stretched to the limits, he continued his summer work back home. It was this work ethic that would serve him well throughout his career.

As an Oregon State athlete, Ward is best remembered as one of the senior stars of Coach Paul Schissler’s 1926 team that still ranks as one of the best in Beaver history. Posting a 7-1 record, its only loss at the hands of Stanford, Oregon State defeated a powerful California team 27-7 on the road, then handed the Oregon Ducks a 16-0 drubbing in the mud at OAC’s old Bell Field.

The season closed with a 29-0 Thanksgiving Day victory over heavily favored Marquette at Milwaukee (Wis.). Marquette was ranked as one of the best in the Midwest that year, and the final outcome was its worst defeat ever.

The game was covered by Chicago writers and resulted in much favorable publicity for the boys from Corvallis. The reports praised Ward for sensational runs after receptions. His teammates included the great tackle Jim Dixon and backs Webley Edwards, Howard Maple, and Wes Schulmerich.

After graduation, Ward decided he wanted to coach instead of trying his luck in professional baseball and joined the staff at Marshall High School in Minneapolis.

By the mid-1930s, he had built a very successful program at Marshall and had caught the eye of Bernie Bierman at the University of Minnesota. Bierman’s Golden Gophers of that era were frequently ranked No. 1 in the nation. His undefeated 1934-35 teams are considered among their all-time best, including 34-0 and 40-0 crushing victories over arch-rival Michigan. In 1936, Bierman invited Ward to join his staff to work with the freshman. It’s difficult to imagine higher recognition during that era for a young high school coach.

With the outbreak of World War II, Ward joined the Navy. By 1944-45, Lt. Cmdr. Ward was serving as officer-in-charge of physical and military training at the U.S. Naval Training Center in Dallas, Texas.

After the war, he returned to Minnesota and became Bierman’s backfield coach. Early in 1948, he moved on to Colorado as head coach. The school had just accepted membership in the Big Seven.

His first two seasons were next to horrible, his teams finishing 3-6 and 3-7. These would be his only losing seasons in his 11 years as a Buffalo. Beginning with the 1950 season, the Buffs were on their way. In 1951, they posted a 7-3 record, losing only to eventual national champion Oklahoma in conference play. In 1952, he was named UPI "Coach of the Week" after his team tied Oklahoma 21-21, the only blemish on the Sooner record by any school in the league while Ward was coach. The next year, the Sooners came from behind to win a 27-20 thriller. In 1954, the score was 13-6. More than any other past Colorado football coach, Dal Ward had taken the Buffaloes from relative obscurity into national prominence.

His Orange Bowl victory brought him much special attention. The Big Seven named him "Coach of the Year," and other schools began to wonder if he might consider leaving Boulder for a better opportunity. One such inquiry came from USC, where Jess Hill was stepping upstairs. But Ward chose to stay. He had what appeared to be a very good nucleus returning from the bowl team. There were high expectations for the next couple of seasons.

Unfortunately, things didn’t work out the way everyone had envisioned. The Buffaloes were good, but not very lucky. In ’57, they lost to Kansas 35-34, Oklahoma 14-13, and Missouri 9-6, to finish the season 6-3-1. In ’58, a 6-4 campaign showed little improvement as fans began to grumble their disappointment. Determined that ’59 would be a turn-around year for his team, Ward and his staff went about recruiting in their usual way and preparing for another year.

Then on the night of January 23, 1959, one of the biggest sports bombshells ever to hit the Boulder campus exploded. Following an all-night, closed-door meeting, the university’s powerful Board of Regents called Ward in and asked for his resignation. He was stunned and refused to resign. Pressure from around the state forced the Regents to reconsider their vote, but in the end Ward was fired. His lack of success against Oklahoma was cited as the deciding factor. Now in his mid-50s and without a job, he decided to fall back on his tenured position at the university as a professor of education and finish his career in the classroom. When he retired in 1975, former players returned to campus and presented Dallas and his wife, Jane, with a brand-new Cadillac sedan and $2,000 in gas money.

That same year, the state of Colorado opened its Sports Hall of Fame and Dallas Ward was the No. 3 person named in the first round.

He died of cancer in Boulder in February 1983, at the age of 76. The building that today houses the administrative offices for CU athletics is named in his honor.

Chuck Boice is editor emeritus of the Oregon Stater. George Edmonston Jr. is editor of the Stater and Eclips. For more on the life and career of Dallas Ward, ’27, see the Oregon Stater, April 1991, page 26.