Ford attended DeMatha Catholic High School, where he is a member the Hall of
Fame. Ford has been an assistant athletic director at WVU since 1985. He was an
outstanding running back for the Mountaineers during the mid-1960's, becoming the
first Mountaineer to top both 2,000 career rushing yards and 1,000 yards in a single
season. He tallied 2,166 yards from 1965-67, the WVU career rushing record at the
time, with eight 100-yard games and 120 career points. His 453 career rushing attempts
are still second highest in Mountaineer history and his 236 attempts in 1966 is
currently the WVU single-season standard. In 1965, Ford led the team in rushing
with 894 yards. His 1,068 yards as a junior in 1966 placed him first at that time
and is still the fifth best on the WVU record books. Ford is one of only three
running backs to lead WVU in season total offense over the course of the last 35
years. He accomplished that with 1,082 yards of total offense in 1966.
Perhaps his best performance came in a 63-48 win against Pitt on October 2, 1965,
when he rushed for a school record 133 yards in the second quarter to lead the
Mountaineers to victory. On the day, Ford tallied 192 yards on 18 carries and totaled
268 all-purpose yards. A second-team All-American in 1966, Ford played for coaches
Gene Corum in 1965, and Jim Carlen from 1966–67. WVU was 14-13-3 during Ford's
three seasons at WVU.
After college, Ford was drafted in the third round of the NFL draft by the Denver Broncos. He played two seasons with Denver before returning to WVU as assistant football coach in 1970. He served as WVU athletics' academic counselor from 1977-85 before being named as assistant athletic director. Ford was inducted into the West Virginia University Hall of Fame in 1995 and into the School of Physical Education Hall of Fame in 2004.
Bio and photo courtesy WVU Sports Hall of Fame and Department of Athletics