Hines Ward Youth Article

Back in the leather-helmet days of pro football, a player had to run, catch, throw and deliver bone-crushing hits. Today, there is just one of these guys left: Hines Ward. During a storied college and pro career, the Pittsburgh Steerers star has logged time as a wideout, tight end, tailback, fullback, quarterback, kick returner, and special teams demon. Undersized and underappreciated, Hines spent most of his football life yearning to prove himself by making plays on the game’s grandest stage. When he finally got his chance, he took home an MVP award. This is his story… GROWING UP

Hines Ward Jr. was born March 8, 1976, in Seoul, South Korea, to Kim and Hines Ward Sr. (Click here for today\'s sports birthdays.) His parents had met while his dad was a 20-year-old serviceman. Kim was a 25-year-old cashier in her homeland. Hines Sr. had been a high school football star, but began drinking and frittered away any chance at a college scholarship. His younger brother, Wayne, would go on to play for Eddie Robinson at Grambling, so talent was in the family bloodlines.

The Wards returned to the United States a couple of months after Hines’s first birthday. His father was stationed in Fort McPherson, near Atlanta. A year later, Hines Sr. left the family, and took a tour of duty in Germany. Kim spoke no English and had no friends. Mother and son were on their own. Kim found work as a cleaning woman at a trailer park.

A year later, dad—now remarried—Hines Sr. returned to the States and took him to Louisiana, dumping Hines on his grandmother, Martha, while he lived in Shreveport, a couple of hours away.

Kim, devastated at the loss of her son, worked to build a life for herself in Atlanta, hoping she would one day regain custody of Hines. She visited her boy when she could, and finally, in 1983, announced that she was financially capable of raising him. Grandma Martha agreed to let Hines go, believing a child’s place was with his mother. Hines was not pleased with this turn of events. He barely knew his mother, and deeply resented the change of address. He decided to make her life a living hell.

In 1986, no longer able to handle Hines, Kim sent him to spend the summer with his father and his third wife. It was a rude awakening. Hines Sr. was irate over the disrespect he had shown for his mother, and punished him on a daily basis. When he returned to Atlanta that fall, he was a changed boy. Hines began to understand the sacrifices Kim was making for him. She would leave their apartment before dawn to prepare airline meals, but breakfast was always on the table for Hines when he woke up. She was home to make him dinner every evening, before going across the street to work at a convenience store.

Kim bought Hines whatever he wanted, assuming there was money for it. He never felt like he was poor. In exchange, he heeded her pleas to stay away from gangs and drugs, and got his homework done every day.

Over the next eight years, Hines\'s contact with his father was limited to once-a-year phone calls, usually around Christmas. Hines Sr. usually explained why there again would be no present under the tree. The next time Hines saw his father was on graduation day at Forest Park High School.

During those years, Hines became one of the state’s top scholar-athletes. At Forest Park, he played quarterback in a high-powered shotgun offense, and excelled on the diamond as a baseball player in the spring. Hines was the starting QB for the better part of three varsity seasons and amassed 3,581 passing yards and 2,500 rushing yards. He threw for 38 TDs and ran for 29 more, and was named the county’s Offensive Player of the Year as a junior and senior. In his final season on the gridiron, Hines threw for more than 1,500 yards, ran for more than 1,000 yards and earned All-American honors from Super Prep and USA Today.