Rutgers Football walk-on WR Timmy Ward has endured a lot
Talk about battling through adversity.
Timmy Ward, a walk-on who was added to the Rutgers football team on National Signing Day on Wednesday, not only got through a torn ACL he suffered as a senior at Canton High School in Canton, Pa., but he has since recovered from cancer as well.
The wide receiver was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 2018.
Ward was an equipment manager with the Scarlet Knights this past fall. He went through a tryout in September, and last month, Special Assistant to the Head Coach, Joe Susan, gave Ward the good news that Rutgers had a roster spot for him and he was being added to the team.
During his junior scholastic season, Ward made 36 catches for 645 yards and seven touchdowns. He also had two kick return scores, 11 interceptions, and a fumble recovery.
He was forced to miss the spring 2019 sports season and the ensuing football season, but he eventually wrestled and took 6th in his weight class in the state after getting back to full strength after his cancer.
Ward was given an extra year of eligibility for football in 2020, and that's when he tore his ACL in his first game back. He played through it making 13 tackles, nine solo, in Canton's win over rival Troy.
"Yeah, Timmy came to us from Pennsylvania. He was an equipment manager and a really good equipment manager, worked his tail off," head coach Greg Schiano said. "Equipment managers are a very key part of our operation because to practice, you have 10 position coaches, and each one of those guys has an equipment manager that works with him that makes practice go quickly, that has the drills set up, that does different things to make it efficient. Timmy was one of those guys, and when we had walk-on tryouts, he went to the walk-on tryouts.
"My coaches came back, the people that were at the tryouts, and said there's three or four guys here that we think have a chance to help, and one of them is one of our managers, Timmy Ward. We weren't ready to do anything last semester, but this semester we allowed a few guys to come out and be a part of the team, and he's doing a good job. He's got a long way to go. This is college football, Big Ten football. But I think he's going to be a great addition. He was a great addition as a manager, and I think he's going to be a fine addition as a player."
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
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