• Living Legacy: Interview with U-M Senior Melanie Ward

    If you read this site you know that Saturday is officially Willis Ward Day in the state of Michigan.  It is also not-so coincidentally the 78th anniversary of the infamous 1934 Michigan-Georgia Tech game.  I bet you didn’t know this: there’s a descendant of Willis Ward currently studying on campus in Ann Arbor. I met Melanie Ward, the grand niece of Ward (Willis is her grandfather’s brother), at a screening of Black and Blue at the U-M Alumni Center on campus earlier this year.  Ward (left) is currently a U-M senior and was kind enough to chat with me this weekend as we approach the day that will honor her great uncle.  MVictors: What did you know about your great uncle before coming to U-M? Melanie Ward: I knew that I had a great uncle who played football for the University of Michigan in the 1930s. I also knew a little later that Gerald Ford also played on his team. But I did not know anything about the Georgia Tech football game. MVictors: Do you have any other family members who attended Michigan? Ward: Just Willis and his sister-law, who is my dad’s mother. MVictors: So when did you learn about the controversy about the 1934 Georgia Tech game and Willis Ward’s involvement? Ward: At the screening of the documentary…