With the end of the CIAA football season came the end of the officiating career of Donald Ware. After 31 years of service in the CIAA, Ware called it a career. His career highlights as an official include officiating in three CIAA championship games (2001, 2004 and 2007), five NCAA playoff games and the Division II national championship game in 2004. But the Ware name in the CIAA carries on. His grandson Blake just completed his junior season on the Shaw football team. His son Donal is host of the national sports talk show FROM THE PRESS BOX TO PRESS ROW as well as the play-by-play radio voice for Shaw basketball on WSHA-FM 88.9 in Raleigh. Donald and beginnings in the CIAA Donald played football at Howard University from 1966-69 back when the Bison was in the CIAA. He was a four-year starter at safety and was named All-CIAA his senior year. He finished his Bison career with 24 interceptions, which at that time was a Howard record for interceptions in a career. Expected to be drafted in the 1970 NFL Draft, he wasn’t and on February 3, 1970, signed a free agent contract with the Washington Redskins. Former Redskin and Pro Football Hall of Famer Bobby Mitchell was instrumental in the Redskins signing him. Ware recalls going to the Redskins’ offices in Washington to meet with then head coach Vince Lombardi. “When Coach Lombardi asked me to come in, I nearly fainted at the door,” said Ware. With Lombardi and a nervous Bobby Mitchell in the room, along with Pro Football Hall of Famer Charlie Taylor (who was not part of the meeting), Lombardy heaped praises on Ware and said he would like him to play cornerback. “Do you think you can check Charlie Taylor?” Ware recalls Lombardi asking. After a pause and with Mitchell looking on nervously and Taylor now paying attention to the conversation, Ware said, “No one can.” A smile came over the legendary coach’s face. His hand moved towards a blue piece of paper. It was Ware’s NFL contract. Ware also received a $12,500 signing bonus. He was second on the depth chart behind Mike Bass at cornerback during camp, but a lingering Achilles injury as a senior at Howard plagued him at camp. After two weeks at camp and the diagnosis looking grim, he left camp and decided to move on from playing football. Still with the itch for football, he coached the defensive backs at Howard for three years and completed the six hours he needed to obtain his degree. During his time, he coached Haywood Corley, Greg Butler, Bruce Williams and Ron Mabra who are all now Howard Athletic Hall of Famers, the latter three spending time with NFL teams. After nine years of playing touch football in the Northern Virginia leagues, he decided to get into officiating in 1981. He joined the Eastern Board of Officials and officiated DC Interscholastic Athletic Association games for two years before joining the CIAA in 1983, where he became fulltime in 1992. He excelled so much in the profession that the NFL began to scout Ware as a side judge in the mid to late ’90s. At one point as Ware tells the story, the NFL had openings for two spots. In 1998, he was invited to the NFL office for a meeting where he was up against two other officials from the SEC and ACC. All three had the exact same scores, but the other two officials were chosen. “That’s the way things go sometimes,” he said. “It didn’t however discourage me one bit.” Life after officiating On November 8, the Winston-Salem State and Fayetteville State contest for the CIAA Southern Division crown was Donald’s last game as an official. He was honored prior to the game for his 31 years of service. He will now look to get back into coaching. “Officiating and all of my experiences good and bad have helped me to become a better man,” he said. “If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change anything.”
