Andre Ware
Encyclopedia
Andre Ware is a sports analyst
and commentator
and a former American football
player. He was the 1989 Heisman Trophy
winner as a quarterback
for the University of Houston
, becoming the first African-American quarterback to win the award. In the 1990 NFL Draft
, Ware was the first round selection (#7 overall) of the Detroit Lions
. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame
in 2004.
, Andre Ware played at the University of Houston
, where he was the first black quarterback to win the Heisman Trophy
in 1989, along with the Davey O'Brien Award
, the latter award given to the most outstanding college quarterback of the year. That year, his junior year, he threw for 4,699 yards, 44 touchdowns, and set 26 NCAA records. Many of the records were thanks to the innovative use of the Run & Shoot offense, which his successor, David Klingler
, also used to great effect. The Cougars ended the season ranked the #14 team in the nation by the Associated Press
. He then declared for the NFL Draft
, foregoing his senior year.
, teaming with the previous Heisman Trophy winner from 1988, Barry Sanders
. Ware spent four years with Detroit, playing 14 games and starting six: then-coach Wayne Fontes
insisted on starting the oft-injured Rodney Peete
, and usually replacing Peete with Erik Kramer
when Peete was hurt or played poorly. Fontes generally only played Ware when the Lions were out of the playoffs or already losing a game by a wide margin. Ware's best stretch came late in the 1992 season
when the Lions were out of the playoffs: he won two of three games. The loss came on Monday Night Football
to the San Francisco 49ers
. He began 1994
on the roster of the Los Angeles Raiders, but was released after several games. In 1995 he was signed by the Jacksonville Jaguars
, one of the NFL's two expansion team
s that year. As a former Heisman Trophy winner, Ware's presence gathered much local excitement in Jacksonville, but ultimately, Ware was cut from the team the week before the regular season began.
Ware also played in the Canadian Football League
with the Ottawa Rough Riders
, the BC Lions
and the Toronto Argonauts
(where he backed up fellow Heisman winner Doug Flutie
), and five games with the Berlin Thunder
, a German NFL Europe team.
' radio broadcast team. He teamed up with Dave Pasch and previously he was paired with Gary Thorne
, for college football games on ESPN
, ESPN2 and ESPN on ABC
. In July 2009, ESPN announced that Ware will team up with long-time SEC broadcaster Dave Neal in the fall of 2009 as color commentator for ESPN Regional Television's coverage of Southeastern Conference
Football. The ESPN Regional Television package is expected to be distributed through several local television affiliates throughout the Southeastern United States
as well as on other stations in other parts of the country. He also appears as a player in All-Pro Football 2K8
.
In 2004 he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame
.
Sports analyst
In sports broadcasting, a sports analyst provides expert discussion of sports-related topics before, during or after a sporting event. Sports analysts are frequently former athletes who participated in the sport being analyzed...
and commentator
Sports commentator
In sports broadcasting, a commentator gives a running commentary of a game or event in real time, usually during a live broadcast. The comments are normally a voiceover, with the sounds of the action and spectators also heard in the background. In the case of television commentary, the commentator...
and a former American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
player. He was the 1989 Heisman Trophy
Heisman Trophy
The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award , is awarded annually to the player deemed the most outstanding player in collegiate football. It was created in 1935 as the Downtown Athletic Club trophy and renamed in 1936 following the death of the Club's athletic director, John Heisman The Heisman Memorial...
winner as a quarterback
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
for the University of Houston
University of Houston
The University of Houston is a state research university, and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, it is Texas's third-largest university with nearly 40,000 students. Its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of...
, becoming the first African-American quarterback to win the award. In the 1990 NFL Draft
1990 NFL Draft
The 1990 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 22–23, 1990...
, Ware was the first round selection (#7 overall) of the Detroit Lions
Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League , and play their home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit.Originally based in Portsmouth, Ohio and...
. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame
College Football Hall of Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. Located in South Bend, Indiana, it is connected to a convention center and situated in the city's renovated downtown district, two miles south of the University of Notre Dame campus. It is slated to move...
in 2004.
College career
Upon leaving Dickinson High SchoolDickinson High School (Texas)
Dickinson High School is located in Dickinson, Texas, in the Dickinson Independent School District. The school serves Dickinson and the cities of San Leon and Bacliff.The school colors are blue and white...
, Andre Ware played at the University of Houston
University of Houston
The University of Houston is a state research university, and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, it is Texas's third-largest university with nearly 40,000 students. Its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of...
, where he was the first black quarterback to win the Heisman Trophy
Heisman Trophy
The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award , is awarded annually to the player deemed the most outstanding player in collegiate football. It was created in 1935 as the Downtown Athletic Club trophy and renamed in 1936 following the death of the Club's athletic director, John Heisman The Heisman Memorial...
in 1989, along with the Davey O'Brien Award
Davey O'Brien Award
The Davey O'Brien Award, officially the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award, named after Davey O'Brien, is presented annually to the collegiate American football player adjudged by the Davey O'Brien Foundation to be the best of all National Collegiate Athletic Association quarterbacks. The...
, the latter award given to the most outstanding college quarterback of the year. That year, his junior year, he threw for 4,699 yards, 44 touchdowns, and set 26 NCAA records. Many of the records were thanks to the innovative use of the Run & Shoot offense, which his successor, David Klingler
David Klingler
David Ryan Klingler , is a former American football player. He was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals after a record setting quarterback career at the University of Houston...
, also used to great effect. The Cougars ended the season ranked the #14 team in the nation by the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
. He then declared for the NFL Draft
NFL Draft
The National Football League Draft is an annual event in which the National Football League teams select eligible college football players and it is their most common source of player recruitment. The basic design of the draft is each team is given a position in the drafting order in reverse order...
, foregoing his senior year.
Pro football career
Ware joined the Lions for the 1990 season1990 NFL season
The 1990 NFL season was the 71st regular season of the National Football League. To increase revenue, the league changed the regular season so that all NFL teams would play their 16-game schedule over a 17-week period...
, teaming with the previous Heisman Trophy winner from 1988, Barry Sanders
Barry Sanders
Barry Sanders is a former American football running back who spent all of his professional career with the Detroit Lions in the NFL. Sanders left the game just short of the all-time rushing record...
. Ware spent four years with Detroit, playing 14 games and starting six: then-coach Wayne Fontes
Wayne Fontes
Wayne Fontes is a former American football coach and college and professional football player who was the head coach of the NFL's Detroit Lions from 1988 to 1996. His 67 wins and 71 losses are each the most for a head coach in team history.-Background and early career:Fontes was born in the...
insisted on starting the oft-injured Rodney Peete
Rodney Peete
Rodney Peete is a former American football quarterback from the University of Southern California who played in the National Football League for 16 years. He retired in 2004 and is now in broadcasting.-Early life:...
, and usually replacing Peete with Erik Kramer
Erik Kramer
William Erik Kramer , is a former American football quarterback. He attended John Burroughs High School in Burbank, CA. After attending Los Angeles Pierce College and playing as their quarterback, Kramer transferred to North Carolina State University where he finished a successful college football...
when Peete was hurt or played poorly. Fontes generally only played Ware when the Lions were out of the playoffs or already losing a game by a wide margin. Ware's best stretch came late in the 1992 season
1992 NFL season
The 1992 NFL season was the 73rd regular season of the National Football League.Due to the damage caused by Hurricane Andrew, the New England Patriots–Miami Dolphins game that was scheduled for September 6 at Joe Robbie Stadium was rescheduled to October 18. Both teams originally had that...
when the Lions were out of the playoffs: he won two of three games. The loss came on Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football is a live broadcast of the National Football League on ESPN. From to it aired on ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest running prime time commercial network television series...
to the San Francisco 49ers
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...
. He began 1994
1994 NFL season
The 1994 NFL season was the 75th regular season of the National Football League. To honor the NFL's 75th season, a special anniversary logo was designed and each player wore a patch on their jerseys with this logo throughout the season...
on the roster of the Los Angeles Raiders, but was released after several games. In 1995 he was signed by the Jacksonville Jaguars
Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. They are currently members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, one of the NFL's two expansion team
Expansion team
An expansion team is a brand new team in a sports league. The term is most commonly used in reference to the North American major professional sports leagues, but is applied to sports leagues worldwide that use a closed franchise system of league membership. The term comes from the expansion of the...
s that year. As a former Heisman Trophy winner, Ware's presence gathered much local excitement in Jacksonville, but ultimately, Ware was cut from the team the week before the regular season began.
Ware also played in the Canadian Football League
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football, a form of gridiron football closely related to American football....
with the Ottawa Rough Riders
Ottawa Rough Riders
The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. One of the oldest and longest lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine times. Their most dominant era was the 1960s and 1970s, a...
, the BC Lions
BC Lions
The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team competing in the West Division of Canadian Football League . Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Lions play their home games at BC Place Stadium in Downtown Vancouver, having previously played at Empire Stadium in East Vancouver from 1954...
and the Toronto Argonauts
Toronto Argonauts
The Toronto Argonauts are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League. The Toronto, Ontario based team was founded in 1873 and is one of the oldest existing professional sports teams in North America, after the Chicago Cubs and the Atlanta...
(where he backed up fellow Heisman winner Doug Flutie
Doug Flutie
Douglas Richard "Doug" Flutie is a former American and Canadian football quarterback. Flutie played college football at Boston College, and played professionally in the National Football League, Canadian Football League, and United States Football League...
), and five games with the Berlin Thunder
Berlin Thunder
The Berlin Thunder were a professional American football team in NFL Europe, which was a springtime American football league serving primarily as a developmental league for the National Football League. Most of the players were young American professional players assigned by NFL teams to receive...
, a German NFL Europe team.
Current
Along with Marc Vandermeer, Ware is now part of the Houston TexansHouston Texans
The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston, Texas. The team is currently a member of the Southern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
' radio broadcast team. He teamed up with Dave Pasch and previously he was paired with Gary Thorne
Gary Thorne
Gary Thorne is a play-by-play announcer for ESPN and ABC, working Major League Baseball, College football and Frozen Four hockey contests. He is also the television play-by-play voice of the Baltimore Orioles...
, for college football games on ESPN
ESPN College Football
ESPN College Football is the branding used for broadcasts of NCAA Division I FBS college football across ESPN properties, including ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, ESPN Classic, ESPNU, and ESPN Radio...
, ESPN2 and ESPN on ABC
College Football on ABC
ESPN College Football on ABC presented by Kay Jewelers is a presentation of the American Broadcasting Company's regular season American college football television package...
. In July 2009, ESPN announced that Ware will team up with long-time SEC broadcaster Dave Neal in the fall of 2009 as color commentator for ESPN Regional Television's coverage of Southeastern Conference
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference is an American college athletic conference that operates in the southeastern part of the United States. It is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama...
Football. The ESPN Regional Television package is expected to be distributed through several local television affiliates throughout the Southeastern United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as well as on other stations in other parts of the country. He also appears as a player in All-Pro Football 2K8
All-Pro Football 2K8
All-Pro Football 2K8 is a football game for seventh generation consoles and the spiritual successor to the ESPN NFL 2K series. APF2K8 is the first football game to be published by 2K Sports since EA Sports purchased exclusive licenses to the intellectual properties of the NFL and NFLPA. Barry...
.
In 2004 he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame
College Football Hall of Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. Located in South Bend, Indiana, it is connected to a convention center and situated in the city's renovated downtown district, two miles south of the University of Notre Dame campus. It is slated to move...
.