in a settlement house in 1940. Ford had an older sister, Anita, and a younger brother, Claude. As a teenager, Ford attended Armstrong Technical High School, where he played football, basketball and baseball. As a high school athlete, he aspired to play fullback in football, but he later recalled, "I started to grow, and I grew right out of the backfield." He was chosen by local sportswriters as an all-city athlete in all three sports in his senior year, and he served as captain of all three teams for one season each. After he graduated in 1944, Theodore McIntyre, Ford's high school football coach, suggested he attend Morgan State University, a historically black college in Baltimore, Maryland. Ford played for the Morgan State Bears football team for one year under head coach Edward P. Hurt, while also starring as the center on the school's basketball team. The basketball team won its league's championship in 1944. Ford left Morgan State and joined the U.S. Navy in 1945, but stayed in the service only briefly as World War II came to an end. University of Michigan After the war, Ford transferred to the University of Michigan to play football in a bigger program than Morgan State's. He wanted to "get a shot at playing in the Rose Bowl one day", he later said. While attending Michigan, he was a member of Omega Psi Phi, an all-black fraternity whose membership also included Bob Mann, another Michigan end who went on to play in the NFL. 1945 and 1946 seasons In 1945, Ford was Michigan's tallest player at and 190 pounds. Ford played as a backup at the left end for the 1945 Michigan football team that compiled a 7–3 win–loss record under head coach Fritz Crisler. When Ford caught a pass from Wally Teninga in Michigan's 26-0 victory over Minnesota in early November 1945, The New York Times took note and referred to Ford as "a six-foot, five-inch giant." As a junior in 1946, Ford had gained 16 pounds and weighed 206 pounds. That year, Ford and Bob Mann shared the left end position, with Ford starting four games and Mann two. The 1946 Michigan team finished with a 6–2–1 record. During the 1946 season, Ford established himself as a tenacious tackler on defense and was also a receiving threat as an end on offense. In the first game of the 1946 season,