The college football world suffered a huge loss when Missouri Southern head coach John Ware died of a heart attack at the age of 46.

The shock of his death was especially felt here at Truman, where Ware had spent nearly his entire coaching career.

Ware was a Bulldog almost all of his life, starting with his high school career at Ottumwa (Iowa), where he was an all-state lineman.

Next, he was a Drake Bulldog during his college playing days. Ware was a three-year starter during an all-American career at Drake. He helped turn the program around there, including two upset victories against Colorado.

Ware had a few more playing highlights in him after Drake, participating in the Blue-Gray All-Star Classic and trying out with the San Francisco 49ers. He played in four exhibition games for the 49ers, who would win the Super Bowl that year, before being cut.

Ware, also an academic all-American, graduated from Drake in 1981 with a psychology degree. He would later earn his masters in psychology from Truman in 1987.

Ware began his coaching career with his old high school, coaching the line at Ottumwa for one season. In 1985, he took a graduate assistant job for a team that he would end up being a part of for the next 19 years, the Bulldogs of Truman State University.

Ware was named a full-time assistant coach the next year and served in that capacity through the 1994 season.

Truman went 65-44 while Ware was an assistant coach. Among the highlights in those years were the Bulldogs winning the 1988 MIAA championship and advancing to the NCAA Tournament in 1990, 1992 and 1994.

While an assistant coach at Truman, Ware continued his other passion of weightlifting. He was a five-time U.S. Senior National Powerlifting champion and was the 1989 world record holder, lifting a total of 2,427 pounds. He was also the 1991 world powerlifting champion. His best lifts in the three powerlifting events were 1,000 pounds in the squat, 630 pounds in the bench press and 840 pounds in the deadlift.

In 1995, a new chapter began in Ware’s career when he was named the 19th head coach in Bulldog history.

Ware would stay the head coach of Truman from 1995-2003, tying for the third-longest tenure in school history, and also compiling the third-most wins among Bulldog football coaches. Ware went 54-43* while coaching at Truman, with six of those losses coming against NCAA Division I-AA programs.

In MIAA action, his Bulldog squads were 49-32 and the team finished third or better in the competitive conference in five of the nine seasons. Ware’s teams had seven winning seasons, including the 2001 squad which went 8-3 on the year.

Ware coached four offensive linemen to all-American status and helped recruit five other all-Americans to Kirksville. One of the players that Ware coached was Jarrett Anderson, who earned the Harlon Hill Trophy in 1996 for being the NCAA Division II Player of the Year. Ware and his offensive line helped Anderson rush for 2,140 yards and 27 touchdowns in his award-winning season.

Over his years at Truman, he and his wife, Melissa, the former athletics media relations director at the school, touched the lives of not only hundreds of Bulldog football players, but also countless other students, faculty and staff.

Ware was one of the rare collegiate head coaches who truly cared about the entire athletics department, not just his own program. Even after he left Kirksville, those who talked with him could tell that he still bled purple and deep down, he would always be a Bulldog.

Following the 2003 football season, Ware made the difficult decision to leave Truman and his years as a Bulldog. He took over the head coaching job at Missouri Southern and along with it, was handed a major rebuilding process.

The Lions went just 1-10 the year before Ware arrived and they did not even have enough players to field a complete team during his first spring practice.

The turnaround in Joplin came quickly. With a roster comprised of over 50% freshmen, Ware led the 2004 Lions to a 5-6 record, including a 4-5 mark in the MIAA. That squad remained in the hunt for a Mineral Water Bowl berth until the last week of the season. Following the 2004 campaign, Ware was named the national coach of the year by collegesportsreport.com.

This season, Missouri Southern was off to a 2-3 start at the time of Ware’s tragic death. All three of the losses came against teams that were nationally-ranked during the year.

The casual Division II college football fan will remember Ware’s fiery desire on the sidelines and his ability to always field a competitive team in one of the toughest conferences around.

Those who were fortunate enough to know him, however, will remember that there was so much more to him than that.

Ware cared a lot about collecting wins on the football field, but he cared more about the athletes that were out on that field playing for him.

After his death, 1% became the slogan that Missouri Southern and Truman remembered Ware by. It represents John’s belief that the way his players become a giant of a man is for them to get 1 percent better each day.

No one in the Kirksville community who got to meet John will ever forget one of the biggest Bulldogs in the history of Truman football. 

* Ware’s record includes one win that was forfeited by Missouri Southern in a 1997 contest