James B. Ward Jr., former head football coach at UB, died April 26 of a heart attack while attending services in Mount Olive Baptist Church. He was 54.

A native of Baltimore, Ward had been a coach for 26 years, including a stint as head coach at UB from 1992-94.

He also had coached football at Howard University, and was a coach at Northwestern High School in Baltimore, where he worked from 1969-84. At Northwestern, he coached top-ranked teams in track and field, football and wrestling.

After leaving UB, Ward worked as an assistant principal at Seneca Vocational High School, as Erie County commissioner of youth and, most recently, as a consultant to Mount Olive Development Corp.