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Ben Ward and a Bond in Baseball

Struggling with cancer, Duke Professor Benjamin Ward has developed an unlikely friendship with the Wake Forest player-coach duo who made headlines with a kidney transplant

Kevin Jordan (left), Ben Ward (center) and Tom Walter. Photo: Kurt Uphoff '82
Kevin Jordan (left), Ben Ward (center) and Tom Walter. Photo: Kurt Uphoff '82

Duke philosophy professor Benjamin Ward participated in an unlikely competition last month: He challenged a Wake Forest University student to see who could gain more weight.

The student was Kevin Jordan, whose kidney transplant in February made headlines when his coach Tom Walter stepped forward to be the donor.

Jordan set goals for gaining weight to return to competitive shape while recovering from surgery. Ward, too, is putting on weight while undergoing chemotherapy to treat colorectal cancer. The "weigh-off" between the two July 19 at the Wake Forest baseball stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C., was a friendly way to encourage one another in recovery.

"It really did give me motivation," said Ward, a faculty-in-residence in Edens Quad. "In the weeks leading up to it, I told all my friends about it, ... and I had friends who brought me food and said, 'Here, this will help you beat Kevin. Eat this.'"

Ward, acknowledging his competitive streak, says he won by a hair 193 to 191 lbs., but the victory was in the budding friendship.

"My goal was to get him to laugh," Ward said. "He said he was taking a philosophy class. I teach philosophy. I said, 'This is incredible.' So we just bonded immediately."

Ward's improbably friendship with Jordan dates to February when news reports came out about Jordan's transplant. Ward wrote Walter an email commending him for his courage and compassion. Walter wrote back while still in the hospital, according to Ward, and the two men have kept up a correspondence since.

"I've been deeply inspired by both of them," said Ward, who attended a Duke-Wake Forest game baseball last spring with divided loyalties. "At a time when we read so much about people doing terrible things, this shows what humanity is capable of."

Ward is teaching a course this semester "Philosophy of Sport" and said he plans to include Jordan and Walter's story when he discusses the different relationship between players and coaches in college versus professional sports.

"I can't imagine this happening in a professional setting," Ward said.

Ward said his own health has improved somewhat over the last months and despite needing a walker or wheelchair to get around, he is returning to activities he enjoys. A longtime adviser to the Pitchforks student a cappella group, Ward has begun playing piano again. He is also an avid Durham Bulls baseball fan and has been attending most of the team's home games, occasionally wearing the Wake Forest hat and warm up jacket Walter gave him.

"I don't look a year ahead," Ward said. "I don't look five years ahead."

Tuesday (Aug. 23), he plans to see a Bulls game with Jordan and Walter.