KU basketball will wear jersey patch honoring memory of Scott ‘Scooter’ Ward
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kansas will wear "SW" on jerseys for the remainder of the 2025-26 season.
- Scott "Scooter" Ward served KU from 2003, leading academic and mental performance.
- Ward mentored athletes across KU sports; program will honor his legacy through season.
Kansas men’s basketball will honor the memory of former team academic adviser Scott “Scooter” Ward by wearing “SW” on player jerseys the rest of the 2025-26 season, coach Bill Self announced on Monday’s Hawk Talk radio show.
Ward, a member of the University of Kansas athletic department for two decades who worked with KU men’s basketball players during the entire Bill Self era, died Saturday at the age of 59.
Ward, a Kingman, Kansas native, earned a bachelor’s degree at KU in 1991, a master’s in 1993 and Ph.D in education with an emphasis in sports psychology and support in counseling psychology in 1996. He joined the school’s athletic department in the summer of 2003 and since then has helped hundreds of current and former KU athletes earn degrees.
“We’re going to honor ‘Scoot’ for the rest of year, so we’ll have SW on our jerseys moving forward,” Self revealed on his radio show.
Of Ward, Self said: “I think that if you are from the Lawrence community, you probably know of Scoot and (wife) Robin, at least in some capacity. That’s a tough one for a lot of folks, just because we were able to witness first-hand on a fairly daily basis for 23 years almost what real courage and what a real man actually looks like. And our players were influenced by that in a very, very positive way. He was incredible, and Robin too. People talk about being a positive influence and a role model. I mean, he was the definition.”
Joining the athletic department in the summer of 2003, Ward most recently worked with KU LEADS as the “director of Jayhawk peak performance and leadership,” helping with mental performance aspects for all KU athletes. His job duties included coordinating various support services for student-athletes, including directly mentoring the men’s basketball, football and volleyball programs.
Before his current position, Ward spent 14 years in the KU academic support program, working mainly with men’s basketball and volleyball as academic counselor. In the summer of 2009, he was promoted to associate athletics director for academic and career counseling.
The Jayhawks, 10-4 overall and 0-1 in the league, will next meet TCU on Tuesday. Tipoff is 8 p.m. at Allen Fieldhouse.
This story was originally published January 5, 2026 at 7:29 PM with the headline "KU basketball will wear jersey patch honoring memory of Scott ‘Scooter’ Ward."
