FORT COLLINS — Randi Ellis can remember the sounds radiating from the family’s garage early each morning.

Music bumping at full blast. Dumbbells clashing. And the thump, thump, thumping of her brother’s hands pounding a heavy bag.

“He knew that one way or another, he was going to follow in our father’s footsteps,” Randi said of her younger brother, Jacob.

This fall in Fort Collins, Jacob Ellis is playing his final year of college football with boxing in his blood and his late father in his heart.

The new CSU linebacker’s grandfather, Jimmy Ellis, was a world heavyweight champion. And Jacob’s father, former Ohio State tight end Jeff Ellis, has been Jacob’s primary motivation since Jeff died of pancreatic cancer during his son’s junior year of high school.

Those two family backstories

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