"It was his destiny," said 21-year-old Cassandra Miller.

She was among the array of friends and family members who crammed into Debbie Boos's living room to watch a televised bout in which Ward rebounded from bruising early rounds to beat Magomed Aripgadjiev of Belarus and win a gold medal in the light heavyweight division of Olympic boxing.

Tiffiney Ward smiled adoringly at her husband's image on a colossal wide-screen television as he blew her and their two sons a kiss during a post-fight interview and sent them word: "I love you; I'm coming home with the gold like I said I would."

"I did it, Pop," Ward added, bringing tears to the eyes of April McKay and others who cherished Ward's late dad and felt the strength of the father-son bond.

"I know you are looking at me. I love you," he said.

Home-baked pineapple upside-down cake was added to a buffet spread that had sustained Ward's fans through the midday gathering. There were chicken wings, nachos, melon cubes and vegetables for dipping.

A sheet cake decorated with an American flag and words of congratulations was among the treats stacked on a counter. Beer was left on ice in the kitchen sink as Ward's victory was toasted with Asti sparkling wine.

Ward's sons, 3-year-old Andre Jr. and 22-month-old Malachi, joined others in penning tender messages to their dad on helium-filled balloons later sent skyward from Boos's picket-fenced back yard nestled below a hilltop.

"It was unbelievable," Sean Johnson, 23, concluded as he and others rehashed the bout in the relative cool of the back yard. "Incredibly intense."

"After Andre beat the Russian, we knew he would take the gold," 21-year-old Jeri Boos, Ward's cousin, stated confidently. "We've known it forever."

Members of the clan started the day not wanting to know the result of the match, which was fought about 5 a.m. California time and not broadcast here live, according to Robert Johnson. Through the morning, the news became as unavoidable as it was irresistible, said Johnson, who yielded to his curiosity and learned of Ward's victory while shopping at a Trader Joe's.

Millicent Hunter-Brown, the wife of Ward's trainer, said she was part of a telephone tree that spread information gleaned from the Internet by Bob Mason before sunrise.

Tiffiney Ward had to overcome a medical adversary to be at the Boos home to see the medal match. She spent several days undergoing testing in a hospital, where she was diagnosed with viral meningitis. She was released early Sunday.

Tiffiney Ward, 20, watched from a couch with Brown as the match got under way about 2:30 p.m. Ward had telephoned his wife three hours earlier to check on her health and let her know he would be on a flight out of Greece early today.

"I didn't want the details from him," Tiffiney said of their chat. "He told me his vision blurred. He said it was a tough fight when it started out, but he came around."

Tiffiney Ward's faith in her husband held firm, but she confessed to getting anxious as Aripgadjiev dominated the first two rounds. She conceded she would have gotten nervous at the outset if she hadn't been tipped to the outcome.

Ward's vision went fuzzy in the second round, after he got poked in the eye by his opponent. The expression on her husband's face after the jab to the eye cued Tiffiney Ward that the momentum of the fight was about to shift.

"He was mad ... I'd know that look from anywhere," Tiffiney said. "That's the look that says he is ready to get busy in there. In that third round, he really shot out there."

Andre Jr. and Malachi darted about the energy-charged room during and after the bout, seeming to thrive on the excitement but unaware to the significance of their father's accomplishment.

"There are going to be a lot of changes," said Mason, whose friendship with Ward's dad stretched back to their days as children growing up in a San Bruno neighborhood. "No more amateur for Andre. He is ready to move up to pro."

Mason hearkened back to a time when 20-year-old Andre Ward was a tyke listening, rapt, to his father and Mason tell stories of their amateur boxing fights.

"It's definitely in the blood," Mason said of the son taking boxing to levels his father dreamed of. "His father always told him the end of the rainbow is Olympic competition and the gold medal. We were just small fish in a small pond; nothing like Andre."

Tiffiney expects her husband to be back home in Oakland by Thursday, and hopes that, after he gets ample rest, they take a vacation. Perhaps, to attend an uncle's wedding slated to take place in Hawaii in a couple of weeks, she said wishfully.

"He looked great," said McKay, 38, of Antioch. "It is almost surreal that he is in Athens, on television, boxing for the gold medal. ... We are all very proud of him."

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