Northern Illinois defensive end George Rainey laughed dismissively after he’d sized up the true freshman with big dreams and a bantamweight body.

It was 2010 and barely recruited Jimmie Ward had just arrived on campus carrying 168 pounds and a quiet confidence: The 19-year-old believed he’d play during his first season.

Rainey, then in his second year, was redshirted as a true freshman. And if he wasn’t good enough to suit up, he was certain the shrimp-sized safety wouldn’t see the field any time soon.

“He started coming around and I’m thinking ‘Does this dude really think he’s going to play? He weighs 110. He’s never going to play,’” Rainey said. “And I’d tell him that: ‘You’re not about to play, dude. You’re not even big enough.’”

Four years, 320 tackles, 11 interceptions and armfuls of awards later, Rainey happily admits to his suspect scouting report. Ward played in all 14 games as a true freshman and had a school-record three blocked punts. And he played so well as a starter in his final three seasons the 49ers grabbed him in the first round of last month’s draft to play nickel cornerback and serve as a back-up safety.

At a bar in Berkeley, a onetime skeptic was nearly sobbing when Ward went No. 30 overall.

“People probably would have thought we were boyfriend and girlfriend the way I reacted when Jimmie was drafted,” Rainey said. “I was so happy for him. If anybody deserves it, it’s Jimmie.”

As you can tell, this is an underdog story with Ward, literally, playing the part of the little guy.

His size explains why, before he signed four-year, $7.1 million contract, Northern Illinois was the only Division I school willing to sign him.

Ward, 5-foot-10, now weighs 193 pounds, with much of that added weight presumably coming from the slights he still carries with him. He remains miffed he wasn’t selected to play in the Alabama-Mississippi high school all-star game. And it’s telling he had a career-high 14 tackles in the 2013 Orange Bowl against Florida State, one of the blueblood programs that ignored him.

How did more than 120 Division I schools pass on a player who, as a senior, was a third-team All-American, a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award given to the nation’s best defensive back and ranked seventh in the nation with seven interceptions? In response, Ward, smiling said the only thing that’s changed is the perception of him.

“Everything I did in college,” he said, “I did in high school.”

At W.P. Davidson High in Mobile, Ala., Ward was a three-year starter, team captain and honorable-mention all-state safety as a senior for a respected program that routinely sends players to the SEC.

With the help of Andrew Thomas, a family friend who owns a youth training facility in Mobile, he traveled to prospect camps at Florida, Auburn, Mississippi State, Florida State and Southern Mississippi. At Southern Miss, he ran the fastest 40-yard dash among defensive backs. Their response: Want to walk on?

Despite struggling to support four children, Ward’s mom and stepdad, Torcivia and Derrick Daniels, paid the postage to mail his highlight tape to nearly 200 Division I schools. Not even South Alabama, which began its inaugural football season during Ward’s senior year, pursued him. It was the ultimate insult. The school is in Mobile, four miles from Davidson High.

“Yep, even South Alabama didn’t give me no love,” Ward said. “No offer. No nothing. I sent them a letter and I’m pretty sure they saw me play. That was a slap in the face. I thought I was good enough, but I guess I didn’t measure out. But all that stuff just gave me my grind. I always believed somebody would see. Somebody would give me the opportunity.”

That someone was NIU defensive backs coach Jay Sawvel, who discovered Ward on his annual recruiting swing though Mobile. But even Sawvel was skeptical.

Ward’s video was impressive. Thanks partly to boyhood tackling drills against his older brothers, James, 27, and Cortez, 26, he was fast, fearless and shockingly physical for a player his size. But was he too tiny to play safety? And, if so, could he transition to cornerback? And, most perplexing, why wasn’t another Division I school interested?

“At the school, people would tell me ‘Boy, he’s one of the best players we’ve ever had,’ this that and the other,” Sawvel said. “And I didn’t know if they were telling me that just to get him recruited.”

Ward visited NIU, but didn’t receive a scholarship offer, which, Sawvel said, nearly caused him to burst into tears. The Huskies were looking for two safeties and Ward was among a group of five under consideration. Eventually, head coach Jerry Kill, now at the University of Minnesota with Sawvel, ended some of the agonizing. His message: Let’s sign the premier player, even if he is puny.

“He was always the best guy on the field when you watched him play,” Kill said. “We scratched out heads too trying to figure this one out. We kept going back to the film and it was ‘Wow, he’s sure not very big.’ But film don’t lie, now. And it was too good a film to ignore.”

Four years later, 49ers general manager Trent Baalke also trusted his eyes. Baalke, who believes “big wins,” prefers industrial-sized players. Last month, the 49ers’ draft included a 235-pound running back, a 321-pound center, a 6-2 cornerback and … Ward.

“Not big,” Baalke acknowledged. “Big heart. Plays big.”

And violently. Ward had foot surgery in March which will sideline him until training camp, but he played in 55 of 56 games at NIU despite constantly channeling his inner kamikaze. In his first college game, he set the tone for a season in which he was named NIU’s special teams player of the year with a molar-rattling hit of an Iowa State returner.

“As small as he was, he was one of the most physical players on our team as a freshman,” Rainey said. “It was crazy how he threw his body in there at – whatever it is he weighed. I was taking to him about a week ago and told him ‘You not caring about your body is what got you to where you’re at right now.’”

And Ward, at the start of his NFL career, is in a far different place than when Rainey first met him in 2010. As a first-round pick who has added 25 pounds, he’s gained in stature in more than one way.

Still, thanks this background, he possesses an advanced degree in uncovering slights. He’s gone from unknown, to DeKalb, Ill., to the NFL spotlight, but Ward insists there are plenty of skeptics to prove wrong.

“Oh, yeah,” he said, “four safeties got drafted before me.”