Kansas Athletics Mourns the Loss of Jayhawk Great Nolen Ellison

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas men's basketball great Nolen Ellison died on June 12, Kansas Athletics has learned from the Ellison family. Ellison was 83 years old.

A native of Kansas City, Kansas, Ellison graduated from Wyandotte High School in 1959 and played for the Jayhawks from 1961-63 under head coach Dick Harp. Ellison was a two-time All-Big Eight First Team selection in 1962 and 1963, and he became the seventh Jayhawk to score 1,000 career points. He amassed 1,045 career points in just three seasons as he played in an era when freshmen were not eligible for outside competition.

One of Ellison's many highlights as a Jayhawk player was Kansas' 90-88 four-overtime win against Kansas State in the championship game of the Big Eight Holiday Tournament played at historical Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. Ellison led KU with a career-high 32 points in the win and scored the Jayhawks final points in each of the first three overtimes. In the first OT, Ellison made two free throws to send the game into its second overtime. Ellison later made a 20-foot shot with two seconds left to force a third overtime and then drained two free throws with three seconds left to force the fourth overtime. To cap the win, Ellison made the assist on Jay Roberts' game-winning 12-foot jumper with three seconds remaining in the two-point victory.

Ellison was selected No. 29 overall in the fourth round of the 1963 NBA Draft by the Chicago Zephyrs. He chose not to play basketball and became a teacher and coach at Sumner High School in Kansas City, Kansas.

While at Sumner, Ellison was the first African-American elected to the Kansas City Junior College Board of Trustees. He later worked for the Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Michigan, which led Ellison to Michigan State University where he earned his Ph.D. in education/leadership in 1971. He served as an assistant to then-Michigan State president Clifton R. Wharton Jr. from 1970-71.

In the fall of 1971, Ellison was hired as an assistant to the chancellor at Metropolitan Community College in Kansas City, Missouri. From 1972-74, at 31 years old, Ellison was hired the president of Seattle Central Community College, becoming one the youngest CEOs of a higher education institution in the United States.

In 1974, Ellison became the second president and CEO at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, a position he held until 1991. In 1992, Ellison became a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in the Henry W. Block School of Management. He retired from UMKC in 2001 and returned to Kansas City Kansas Community College in 2007 in a consulting role while serving as a trustee for the college for a second time.

Ellison, and his wife Carole, were married in 1962 while attending the University of Kansas and their dedication to KU has resonated through many of the family's generations. In 1983, Ellison was awarded a distinguished service citation by the University of Kansas Alumni Association.

KU Endowment wrote a feature the Ellison family that can be read here. In 2016, Ellison was also featured in a Once A Jayhawk: Always A Jayhawk story on KUAthletics.com that can be read here.

University of Kansas Athletics

Kansas Athletics Mourns the Loss of Jayhawk Great Nolen Ellison

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