LAWRENCE, Kan. (KCTV) – A Kansas City, Kansas, native who starred at the University of Kansas in the early 1960s has died, Kansas Athletics shared Tuesday.
KU Athletics said KU basketball great Nolen Ellison died on Thursday, June 12, according to his family. Ellison was 83 years old.
Ellison was a 1959 graduate of Wyandotte High School and played for KU from 1961-63. In that time, Ellison was a two-time All-Big Eight First Team selection in 1962 and 1963. He was the seventh Jayhawk in program history to score 1,000 career points, and did so during an era when freshmen weren’t allowed to play varsity competition.
After being selected 29th overall by the Chicago Zephyrs in the 1963 NBA Draft, Ellison opted out of playing basketball and instead chose to become a teacher and coach at Sumner High School in Kansas City, Kansas.
Ellison continued to play a role in the education world in Kansas City. After earning his Ph.D. in education and leadership from Michigan State University, Ellison became an assistant to the chancellor at Metropolitan Community College in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1971.
He later became a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and served as a consultant at Kansas City Kansas Community College in 2007.
