Nolen M. Ellison:  

Life Born - Kansas City, Kansas, 1941. KCK Schools 1946 thru 1959. Attended Grant, Kealin, Stowe and Douglass elementary schools. McCallop buses to Northeast Jr. High School from 854 Ohio Street (south of Minnesota Ave.) where I began playing basketball on Coach Jackson Vantreece's "Dragons" 1953-56. . 1954 Brown v. Topeka Board of Education Supreme Court decision impacted the KCK Public Schools.. In 1956 I attended Wyandotte H.S. which was desegregated rather than Sumner High School which remained segregated (due to housing patterns in KCK until 1978. Sumner High School was legally closed as the only legally African American H.S. in the state of Kansas in the Spring of 1978 and reopened as Sumner Academy (integrated Magnet School) in the Fall of 1978. Brother Benoyd "Butch" Ellison (attended Sumner H.S. 1955-1957. After graduating from high school, he attended KCK Community College which was integrated in 1951 with the retirement of the SHS Principal, John Hodges who had served as Principal since 1913. "Butch" and I attended the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas 1959-1963. we both were awarded full scholarships in basketball. I married Carole Louise Arnold of 347 Cleveland Avenue who attended NE Jr. High School with me 1953-56. She attended SHS in the 1957-59 years. Sumner H.S. played against Wyandotte H.S. for the State Basketball Championship in Wichita, Kansas in 1959. ; Married 1962 Carole Louise Arnold of Sumner High School (1959 graduate) and KU 1963. We were married after the 1962 Big 8 Championship victory over Kansas State University at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. After graduating from Kansas University in 19...Expand for more