University of Central Oklahoma Athletics

A native of Bray, Okla., Ballew served in World War II before coming to Central in 1946 and joining the basketball team as an undersized 6-foot-2 center.  He went on to garner first-team All-Oklahoma Collegiate Conference honors four straight years, the first player in school history to achieve that honor.
 

Ballew averaged 15.0 points a game for his career and become UCO’s first-ever 1,000-point scorer when he finished with what was then a school-record 1,092 points.  He still ranks 31st on the school’s career scoring list, one of just eight players in the top 40 to have played before 1960. 
 

Ballew was a high school coach at John Marshall High School, Edmond Memorial High School and Putnam City High School before moving to California in the mid-1960s and continuing his coaching career there.