Feb. 25, 2010

by Dan McGrath

If Bo Ellis were a self-centered man, he would have averaged more than 11 shots and 14 points per game during his four varsity seasons at Marquette from 1973-77.

It’s more important that the lithe, long-armed, 6-foot-9 forward be known as the most successful player in Warriors/Golden Eagles history, the only one to participate in two Final Fours.

“Two championship games,” Ellis corrects. “Your work isn’t finished when you get to the Final Four.”

He also might have succumbed to the allure of pro dollars and left Marquette early, as big-man predecessors Jim Chones, Larry McNeill and Maurice Lucas had done.

“Coach McGuire promised my mother I’d graduate, and I intended to fulfill that promise,” Ellis says. “I’d been poor all my life. What was another year or two?”

Bo’s not into self-pity, either. His oldest daughter Christina was born with cerebral palsy and younger daughter Nicole died of a rare liver disorder in 2003, at 24. In her honor Bo and his wife Candice started the Nicole Ellis Foundation and have raised more than $22,000 for medical research into liver disease and scholarships through Marquette’s Ethnic Alumni Association.

“We’ve had our tough times, but you have to move on,” Ellis says. “Nicole was such a bright, sweet, determined girl. We want her spirit to live on in the people we help through the foundation.”

Bo Ellis has been part of Marquette for 17 years. His playing career ended in conjunction with Al McGuire’s coaching tenure, in true storybook fashion. Marquette beat North Carolina 67-59 in the NCAA Tournament title game at Atlanta’s Omni on March 28, 1977, winning the only national championship in school history in McGuire’s last game as a coach and Ellis’ last as a Marquette player. He had 14 points, nine rebounds, three assists and a block on that rainy night in Georgia.

It wasn’t easy. Marquette had lost seven games during an up-and-down regular season, including three in a row at home in mid-February, and the odds of McGuire going out a winner seemed prohibitively long when the Warriors (20-7) barely squeaked into the tournament.

“But we believed in each other and the coaches believed in us,” Ellis says. “And we knew we had a great team.”

They’d come tantalizingly close in 1973-74, Ellis’ freshman season, but lost to David Thompson and North Carolina State in the NCAA title game. Marquette seemed primed for another deep run in 1974-75, but Lucas skipped his senior year to turn pro after the Final Four and a 23-4 season ended with a loss to eventual runner-up Kentucky in the first round of the tournament.

The 1975-76 team---Ellis, Earl Tatum, Jerome Whitehead, Butch Lee, Lloyd Walton---was one of the most talented in school history and brought a 25-1 record, a 21-game winning streak and a No. 2 national ranking into the into the postseason. But the tournament was unseeded in those days and geography dictated the matchups, so Marquette encountered top-ranked Indiana in the Mideast Regional final. The Hoosiers prevailed 65-56 en route to an unbeaten season and coach Bob Knight’s first national championship.

“It should have been Indiana and us for the national title---we were 1 and 2 all year,” Ellis recalls. “And if Luke hadn’t left early, we had a legitimate shot at another one.”

But the sting of those ‘what-ifs’ was eased by what happened the following season.

“I think we were right behind UCLA as the most successful college program of the ‘70s,” Ellis says.

Ellis was a first-round draft pick of the Washington Bullets in 1977 but was traded to the Denver Nuggets for former DePaul star and Chicago-area rival Dave Corzine. He averaged 3.6 points and 1.9 rebounds in 168 games over three-injury-marred season with the Nuggets, then played in Europe for three years before embarking on a coaching career.

His two stints as a Marquette assistant covered 13 years and were interspersed with a four-year term as head coach at Chicago State, which at the time was hopelessly overmatched as a Division I program.

“The won-loss record (23-104) wasn’t what we would have wanted, but I’m happy that I influenced those kids in the right way. I still hear from a lot of them,” Ellis says.

These days he has returned to his roots in the Chicago Public League, working as a sports administrator for Chicago Public Schools. Ellis schedules and supervises events at Lane Stadium, coordinates sports programs at the elementary and high school levels and conducts clinics for CPS coaches. “I wear a lot of hats,” he says.

He’s also a volunteer mentor in CPS’ “Real Men Read” program, and in his “free time” he counsels Public League youngsters on preparing for college and life in general.

“A lot of times the coaches and the teachers and even the counselors don’t know what type of courses a kid needs to qualify for a scholarship, so I can give them some perspective on how it works,” he says. “I tell them, ‘Let sports work for you. Get a free education.’ But you have to work at it.”

In addition to his efforts on behalf of the Nicole Ellis Foundation---its third annual golf outing is July 26 at Hawks View in Lake Geneva---Ellis is proudest of the Silver Anniversary Award he received from the NCAA in 2002, for his off-the-court civic endeavors over the 25 years following his career since as a student-athlete.

“I’m a firm believer in what Coach McGuire always told us,” he says. ”Use basketball. Don’t let basketball use you.”

Dan McGrath will provide a series of men's basketball features exclusive to GoMarquette.com all season long. McGrath is sports coordinator of the Chicago News Cooperative and former sports editor of the Chicago Tribune. He is a proud 1972 graduate of Marquette University.

Marquette Golden Eagles Men's Basketball

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