Published: October 27, 2009 07:18 pm      

Endowed scholarships to honor longtime UCO coach

EDMOND — The children of long-time University of Central Oklahoma football coach and professor Phil Ball recently endowed three scholarships at Central in honor of their father.

Phil Ball created the three scholarships upon his retirement from UCO in 1993. His son Keith Ball and daughter Donna Hirst recently donated the funds needed to fully endow the scholarships.

The Phil Ball Football Coaching Fund benefits students who aspire to become a football coach; the Phil Ball Athletic Coaching Scholarship benefits students who aspire to become a coach in any area of athletics; and the Phil Ball Sports Lab Fund benefits students in the College of Education and Professional Studies who excel academically in the area of Kinesiology and Health Studies.

Phil Ball, who passed away in 2008, was a former head football coach at Central. He also taught in what was then known as the Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance department.

During his years at Central, he coached 26 players who made All-American one or more times, three who were NFL draft choices as well as three being named Central Distinguished Former Students.

He retired from coaching in 1976 and continued teaching at Central until 1993.

Two of the scholarships, The Phil Ball Football Coaching Fund and the Phil Ball Sports Lab Fund, were awarded last spring.

The Football Coaching Fund recipient was Bryan Freeman, a family and child education major and UCO student assistant football coach from Moore. Kourtnie Fitzgerald, a physical education major from Roswell, GA, and Luke Yost, a UCO baseball player and physical education major from Elk City, received the Sports Lab Fund.

All three recipients received $500 for the fall 2009 semester.

For more information or to donate to one of the endowed scholarships, contact Judy Reyes-Henderson, development manager for the UCO College of Education and Professional Studies, at 974-2763 or jreyeshenderson@uco.edu.