Bob Lutz: Perry Ellis has made a strong impression on those from his past

It doesn’t matter who you talk to about Perry Ellis, they say the same things. And they express the same admiration and appreciation for a young man who has grown up just as they thought he would.

Ellis is Kansas’ 6-foot-8 senior forward. The journey from Mueller Elementary to Brooks Middle School to Heights High to KU has been incredible. From a man among boys as a young basketball player, to a four-time state champion and All-State player at Heights, to a McDonald’s All-American his senior year, to carrying a 4.0 grade-point average and to now being a potential player of the year in the Big 12.

Basketball, though, doesn’t begin to tell his story. It’s one told best by those who have known him the longest, who don’t necessarily see him as an athlete first and foremost and who appreciate all of Ellis’ unique qualities and are amazed that his great amount of success on the basketball floor and in the classroom haven’t changed him one iota.

Let’s start when Ellis was in kindergarten at Mueller. His teacher, Carolyn Bryant, talks about him in the way KU coach Bill Self might today.

“He was a really hard worker, self-disciplined,” said Bryant, who taught for 28 years before retiring, 22 of them in kindergarten. “In him, I saw a little boy who was really analyzing what was going on around him. You’d see a very studied, focused look in his eyes and on his face, the same look you see when he’s on the basketball court now.”

Bryant, who went to see Ellis play a game at Kansas two seasons ago, said it was a thrill to see him play and to talk to him briefly the next day before a practice at Allen Fieldhouse.

“I got a great big hug and I told him how I heard about all the wonderful things he was doing both on the court and in the classroom. And he said he was just trying his best. I could still hear in his voice that desire to do well, to please everyone and to do well.”

Troy Franklin is another big Ellis fan. He’s a barber and has been cutting Ellis’ hair since he was 5.

“Like a son to me,” said Franklin, who owns Franklin’s Barber and Beauty Salon on North Hillside. “He started playing basketball with my son when they were really young and Perry is just a special young man. He’s not selfish and he never thinks about himself first.”

Even as a young player, Franklin said, Ellis would look to pass first, even though he was significantly taller and more skilled than the players he was playing with and against.

“He’d bring the ball up the floor and be more interested in getting it to the other players than shooting it himself,” Franklin said. “Most kids with that ability and who are a foot taller than the other kids want to be the man, but that’s not something Perry ever wanted.”

Ellis has been running from the spotlight for years, but it continues to chase him. He’s one of the best players in the history of Kansas high school basketball and the leading scorer and rebounder last season for KU. He could do with his fame whatever he wanted.

And he chooses to play video games and to stay away from the nightlife and party atmosphere that get so many college athletes who grapple with fame into trouble.

Perry is Perry, those who know him say again and again. He’s genuine with no pretense. There is a simplicity to his nature that defies the obvious complexity of his personality. You can’t be this smart without having some complexity.

“He likes to talk about PlayStation and Xbox,” Franklin said. “He’s kind of a gamer. He talks about school, too, and his different professors. He’s really, really quiet but if you get to know him he opens up. He feels comfortable here at the barber shop. We call him P. Everybody says, ‘Hey, P.’ ”

Caroline Sharpe retired in 2012 after 35 years as school secretary at Mueller. She’s seen generations of kids go through that school and Ellis sticks out.

“When people write about him, they often use the words modest and kind to describe him,” Sharpe said. “Some say he’s not aggressive, which he is not. He’s a gentle soul and always has been. As a child he always wanted to please, but our students sometimes lose that when they get into intermediate grades. But our Perry, he always wanted to please. I think the best thing about Perry is that he answers to a much deeper voice than most of us. He’s a very Christian person and that’s what he follows. He doesn’t just talk the talk, he really is just that kind.”

The knock on Ellis — and knocks aren’t easy to find — is that he has lacked the combative nature some think necessary to play sports. He was able to get by on talent and skill alone.

But anybody who is watching has seen Ellis continue to develop his game in many ways, including a more aggressive style at Kansas.

Self has said it was not easy to get Ellis to play with more abandon, but everyone is past that now. Ellis is as tenacious on the basketball floor as he is mellow off.

“But he still doesn’t give himself enough credit,” Sharpe said. “That humility is so real. It’s been real all of his life.”

Former Heights English teacher Monica Talbott, who is now at East, has nothing to contradict what everyone else says about Ellis.

“In my class he was very humble, very quiet,” she said. “You wouldn’t have any idea that he was Perry Ellis because he tried to shy away from the limelight. I used to tease him all the time that if he wanted to blend into the crowd, he shouldn’t have been born 12 feet tall.”

Talbott remembers talking to Ellis’ mother, Fonda, after Perry’s junior year. Talbott thought it would be a good idea for Ellis to run for some type of office in the National Honor Society so that he could become known for something other than basketball.

As you might imagine, Ellis resisted. Running for office would mean giving a speech in front of NHS members to express why he was doing so.

“He made it through,” Talbott said. “Then he started doing different volunteer work, going to elementary schools to read to kids. It was really uncharacteristic for Perry. And now, watching him at KU, he’s really coming out of his shell.”

There’s another story Talbott tells about Ellis that gives more insight. Her class read “Of Mice and Men” and were asked to do a project on the book.

Ellis decided to write, record and perform a song about Lennie Small, one of the main characters.

“My jaw dropped,” Talbott said.

Ellis handed her a flash drive that stored his performance. He was too shy to perform live in front of the class and asked Talbott if he could go into the hallway while she played his performance.

It turned out well.

“Perry is a thinker and a planner and that kid’s work ethic . . . it’s something,” Talbott said.

Perry’s friend, Terrence Moore, has known him since they were 7 or 8, he said. They played basketball against one another, then were teammates for four years at Heights.

“We’re total opposites,” said Moore, a senior guard at Emporia State. “But if you get to really know him, Perry’s definitely not that quiet. He has a goofy personality and there are little inside jokes we have had over the years. He’s just uncomfortable with the spotlight. He likes playing for the ‘we,’ not the ‘me.’ “

Those closest to Ellis know his determination to play in the NBA. Ultimately, though, they believe he’ll return to Wichita someday and become a community leader.

“He really loves Wichita,” Moore said.

Whatever Ellis does in his life, he’ll do so with grace, dignity and aplomb. It’s his way.

This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 3:01 AM with the headline "Bob Lutz: Perry Ellis has made a strong impression on those from his past."