Office of Development and Communications
Mildred Ball
Mildred Ball (B.S.‘60) nearly wasn’t admitted to Indiana University.
Ball had previously attended the Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) in Virginia, but didn’t have the money to remain there. She moved back home to Gary for two years, working to save money for a transfer to IU—but when her family fell on hard times, she used her earnings to support them, leaving her with just $100 for college.
Frustrated and unwilling to delay her education any further, Ball headed to IU anyway, a day after classes had started, with no transcripts (Hampton wouldn’t release them until she paid a final bill, something she couldn’t do at the time). The man at the registrar’s office said Ball could not be admitted without her transcripts. The two argued back and forth until the young man saw John Endwright, then the assistant dean of HPER, and asked him to come over and tell the girl she was wasting her time.
“Before the dean could open his mouth, I looked at him and said, ‘Sir, I have a brother at University of Washington, I have a brother at Iowa State Teachers College, I have a sister at Los Angeles State College, I have a brother here at Indiana University. I want to go to school too.’ He looked at me and said ‘Let her in,’ and walked off.”
Ball soon became a straight-A student, eventually being hired as a HPER dance instructor. She put herself through school, living in a co-operative dorm and working several part-time jobs to make ends meet. When the art school was looking for models, Ball sat before students in her bathing suit for $1.50 an hour (she wasn’t brave enough to “bare all” for $3 an hour). She and other models spent many hours in awkward poses while then-IU Professor Robert Laurent worked on an elaborate structure that started out with chicken wire. Ball forgot about the project until she returned to campus more than eight years later and saw the final result: the Showalter Fountain in front of the IU Auditorium. “I said, ‘My god, that’s it!’ It was like hell trying to balance for that sculpture, but it was fun.”
After graduation, Ball taught high school for 17 years, followed by 10 years as supervisor and coordinator of the Student Park Workers Neighborhood Youth Corps in East Chicago. She then spent 20 years as assistant commissioner of the Indiana High School Athletic Association.
Ball has received awards from the National Federation of State High School Associations, the Indiana Association of Athletic Officials, the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, and the NAACP (Benjamin Hooks Award). She received HPER’s John Endwright Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 1997.
She was one of the co-founders of the Neal-Marshall Alumni Club and has served in many capacities with both HPER and the IU Alumni Association, including the IUAA Executive Council. She also has a Master of Science in Secondary Education degree from Purdue University.
Even now that she has retired, Ball continues to serve as a member of the HPER Alumni Board, the Dean’s Associates, and the IU Athletics Council. She is part of a search committee for the School of HPER’s next dean.
“I guess I reach back because they reached out to me, and I think that’s very important,” says Ball. “I had some great experiences here. Wherever I’ve gone with my IU education, I’ve managed to do well. I’m proud to be an IU alum and a HPER alum.”
