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1991 - 2008
The claim: Born in Fort Wayne and made at its university. Lloy James Ball was born on 17 February 1972 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, grew up in nearby Woodburn, and attended Woodlan High School. Volleyball chose him early: his father, Arnie Ball, coached the sport at Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne, and the son started playing before he was five. Indiana's Bobby Knight recruited him to play basketball in Bloomington. He chose instead to play volleyball at IPFW for his father, from 1991 to 1995, a hometown decision this section records with some emphasis, because everything that followed was built on it.
The long run: Ball set for the United States national team from 1993 to 2008, fifteen years at the position that runs the whole offence. He played in four Olympic Games, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, and Beijing 2008, the first American male volleyball player to reach four Olympics. The first three teams did not medal. Weeks before the fourth Games he led the United States to its first FIVB World League title and was named that tournament's Most Valuable Player and Best Setter; in Beijing he then captained the team past Russia in a five-set semifinal and past world number one Brazil in the final. The gold medal closed his international career.
The homecoming: Fort Wayne counted what it had. The Waynedale News, reporting Mayor Tom Henry's honour for Ball on the steps of the City-County Building, noted that he was only the third person from Allen County to win an Olympic gold medal, after Wichman and Vogel, and the mayor declared 28 August 2008 Lloy Ball Day. Ball had also won the European Champions League with Zenit Kazan in the same year. The International Volleyball Hall of Fame inducted him in 2015. Three gold medalists in forty years, all of them made within a few miles of one another: that is the statistic this section exists to assemble, and Ball is its third name.
Sources:
- International Volleyball Hall of Fame, Lloy Ball (enshrined 2015): born 17 February 1972 in Fort Wayne; IPFW under Arnie Ball; the four Olympics and the 2008 gold; the World League MVP and Best Setter awards.
- Team USA, Lloy Ball profile: hometown Fort Wayne; Woodlan High School and IPFW.
- Waynedale News, Mayor Honors Lloy Ball, 17 September 2008: Lloy Ball Day, 28 August 2008; the third Allen County Olympic gold medalist.
- The Post and Mail, Columbia City: the Bobby Knight basketball recruitment and the IPFW choice.