Sam Ball, the Henderson, Kentucky native who played for the Baltimore Colts, has died

HENDERSON, Ky. − Sam Ball, the Henderson native who played in two Super Bowls for the Baltimore Colts, died early Monday morning at his home here, his son, Shane, said in a social media post. Sam Ball was 79.

A lineman, Ball was a four-year starter in high school at Henderson County High School. The Colonels posted a 32-2-2 record during his playing career.

He went on to become a three-year starter on the offensive line at the University of Kentucky, and as a senior in 1965 was a consensus All-American, All-SEC and a team co-captain.

In 1966, Ball was a first-round pick in the NFL draft by the Baltimore Colts and a second-round pick in the AFL draft by the New York Jets.

He played five seasons with the Colts, appearing in two Super Bowls, including Super Bowl III, when Joe Namath led the Jets to a historic 16-7 upset of the Colts.

But Ball and the Colts won Super Bowl V with a 16-13 win over the Dallas Cowboys. Ball proudly wore the Super Bowl champion ring that he earned in that game, which was the last of his career.

“What a way to go out,” he said years later.

He was inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in 2018, joining his former Colts teammate Johnny Unitas, the Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback who Ball, as right tackle, was responsible for helping protect. Ball, wearing his No. 73 jersey, can be seen blocking for Unitas in numerous vintage photos from Colts games.

One of the highlights of Ball’s NFL career was earning the game ball in a 27-10 win over the Los Angeles Rams and Hall of Fame defensive end Deacon Jones of the Rams’ “Fearsome Foursome” during the 1968 season. The game ball sits in the basement of Ball’s Henderson home along with other trophies, mementos and awards from his playing days.

But the five years of being pounded by fearsome defensive opponents such as Jones and Dick Butkus of the Chicago Bears had taken a toll on his body, particularly his knees. He retired from football at age 26.

“Big Sam,” who stood 6-foot-4 and weighed 250 pounds as an NFL player, had a big personality, complete with signature phrases such as “Let the big dog eat” and “Sic ’em!”

He evidently kept his sense of humor to the end. When Shane Ball came home to help care for his ailing father several days ago, he posted to Facebook that he had assured Sam that he had “a ton of family and friends that love him dearly.”

“They better,” Sam replied, according to his son.

Ball remained fiercely loyal to the teams for which he played, including Henderson County. “For me, this is where my football started,” he told The Gleaner’s Kevin Patton in 2015. “I wanted to be a Colonel so bad.” He was inducted into the inaugural class of the Henderson County Sports Hall of Fame in 1988.

While he received 42 college scholarship offers, he was determined to play for the Wildcats. “I hung out at the Sinclair station at (U.S.) 41 and Airline Road,” he recalled in that 2015 interview. “That’s where all of the men hung out and replayed all of the games of the week. All they talked about was UK. I thought that must be the place to go.”

Nearly 60 years later, he remained devoted to UK. “As soon as I got home” to help care for his father, Shane Ball said on Facebook, “he looked up at me and said, ‘Hey ShaneO, how did the soybeans yield and what time do our Cats play on Saturday?’”

Returning to his hometown after retiring from football, Sam Ball launched a successful career selling agricultural seed. A plaque naming him the 1990 Kentucky Soybean Association’s Man of the Year was displayed in his basement.

Ball for many years emceed the annual Henderson Chamber of Commerce Agricultural Appreciation Breakfast. One year, after hearing a keynote presentation by a Ph.D. ag scientist, Ball quipped, “He graduated magna cum laude and I graduated thank the Lordy!”

He was also an avid hunter (he was featured in an edition of Turkey Call magazine in 1984 and participated in several celebrity hunts) and coached some 2,000 boys in his annual no-charge Sam Ball All-American Football Camp over the years.

He raised cattle at his farm in Crittenden County and worked as a professional speaker. “I don’t just give ’em a speech,” he once said of his public speaking. “I give ’em a show.”

More recently, he lent his name to a charitable golf tournament, the Sam Ball Scramble, that raised tens of thousands of dollars for the Salvation Army of Henderson over the years. “Sam Ball has lived a life that showed that the big championship ring on his huge hand is much smaller than the heart in his chest,” a 2019 Kentucky Senate resolution honoring Ball declared.

At the golf scrambles — including one for which son Shane and twin daughters Shannon Ball and Shelly Ball Chapel returned home to attend that he particularly cherished — Ball relished greeting the golfers and even offered to putt for them on a particular hole, though he joked that all he knew about birdies was “how to shoot them.”

Obituary information for Sam Ball wasn’t immediately available.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky native, former Baltimore Colts player Sam Ball dies at 79