Ellena played offensive tackle for coach Red Sanders at UCLA from 1952 to 1954.
He was a member of the Bruins team that lost the 1954 Rose Bowl and was named that year's FWAA & UPI national champions.
He was a two-time Pacific Coast Intercollegiate heavyweight champ (1953, 1954), and placed fourth at the 1953 NCAA wrestling championships at Penn State, earning All-American honors.
After his football career, Ellena ran Mountain Meadow Ranch, a summer camp located near his home town of Susanville, California.
This biographical article relating to an American football offensive lineman born in the 1930s is a stub.