The 2007 feature film Pride is based on his life story, and focused a great deal of attention on the accomplishments of his swimming program.
He began swimming at the recently integrated Highland Park pool in Pittsburgh and as a youth took a position as a lifeguard there.
The Pittsburgh Urban league won the suit, with the court noting that public pools should allow access regardless of race.
[4] He swam competitively in high school, and at the collegiate level for Cheney State, an historically Black University near Philadelphia, where he also studied mathematics.
Having previously worked as a lifeguard, he became a water safety instructor at Sayre-Morrie Recreation Center in West Philadelphia.
Many talented swimmers, like Michael Norment, came to swim for Ellis' team because of his strong reputation as a coach.
[14] In 2007, the feature film Pride was released, which portrays Jim Ellis and his struggles to establish the PDR team.
[17] Tough, upbeat, and not looking for sympathy like his high achieving swimmers, Ellis noted that "nasty prejudice" resulting from encountering a "white coach with swimmers from the affluent suburbs" -- as depicted in the movie -- was not common, and that "in reality there was little of that sort of discrimination against his team."
[10][18] In Spring, 2010, the Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center opened in Nicetown, Pennsylvania, the same city as Ellis's prior PDR swim team program at the public indoor Marcus Foster pool.