Perry Wallace
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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Script error: No such module "person date". |
| Died | Script error: No such module "person date". |
| Nationality | American |
| Listed height | 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) |
| Career information | |
| High school | Pearl (Nashville, Tennessee) |
| College | Vanderbilt (1967–1970) |
| NBA draft | 1970: Script error: No such module "Ordinal". round, Script error: No such module "Ordinal". overall pick |
| Drafted by | Philadelphia 76ers |
| PositionTemplate:Pluralize from text | Small forward |
| Number | 25 |
| Page Module:Infobox/styles.css has no content.Career highlights | |
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Perry Eugene Wallace Jr. (February 19, 1948 – December 1, 2017)[1] was an American lawyer who was a professor of law at Washington College of Law.[2] He was the first African-American varsity athlete to play basketball under an athletic scholarship in the Southeastern Conference, playing for Vanderbilt University.[3][4] His experiences at Vanderbilt are the subject of the book Strong Inside, by Andrew Maraniss, published in 2014.[5]
Education
Wallace attended Pearl High School in the then segregated Nashville public schools. He helped Pearl High School's basketball team go undefeated and win the team's first integrated basketball state championship. He was a straight-A student, valedictorian of his class and was named a high school All-American athlete.[3][6]
Wallace was recruited by many colleges,[3] and enrolled at Vanderbilt in 1966. He was one of two African-American players who arrived at Vanderbilt that year, but the other, Godfrey Dillard, was injured before he could earn a varsity letter (at the time, freshmen were not eligible to play on NCAA varsity teams), and ultimately transferred to and played at Eastern Michigan.[7] In 1967, Perry became the first black scholarship athlete to play basketball in the Southeastern Conference.
Wallace was generally welcomed by his teammates, but traveling with the team was difficult, and Wallace was often threatened from opposing teams with verbal taunts and roughness on the court. He became the first black athlete to complete four years at an SEC school,[7][9] graduating with a degree in engineering in 1970, and was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers.[6] In 1970, he was awarded the Bachelor of Ugliness, a whimsically titled but prestigious student prize.[10] He responded with a press interview in which he described some of the loneliness he had felt on campus throughout the four years, ranging from small slights and the lack of true inclusion by or friendship from well-meaning people to overtly racist professors and racist incidents, such as a demand from the University Church of Christ, located across the street from the campus but not affiliated with it, that he not attend church services there because of his race.[10]
In the following season, basketball teams from Alabama, Kentucky, Florida and Georgia contained black athletes.[4]
Wallace earned his J.D. from Columbia University in 1975.[2]
Career
Wallace was a trial attorney at the United States Department of Justice, where he dealt with natural resources and environmental law. In 1992, he was appointed to the Environmental Policy advisory council of the EPA.[11] He became a professor of law at The American University Washington College of Law in 1993, where he specialized in environmental law, corporate law and finance.[12]
Honors
- 1966 – Recruited by many colleges and enrolled at Vanderbilt
- 2003 – Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame[6]
- 2004 – Retirement of his Vanderbilt jersey, number 25[7]
- 2017 – Movie was made about Perry Wallace's life called Triumph: The Untold Story of Perry Wallace –
- 2021 – The United States Basketball Writers Association renamed the men's version of its annual award for courage among figures associated with college basketball as the Perry Wallace Most Courageous Award.[13]
References
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- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Ammenheuser, David. "Perry Wallace: Vanderbilt, SEC basketball trailblazer dead". Tennessean. Retrieved December 2, 2017.
- ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Perry Wallace, Professor of Law". Washington College of Law. Retrieved February 28, 2010.
- ^ a b c Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."SEC Trailblazer Perry Wallace Will Speak at Landon". Landon. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved March 7, 2010.
- ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.English, Antonya (January 25, 2009). "Former Vanderbilt star Perry Wallace learned to overcome hatred as Southeastern Conference's first black basketball player". St. Petersburg Times. Archived from the original on July 10, 2010. Retrieved February 28, 2010.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Patterson, Jim (November 25, 2014). "Vanderbilt alum pens biography of the 'Jackie Robinson of the SEC'". Vanderbilt News. Retrieved December 13, 2014.
- ^ a b c Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Perry Wallace". Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on July 24, 2011. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
- ^ a b c Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Carey, Jack (February 19, 2004). "An SEC trailblazer gets his due". USA Today. Retrieved March 7, 2010.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Story, Mark (September 27, 2016). "UK reveals sculpture honoring first black football players". Lexington Herald-Leader. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
- ^ The aforementioned Northington, grieving over the death of Kentucky's other African-American signee of 1966, Greg Page, left UK shortly after his injury, transferring to Western Kentucky.[8]
- ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Andrew, Maraniss (2014). Strong inside : Perry Wallace and the collision of race and sports in the South. pp. 347–355. ISBN 978-0826520241. OCLC 894510850.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Biography – Wallace" (PDF). Washington College of Law. Retrieved March 7, 2010.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."CV" (PDF). Washington College of Law. Retrieved March 7, 2010.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."USBWA Names Men's Most Courageous Award in Honor of Perry Wallace" (Press release). United States Basketball Writers Association. February 19, 2021. Retrieved February 27, 2021.
Further reading
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Maraniss, Andrew (2014), Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South, Vanderbilt University Press, ISBN 978-0826520234
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Maraniss, Andrew (2016), Strong Inside: Young Readers Edition, Penguin Young Readers, ISBN 9780399548345
External links
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