Basketball's African American Pioneers

A forgotten ballplayer walked into a small reception room last week at the Reagan Building, had the privilege of meeting the famous Earl Monroe -- and promptly told the Pearl a story.

While Monroe was becoming NBA royalty in New York, Perry Wallace played for a pittance in the Eastern League, a basketball minor league, and moonlighted as a math teacher at the Pearl's Alma mater, Philadelphia's John Bartram High School.

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Photo: Perry Wallace#25, during his playing days at Vanderbilt University.

Who is Perry Wallace? Here is a brief bio of this trail blazing pioneer...

Perry Wallace grew up in Nashville and played basketball and ran track for Pearl High School from 1963 to 1966. In 1966, Wallace's basketball team went 31-0 and won the TSSAA state basketball championship in the first year in history the tournament was played on an integrated basis.

Perry won All-Metro, All-State and All-American honors. He was valedictorian of his high school class. After high school, he enrolled as a scholarship athlete at Vanderbilt University where he would become the first black varsity basketball player in the SEC.

He led the team in rebounding each year with a career average of 11.5 per game (second best in school history). His average of 17.7 points per game still ranks as the 11th best average in Vanderbilt history. In his senior year, he was named to the All-SEC second team and became a member of the 1000-point club.

He graduated from the Vanderbilt School of Engineering and was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers. Over the years, he has received numerous awards for his efforts in integrating the SEC. Wallace was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.

Since graduation, Wallace received a law degree from Columbia University in New York where he was awarded the Charles Evans Hughes Fellowship and worked as an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice. Perry is now a Professor of Law at the Washington College of Law, The American University, Washington, D.C.