Player struck down SEC racial barrier
Perry Wallace, who broke down a racial barrier in the Deep South by becoming the first black varsity basketball player in the SEC, has died after a battle with cancer.
Wallace, who died Friday at age 69 at a hospice center in Rockville, Md., went on to a distinguished career as a law professor. But it was his time on the basketball court as a player for Vanderbilt in the turbulent 1960s that made him a pioneer in race relations.
“Vanderbilt, the sports world and the entire country lost a civil rights icon,” Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos said in a statement late Friday.
Wallace made history when he played for Vanderbilt in a game against SMU on Dec. 2, 1967, becoming the SEC’s first black basketball player to compete in a varsity game. Two days later, he played in his first SEC varsity game for head coach Ray Skinner, who recruited him, against Auburn.
Wallace arrived at Vanderbilt in the fall of 1966 along with Godfrey Dillard, another black player. The two huddled together in the locker room at halftime of a freshman game in Starkville, Miss., holding hands and trembling after rival fans spat, yelled slurs and threw things at them on the court.
Like many Southern universities a halfcentury ago, Vanderbilt had few black students and faculty members. Dillard later transferred, leaving Wallace in the pioneering role on his own. Wallace routinely suffered indignities while playing for the Commodores. He not only endured, but he went on to become a first-team All-SEC player as a senior, and he still ranks among the Commodores’ best all-time rebounders.
Wallace, who never played in the NBA, graduated from Vanderbilt in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and engineering mathematics. He went on to earn a law degree at Columbia University in 1975 and served as a longtime law professor at American University. He also served in the U.S. Justice Department and worked for the National Urban League.
Wallace was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2003. His jersey was retired by Vanderbilt the following year.