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. His No. 24 jersey was retired by Vanderbilt in 2004.
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. 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. Justice Department.
Wallace was named to the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2003. Vanderbilt retired his No. 25 jersey in 2004, and he was inducted into the university’s inaugural sports hall of fame class in 2011. Wallace passed away in December of 2017. He is survived by his wife Karen, his daughter Gabrielle, and extended family members.