Courage or fortitude is one of the four primary virtues. Prudence, temperance and justice complete the foursome.
Courage is a learned response of steadiness and selflessness in face of danger. A courageous person overcomes fear with something stronger, a higher purpose.
We usually think of courage in sports as an episodic event — playing well in a game after returning from injury, for example, or battling back from adversity. Forty-nine years ago, Vanderbilt University alum Perry Wallace showed what courage looks like when sustained over a four-year collegiate career.
“Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sport in the South” by Andrew Maraniss details the pioneering entry of a Wallace, a stellar black student athlete, into the previously all-white basketball competition of the Southeastern Conference. The book combines biography of the athlete with close analysis of Vanderbilt, Nashville and much of the Deep South as racial segregation slowly unraveled, a process that continues to our time.
Wallace’s rebounding and soaring dunks were key components of the 1966 state championship basketball team from Nashville’s Pearl High School. The year represented the first time that predominantly black high schools were allowed to compete in the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association tournament.