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$12 General Admission, $9 Member, $7 child age 14 or younger

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Director Rich Gentile will join us for a Q&A afterward.

Imagine the deep south, SEC Basketball, the 1960’s. Now imagine being the first African American to play in that setting. And now, imagine no university or coaching support between you and the noisy, venomous crowds, waving confederate flags and spewing racial epithets—demonstrating their displeasure that you are even stepping onto the court.

That’s the line Perry Wallace crossed in 1966 and the challenge he faced—alone—with courage, talent, tenacity, and faith. He ultimately prevailed and our country, along with collegiate sports, took another long-overdue step forward, thanks to Perry.

Perry’s crusade continued after playing for Vanderbilt University, and today, 50 years later, his remarkable story is finally being told.

This is not just the story of a trailblazing athlete, but of civil rights, race in America, a campus in transition during the tumultuous ’60s, the mental toll of pioneering, decades of ostracism, and eventual reconciliation and healing.

 

About the Director Richard Gentile

Rich Gentile began his career in network television as an NBC Page. He was a production assistant for the launch of the original David Letterman Show as well as serving several seasons with Saturday Night Live. His work landed him a slot with NBC Sports. He went on to log ten years with CBS Sports as a producer and director, where he earned nine national Emmy Awards, including four individual producer/director honors. His work became known for storytelling and made him the recipient of the Miller Lite National Women’s Sports Journalism Award, as well as awards from the New York Film Festival, the American Film Festival, and the Eclipse Awards.

He has produced venue coverage for 2 Olympic Games, produced lead-in and promotion pieces for 3 Super Bowls, 2 World Series, and 4 NBA Championships among others. He has been recognized for bringing creative flair and brand depth to network on-air promotions, setting a trend still evident today. Applying wit, prose and player interaction to this new promotional approach, Rich has shown an innate talent for directing light humor dialogue.

Having demonstrated this skill, Rich then founded Black Sheep Stew and took the director’s chair, making commercials, Prime-Time programming and/or promos for The Coca-Cola Company, The National Football League, ESPN, ESPN Original Entertainment, ESPN The Magazine, Anheuser-Busch, Fox Sports, CBS Sports, The Big Ten Network, NBC Sports Network and Sports Illustrated Television (SITV) among others. BSS has produced over 20 hours of original content in the last year with a focus on longer format/documentaries and reality-based programming.

“In every way Jackie Robinson was an ideal candidate to break that color barrier. So was Perry Wallace and that he is willing to share his experience, after having to wait so, so long for a sympathetic audience, we owe him a great debt.”–Sports Illustrated

Sports was racism’s last bastion of the Jim Crowe south. Perry Wallace was not just alone amongst his peers, he had no adult to look after him. He was completely, completely alone. And people don’t know about Perry Wallace because people weren’t told about Perry Wallace. Until now.”–Sports Illustrated