First black b-ball player reflects

Julius Pegues’ name will not turn up in any NBA record books or highlights, and that’s fine… Julius Pegues’ name will not turn up in any NBA record books or highlights, and that’s fine with him.

But he will turn up in a search for the first black man ever to play basketball for the Pitt Panthers. He’ll also turn up as a distinguished consultant for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Pegues used basketball scholarships to earn an aeronautical engineering degree from Pitt and never looked back.

This past Sunday, Pitt honored Pegues at the Pitt-Louisville game. This year marks the 50th anniversary of his graduation. At center court of a packed Petersen Events Center, Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg handed Pegues a commemorative basketball.

“I was humbled, and I’m still in awe of how they put all of that together to observe my 50th anniversary and being the lone black player,” Pegues said Wednesday from his home in Tulsa, Okla.

Pegues was impressed with the crowd at Sunday’s game, especially the student section known as the Oakland Zoo.

“If we had 1,300 people in our arena, we probably would have had a better record than we did,” Pegues said. “The atmosphere is great!”

Pegues, 72, played for the Panthers from 1954 to 1958 – one year on the freshman team and three on varsity. He is now the 34th leading scorer in Pitt history. He said he started every game in his four seasons at Pitt and helped the team win its first Big East title.

Because of segregation laws at the time, Pegues was unable to play basketball for any college in his home state of Oklahoma except for Langston University, a historically black college that did not offer engineering. But a Tulsa oil man named E. Alex Phillips helped him get to Pitt.

When Pegues was playing at Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, Phillips used to watch the team play.

Phillips helped to pay for Pegues’ first year at Pitt, and after an impressive season on the freshmen team, Pegues received a full scholarship.

When the Panthers were playing in the NCAA Tournament, after a game against North Carolina State, Pegues’ teammates decided to go to a drug store for snacks. As Pegues approached the counter, he said the cashier told him, “‘We don’t serve coloreds in here.'”

His teammates, whom Pegues described as “irate,” walked out and found another place that would serve Pegues.

“I think it bothered my teammates more than it bothered me because I was from Tulsa, Okla., and there were places we couldn’t eat here.”

Pegues said it was difficult to accept segregation as a child, but he grew accustomed to it.

“But that wasn’t going to keep us from getting an education and pursuing whatever it was we wanted to pursue in life because we were determined to be somebody.”

Pegues said when he arrived at Pitt his teammates received him warmly. He never noticed any discriminatory words or actions from opponents or fans.

In a game versus Penn State, he said he was sprinting up the court when a player on Penn State’s bench stuck his foot out and purposefully tripped him.

Without saying a word, Pegues went to the foul line and nailed two free throws.

Pegues does not think race played a role in the player’s motivations.

“I think the guy got upset because we were beating them pretty good,” he said.

At 6-foot-4, Pegues’ primary position was forward, though he played guard and even center at times. He said he guarded the best player on the other team every night and did whatever he needed to do to help the team win. In his senior year, Pegues said he was called upon to score and averaged 17.6 points per game.

A day before Sunday’s game, Pegues gave a short speech to the Pitt basketball players.

“I stressed to the Pitt players to not leave that university without a degree. Your primary purpose is to get an education,” Pegues said.

“Football, basketball, these things are only a means to an end. After those years are over you have to have something to sustain you for the rest of your life,” Pegues said.

While Pegues was a Pitt student, he served in the U.S. Air Force ROTC. Upon graduation he had signed a three-year commitment to serve in the Air Force. He said he was supposed to go to pilot training for one year and serve for two.

Then, in his junior year the Air Force changed its policy and required him to serve five years to be a pilot. As a matter of principle, Pegues said he refused to serve five years and asked what they wanted him to do. The Air Force sent him a letter assigning him to study meteorology at St. Louis University for a year and then serve as a meteorologist with the Air Force for two years.

When Pegues graduated from Pitt, he was drafted by the NBA’s St. Louis Hawks. But his duty prevented him from playing.

When he finished his service, he had not played competitive basketball for four years. Still Pegues said he believes he could have returned to his playing shape and could play a long career in the NBA. But he chose to abstain.

“I thought I could have done just as well in engineering,” Pegues said. “Back then they didn’t make the kind of money that they’re making now.”

Pegues designed planes for the Douglas Aircraft Company for 35 years. He also worked for American Airlines for 10 years as head of the wide-body-structures group. He is now a designated engineering representative for the Federal Aviation Administration and plans to work for a few more years.

Maurice Polen, a 6-foot-5 forward on Pitt’s current team, said he found Pegues’ speech last weekend inspirational, especially since it came during Black History Month.

A senior psychology major who plans to attend graduate school, Polen said he agreed with Pegues’ points about earning a degree.

“You don’t want to leave here without it. You don’t want to feel like you wasted four years of your life,” Polen said. “Even if you play professionally, your body’s not going to take that for the rest of your life.”

Like Pegues, Polen made the team as a walk-on. This semester, Polen was offered a full scholarship for the first time in his three years.

“He made it here at Pitt, and he made it open for other African Americans to play,” Polen said of Pegues. “It touched your heart in a different kind of way.”