Triumph, The Untold Story of Perry Wallace Craig Hobson at September 16, 2016 The pioneering spirit of Perry Wallace (the first African-American to play in the SEC) is alive and well at Vanderbilt, where James Siakam ’15 of Douala, Cameroon, became the first student-athlete awarded the prestigious Perry Wallace Courage Award. In a poignant meeting with award’s namesake, Siakam discussed his personal journey as a French-speaking African coming to the United States at age 15 with very raw basketball skills. He noted that, although he had to overcome difficult cultural adjustments, they had to be less challenging than those faced by Wallace in the late 1960s. Siakam capped his Commodores career with an excellent senior season (averaging 9.2 points and nearly 6 rebounds per game), despite the unexpected death of his father, Tchamo, […]