FATHER OF BLUE TIGER INDUCTED INTO HALL
Paul James Terry, father of Lincoln University men’s basketball head coach Charles Terry was recently inducted into the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. The elder Terry became the first African-American to play basketball for Emporia (Kan.) High School and helped shatter the racial barrier in Kansas sports. Terry also was a participant in track and field and a member of the National Honor Society at Emporia High School.
Coached during his high school years by Alfred Smith, father of legendary University of North Carolina head coach Dean Smith, the latter wrote in his autobiography “Paul single-handedly integrated high school sports in Kansas.”
In 1934 the Emporia High Spartans won the state basketball championship with Terry being left behind in Emporia.
After graduation from Emporia State Teachers College (now Emporia State University) in 1938, Terry went on to become a businessman and community leader in Emporia. Terry served the City of Emporia as a member and president of the Emporia Recreation Commission. He also was on the Lyon County Community Center Board of Directors, the Emporia State University Endowment Association and the Emporia Human Relations Commission. Terry made time to be active in Cub Scouts, Hi Noon Kiwanis and the William Allen White Parent Teacher Association.
Terry won numerous awards from the National Institute of Dry Cleaning, while being employed as a dry cleaner by Spic ‘n Span Cleaners for 52 years.
He was named to the Emporia High School Hall of Fame in 1995. Before his passing in March 2005, the Paul Terry Memorial Scholarship was established for minority students and athletes from Emporia High School who would continue to pursue their education at Emporia State University. A tribute to Terry also included having the Emporia High School/KVOE 1400 AM Basketball Tournament renamed the Paul Terry Invitational Tournament.
A deeply religious man, Terry was married to Odessa Terry for 47 years until her death in March 1991. The couple placed a premium on education and made it mandatory for their eight children to attend college. Each of the Terry siblings went to college and graduated.
In White Auditorium of the Civic Building in Emporia, Kan., a bronze plaque in the main lobby is dedicated to Terry. A plaque commemorating the induction of Terry in the KBCA Hall of Fame will be placed in Hutchinson Sports Arena, where three of Terry’s five sons excelled on the basketball court for the Hutchinson Community College Blue Dragons.
