Julius Pegues was the first Black varsity basketball player at the University of Pittsburgh, and went on to serve in the U.S. Air Force as a weather forecaster and later as an advisor to the Federal Aviation Administration.
A star basketball at Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, he was forced to matriculate to the University of Pittsburgh because University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and the University of Tulsa did not allow Black players
.Julius quickly transitioned from a walk-on to a scholarship player after averaging 20 points per game in his first month. He finished as one of only 34 players in the program's history to score 1,000 career points.
The NBA's St. Louis Hawks picked Pegues in the fourth round of the 1958 draft, but he had to serve in the military as he was in the Air Force ROTC at Pitt.
In Tulsa, he was best known for his work to memorialize Tulsa’s 1921 Race Massacre and the history and culture of Black Tulsans through the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation. His efforts laid the groundwork for the Greenwood Rising History Center.Julius served on the boards of the Tulsa NAACP, Tulsa Urban League, Tulsa Comprehensive Health Services, Family and Children’s Services, Hutcherson Branch YMCA, Tulsa Housing Authority, and Tulsa Board of Education Human Relations Committee. He was a member of the City of Tulsa Economic Development Commission.
Julius Pegues was 86 when he died March 29, 2022.
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