Bob Warren, left.
I was saddened to receive an email from Perry Wallace today informing me that his former teammate Bob Warren has passed away. After his playing career at Vanderbilt, Warren played for a decade in the American Basketball Association (ABA) and then became a minister in his home state of Kentucky. A teammate of Wallace’s during Wallace’s first year on the Vanderbilt varsity, Warren is a key figure in Strong Inside. Chapter 1 opens with a scene at Professor Wallace’s office at American University in Washington, DC. Warren has come to visit his old teammate to deliver a message nearly 40 years in the making, asking Wallace for forgiveness for not doing more to help him during his tumultuous pioneering experience in the SEC. Wallace’s touching reply is the final scene in the book. Without giving away the ending, Wallace considered Warren a true friend and a good and decent man, noting that those who really ought to be asking for forgiveness would never even think to ask. I enjoyed interviewing Bob Warren for the book and I know his visit to DC to see Perry was meaningful to Wallace. My deepest condolences to Bob Warren’s family.