Athlete – Basketball
Julius Steele Berry was born July 18, 1939 in Lexington, Ky., to Edward and Clara M. Spencer Berry. One of 15 siblings, Julius first made his mark as an outstanding basketball player at the original Dunbar High School in the 1950s under the tutelage of the iconic Coach S.T. Roach.
Widely known as one of the finest players Lexington has ever produced, Mr. Berry was a superstar at Old Dunbar. At 6’5”, his flashy style of play earned him the nickname “Goose,” after Goose Tatum, star of the Harlem Globetrotters. Fans in other counties would often come to games early just to see the local playground legend and his fellow Bearcats perform their high-flying dunks during pregame warmups.
Mr. Berry’s 1958 Dunbar team played in their first KHSAA Sweet 16 Tournament in only the second year all-black schools were allowed to compete against white schools in Kentucky. This team lost to eventual state champion St. Xavier of Louisville in the quarterfinals. The 1959 Dunbar team made an even deeper run in the Sweet 16 Tournament by becoming the first all-black team to advance to the semifinals, losing a barn-burner to Louisville Manual. The Bearcats finished in third place by defeating Olive Hill in the consolation game.
During his outstanding high school career, Mr. Berry was voted to the All-District, All-Regional, and All-State basketball teams for three consecutive years. He was named a High School All-American in 1959, his senior year, and remains the top point scorer in Lexington High School basketball history with 3,000 points. He was enshrined into the Dawahares-Kentucky High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 1996.
Mr. Berry earned a scholarship to play college ball at the University of Dayton and later played at Kentucky State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree. He went on to earn a master’s degree at Rutgers University. After college, Mr. Berry returned to Lexington to hold numerous posts in local businesses and, most notably, in the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government under several mayoral administrations. He also dabbled in the thoroughbred horse industry and served as an advocate for school integration and other timely issues. Mr. Berry died on December 2, 2001.
