Josh Wallace engineers a future after basketball

Josh Wallace remembers the time he almost gave up.

A scheduling mix-up his first semester freshman year had Wallace two weeks behind in Physics I and Calculus I.

Wallace, a basketball player and civil engineering student, started thinking he might not be able to juggle the two demanding activities after all.

"I was calling my mom and brother and I was just like, 'I'm coming home. This is not for me,'" Wallace said. "They told me to stick with it, and they're always there for me. That first semester was rough because I got the late start in those classes."

With only two classes between him and graduation, Wallace is glad he pushed through. He will graduate with a civil engineering degree in August.

If ever there was an athlete that embodied the "work, hard work" part of the Auburn Creed, it's Wallace. The 5-foot-10 Pensacola native started 58 games in his career despite being a walk-on, and earned an athletic scholarship prior to his senior season.

"If you could transplant Josh's heart into every player in the game, you'd have some heck of a player out there," head basketball coach Tony Barbee said.

"Like I said, he doesn't view himself as somebody who's his size. He thinks he's 6-foot-9 and 250 pounds when he looks in the mirror."

With his college career nearing its end, Wallace reflects on being a student-athlete, in every sense of the word.

Despite receiving some interest from junior colleges and lower-level Division I schools, Wallace opted to walk on at Auburn and study engineering.

His grades were good enough to earn an engineering scholarship that covered nearly all expenses.

Wallace credits his mother, Joyce Hopson, for instilling in him the work ethic and confidence to balance basketball and schoolwork.

Hopson, a professor at Pensacola State College, made the drive from Pensacola to Auburn for every one of Wallace's home games.

"She's the best," Wallace said. "She's always been there for me since day one. Always."

Wallace recalls visiting Auburn with his mother before officially deciding that's where he was going to go.

"The first person I ever met was Frankie Sullivan," Wallace said.

"We met on the elevator heading up to the coach's office. And my mom, she's a sweetheart. Frank was here taking classes, she was like, 'Make sure you look after Josh.' So Frank takes this story and runs with it. He just tells people I'll actually be his friend and stuff like that. Really just exaggerates it and blows it out the water."

"She was like, 'Make sure you take care of my baby,'" Sullivan said. "I was like, 'I got you.' So every time somebody is like, 'How'd you meet Josh Wallace?' that's the story I give them. And he's like, 'No it didn't go down like that.'"

Wallace said he's going to miss his teammates the most when he leaves Auburn.

"Those guys, we grew to be like brothers," Wallace said. "I'm very close to some of those guys. I formed forever-lasting friendships with them."

"He's not only a teammate to me; he's my brother," Sullivan said. "We have a lifetime bond. I really respect Josh, and I'm glad that he came to Auburn. He helped me out through my life, and I appreciate him for that."

Wallace has options once he leaves Auburn. He said he may give professional basketball a try, but if that doesn't work out he'll put his civil engineering degree to work.

"I knew the basketball was going to stop bouncing one day," Wallace said.

"I wanted to make sure I had something solid to fall back on and do for the rest of my life. I didn't want to get a degree that I didn't want to be doing. I wanted to make sure I'd be doing something I liked."

Whatever path Wallace takes, he'll carry with him a basketball in one hand, a civil engineering degree in the other, and the life lessons he learned on the court and in the classroom.

"Sometimes things are not going to roll your way," Wallace said.

"The ball's not going to bounce the way you want it to, but you still gotta keep your head up and keep fighting. You can never give up. Never give up."