PULLMAN, WA – Upon graduating from high school, Washington State University alum Cedric Clark earned a scholarship to train as a concert pianist at the famous Julliard School in New York City, but he turned it down to play basketball for the Cougars.
“I know it seems crazy that I chose to walk-on at WSU and pay for college rather than accept the scholarship at Julliard, but that is how badly I wanted to keep playing basketball,” Clark said.
It is that kind of dogged determination that has inspired people throughout his life, and why the WSU Alumni Association’s Black Alumni Chapter recognized Clark with the Black Excellence Award during the chapter’s reunion in September.
Given his success with basketball in high school, it is easy to understand why he wanted to play it at the next level. Clark, who now serves as executive vice president for operations for the Walmart Corporation, hailed from Wuerzburg, Germany where his stepdad was stationed in the military. There he helped lead his team to a 42-7 record over three years on varsity and averaged 23 points and nine assists as a senior. He was one of five players named to the all-Europe first team.
Part of being great is wanting it, working it, and winning it.
Cedric Clark, alumnus
Washington State University
While Clark wanted to play college basketball in the United States, recruiting pipelines between U.S. and international schools were not as established in the 1990s as they are today and he ended up enrolling at the University of Arizona to study, not play. Then, he remembered the WSU basketball media guide his cousin, who was attending WSU at the time, sent Clark when he lived in Germany.
“After reading about the WSU players and the university, I fell in love with the thought of going there,” Clark said. “Coach Kevin Eastman (WSU head coach 1994–1999) let me walk-on and it was an awesome opportunity for me.”
Clark knew he had to practice hard and keep learning to have a chance to get on the court during a game, and that is exactly what he did. He earned his first start at point guard for the Cougars his junior season against first-ranked Stanford and had his best game against UCLA when he scored eight points and had six assists. WSU media described him as a confident ball-handler who rarely made a bad pass and had the best assist-to-turnover ratio on the team.
Encouraging students to ‘be great’
Clark runs a much different kind of team these days for Walmart. As executive vice president, he is responsible for making sure over 4,500 stores across the nation are operating smoothly and has 1.2 million store associates under him. He credits his communications degree as well as his Cougar basketball experience for giving him the skills to succeed at his job.
“As a student athlete, it was important for me to establish a routine, be organized, and stay focused on my goals,” Clark said. “I also learned what it means to be part of a team, when to rely on your teammates, and notice when they may be up or down, which is a big part of my job today.”
Clark also lauded the support he received from WSU faculty, staff, and the African American Student Center. He described the center as a safe place where he met other Black students, received support, and discussed issues pertinent to the Black community.
“Visiting the African American Student Center gave me energy, and I used much of that energy to help connect other students to the center and the Black community,” Clark said. “It was a big part of my experience at WSU.”
After graduating from WSU in 2001, Clark played basketball professionally in Brazil and New Zealand, before coming back to the states and landing his first job at Walmart as a sporting goods associate. He has been ascending the corporate ladder there ever since.
The phrase Clark lives by is ‘be great,’ and that’s his main message to students at WSU and everywhere.
“Part of being great is wanting it, working it, and winning it,” Clark said. “That means finding something you want to achieve, put in the work to learn what it takes to get there, and then go get it.”
