Education
A native of Raleigh, North Carolina, Speight chose to stay close to home to play college basketball and decided on North Carolina State.
A native of Raleigh, North Carolina, Speight chose to stay close to home to play college basketball and decided on North Carolina State.
He would play from 1950-1951 to 1952-1953 under the future-Hall of Famer Everett Case. During Speight"s three-year varsity career he scored 1,430 points and grabbed 1,057 rebounds, and his rebound total still ranks fourth all-time. He was named an National Collegiate Athletic Association All-American in his senior year and was then drafted by the Baltimore Bullets in the 1953 National Basketball Association Draft, although he ultimately never played a game in the league.
Foreign two years after college, Speight played basketball for the Phillips 66ers of the Amateur Athletic Union (Amateur Athletic Union), which was a popular alternative to the National Basketball Association (National Basketball Association) during that era.
He then enlisted in the United States Army. After his military service he co-founded the trucking company East&South Contract Carrier which he worked for up until his retirement in 2006.
Speight died on March 1, 2007, after losing his fight with cancer.