He accepted a basketball scholarship from then-Division II Winston-Salem State University, to play under legendary coach Clarence "Big House" Gaines.

[1] As a senior, he averaged 20.9 points and 10.7 rebounds per game, while leading the team to the 1977 CIAA Men's Basketball Championship.

While enrolled at WSSU, Terry became an active member of the Kappa (undergraduate) chapter of Iota Phi Theta fraternity.

In 1978, he signed with the Allentown Jets in the Continental Basketball Association, missing seven weeks of the season when he got hit in the mouth by an opponent elbow that broke his jaw.

[4] On September 8, 1980, after tryouts with a half dozen NBA teams, he was signed as a free agent by the Washington Bullets.

He averaged 7.2 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, suffering a torn cruciate ligament in his left knee and was placed on the injured reserve list.

[9] On March 12, 1989 (at the age of 32), he was killed in a car accident on the Capital Beltway in Prince George's County, Maryland.