October 6, 2008

Steve Megargee
Rivals.com College Football

His tale of triumph and tragedy is one of the most inspirational and tear-jerking stories in American sports history, yet Ernie Davis remains relatively unknown to most sports fans born in the past 40 years.

That may be on the verge of changing.

Davis, the first black to win the Heisman Trophy, is the inspiration for "The Express," a film starring Rob Brown and Dennis Quaid that will be released nationally Friday. Davis' former Syracuse teammates hope the movie will help introduce him to a new generation of fans.

Jim Brown discusses Ernie Davis' career and being up front with Davis during the recruiting process when Davis was considering Syracuse.

"I was beginning to worry that people would forget about Ernie Davis."

Davis never had the chance to experience the same NFL success as Payton or Jim Brown. The first overall pick in the 1962 NFL Draft, Davis died of leukemia before he played a down of pro football. Davis broke Jim Brown's school record for career rushing yards, played on Syracuse's 1959 national championship team and won the Heisman two years later.

"(He had) size, speed, quickness, balance, power and, most of all, intelligence," said Jim Brown, who preceded Davis at Syracuse and helped recruit him to the school. "He had it all."

Off the field, Davis overcame a speech impediment and deftly withstood the racism of his era. His former teammates ? black and white ? praised his humble attitude and calm nature.

Syracuse had less than 100 black students when Davis began his college career, according to "The Express," the book that served as the inspiration for the movie. Yet he won such widespread respect across campus and nationwide that Davis' funeral drew more than 10,000 mourners. President John F. Kennedy sent Davis' mother a telegram to express how much her son had meant to the country.

"As good a football player as he was,'' former Syracuse offensive lineman Bob Stem said, "his personality was even better."

How much was he respected on the Syracuse campus?

John Brown, one of Davis' few black teammates in college, named a son after him. Ernie Brown played defensive line for Syracuse from 1991-93 and had the pro career that eluded his namesake before taking a job as a behavior specialist at a school in Pittsburgh.

"I did it because I just wanted him to be the type of person Ernie (Davis) was," John Brown said.

John Brown expected to remain teammates with Davis in the pros. The Washington Redskins selected Davis with the first pick in the 1962 draft, then traded his rights to the Cleveland Browns. But Davis was diagnosed with leukemia in the summer of 1962, before he played a down with the Browns. He died May 18, 1963, at the age of 23.

"This guy was strong and chiseled," John Brown said. "To see him slowly deteriorate and there's nothing you can do about it ? for a long time, I just couldn't understand it. I really couldn't. It was very difficult to understand how that happens. Why?"

Dave Meggyesy, a former Syracuse teammate and an NFL linebacker for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1963-69, compared Davis to Leroy Kelly and believed his former Syracuse teammate could have enjoyed a similar level of success if he had remained healthy. Kelly ran for 7,274 yards in a 10-year career with the Cleveland Browns and led the NFL in rushing in 1967 and '68.

Davis certainly showed pro potential during his college career. Davis, nicknamed the "Elmira Express," ran for 2,386 yards to set a school career rushing record that since has been broken. Davis continues to hold the school record with his career average of 6.6 yards per carry.

Teammates insist he was even more impressive off the field.

"The bottom line is he was an exceptional individual," said Meggyesy, who played for Syracuse from 1960-62. "In terms of football players, he was one of the most exceptional human beings I knew."

Stem remembered Davis more as a friend than a football player. Whenever he puts on a tie before going out, Stem gets one more reminder of his former college chum.

"He taught me how to tie a tie ? a reverse Windsor," Stem said. "Everybody used to do that double Windsor where you wrapped it around twice and had a knot as big as your fist. He showed me how to use the reverse Windsor. I still wear it that way."

When they weren't sharing advice, Stem and Davis often were trading good-natured barbs. Shortly after the Heisman Trophy announcement, Stem joked that his blocking was the biggest reason Davis won the award. When Stem put a gold cap on a broken tooth, Davis mocked his teammate about it and eventually bought him a shirt with matching gold buttons.

Davis' friendly nature helped him deal with the racism he encountered during his college career. One anecdote that underscored this side of Davis' affable approach involves the time he joined three white teammates on a hitchhiking excursion to Elmira.

Davis' teammates realized a driver probably wasn't going to pick up a black man, so they told Davis to hide in the woods. After a driver stopped to pick them up, Davis' three teammates called him over and told him to get in the car.

"When he came jogging over, the (driver) had a weird look on his face," Stem said. "But once he found out it was Ernie Davis, he bought us dinner."

That part of Davis' personality isn't always reflected in the movie. Davis' former teammates said the move portrays him with an anger that he rarely expressed in real life. They also didn't remember Syracuse coach Ben Schwartzwalder being as mean as he was portrayed in the film. While they would have preferred a more accurate portrayal of their former teammate, they're willing to accept the dramatic license as long as more people learn about him.

"Hollywood has to do what Hollywood has to do," John Brown said. "I hope people can look beyond that and see what a good human being this person was and what he had to go through, not only on the field but socially."

Davis' teammates already have tried their best to pass his message on to the next generation. Now they're just glad his story will reach a wider audience.

The Express, a movie about Ernie Davis' life, is scheduled to be released Friday, Oct. 10. Click here to watch the trailer.

Steve Megargee is a national writer for Rivals.com. He can be reached at smegargee@rivals.com.