Ernie Davis
| No. 44 | |
|---|---|
| Position: | Halfback |
| Personal information | |
| Date of birth: | December 14, 1939 |
| Place of birth: | New Salem, Pennsylvania |
| Date of death: | May 18, 1963 (aged 23) |
| Place of death: | Cleveland, Ohio |
| Height: | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) |
| Weight: | 212 lb (96 kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school: | Elmira (NY) Free Academy |
| College: | Syracuse |
| NFL Draft: | 1962 / Round: 1 / Pick: 1 |
| AFL draft: | 1962 / Round: 1 / Pick: 4 |
| Career history | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
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Ernest Davis (December 14, 1939 – May 18, 1963) was an American football player, a halfback who won the Heisman Trophy in 1961 and was its first African-American winner.
Davis played college football for Syracuse University and was the first pick in the 1962 NFL Draft. Selected by the Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL) in December 1961, he was then almost immediately traded to the Cleveland Browns and issued number 45.
Davis was diagnosed with leukemia in the summer of 1962, and died less than a year later at age 23, without ever playing in a professional game. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1979, and was the subject of the 2008 Universal Pictures film The Express, based on the non-fiction book Ernie Davis: The Elmira Express, by Robert C. Gallagher.
Born in New Salem, Pennsylvania, Davis' father was killed in an accident shortly after his birth, and his mother, Avis Marie Davis Fleming, could not raise him alone. At fourteen months, he was cared for by his maternal grandparents, Willie and Elizabeth Davis, in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. At age 12, he went to live with his mother and stepfather in Elmira, New York, where he excelled in baseball, basketball, and football in grade school. He attended Elmira Free Academy, where he earned two All-American honors. At the end of his senior season he was recruited by numerous colleges, and chose to attend Syracuse University after being persuaded by his childhood hero, Jim Brown, a Syracuse alumnus.
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