Handler XIII
1,000+ Posts
Just got back from going to see Kung Fu Panda and watched this preview about Ernie Davis. DKR, State of Texas, and Texas players/fans are going to look bad from the previews. Anyone else see this?
Movie: The Express
- Thread starter Handler XIII
- Start date
trueut2003
250+ Posts
I have a feeling Texas will look pretty bad, but it's not like they're making it up. From wikipedia...
ToxicShock
100+ Posts
Handler, I just saw the same preview yesterday at kung fu panda as well- That was the second thing that came to my mind. The first was "cool, a new football movie about ernie davis", then as the preview wore on, I thought "this is going to make Texas fans look baaaad". I'll be curious to find out from some of the more senior posters how accurate the depiction of our fanbase will be.
Sooner-Tuf
1,000+ Posts
LongestHorn
2,500+ Posts
My Dad played football for Vestal, NY in HS in 1957. The Southern Tier Conference. Elmira Free Academy was in that conference and Ernie Davis was their halfback. Vestal won that game.
In the 1961 Heisman voting, Ernie won. Texas FB Jimmy Saxton came in third.
Texas is today quite ashamed of it's racism toward all black football players, but particularly Davis. Especially before the 1960 Cotton Bowl.
Davis was sufficiently motivated following the racist taunts before the game. He made Texas pay the first time he touched the ball...going 87 yards on a catch and run on the second play of the game.
That was DKR's first of 10 appearances in the Cotton Bowl and his first loss.
Syracuse 23 Texas 14
In the 1961 Heisman voting, Ernie won. Texas FB Jimmy Saxton came in third.
Texas is today quite ashamed of it's racism toward all black football players, but particularly Davis. Especially before the 1960 Cotton Bowl.
Davis was sufficiently motivated following the racist taunts before the game. He made Texas pay the first time he touched the ball...going 87 yards on a catch and run on the second play of the game.
That was DKR's first of 10 appearances in the Cotton Bowl and his first loss.
Syracuse 23 Texas 14
Texas Jack
1,000+ Posts
AustinNUWildcat
25+ Posts
I grew up in Elmira, New York and graduated from Elmira Free Academy (EFA) - Ernie Davis' high school. I was a freshman at EFA the year Ernie passed away. The initial reaction among Elmirans like me to the aforementioned trailer for "The Express" is disappointment. Some of the reasons for our disappointment are minor - like the fact that Ernie's high school is called "Elmira High School" rather than Elmira Free Academy. Or that the movie is named "The Express" rather than "The Elmira Express" - Ernie's actual nickname given to him by the media. But the major reason for our initial disappointment is that a major focus of "The Express" appears to be racial prejudice. Elmirans of all races feel that Ernie Davis transcended race. Folks from Elmira were aware that some bad things happened at the 1960 Cotton Bowl but no one dwelled on it - including Ernie. In addition, Elmira, New York has a long history of racial tolerance. Elmira was a major stop on the Underground Railroad. Prior to the Civil War, many slaves found their way to freedom through Elmira, New York.
Here's my personal story of growing up in Elmira and my recollections of Ernie Davis. I posted this to HornFans two years ago. As you can see, here's at least one Elmiran who had and has a different perspective on the life and times of Ernie Davis than "The Express" will probably set forth. But that's Hollywood:
Ernie Davis - 1961 Heisman Trophy Winner
I grew up in Elmira, New York. In 1948, the year I was born, this small industrial city had a population of 48,000. Elmira is part of the Southern Tier of western New York State just south of the Finger Lakes. Elmira is near Watkins Glen (race track), Ithaca (Cornell), Corning (glass works) and the Pennsylvania border. Elmira so closely resembled the post-war demographics of the nation, The University of Michigan decided upon Elmira as the site of a well known 1948 voter survey that became known as “The Elmira Study”. Much earlier, Elmira was known for a notorious Civil War POW camp. It was also the life long summer home of Mark Twain, who is buried in Elmira. You see, Clemens married a nice Elmira girl, Olivia Langdon. Other famous Elmirans are Tommy Hilfiger, who I knew well, and Eileen Collins, space shuttle commander. And, of course, Ernie Davis.
I went to Elmira Free Academy, one of two public high schools in Elmira. On the other side of the Chemung River was our rival - Southside High School. Elmira Free Academy (EFA) was in the very tough Southern Tier Conference (STC); a conference that also included Southside, Ithaca and the five Binghamton area schools. In the 1930's, Elmira played a schedule that included schools like Massilon, Ohio and Rochester Aquinas. They even played in a high school bowl game of sorts called the Coconut Bowl against the top Florida high school team. For three years between 1955 and 1957, EFA was undefeated in basketball and football. They set a New York State record for consecutive basketball victories, 52, that was eventually broken by the Power Memorial team led by Lew Alcindor. And EFA was even more dominating in football. The star player in both sports was Ernie Davis. He was an incredible athlete.
Ernie Davis moved to Elmira from Uniontown, PA at the age of twelve. An interesting coincidence in Uniontown was that one of Ernie’s Pop Warner football teammates, Sandy Stevens, would go on to star as Minnesota’s QB and join Ernie Davis on the 1961 AA team. Ernie Davis was a shy, unassuming guy who devoted himself to family, friends, teammates and community. Everyone liked Ernie Davis; he was a kind and gracious person. Ernie Davis was African American. This was the 1950's; before the Civil Rights movement. It’s hard to put this into perspective because I was in grade school at the time, but Ernie Davis had an impact on the community that went beyond sports. You had to live there to experience it and appreciate what happened.
There was never much doubt about where the 6'2", 212 lb. Ernie Davis was going to college. Not after Jimmy Brown personally recruited him. He was going to be the second in what would become a legendary line of great running backs to wear “44" at Syracuse. Ernie became nationally known as “The Elmira Express” and made the Scissors Play famous during his career at Syracuse. I became a life long college football fan listening to all the games on the radio. Ben Schwartzwalder’s 1959 team, with Sophomore Ernie Davis at halfback, went undefeated, beat Texas in the 1960 Cotton Bowl (a game also remembered for alleged racism on the field as Texas played in the still segregated SWC) and won the national championship.
There was tremendous anticipation in Elmira as November 28, 1961 approached - the day the Heisman Trophy winner was to be announced. No Black college football player had ever won this award. No one could predict how the vote would go. I was Downtown when word came that Ernie Davis won the Heisman Trophy. Everyone congratulated each other and celebrated as if we all had a role in Ernie Davis’ honor. It was the biggest thing that had ever happened in Elmira. We were all so proud.
Soon thereafter came the NFL draft. In Elmira, you were either a Giants fan, like me, or a Browns fan. There was much speculation that the Browns wanted to pair Ernie Davis and Jim Brown in the same backfield. But the Washington Redskins held the number one draft choice. Fate seemed to be on our side, though. The Browns traded Bobby Mitchell, a great running back, to Washington for the number one pick. And on draft day, Cleveland made Ernie Davis the first pick of the 1962 college draft. For Elmira, this saga couldn’t get any better.
That Spring, a huge testimonial banquet was held in Ernie Davis’ honor. Quoting from the “Elmira Salutes Ernie Davis” program, “Ernie’s statistics and records some day may be wiped away by another Syracuse footballer; his awards may get dusty, the luster dull; but the reputation he has built for himself as Elmira’s greatest Ambassador of Good Will on the field of sport will live long in the memory of those who have followed him from Small Fry days to that memorable Nov. 28, 1961, when he was voted the greatest football player in America. Tonight, Elmira salutes Ernie Davis!”
My program bears the autographs of Ernie Davis, John Mackey, Dick Easterly, Pete Brokaw, Jim Brown, John Brown, Nelson Rockefeller and Willie Fitzgerald. I missed getting the autographs of Ben Schwartzwalder and Art Modell. On a somewhat humorous note, when my Uncle carried up my four year old cousin Billy to meet Ernie, who was sitting beside Governor Rockefeller, Billy loudly asked, “Which one is Ernie Davis?”
Back then, the first football game of the new season was the College All-Star game in which the college all-stars played the NFL champs from the previous season. The game was always held at Chicago’s Soldier Field and the college all-stars practiced at Northwestern University, my alma mater. Naturally, Ernie Davis was a member of the college all-star team and people were expecting a great performance from the Heisman Trophy winner. But Ernie seemed sluggish. He didn’t feel well and asked to see a doctor. At Evanston Hospital, Ernie Davis was diagnosed with Leukemia.
Ernie Davis never played another down of football. The Cleveland Browns and Art Modell did everything they could for Ernie and his family, but the disease progressed rapidly. Ernie Davis died in the Spring of 1963 at the age of 23. I was a high school Freshman at Elmira Free Academy. Ernie Davis’ wake was held at the Neighborhood House; a sort of community center for Elmira’s African American community. It was only a couple blocks from EFA, so I, along with the entire student body, went over during lunch hour to pay my last respects. It was the first time I had seen someone who was dead.
Things seemed to change after that. Later that year, Kennedy was assassinated. The next year, a new high school was built. The old building became Ernie Davis Junior High. The EFA teams were average, at best. Vestal High School, from a Binghamton suburb, became the new power in the STC. Their star player was Bob Campbell and he went on to prominence at Penn State under new head coach Joe Paterno. Elmira’s economy began to deteriorate. Factories closed. Downtown became deserted. Suburbs like Horseheads took up some of the slack, but Elmira’s population declined steadily to the current 32,000; a 33% decline from 1948's population of 48,000. After graduating from college, I moved back to Elmira for a half year while waiting to be called to active duty with the Army Reserves. I haven’t lived there since.
But I can still feel the excitement of going to a game at the old Parker Field. Trying to find a place to park, while blocks away, the stadium lights were like a beacon for the whole city. I can feel the November cold as EFA’s Blue Devils took on the Southside Green Hornets in the last game of the season. The winner of that intra-city game held the Erie Bell for the next year. What anticipation just before kick-off against Ithaca’s Little Red, Vestal’s Golden Bears and Union-Endicott’s Orange Tornado. They always had tough kids. And I’ll never forget the excitement of seeing Ernie Davis play. But there will always be an accompanying feeling of emptiness. I’ll always wonder what the late, great Ernie Davis could have accomplished. He would have been 69 years old this December.
Here's my personal story of growing up in Elmira and my recollections of Ernie Davis. I posted this to HornFans two years ago. As you can see, here's at least one Elmiran who had and has a different perspective on the life and times of Ernie Davis than "The Express" will probably set forth. But that's Hollywood:
Ernie Davis - 1961 Heisman Trophy Winner
I grew up in Elmira, New York. In 1948, the year I was born, this small industrial city had a population of 48,000. Elmira is part of the Southern Tier of western New York State just south of the Finger Lakes. Elmira is near Watkins Glen (race track), Ithaca (Cornell), Corning (glass works) and the Pennsylvania border. Elmira so closely resembled the post-war demographics of the nation, The University of Michigan decided upon Elmira as the site of a well known 1948 voter survey that became known as “The Elmira Study”. Much earlier, Elmira was known for a notorious Civil War POW camp. It was also the life long summer home of Mark Twain, who is buried in Elmira. You see, Clemens married a nice Elmira girl, Olivia Langdon. Other famous Elmirans are Tommy Hilfiger, who I knew well, and Eileen Collins, space shuttle commander. And, of course, Ernie Davis.
I went to Elmira Free Academy, one of two public high schools in Elmira. On the other side of the Chemung River was our rival - Southside High School. Elmira Free Academy (EFA) was in the very tough Southern Tier Conference (STC); a conference that also included Southside, Ithaca and the five Binghamton area schools. In the 1930's, Elmira played a schedule that included schools like Massilon, Ohio and Rochester Aquinas. They even played in a high school bowl game of sorts called the Coconut Bowl against the top Florida high school team. For three years between 1955 and 1957, EFA was undefeated in basketball and football. They set a New York State record for consecutive basketball victories, 52, that was eventually broken by the Power Memorial team led by Lew Alcindor. And EFA was even more dominating in football. The star player in both sports was Ernie Davis. He was an incredible athlete.
Ernie Davis moved to Elmira from Uniontown, PA at the age of twelve. An interesting coincidence in Uniontown was that one of Ernie’s Pop Warner football teammates, Sandy Stevens, would go on to star as Minnesota’s QB and join Ernie Davis on the 1961 AA team. Ernie Davis was a shy, unassuming guy who devoted himself to family, friends, teammates and community. Everyone liked Ernie Davis; he was a kind and gracious person. Ernie Davis was African American. This was the 1950's; before the Civil Rights movement. It’s hard to put this into perspective because I was in grade school at the time, but Ernie Davis had an impact on the community that went beyond sports. You had to live there to experience it and appreciate what happened.
There was never much doubt about where the 6'2", 212 lb. Ernie Davis was going to college. Not after Jimmy Brown personally recruited him. He was going to be the second in what would become a legendary line of great running backs to wear “44" at Syracuse. Ernie became nationally known as “The Elmira Express” and made the Scissors Play famous during his career at Syracuse. I became a life long college football fan listening to all the games on the radio. Ben Schwartzwalder’s 1959 team, with Sophomore Ernie Davis at halfback, went undefeated, beat Texas in the 1960 Cotton Bowl (a game also remembered for alleged racism on the field as Texas played in the still segregated SWC) and won the national championship.
There was tremendous anticipation in Elmira as November 28, 1961 approached - the day the Heisman Trophy winner was to be announced. No Black college football player had ever won this award. No one could predict how the vote would go. I was Downtown when word came that Ernie Davis won the Heisman Trophy. Everyone congratulated each other and celebrated as if we all had a role in Ernie Davis’ honor. It was the biggest thing that had ever happened in Elmira. We were all so proud.
Soon thereafter came the NFL draft. In Elmira, you were either a Giants fan, like me, or a Browns fan. There was much speculation that the Browns wanted to pair Ernie Davis and Jim Brown in the same backfield. But the Washington Redskins held the number one draft choice. Fate seemed to be on our side, though. The Browns traded Bobby Mitchell, a great running back, to Washington for the number one pick. And on draft day, Cleveland made Ernie Davis the first pick of the 1962 college draft. For Elmira, this saga couldn’t get any better.
That Spring, a huge testimonial banquet was held in Ernie Davis’ honor. Quoting from the “Elmira Salutes Ernie Davis” program, “Ernie’s statistics and records some day may be wiped away by another Syracuse footballer; his awards may get dusty, the luster dull; but the reputation he has built for himself as Elmira’s greatest Ambassador of Good Will on the field of sport will live long in the memory of those who have followed him from Small Fry days to that memorable Nov. 28, 1961, when he was voted the greatest football player in America. Tonight, Elmira salutes Ernie Davis!”
My program bears the autographs of Ernie Davis, John Mackey, Dick Easterly, Pete Brokaw, Jim Brown, John Brown, Nelson Rockefeller and Willie Fitzgerald. I missed getting the autographs of Ben Schwartzwalder and Art Modell. On a somewhat humorous note, when my Uncle carried up my four year old cousin Billy to meet Ernie, who was sitting beside Governor Rockefeller, Billy loudly asked, “Which one is Ernie Davis?”
Back then, the first football game of the new season was the College All-Star game in which the college all-stars played the NFL champs from the previous season. The game was always held at Chicago’s Soldier Field and the college all-stars practiced at Northwestern University, my alma mater. Naturally, Ernie Davis was a member of the college all-star team and people were expecting a great performance from the Heisman Trophy winner. But Ernie seemed sluggish. He didn’t feel well and asked to see a doctor. At Evanston Hospital, Ernie Davis was diagnosed with Leukemia.
Ernie Davis never played another down of football. The Cleveland Browns and Art Modell did everything they could for Ernie and his family, but the disease progressed rapidly. Ernie Davis died in the Spring of 1963 at the age of 23. I was a high school Freshman at Elmira Free Academy. Ernie Davis’ wake was held at the Neighborhood House; a sort of community center for Elmira’s African American community. It was only a couple blocks from EFA, so I, along with the entire student body, went over during lunch hour to pay my last respects. It was the first time I had seen someone who was dead.
Things seemed to change after that. Later that year, Kennedy was assassinated. The next year, a new high school was built. The old building became Ernie Davis Junior High. The EFA teams were average, at best. Vestal High School, from a Binghamton suburb, became the new power in the STC. Their star player was Bob Campbell and he went on to prominence at Penn State under new head coach Joe Paterno. Elmira’s economy began to deteriorate. Factories closed. Downtown became deserted. Suburbs like Horseheads took up some of the slack, but Elmira’s population declined steadily to the current 32,000; a 33% decline from 1948's population of 48,000. After graduating from college, I moved back to Elmira for a half year while waiting to be called to active duty with the Army Reserves. I haven’t lived there since.
But I can still feel the excitement of going to a game at the old Parker Field. Trying to find a place to park, while blocks away, the stadium lights were like a beacon for the whole city. I can feel the November cold as EFA’s Blue Devils took on the Southside Green Hornets in the last game of the season. The winner of that intra-city game held the Erie Bell for the next year. What anticipation just before kick-off against Ithaca’s Little Red, Vestal’s Golden Bears and Union-Endicott’s Orange Tornado. They always had tough kids. And I’ll never forget the excitement of seeing Ernie Davis play. But there will always be an accompanying feeling of emptiness. I’ll always wonder what the late, great Ernie Davis could have accomplished. He would have been 69 years old this December.
1990txgirl
250+ Posts
AustinNU, I missed that the first time around. That is a great story. Thanks for sharing it again and telling it so well.
I hope the movie does justice to Ernie's life and memory.
I hope the movie does justice to Ernie's life and memory.
Hans Sprungfeld
25+ Posts
as someone who fashions themself a college football fan, i'm ashamed i don't know this story.
is there a book to read before this movie comes out?
is there a book to read before this movie comes out?
AustinNUWildcat
25+ Posts
Yes, there is a book you can read about Ernie Davis. It's titled "Ernie Davis - The Elmira Express" and the author is Robert C. Gallagher. If I'm not mistaken, the movie "The Express" may be based, in part, on this book. Here's a link on Amazon.com:
The Link
It's surprising how little has been written about Ernie Davis. Hopefully, the movie "The Express" will change that.
The Link
It's surprising how little has been written about Ernie Davis. Hopefully, the movie "The Express" will change that.
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