Ernest Davis (December 14, 1939 – May 18, 1963) was an American football running back and the first African-American athlete to win the Heisman Trophy. Wearing number 44, Davis competed collegiately for Syracuse University before being drafted by the Washington Redskins, then almost immediately traded to the Cleveland Browns in December 1961. However, he would never play a professional game after being diagnosed with leukemia in 1962. He is the s...
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Ernest Davis (December 14, 1939 – May 18, 1963) was an American football running back and the first African-American athlete to win the Heisman Trophy. Wearing number 44, Davis competed collegiately for Syracuse University before being drafted by the Washington Redskins, then almost immediately traded to the Cleveland Browns in December 1961. However, he would never play a professional game after being diagnosed with leukemia in 1962. He is the subject of the 2008 Universal Pictures movie biography The Express, based on the non-fiction book Ernie Davis: The Elmira Express, by Robert C. Gallagher.
Davis was born in New Salem, Pennsylvania, and spent his early life in the Pittsburgh Coalfield, moving to industrial Uniontown, Pennsylvania, both in the metro Pittsburgh area. His parents separated shortly before his father died in an accident, and he was raised by his grandparents until age 12, when he moved with his mother and new stepfather to Elmira, New York. He played in Elmira's...
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