Ernie Davis Story

[Roger N]

I thought it was the shot from the West Virginia game you were describing.

What Swimsuit Issue Really Shows: The Decline of Sports Illustrated

For those who believe in coincidences, the fact that Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue shrank to 220 pages from last year's 252 may have nothing to do with its most risque cover in 51 years of pushing the envelope and lowering bikini bottoms. With model Hannah Davis (see obligatory picture)...

www.forbes.com

"I can remember pieces I read from the '50s, like "Orange Hell on Piety Hill," an account of Syracuse University's football victory over West Virginia with a full-page picture of Ernie Davis following a lineman around right end, so real it seemed they were going to thunder through the living room."

ORANGE HELL ON PIETY HILL

The color of hell has been variously described, but to the West Virginia football team last Saturday it appeared to be orange—the Orange of Syracuse. With a

vault.si.com

I thought it was the shot from the West Virginia game you were describing.

What Swimsuit Issue Really Shows: The Decline of Sports Illustrated

For those who believe in coincidences, the fact that Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue shrank to 220 pages from last year's 252 may have nothing to do with its most risque cover in 51 years of pushing the envelope and lowering bikini bottoms. With model Hannah Davis (see obligatory picture)...

www.forbes.com

"I can remember pieces I read from the '50s, like "Orange Hell on Piety Hill," an account of Syracuse University's football victory over West Virginia with a full-page picture of Ernie Davis following a lineman around right end, so real it seemed they were going to thunder through the living room."

ORANGE HELL ON PIETY HILL

The color of hell has been variously described, but to the West Virginia football team last Saturday it appeared to be orange—the Orange of Syracuse. With a

vault.si.com

Really good read. It gave me an understanding of Eastern Football back in the 50's. Thanks for sharing

 

[Dick_in_MI]

I have mentioned this many times before (probably too many), but when I was a kid Ernie gave me his autograph. I still keep it on my desk and my avatar is a copy of it. There will never be a "burning of the avatar" for me. In fact, I believe that everyone else that signed my slip of paper eventually played in the NFL or CFL: John Nichols, Al Bemiller (Bills), John Brown (father of eventual SU player Ernie Davis Brown and the inspiration for the "best friend" in the Express. He played on a couple of NFL teams), and Art Baker (Bills). Imagine a kid today getting his SU hero plus some other SU players to sign and ending up with a haul like that?

My Mom was from Elmira and so Ernie was as close to a sports deity as you could imagine in our house.

When I was a cub scout, there was an issue of Boys Life with Ernie as the cover story. In the story, I seem to recall it mentioning that Ernie was a good student. Being a good student myself, that was another reason for bonding to him. Somewhere along the way, the issue disappeared. Perhaps it got thrown out by my folks (along with bags and bags of my baseball cards) when I went off to college at SU. I always grieved for that magazine.

Anyway, to get to the point after rambling for a bunch of paragraphs, years ago on the old AOL board I mentioned that magazine and its loss. A poster...who, for all I know, is still out there under a different handle...had a copy that he had acquired somehow. In a gesture of great kindness, he sent it to me, and I still have it. this time, it will never leave my grasp.

Finally, whenever I watch the movie I have a hard time juxtaposing the actor (often stoic and unsmiling) with the real Ernie. When my Dad literally ran onto the team bus at the old Hancock Field to help me get my autographs (did I have an awesome Dad or what?), he asked Ernie to sign. Ernie smiled and said "it would be my pleasure, sir."

After I got to SU and got to know athletes as just kids like me, I no longer idolized them in any way. True, I have my alltime favorite players (Ernie and Don McPherson...Dave Bing and John Wallace), but there will only be one alltime sports idol for the 9 year old boy still inside me. And that is why this avatar will never be burned.

 

[goofnoff]

I still remember watching the Coach's All-American Game on TV. The game was held in Buffalo in June of 1962. I was at a graduation party and Jim McGraw was there. McGraw was a pretty good QB who had a scholarship to the University of Buffalo. Ernie Davis played and didn't do well. That was the first sign of his sickness. We all were disappointed in his performance.
A year later I was working at a downtown pharmacy and a drug salesman, originally from Elmira was in the store. He had played college football and knew Ernie. We were talking football and he told us that Ernie had leukemia. This was way before there was any public announcement of his illness. Ernie was such a good person. It still bothers me today. Such a loss.

That's the reason I started the thread. I still hurt from what happened to Ernie Davis. I can't watch that movie again.

 

[goofnoff]

I deleted that Maryland thing. I was having a brain freeze.

Thanks for that article.

 

[KaiserUEO]

Piety Hill article was cool.

 

[billorange44]

I thought it was the shot from the West Virginia game you were describing.

What Swimsuit Issue Really Shows: The Decline of Sports Illustrated

For those who believe in coincidences, the fact that Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue shrank to 220 pages from last year's 252 may have nothing to do with its most risque cover in 51 years of pushing the envelope and lowering bikini bottoms. With model Hannah Davis (see obligatory picture)...

www.forbes.com

"I can remember pieces I read from the '50s, like "Orange Hell on Piety Hill," an account of Syracuse University's football victory over West Virginia with a full-page picture of Ernie Davis following a lineman around right end, so real it seemed they were going to thunder through the living room."

ORANGE HELL ON PIETY HILL

The color of hell has been variously described, but to the West Virginia football team last Saturday it appeared to be orange—the Orange of Syracuse. With a

vault.si.com

My post was to mention the famous SI photo. Wish I'd kept that copy. I was at the stadium to see the play in real time.
I also remember the game in State College. A guy named Kaufmann almost sunk us with two punt returns.

What I remember better is the 60 PSU game at Archie. With the clock running down Pete Liske completed a Hail Mary for Penn St and set them up in scoring position. Liske lost his shoe and couldn't call time out to put it back on. On the last play Liske lobbed it toward a PSU receiver in the back of the end zone and Ernie Davis skyed up to knock it down. That was in the gym end zone.

Wish i could remember where I parked my car.

I have that Sports Illustrated magazine. I bought it years ago. It is a great read and makes me wish it could happen again.

 

[SUFaninNJ]

I have that Sports Illustrated magazine. I bought it years ago. It is a great read and makes me wish it could happen again.

Unfortunately print media is a dying art form. I don’t see it happening again.

 

[SWC75]

Unfortunately print media is a dying art form. I don’t see it happening again.

He probably wishes that could happen, too.

 

[djorange1989]

Awesome reading. I highly recommend that for all Orange fans.

it was very cool to read. I must add that if the writer had used the words "huzzah" and "ramrod" I would have assumed it was a Bud Poliquin article from like 10 years ago

 

[charleston]

Agree. Love that they made a movie about Ernie. But I'm a big true story person and I understand they alway embellish some details. But they made up stuff that didn't need to be made up. What really happened in Ernie's case is good enough to make an awesome story!

another lack of attention to detail ...not only did they portray the Penn State score wrong ...but when he goes into his grandfathers room and see's the montage of newspaper articles on the wall they actually show the a cut out article with the correct Penn State score 20-18