nfl.com: Ernie Davis story

[ljs]

It's a good article about Ernie Davis. I forgot we actually drafted him and then traded him to the browns for Bobby Mitchell

link for entire article.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d80b75df1&template=with-video-with-comments&confirm=true

Ernie Davis' only real NFL footnote was that, as part of a trade between Washington and Cleveland in 1962, he became the first black player drafted first overall. In joining the Browns, the fleet, 6-foot-2, 210-pound Davis was to be paired with the legendary Jim Brown.

It was to be the most incredible assemblage of running back talent ever.

Nothing would have equaled Ernie Davis and Jim Brown," former Browns owner Art Modell said.

But it wasn't to be.

Davis was diagnosed with a highly toxic form of leukemia shortly after being drafted out of Syracuse University, where he starred at halfback and defensive back. He died May 18, 1963. He was 23.

For 45 years, nearly twice as long as Davis lived, his legend held strong among friends, acquaintances, fans and family members. The stories have grown more hushed over time, as some of those who knew him have died or grown to where their recollection has become somewhat of a faint memory.

"The Express," a film chronicling Davis' brief but impactful life, re-introduces Davis to the world this week. It is a dramatized story, but it captures the essence of a man who was one of the greatest college football players of his time and the first Negro -- his societal designation in that era -- to win the Heisman Trophy, college football's greatest prize.

"I've lived these things, the Ernie Davis story," Brown said in a recent interview. "It is a great story, but Ernie Davis is not new to me. He was a guy who had all this talent. A good dude. Everybody loved him. White. Black. We were dealing in the most volatile times in America -- the '60s. There was Malcolm (X), Elijah (Muhammad), Huey (Newton) and Stokely (Carmichael), Angela (Davis), J. Edgar Hoover, Richard Nixon, John Kennedy. Ernie, me, we were in all of that.

"He found a way through it all. He had that thing."

Overcoming the odds

That thing, according to those that knew him, was a paintbrush of generosity, humanity, dignity and competitiveness that he spread over a canvas of racial intolerance, a speech impediment, a barely integrated college campus, 100 yards of football turf and nearly 8,395 days of life.

"Ernie Davis didn't die at a young age," said John Brown, his former Syracuse and Browns teammate and best friend. "He lived at a young age."

Nothing ever was easy for Davis. He just simply didn't know better, the same way someone who never has had three square meals doesn't realize he's not getting what most would consider a normal day's nourishment.

NFL career short-lived

Not long after, Davis was drafted first overall by the Washington Redskins, who immediately traded him to Cleveland for Hall of Fame running back Bobby Mitchell. He signed a contract with the Browns, reportedly for nearly $100,000, although his friends said they believed it was for much more. At any rate, it was a whopping figure for that era