From 1st and 10 to Glory

From 1st and 10 to Glory

            When it comes to sports in America, it is a big ordeal.  Regardless of what team or what sport, Americans have a passion about all sports.  College football is one of the oldest collegiate sports played every year in America and over the years, college football has helped America by making a huge impact on improving race relations.  It is through college football that has put a spotlight on the efforts of a team rather than a player.  The progress made in college football has caused the breakdown of segregation in American’s colleges and universities.  With African Americans playing for predominately white schools this has helped to start the process of breaking down the walls of segregation.  This came as the plight of the African American student athlete became more dominate.

            Before 1961,  African Americans had not won the Heisman Trophy until Ernie Davis, a Syracuse University running back, won The Heisman Trophy in 1961.  The Heisman Trophy is the most sought after individual award in college football.  Davis, being the first African American to win this award, contributed to the sport and helped start a level playing field for African Americans.  It was Davis who blazed a trail for many others to follow.  While he played at Syracuse University, he met many challenges that were racial.  Davis’s team played in the 1960 Cotton Bowl Classic in Dallas, Texas.  It was Davis and his non-white teammates that were forced to sleep in a black hotel.  Due to the fact, of the Jim Crow laws in the state of Texas, blacks where not permitted to have accommodations in regular hotels.

After the Syracuse victory over the Longhorns, the African American football players were not allowed to attend the award show and the trophy presentations according to John Brown a teammate and roommate of Davis.  African American players were not allowed to remain for the banquet either although Davis was the Most Valuable Player of the game.  Davis had to leave with the other African American teammates and they were not allowed to enjoy the moment of victory because of the racial segregation.

With the life of Ernie Davis as a person, and not just an athlete, he gave to America hope in the form of a brave- hearted soul who worked hard to accomplish many things in his life.  He was an inspiration to not only African Americans, but anyone who wanted change.  Davis made such an impact on the gridiron that then President Kennedy arranged to meet with him after the presentation of the Heisman Trophy.  Davis and President Kennedy shook hands.  Sad to say, that this would be the life of a young gifted African American man as Ernie Davis, died at the age of 23 with acute monocytic leukemia.  Although, Davis passed so early in his life before his prime, he left a legacy of greatness that stretched far beyond football.

This gridiron legend that not only excelled on the football field but as a man who was a strong advocate for civil rights.  It was not all what he said but it was how Davis carried himself on and off the field.  It is through this man that helped paved the way for a better today and with Davis's life, we have a glimpse of hope for an even brighter tomorrow.  Ernie Davis left this world with something that is hope, thank you Ernie Davis.