Elmira Express

Ernie Davis' hometown helps keep legacy alive

By: Michael Bonner

Posted: 9/10/08

ELMIRA, N.Y. - Winnie Watts sat in her antique shop, photos scattered on the table. Each thought of what could have been filled her eyes with another tear. Her eyelids could not hold any more. One by one, the tears journeyed down her cheek. Tears created by a single question about a man she never met.

Bob Jolley stood outside a local bar. He stared off into the distance - no expression, no blinking - just a stare. His only emotion, a smirk at best. Reruns of memories played in his mind. Of him on a football field, spotting an opponent who was once his friend. Or perhaps he was remembering the day he moved to Athens, N.Y., away from his buddy in Elmira. The reminiscing all inspired by a question.

Derek Almy, the principal of the middle school named after one of Elmira's heroes, acted like one of his students when they are sent to his office. A stutter. He started a sentence only to have it disassembled by a pause. He couldn't complete a thought due to a question.

The question causing a plethora of emotions: What does Ernie Davis mean to you?

In Elmira, that isn't an easy question to answer. In Elmira, Davis isn't just the first black player to win the Heisman Trophy or a player to don the legendary No. 44 for Syracuse. He isn't just the subject of an upcoming feature film, "The Express," which premieres Friday at the Landmark Theatre.

"I'm telling you," said Howard Coleman, one of Davis' childhood friends. "If you knew Ernie you wouldn't believe it. If you knew him in person you wouldn't believe it. He can't be that kind of person, he just can't be that, but he was, he was all that."

***

Elmira comprises roughly 30,000 people, all of whom know their town's history and know it well. It's hard to talk to anyone without hearing the celebrities that have come from Elmira. Mark Twain, NBC's Brian Williams, Tommy Hilfiger and Eileen Collins, the first women to be commander of a space shuttle, all called Elmira home.

Household names are common in Elmira, but Ernie Davis trumps them all.

"Mark Twain is always the big thing around here but as a youthful guy probably Ernie Davis is number one in my books," said Watts, 69, an Elmira resident her whole life. "Just the way he lived and his legacy. Especially for younger people, Ernie Davis is definitely number one for me."

Davis was different. Even 45 years after he lost his battle with leukemia, the legendary SU tailback who lead the team to its only national championship, in 1959, is still different. Williams doesn't have a school in Elmira named after him. Hilfiger doesn't have a community center named after him.

"People continue to talk about Ernie in everyday conversations," said Mayor of Elmira John Tonello. "Ernie Davis' legacy is sort of a multi-sport athlete, but really it's his character. People from Elmira grew up with this guy who was not just an outstanding athlete, but who, by every measure, was just a humble and hardworking young man. That legacy and his presence is still very much talked about."

***

Ernie Davis stood in a corner and waited. He wanted to play with his good friend Ben Jolley, but he was too polite to interrupt. It was dinnertime, and the last thing Davis was going be was a nuisance. He was raised better than that.

Sometimes Jolley just took too long, even for Davis.

"I'll never forget what he said," Bob Jolley, Ben's brother said. "One time, Ben kept saying 'Give me this, give me that.' He always had a big appetite. He ate like a son of a gun. And Ernie said 'Ben Jolley, you're a greedy boy.' That sticks in my mind."

Soon after, the Jolleys moved to Athens, but it wouldn't be the last time the friends would meet up.

Elmira's junior high football team traveled to Athens. The Jolleys suited up for the game, and when they arrived at the stadium couldn't believe who they saw.

"My brother said, 'who's that there on the other team,'" Bob Jolley said. "I had to look and look, I said, 'Oh my god, that's Ernie Davis.'"

"He ran all over us."

It was obvious early that Davis was a gifted athlete. But that meeting was the only football memory that came to mind for Jolley. What he and others remembered most was Ernie the person.

"There's no way anybody could knock him down," Jolley said. "He was just, his reputation, he was just the best."

***

The homeboys, as Davis and his friends referred to themselves, walked down the street. They were probably heading to the "corner," their favorite place to relax. Right outside Green Pastures, an Elmira bar owned by Coleman, sits a fire hydrant. Coleman, one of the homeboys, said it was normal to see Davis leaning against the fire hydrant.

There, the homeboys would stand and talk; they could talk all day.

"He'd always come out with the guys and talk," Coleman said. "But he never, Ernie never talked about himself."

Davis cared more about the people around him than himself. He cared most about the future of Elmira: the kids.

"Ernie made such an impression on all the kids. He loved kids you know? He would do anything for any kid…" Coleman said. "And every time he'd come home he'd go to the school. He'd go see the players, and sometimes the kids would be practicing or scrimmaging, and he'd go out to see them."

He'd help the children impersonate their favorite stars. But to kids in Elmira, he was the brightest star. He realized the ability he had, how kids looked up to him.

Ernie went to the hospital whenever he came home from Syracuse, anything to brighten the day of a child resting in a hospital bed. He'd be the first one trying to prevent one of them from ever going to the hospital, too.

"He'd watch them come across the street and make sure if the cars where coming the kids would be safe coming across the street," Coleman said.

Only once in all the time Coleman knew Davis did he ever see him mad. Davis witnessed a man harassing a child. Davis, who trained to be a boxer in his free time, let the man know how he felt.

"He cold-cocked the guy. That's the only time I've ever seen him get mad," Coleman said. "I don't believe he was mad, I think he just did it from instinct.

"(We said) 'Man, did you see Ernie!? Did you see what Ernie just did?' I said we saw it. I can't believe it. You know he was just that type of guy."

***

Davis' mother, Marie Fleming, formed him into the man everyone remembers. She couldn't control what happened on the football field. But you can't talk about Davis' character without looking at his mother.

"He was a nice guy and his mother had a lot to do with it," Jolley said. "Bringing him up and whatnot, it was all his mother."

Fleming had a lot to do with the releasing of "The Express." People came to her many times wanting tell the life story of Ernie Davis, but she was hesitant. Davis' story had to be told in the correct way - nothing could be left out, nothing could be added.

"I said to my brother, 'Man, they ain't going to do that picture right,'" Coleman said referring to when he first heard of the movie. "Because Ernie didn't do anything wrong. There ain't no bad part of him."

After reading recent reviews, Coleman said he has a lot more faith in its production and is looking forward to seeing it - even though there currently is no movie theater in Elmira.

Tenallo hopes the movie can inspire the children of Elmira. Tenallo said the current graduation rate for Elmira high schools is at 65 percent, and for blacks it's even lower at 50 percent.

"Here's a young Ernie Davis," Tenallo said. "Portrayed in the movie who's basically their age. And that's going to be very powerful I think, seeing him come to life. And really say 'Hey this guy was awesome, and I'm walking the same streets that he did. I'm running on the same fields. I'm breathing the same air.'"

***

There used to be a bare spot in Green Pastures. The same place Davis used to spend so much of his time, outside by the hydrant. The bar where he took John Brown, John Mackey and so many more Syracuse players. The place where Coleman found out Davis was sick with leukemia, had no picture of the Heisman Trophy winner.

There was no sign Coleman even knew Davis.

The emotional attachment between the town and Davis was so strong; Coleman thought if someone unknowingly quipped at the picture, punches might be thrown.

"Now I have a picture of him," Coleman said. "You've gotta put Ernie's picture up on the wall. If anyone says anything smart, tell me and I'll knock him out."

Coleman is committed to keeping Davis' memory alive. Every year for the past 30 years, he travels to Cleveland with some of the homeboys to watch the Browns - the NFL team that drafted Davis. Every once in a while, the homeboys visit Davis' grave in Elmira's Woodlawn Cemetery.

The connection Davis has had with Elmira the past 68 years is personal. It makes people cry. It makes people daydream of better days. It makes them forgot how to formulate a sentence.

"We don't let the name die. We keep it going all the time," Coleman said. "Ernie Davis the name will never die. We live it. We'll make sure it never dies."

mibonner@syr.edu