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winner Ernie Davis
"The Legend of 44" Documentary Set for December 7 Debut
12/4/2003 12:56:22 PM | Football
The program, produced and directed by Emmy Award winning filmmaker, Roger Springfield, focuses on the adversity each man overcame to achieve his personal success, highlights their sensational playing careers and pays tribute to their contributions to the university and community. Among the people interviewed in the film are principles Jim Brown and Floyd Little, Ernie Davis’ mother, Marie Fleming, and cousin, Chuck Davis, teammates including John Mackey, Larry Csonka, John Brown, Jim Ridlon, Chuck Zimmerman and Gerhard Schwedes, former SU Sports Information Directors Val Pinchbeck and Larry Kimball, and media observers including Beano Cook and the late Dick Schapp.
Brown is considered by many to be the greatest running back in football history. He came to Syracuse from Manhasset High School in Long Island with a long list of accomplishments, but without a scholarship. After an inauspicious season on the freshman team, Brown felt hopeless and very nearly quit the team. Needless to say, he stayed and the rest is history. Brown’s most famous games are his 43 point performance his senior season against Colgate and the 1957 Cotton Bowl, in which he scored 21 of SU’s 27 points on a national stage in the segregated Southwest.
“He was driven by demons of the past that surfaced in anger that he could control and turned it into physical energy that made him run a little bit faster and hit a little bit harder,” said Ridlon, who was a teammate of Brown’s from 1954 through 1956. “That’s what made him special.”
Ernie Davis, from nearby Elmira, N.Y., inherited Brown’s number, 44 and went on to smash his rushing records at Syracuse.
“He terribly impressed with Jim Brown when they visited,” said Ernie’s cousin, Chuck Davis.
Teammates such as John Mackey, John Brown and Ger Schwedes describe Davis as the most talented and humble person they ever knew.
“Ernie is the only player I’ve never heard anything bad about,” said Kimball, who served as SU’s SID from 1966 to 1997.
After leading Syracuse to its only national championship his sophomore year in 1959, Davis became the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy, in 1961. President John F. Kennedy was so impressed with Davis that he requested a meeting. Before Davis could join Brown on the NFL stage in Cleveland, however, he had contracted monocytic leukemia. Ernie died on May 18, 1963 at the age of 23.
Floyd Little was a highly recruited running back from New Haven, Conn., who was attending Bordentown Military Academy in New Jersey. During a recruiting visit, Davis had asked Little to carry on the tradition and wear the number 44 at Syracuse. Little said he told Davis he would come to Syracuse, but didn’t really mean it. He was leaning toward signing with Notre Dame. But when Little heard about Ernie’s death, he honored his word and committed to Syracuse. More than that, Little patterned his life after Davis and didn’t do badly on the football field either, bettering both Davis and Brown’s statistics. Teammates say Floyd Little was a tremendous motivator and leader, almost like a player – coach. Unlike his predecessors, Little never suffered from the overt racism they did, but he did face obstacles that made him question his future. Needless to say, Floyd persevered and went on to become the greatest running back in Denver Broncos history.
