FanHouse

As a 10 year old I would ride my bike to Archbold Stadium and watch Ernie and many great Swartzwalder players. I cried the day Ernie died. He and Jim Brown in the same backfield...we can only dream about it. After one game I went up to a NAVY Quarterback and asked for his chin strap. He refused. I told him he stunk. The next year he won the Heisman. It's sad that Syracuse no longer plays Big Time Football.

Reply

My mom supervised the teams' meals during preseason practices up at SU's Skytop. She got to know each player. During season, she was a supervisor at Slocum Commons (SU's main restaurant facility) and would assemble before dawn, a huge collage of local/national news articles covering the teams' extraordinary successes. The cork board was a popular hot spot for early risers....which regularly caught the attention of Ernie and other teammates. My mother adored Ernie and at 90 she looks forward to the movie's release, which is long overdue.

Reply

My mom supervised the teams' meals during preseason practices up at SU's Skytop. She got to know each player. During season, she was a supervisor at Slocum Commons (SU's main restaurant facility) and would assemble before dawn, a huge collage of local/national news articles covering the teams' extraordinary successes. The cork board was a popular hot spot for early risers....which regularly caught the attention of Ernie and other teammates. My mother adored Ernie and at 90 she looks forward to the movie's release, which is long overdue.

Reply

My mom supervised the teams' meals during preseason practices up at SU's Skytop. She got to know each player. During season, she was a supervisor at Slocum Commons (SU's main restaurant facility) and would assemble before dawn, a huge collage of local/national news articles covering the teams' extraordinary successes. The cork board was a popular hot spot for early risers....which regularly caught the attention of Ernie and other teammates. My mother adored Ernie and at 90 she looks forward to the movie's release, which is long overdue.

Reply

I was living in Elmira in 1959 and working for the Bendix Corp. I had been a trackman at Syracuse having gone there in 1948 on an athletic scholarship. It was summer and I was coaching a high school boy on a local track. The week before I had won the 200m dash in the Niagra AAU meet. Ernie Davis approached and asked if he could run with us. I said fine, "but we're going to jog 2 miles Ernie.".He went the 2 miles - all 200 lbs of him. He said that Coach Grieve at Syracuse told him that I had never run for him like I had at the Niagra meet. A little White boy - about 8 - came over with a football and said to Ernie - the Elmira Express - "Are you Ernie Davis?" Ernie answered," If I'm not, would you still have a catch with me?" The little boy reluntently said, "Well, okay". Ernie had a catch with that boy for about 30 minutes and the boy didn't realize that Ernie was the "Elmira Express". Ernie was the most humble, graccious man I ever met.
Dick Dodd - class of '52 Syracuse University
_

Reply

I was born and raised in Elmira. Ernie was a freshman and I had just graduated from Elmira Free Academy. During Christmas vacation, those of us who played basketball there would come home from college and play the high school team. That is where we got to meet Ernie. The man was an absolute gentleman--large in stature, larger in heart -with a seeming aura of grace and class. A class act! A year later I saw him play football. He was a man among boys. By the way --the result of that basketball game--they beat us by 38 points. But it was worth it because I had met Ernie.

Reply

In a time when races didn't mix, my (white) father, Brian Howard, had no problem being Ernie Davis' roommate at Syracuse.
My dad has great stories of Ernie that he has shared with us for years, but he was never even interviewed for this movie.

Reply

If anyone has info on how to contact the movie producers. My cousin, Helen Gott attended SU and was engaged to Ernie Davis. They were featured in a photo in Jet Magazine many years. She would love to have some input into this. Please email me at Purrr8@aol.com if anyone has any info. Thanks.

Reply

FOUND SOME PICS OF THE FILM PRODUCTION ON IMOOVIZINE.COM IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED...

Reply

I lived a couple of houses down from Ernie on Lake St in Elmira. EFA (Elmira Free Academy) was the school we went to. EFA was right across the street. Ernie was a couple of years ahead of me. I remember Ernie as being very quiet for the most part, he had a giant smile, a great laugh, and he was always a gentleman who treated all with respect. Lots of times he stood up for one of us younger kids who were being picked on by an older bigger kid. I have tried to generate a postage stamp in Ernie's honor as I sincerely beeive if one can generate a mickey mouse stamp, surely an Ernie Davis stamp would be more relavant and of a grea historical nature. I fondly remember Ernie as a classy person who did not smoke, drink or use profanity. He was somewhat of an idol for all Blacks in Elmira. We would go to football games at Parker Field where EFA would play the football games. It was indeed difficult to stop Ernie. Marty Harrigan the football coach is very rarely mentioned. It is my opinon that Coach Harrigan was the gem master who honed the "Diamond in the rough" which was later dubbed the Elmira Express. I was in LA where I went after graduating from EFA and heard of Ernie's death. I still have much difficulty with his death. I have since learned that Ernie may have been saved by bone marrow transplant. It was a exteme and profound experience to have been Ernie's neighbor and friend.

Reply

My Uncle (my dad's brother)Ted Dailey was an assistant coach to Ben Schwartzwalder. My dad (soon to be 80) is Uncle Ted's little brother and hung around the teams all of the time. My father still to this day tells stories of men that became icons in the football world as if they were his own family. Names like Ernie Davis, Floyd Little, Jim Brown, Larry Czonka are to mention a few. In fact my brother just brought an article about the filming of this movie about Ernie Davis, home from a business trip and my dad went and gathered some pictures he has of my Uncle and Ernie Davis during his days at SU, and boy sis the stories start to fly (you know how old people love to remember the days). It will be interesting to see if my Uncle is mentioned at all, because he was especially close to Ernie, my dad isn't sure but he thinks it was my Uncle that recruited Ernie to SU. Thanks

Reply

The local charity that I am a board member for is having a fund raiser next fall at th esame time as the premiere of "The Express". We plan on having as many of the former "59ers" as we can on hand to sign autographs. Anyone with information that can help us would be greatly appreciated. Our organization is Charity For Children and you can view us at www.charityforchildren.net. You can email me at debaguley@yahoo.com. Thanks

Reply

to Holly Howard. I interviewed your Dad, Brian Howard years ago and included many of his great revealing stories in my version of the Ernie Davis film. Yes, this group did not bother with much of the most interesting material and people. Hope you have a chance to read my book. Best, Coralee

Reply

I am the original and legal biographer of Ernie Davis's life with rights to film and book. I have long ago completed the film story of Ernie's life that i marketed for years to many production companies including Universal. Now they refuse to even respond to me although I actually offered my script to them for reference in this production. I am currently rewriting the book that I finished years ago, including the story that was in the script, which includes Ernie's childhood. I expect to publish it before the movie is out. I am sorry that this group did not see fit to interview many of the people who knew Ernie best, (they have told me that), nor to accept my generous offers to share the volumes of information with them that I had gathered for almost 40 years. I went to school with Ernie, grew up in his town and graduated from Syracuse University. Please respond if you have any comments. Thank you.

Reply

Note to Cathy. Yes, I interviewed your uncle about Ernie. He had lots of stories and was an important part of the big story. Unfortunately this group did not do a very thorough job of research. You will find your uncle in my book. That will be released during the summer. Thanks, Coralee Burch, biographer of Ernie Davis.

Reply

Dear Doris. I know a great deal about your cousin, Helen Gott. I tried for years to interview her when she was in Kansas City. She was unwilling at the time (being married to someone else, I believe), but later did the wonderful interview with Sports Illustrated. She, too, is important in the biography of Ernie as was his previous high school girl friend Betty Snowden. She also had some difficulty talking about Ernie in later years, but did do a good interview with me. I also spoke to her parents who were very involved with Ernie. I would still love to talk with Helen, in order to put more of her sense of Ernie and experience in my book. Hopefully you will contact me through this site. Any emails are welcome to me at kcoralee@gmail.com

Reply

I'm doing research on a novel, part of which is set at Syracuse University 1959 - 1061. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who was a student there during those years. Thanks.

Cherie Bennett (website: cheriebennett.com)

Reply