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The Daily OrangeElmira Express
Ernie Davis' hometown helps keep legacy alive
By Michael Bonner
Posted: 9/9/08, 11:17 PM EST Section: Sports
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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."
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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."
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