Ernie Davis

With today being  Super Bowl Sunday I considered writing my free blog relating something to that. But seeing as I do not follow sports, especially not football (which I know is a crime seeing that I go to OU), I really do not know a lot about them or their history. But then in my random train of thoughts I remembered Ernie Davis, who was the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy. He was the 27th winner of the award in 1961, during the Civil Rights Movement, following his senior year at Syracuse University.  The only reason Ernie's story came to my mind was due to the fact that I saw the movie The Express, which just came out this past year, telling his story.  I enjoyed the movie a lot and thought that his story was one of the many that contribute to the Civil Rights Movement and the goals in which they were working towards.  By him being the first African American to receive this award was a big step for America. Even President JFK had followed Davis' career and requested to meet him while he was in NYC to receive his award.  Davis' # 44 which he carried during his career was even retired in 2005 during an on-field ceremony.  Still in games such as football, which might seem less interesting to some, the progress that African American's made in it are contributing factors to the American History and it's struggle with the Civil Rights Movements, as well as others.