Mississippi State Pixel Art Pixel Art Green Bay Packers
This was before Julius Harper Davis became Mr. Mississippi State and a standout on some of the greatest Bulldog football game teams in history. This was before Davis played for the Chicago Bears and Dark-green Bay Packers, and before the legendary George Halas named a play after him.
This was long before Davis coached as an assistant at Mississippi Land and then for 25 years with great success as caput coach at Millsaps College. This was before all that. This was when Harper Davis was simply xviii years immature, a recent graduate of Clarksdale High, and found himself beyond the continent in the mammoth Los Angeles Coliseum lined up beyond from the UCLA Bruins.
This was October of 1944 and America was still fighting Globe War Ii. Davis was in the Navy, stationed at St. Mary's Preflight where his amazing foot speed proved much more apparent on the football field than in a cockpit.
Davis, who died Saturday at 95, one time showed me the news clipping from the next day's Los Angeles Times, which ran an viii-column imprint headline beyond the top of the first page of the sports section: St. Mary'southward Preflight Jolts Bruins 21 to 12; Davis gallops over Uclans.
The story details how Julie Davis ran for 206 yards on 31 carries and dazzled heavily favored UCLA. Davis was described every bit an "xviii-yr-onetime newcomer from the Mississippi prep ranks whose arrival has transformed the Preflighters from plodders into dazzlers."
"All these years afterward, information technology remains my biggest thrill in sports," Davis told me in 1989 afterward he retired at Millsaps.
And that was saying something because Harper Davis, older brother of beau Mississippi Land dandy Fine art Davis, enjoyed a lifetime of thrills in sports.
He led Mississippi Land in scoring in iii of his 4 seasons, led them to 25 wins against 12 defeats, made All-SEC and All-Southward. Equally good every bit he was on offense, he was best in the defensive secondary.
The Pittsburgh Steelers drafted him in the second round of the NFL Typhoon, but the Los Angeles Dons, who played in the LA Coliseum, drafted him in the offset round of the All-America Football Briefing draft. The Dons offered him more money, plus Davis was familiar with the surroundings.
Davis signed with the Dons but after one season the league folded. The NFL held a dispersal draft and the Bears, coached and owned by Halas, chose Davis in the first round. Davis became a defensive star, intercepting 5 passes during the 1950 season. Halas also designed an offensive play featuring Davis equally a wide receiver, who would get the ball on a double reverse. The Bears ran it once and Davis scored from 40 yards out. Afterward, Halas revealed the play's proper name: The Harper Davis Special.
What wasn't special about the Bears was the payroll. As a coach, Halas was innovative. As an possessor, he was miserly. Davis said players ofttimes had to mend their own uniforms. He was making $viii,000 a season.
Young fans of today's NFL can scarcely imagine what the league was like in the early 1950s. When Harper and Camille Davis welcomed a immature son into the globe in 1953, he sought some financial stability. Davis quit pro football to become the head coach at W Point High School. "I had to work toward a future and there was no futurity in pro football," Davis told me.
After ii years as a loftier school motorcoach, Davis spent eight as an banana at State. In 1964, he landed at Millsaps for a 25-year run, during which the Majors won 136 games, lost 84 and tied four. His 1980 squad finished 9-0. He was former school, Harper Davis was. Offensively, his teams most often ran between the tackles. Defensively, they got after you. They practiced long and difficult. Nobody, including Davis, drank water during practice.
Generally, they won.
When he retired, I asked him, are you going to miss it? "I probably will," he said, and he did.
Information technology wasn't long before he was volunteering to help Jackson Academy'due south inferior loftier teams acquire to play the sport.
"He was dandy with the kids, one of the neatest, kindest people I've always known," said Joey Hawkins, long-time JA charabanc.
Hawkins reminded me of another Harper Davis exploit from years and years ago. World State of war Two had ended. Mississippi State and Ole Miss both wanted him to play for them and awaited his render. But Mississippi Country didn't wait. Omnibus Allyn McKeen took action, dispatching an banana coach to pick up Davis at Corpus Christi Naval Air Station. That was on a Midweek. They drove back to Mississippi on Thursday with Davis studying the playbook. On Friday, State traveled to Birmingham to play Auburn. On Sabbatum, Davis, who barely knew his teammates, entered the scoreless game in the second quarter. His first carry was a 61-k touchdown. Eventually, he would so rush for 166 yards on 22 carries and score two of State's three touchdowns in a xx-0 victory.
You couldn't brand up a story like that. And thankfully, where Harper Davis is concerned, we don't have to.
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