New movie 'The Express' sparks fond memories of football star Ernie Davis

McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) - The new film "The Express" _ about legendary Syracuse running back Ernie Davis _ holds special importance for Helen T. Gray, The Kansas City Star's religion editor.

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She and Davis _ the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy _ were dating and had talked about marriage when Davis became ill during his first season with the Cleveland Browns. He was diagnosed with leukemia and died in May 1963 after a year of treatment. He never got to play in an NFL game.

Gray, who was Helen Gott back when she attended Syracuse University, was not involved in the making of the film (filmmakers changed her character's name to "Sarah"), but she saw an advance screening of "The Express" the week before last (it opens Oct. 10). The Star's movies editor, Robert W. Butler, spoke with Gray about her time at Syracuse with Davis.

Robert W. Butler: This is funny. ... I've worked with you for more than 30 years and until we saw this movie together I didn't even realize your history with Ernie Davis. Why is that?

Helen Gray: Well, I'm a private person. I don't go around talking about myself. Very few of my friends here in Kansas City even know about that part of my life. Anyway, I came to Kansas City and started a new life, marrying and having a child. You don't go around talking about your past boyfriends.

Q. Sitting in the theater waiting for this movie to begin _ what were you thinking?

A. I was nervous because I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know how I would react to seeing it all over again. Even though it's been 45 years, it was an important part of my life and I didn't know how emotional I would get.

I'm getting emotional now just talking about it.

And I wondered how I'd react if the movie ended with a death scene. I was not with Ernie when he died. I didn't want to see him dying.

Q. And how did you feel coming out of the movie?

A. I thought it was a good movie, incredibly uplifting.

It has a good message. I didn't leave the movie depressed and bummed out and sad. I left inspired. And I'm hoping other people who see the movie feel the same way. It's inspiring even for people who don't care about sports.

There have been so many people who wanted to do scripts about Ernie over the years, and I haven't cooperated with any of them. I didn't have too much faith because they always claimed the movie would be "based on a true story."

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But this one came out of the blue. I had heard it was in the works but was caught off guard a few months later when I saw the preview while watching another movie. When I saw the actress who was playing me, I turned to my friend and said, "That's me." She was shocked. She's a huge sports fan, and I'd never told her about Ernie.

Q. What did you think of Rob Brown, the young actor who plays Ernie?

A. I think he did a really great job _ a good combination of manliness and gentlemanliness.

Q. There are a couple of scenes where Ernie loses it. He gets in a fight with a teammate and he confronts the coach in front of the team. Does that strike you as the real deal?

A. No. I felt the actor did a good job of acting it, and he was following the script. But that was Hollywood making things more dramatic.

Ernie was not confrontational. If he had a disagreement, he'd stand up for himself. But I think he would have talked things out with the coach in private. I don't think he'd have confronted the coach in front of the team in that manner.

The scene where he has a fight in the locker room with a white player who says something racial ... John Brown says that really happened, although it was in the dorm and Ernie said to the guy, "Let's take this outside."

John Brown (Davis' teammate at Syracuse and a lineman with the Browns from 1962 to 1966) says he remembers the white guy lying on the ground and Ernie walking back into the dorm. And the white guy never bothered him again.

Q. Speaking of racism, what about the film's re-creation of life at that time and some of the attitudes Ernie had to endure?

A. Well, Syracuse was the little, fairly liberal enclave. The city proper was segregated by housing. And there was a pretty good Jewish population there. ... During the Civil Rights era, Jewish people stood pretty firm with African-Americans.

To me, Syracuse wasn't an openly racist college. There were subtle things, as there are now. But as one of a very tiny minority of black students, we tended to stick together. I was never openly confronted with racial situations. My life there was pleasant. I had good experiences.

(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

Q. You ended up pledging a Jewish sorority, right?

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A. I really didn't like living in the dorm and so I decided to see what would happen. The sorority that opened up to me was a Jewish sorority. ... It was the first sorority at Syracuse to open up to an African-American. And Ernie was the first African-American to join a fraternity.

(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

Q. The movie paints a devastating picture of the racism Ernie had to put up with, especially when Syracuse played games in the South. Did he ever talk to you about that?

A. No. I was aware of some of that, but he didn't talk to me about it. John Brown has verified that it happened. But I think Ernie didn't want me to worry about him being hurt ... so he didn't discuss it with me.

Q. How did you meet Ernie?

A. I met him at the Tippin' Inn, the hangout where black students went. It's still there. I went with a girlfriend. There were lots of athletes. Football players and track stars. It was really a track athlete who began talking to me. Ernie was there with a friend.

I guess most people knew who he was. ... He already had made his name as a football player. But I wasn't too aware of this. Somebody introduced us, saying "This is Ernie Davis," expecting me to react.

All I can remember saying _ and this is in the movie _ was "Well, you know I don't know much about football."

I think he smiled at that.

(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

Q. What was it about this guy? You're not a jock-type girl. Why did you two hit it off?

A. I didn't really get to know him until the end of my sophomore year. I can't remember how we started dating ... we just kept meeting and talking. And I realized he was different from my stereotyping of jocks.

Ernie was shy. That was kind of appealing. Here's this football player who on the field was aggressive and amazing, and when you met him he was a gentleman, very kind. He had kind eyes ... and a great sense of humor.

Other players were outgoing and kidded around a lot. Ernie would end up being the butt of a lot of jokes. He took it good-naturedly, he'd smile and laugh. A very appealing person.

Q. Sounds like his life with you was free of both the pressures and the adulation he experienced on the field

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A. Oh, definitely. We seldom talked about football. We talked about other things.

Q. Your dad was a career Army officer. How did he get along with Ernie?

A. My dad loved Ernie Davis.

I was daddy's girl, and there was no guy good enough for his daughter. Through high school, I didn't have many boyfriends and the ones I had didn't last very long. My dad would meet the guys wearing his smoking jacket, which I never saw him wear except when I had a guy to the house. He'd use his Army voice and say "What are your plans for your future?" If my dad approved, we got to go out.

But even when I got to college, I'd bring a guy I was dating home ... and my dad didn't like anyone.

Then he found out I was dating Ernie Davis. My dad was a sports fanatic, and he loved Ernie. This was the only person he would have wanted me to marry.

He'd have thrown me at Ernie's feet and said, "Here. She's yours."

(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

Q. You two dated the last two years of Ernie's life. Did you talk about marriage?

A. Yes. If he'd lived, I probably would have married Ernie and had a totally different life. But my life took the path God wanted it to take.

We were talking about marriage, but then he got sick. But Ernie always believed he would have a future. Even in his letters to me from the hospital in Cleveland it was clear he would conquer this.

I'm not sure when they told him he had leukemia. He told me it was a blood disorder similar to mononucleosis. It went into remission for quite a while, and I really think he felt he'd be able to play with the team (the Cleveland Browns) and we'd go on with our lives.

He never gave me the indication that, you know, "This is it." John Brown thought Ernie would make it. Everybody did.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

Q. Tell us about your last date.

A. Ernie and John Brown came down to Syracuse in April (1963). I was in my senior year.

Ernie and I went to this Italian restaurant not far from campus. The movie shows the candlelight dinner.

It was good seeing him. He looked fine. And in his letters he says, "I don't feel sick." And he didn't look sick. He was handsome and fit and upbeat.

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He was always telling me not to believe all the things I'd read in the paper. He said there were lots of rumors, that "people have me dead already."

And I wanted to believe him. He always told me the truth, and if Ernie said he was going to be all right, then I believed him.

But then he ordered chicken livers. Of all the times we'd eaten together, he'd never ordered chicken livers. He said "The doctor said this would be good for my blood."

To me that was so sad. I didn't know how sick he was, but being a fairly intelligent person I'm thinking to myself, "If he has a blood disorder, how much good were chicken livers going to help him?"

But he was the kind of person who always followed instructions, who tried to do what he was told. He always wanted to do what was right.

But to me it was just sad. I didn't want him to see me looking sad. But in my heart that was the first time it really hit me that, wow, this could be really serious.

We got back to talking. I looked away, and when I looked back at him he'd have this melancholy expression. But when he knew I was looking at him, he'd smile. He wanted to stay upbeat in front of me.

That was the last time I saw him. He died two or three weeks later.

He was sharing a house with John Brown. John came home one afternoon and saw bloody towels in the bathroom. Ernie had nosebleeds and he'd go to the hospital and get blood transfusions. John figured Ernie had gone to the hospital and would soon be back. But he never came back. And Ernie never said goodbye to me.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

___

A letter dated Aug. 9, 1962, from Ernie Davis to Helen Gray, then Helen Gott:

Dear Helen,

How's everything with you? I hope and I pray that all is swell. As for me, I am feeling fine. I'm sitting here in my room with nothing to do, so I decided to write you and find out what's happening. (smile) As you know, I am here at Marymount Hospital recovering from my illness. I hope all that publicity that I received didn't scare you. The way they put it, it seems that I was about to die. (smile) I have yet to feel real sick, "Thank God," but I have a blood dis-order. That is, my red & white blood cells are not being manufactured 100%. This dis-order is something like mononucleosis. While I won't be able to start this season off with the Browns, I am hoping and praying that I can re-join them before this season is over. I am anxious to get started. (smile) I really don't have to be here at this hospital, but I am here so that the Doctors can keep a careful eye on me, so that I can have a speedy recovery. I am taking all kinds of little pills. Here at the hospital, I am an out-patient wit the liberty of going and coming as I please, so long as I take my medicine and be back at bed time. I have my car here and I usually go to watch the Browns practice or go to my apartment and lounge around. So, I can't complain too much, even though I am a little bored. (smile) Now concerning you. What have you been doing? I take it that you are just taking life easy, writing poetry, catching up on your reading during the day and partying during the nite, as well as seeing the sites of New York. You have it made. (smile)

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I guess I have rambled on long enough now, so I'll close for now wishing you the best. Write soon,

Love,

Ernie

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Robert W. Butler: bbutler@kcstar.com

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© 2008, The Kansas City Star.