The Express

The biography I chose was The Express: The Ernie Davis Story. Its about an inspirational and heroic African American Football player. Robert C. Gallagher wrote this book. Ernie Davis passed away when he was only 23 years old from leukemia. (Gallagher, 151). Even though his life was short he treated others with dignity grace and compassion. The life he led made him a hero. He was considered by professionals in his field to be one of the best running backs ever. He was most famous for being the first African American to win the Heisman trophy (Gallagher, 1).

Davis was born, in New Salem, Pennsylvania on December 14, 1939 (Gallagher, 15). His parents were separated, and his father was killed in an auto accident before Davis was born. When Ernie was born his father was deceased and his mother struggled to raise Ernie. She found out that she could not take care of him on her own. When Ernie was about a year old his mother sent him to her parents home to live (Gallagher, 19).

His grandparents, Willie and Elizabeth Davis had twelve children. Willie worked hard as a coal miner and Elizabeth was a homemaker who cared for the children. They raised all of the children including Ernie equally and with the same amount of love. Ernie called his grandparents mom and dad because he was treated just like their other children. He learned to be generous and appreciative by living in a big family. His grandparents also taught Ernie to have a strong trusting, relationship with God (Gallagher, 20).

Ernie grew up playing with his older uncles. They spent a large amount of time together and he learned many great lessons about sports from them. When Ernie prepared to enter high school, his mother asked him to return to her. Ernie had a hard time ...

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... and showed that he had less than a year to live (Gallagher, 124).

Ernie went through chemotherapy and spent two months in and out of hospitals On October 4, 1962 his doctor finally explained the extent of his illness to him. He also told Davis he could continue to play football if his disease went into remission. Amazingly his leukemia went into remission. His coach made the difficult decision to keep him on the sidelines (Gallagher, 151).

Ernie never complained about his sickness. He remained hopeful that he could beat the disease and refused any pity offered by others. He was always gracious and he never complained to the people who helped him. In the end after all his struggles, on May 18, 1963, Ernie Davis passed away (Gallagher, 124). 160 “Ernie was one of the finest football players, but more important the finest gentleman I’ve ever known”(Gallagher,167).