The Epress

My essay is on the biography of Ernie “the Express” Davis by Robert C. Gallagher is about an inspirational story turned into a movie of a little African American kid from New Salem, Pennsylvania in the segregated times, who won the most prestigious award in college football, the Heisman Trophy Award. From the words of his friend and teammate john brown ,“Ernie Davis changed the country one yard at a time.” john also said that ,“Ernie was not only was a good running back but a good man too.” Shortly after Ernie got drafted to the Cleveland Browns Ernie was diagnosed with a type of cancer Leukemia. He died at the age of 23. Ernie Davis grew up with his grandparents in New Salem, Pa, he also started calling them mom and dad. Ernie grew up with his grandparents because his mom couldn’t afford to take care of him. Ernie was raised by discipline, to respect his elders and believe in God. When Ernie was about ten his mom came back and took him back to Elmira, New York to live with her and her new husband. Ernie was sad ,but the good thing was that it was only two hours away, so he can visit his grandparents. When Ernie settled he realized that everyone in his neighborhood loved sports. So one day Ernie asked his mom to play football and she said yes. When practice started ernie and another kid were the only African Americans there so when the coach was handing out the jerseys him and the other black kid didn’t get one. Ernie was sad but he still played, and he was good. He was fast, quick ,and agile, so the coach gave him a chance. When he got to high school he gave up football and tried basketball because he was tall at 6’3 220 pounds . He was also good at basketball he was the highest scorer on his team. He also won 2 championships two years in a row. At his junior year he went back to football because the coach asked him if he wanted to . So ernie said yes but since he was big he didn’t get the position he wanted which was running back and he got put at