By LEEANNE SLATTEN
Staff Writer
Ernie Davis, an American football player, was a halfback at Syracuse University. Although he never got the chance to play in the NFL as a halfback, he is still deeply praised for being the first African American to ever win the Heisman Trophy. He led his team to victory with two touchdowns at the Cotton Bowl in 1961 against Texas. Ernie Davis was drafted by the Redskins in 1962 but was immediately traded to the Cleveland Browns as number 45. He would have played if it weren’t for his diagnosis of leukemia right after being traded. He was diagnosed in 1962 and not even a year later, he died in Cleveland’s Medical Center. There was a movie made to tell Ernie Davis’s life story called The Express. This movie shows what it was like being the first black man to have won the Heisman Trophy. It shows all the hardships that he had to go through.