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View Full Version : Great article on Floyd Little



Denver Native (Carol)
10-09-2008, 12:12 PM
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/oct/08/floyd-little-was-the-schools-first-to-rush-for-a/

Broncos great Floyd Little sits on a couch in his suite at the Ritz-Carlton hotel, across from Manhattan's famed Central Park. His voice is brimming with enthusiasm on this mid-September afternoon as he talks of meeting former Syracuse University football star Ernie Davis in the winter of 1961.

Soon, silence would paint the room. Tears dripped from Little's eyes. Sadness squeezed his words. Barely audible, he apologizes to a visitor while recalling that day in spring 1963, when a friend gave him news of Davis' death from leukemia at age 23.

"I remember it as if it were yesterday," Little said. "It really changed my life. I still get emotional about it.

"The thing that came to mind is, I promised him I'd go to Syracuse. I could not break my promise - whether I was 100 percent sure, 50 percent sure, 75 percent. . . . I told Ernie I would go. I called the coach (Ben Schwartzwalder) that day and said, 'I'm coming to Syracuse.' That's the only thing I said. I hung up the phone."

The movie The Express: The Ernie Davis Story opens Friday in theaters around the country. Davis endured and overcame the prejudices of racism on and off the field to be recognized as one of the great college football players of all time.

The cloud of racism that enveloped Davis at the 1960 Cotton Bowl game played between Syracuse and Texas is detailed prominently in The Express.

The legend of three gifted running backs who wore the Syracuse football jersey No. 44 is a bonus subplot.

Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Brown established numerous records when he played at Syracuse. Davis helped lead Syracuse to a national championship as a sophomore and broke records established by Brown. Little followed Davis and shattered records set by Brown and Davis.

Each man is portrayed in the film.

"It's quite the movie, an emotional roller coaster - especially for me," Little said. "It has a lot of symbolism . . . a movie about the significance of one man's life."

Brown added, "I think what's good in the movie is that they let you know that Floyd Little is coming and that he's coming to break some records and take his place in 'The Trilogy.' "

Syracuse retired jersey No. 44 in November 2005. No Broncos player has worn No. 44 since Little's retirement after the 1975 season. He played his final game at Mile High Stadium for the Broncos on Dec. 14, 1975, which would have been Davis' 36th birthday.

The Trilogy

Little knew of the feats performed at Syracuse by Brown and Davis, and he readily accepted the baton. But he didn't realize how heavy the baton weighed until Sept. 26, 1964, his first varsity game against a Kansas team that featured a phenom named Gale Sayers.

"I scored five touchdowns," Little said. "Now they're talking about the legacy, they're talking about the 44s . . . it became apparent to me that I had to stand up and represent. Now I'm a 44."

Syracuse went 22-10 during Little's three seasons (1964 to 1966) - all of which resulted in him being named to All-America teams. In Little's junior year, he became the school's first 1,000-yard rusher. He finished his career with 4,947 total yards (2,704 rushing) and placed fifth in the 1966 Heisman balloting.

As a sophomore in 1959, Davis helped lead Syracuse to an undefeated season and national championship. The next year, Davis was named an All-American, and as a senior in 1961, he was All-American and winner of the Heisman. Davis gained 2,386 yards for his career, and Syracuse went 26-5 during his three seasons.

Brown was a unanimous All-America selection in his senior season (1956). He scored 13 touchdowns (six against Colgate) and finished fifth in the Heisman voting. For his career, Brown gained 2,191 total yards and scored 26 touchdowns. He also intercepted eight passes.

"Floyd was probably the best of all of us in college," Brown said. "He doesn't get his due. The man should be in the (Pro Football) Hall of Fame. Here we are talking about Jim Brown and Ernie Davis, and there's Floyd Little - a three-time All-American who's probably better than both of them."

Finding Floyd

Schwartzwalder persuaded Brown to help recruit Davis. When he heard about Little, Schwartzwalder enlisted Davis' assistance in recruiting.

Davis, though, had stiff competition on the recruiting trail. Little, who was enrolled at Bordentown Military Institute, had scholarship offers from schools all across the country - Notre Dame, Purdue, Oklahoma, Navy and Air Force among them. In particular, Army was in hot pursuit and appeared to have the inside track.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur invited Little to his suite at New York's Waldorf Astoria hotel, with a galaxy of sports stars the likes of baseball greats Roy Campanella and Elston Howard waiting to meet him.

"Imagine me, a young guy, 19 years old, in uniform meeting for the first time a war hero - Gen. MacArthur," Little said. "I was excited, thinking I would go to West Point."

But on the day Little returned from a trip to Army, an unexpected party of guests knocked at the door of his family's home in New Haven, Conn.

Four men waited outside in the cold. Three of them, including Schwartzwalder, were not recognizable to Little. Davis completed the quartet, though, and there was no mistaking his identity.

"We all knew Davis was the Heisman Trophy winner," Little said. "He had just signed with the Cleveland Browns and had signed with Pepsi-Cola for $100,000 - which was huge money in those days and huge money today. . . .

"This guy was stacked up better than dirty clothes at the door. He wore a camel-haired coat. . . . He was 6-foot-2, 215, 220 pounds, a pocketful of money. He's standing at the door with this grin, a good-looking guy with a great, great physique.

"He gave me a big handshake and said, 'This is Floyd Little. It's so nice to meet you. Now I know the man that everybody's talking about.' "

Little's mother and sisters fawned and swooned in awe over Davis' presence. The visitors led Little out the door, for dinner at a restaurant called Jocko Sullivan's near Yale University.

Little ordered first and went for steak and lobster "because where I'm from, we were used to beans and rice," he said.

While the party waited for its orders, Davis summoned Little to the men's restroom.

The pitch

Most times, people get worried when someone is in a restroom for an extended period of time. In this instance, Schwartzwalder and his crew wanted Davis to take all the time needed for his recruiting pitch to Little.

"I don't know how long we were in the men's bathroom, but it was a long time," Little said. "We've got a foot up on the urinal. . . . Just talking.

"He said, 'Floyd, I know you're going to get a lot of opportunities. Let me tell you one thing. What's significant about Syracuse is, there's not a lot of (blacks) up there. But they treat you very special. They treat you with respect. The thing I like about Syracuse is, it's not an athletic scholarship, it's an academic scholarship. If you don't make the team but maintain a C-plus average, you can stay."

Mesmerized by Davis' presentation, Little gave Davis a verbal commitment - even though he was nowhere near 100 percent certain about the decision.

"I said it because my steak and lobster was getting cold," Little said. "The good thing is, nobody came back there to check on us. . . . I don't think he talked to a whole lot of recruits. He was convinced to recruit the next '44.' When I say yes, his job is done.

"The legacy, the history of passing the torch from Jim Brown to Ernie Davis, Ernie had to find that somebody to pass it to."

Taking the baton

While Little pondered his possibilities at Syracuse, Davis had an eye cast toward professional football. He was selected No. 1 overall in the 1962 NFL draft by the Washington Redskins and No. 4 overall in the 1962 AFL draft by the Buffalo Bills.

The Redskins traded Davis' rights to Cleveland in exchange for Browns running back Bobby Mitchell, a move that would pair Davis and Brown in the same backfield.

But Davis never played a down with Brown for the Browns. He was diagnosed with leukemia in 1962 and died May 18, 1963. Little kept his promise to Davis and attended Syracuse.

"I felt that I was representing him and how he would have been had he lived," Little said. "That was my mission, to be Ernie Davis. To carry on his legacy, carry on his tradition and carry on his life."

Little remains a revered figure on the Syracuse campus. His commitment to Davis' legacy is a debt that never can be repaid.

"After 40 years, they still treat me like I'm special," Little said. "A lot of things have changed on the campus, but the family atmosphere remains the same. Ernie promised that to me. He was one of those guys that had a vision for me."

Dream backfield

Just as fans were left to wonder about the possibilities of a Brown-Davis pairing, Little has thought about the possibility of "The Trilogy" playing together in the pros.

"We would have been fighting over who carried the ball," said Little, who was the sixth player selected in 1967, the first year the AFL and NFL had a joint draft.

"I would have loved to have played with both Jim and Ernie. I just can't imagine - oh, I can imagine, if Ernie had lived and Jim had decided to play a few more years - that I could have been a draft choice of the Cleveland Browns and we all could have been in the same backfield.

"Wouldn't that have been something?"

Seeing Brown, Davis and Little together in the pros might have been something, all right. But much like Syracuse fans, Broncos fans were privileged to have watched Little in orange and blue while scampering across the football field wearing jersey No. 44.