Memory Lane
Chuck Davis still one of Fayette County’s best When basketball fans debate who was the best player to come out of Fayette County the usual list includes Don Yates, Stu Lantz, Ron Sepic and Wil Robinson. Another name that is often thrown in the mix is that of former South Union star Chuck Davis.
He was a scoring wiz who led the Blue Devils to section titles before he graduated in 1955.
Davis has fond memories of the little bandbox gym that South Union used to play in.
“It was very small,” he recalled. “The one side had an overhanging balcony and if you weren’t careful you could hit the overhang when you shot the basketball.”
The court didn’t hamper Davis’ scoring. When South Union merged with North Union to form Laurel Highlands High School, Davis was still the all-time leading scorer at South Union. The top five Blue Devil scorers were Davis, Rip Haley, Rich Novak, Ron Fudala and Fran Bonier.
Davis played for the late Marty Fagler and was a part of some very competitive teams.
“We won the section in my freshman year, my junior year and my senior year. We won the section all of those years,” Davis said.
The highlight of any season was the match-up with rival North Union.
“We played them three times a year,” Davis offered. “Played twice during the regular season and once every year in a tournament down at St. John’s. We only lost to them one time in a tournament game at St. John’s.”
Davis has one lament from his high school days – he never got to play against Uniontown.
“We never played Uniontown,” Davis stated. “I never learned why we didn’t play them. Marty (Fagler) after all those years said they didn’t like him and they played everyone else except South Union.”
Davis came from a very athletic family. His older brother Willie was a fine basketball player.
“He taught me a lot,” Davis explained. “When he graduated I was still in grade school. He was a little bigger than I was – he was about 5-10. I was about 5-8 or 5-9. My biggest asset was my quickness.”
His nephew was Ernie Davis, the late Heisman Trophy winner from Syracuse.
“We grew up together,” Davis said. “He left when he started junior high and moved to Elmira, NY. He used to come back to Uniontown every summer.”
When Davis graduated from South Union in 1955, he had some interesting college scholarship offers.
“I went out to Indiana and I was out there the same time that Oscar Robertson visited,” Davis recalled. “They didn’t cut me, and they wanted me to come, but it was too big for me. I didn’t like the huge atmosphere. They had more students on their campus than we had population in Uniontown.
“St. Francis of Pennsylvania wanted me to share a scholarship with someone else and I didn’t like that. Pitt wasn’t recruiting black athletes at that time. Duquesne was tight on scholarships, and I was looking for a full scholarship.”
That’s when Westminster stepped into the picture.
“One of my high school teachers graduated from Westminster,” Davis explained. “He took me up there for a visit. I went up there and fell in love with the campus – it was a beautiful campus.”
Davis fashioned a great career with the Titans.
“I started out with Grover Washabaugh as my coach and then Buzz Ridl took over,” said Davis.
Davis played at Westminster from 1956-60. He was a NAIA All-American in 1960. He tallied 1,408 career points, which was the third most in school history when he graduated and currently ranks eighth.
He is a member of the Titan Sports Hall of Fame. He led the Titans to two NAIA National Tournaments in 1959 (19-8) and 1960 (24-3). When he graduated, he held the school record for points in a game with 40.
“I used to kid Buzz all the time,” Davis stated. “He never recruited any of us. We all just came there and he took us over. When we came into the gym for our first practice, people came out to see all of us. They had heard about us and they came out to see our freshman team. Our varsity team had won 22 games that year and we were beating them real easy.”
The highlights of course were the trips to Kansas City for the NAIA Tournament.
“When we went to Kansas City we were playing at eight in the morning and every time you won you move closer to the evening session.” Davis said.
“They only had 40 teams and we were ranked 39th. We went all the way from 39 to number two in 1960.”
The Titans lost to Southwest Texas in the finals in 1960, 66-44. Along the way they posted one of the biggest upsets in school history defeating Tennessee State, the 3-time defending champion, 39-38. Davis captured the NAIA “Charles Stevenson Hustle Award.”
“Tennessee State was 30-0, and we beat Grambling, who had Willis Reed at the time,” Davis said.
“We watched Tennessee State play in Ohio when they played Baldwin-Wallace. They liked to run and jump. I told the coach the only way you are going to beat them is to not let them shoot. If they don’t shoot they will get frustrated and we can beat them. Our plan was to go out there and pass the ball 10 times – everybody touched the ball twice before we decided to shoot. They got terribly frustrated and they were trying to run, but they couldn’t. When we beat them – they wouldn’t leave the court for a long time – they just couldn’t believe it.”
When Davis graduated from Westminster he continued to play basketball.
“I had a short stint with the Harlem Globetrotters,” Davis explained. “Then I just played around New York for awhile. I also played with the Phillips 66’ers for a while. That’s where I got picked up from the Globetrotters and I hurt my knee when we were playing in Brazil and I wanted to go home. I left and came back to New York – that’s when I left the Trotters.”
Davis got into public service after basketball.
“I started working in a childcare agency and I went from caseworker to director of the office – the New York City Children’s Administration,” Davis stated. “I was there 34 years and I retired in 1995.”
Davis, 68, still visits Uniontown when he can. He has a sister in Uniontown and visits when he is feeling up to it – he has been ill and is on a dialysis machine.
“Before I got sick I was always there,” Davis said.
“My job took me around the country teaching childcare. It’s been a very good life. Uniontown is still special. My best friend there was Mel Freeman, and we played all over Uniontown. Uniontown was great because we played everyday 24-7. We had tough games at East End playground. Everybody was coming from all over to play against us.”
George Von Benko hosts a weekly sports talk show,”Sports Line,” from 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays on WMBS-AM radio. His “Memory Lane” articles appear in Saturday editions of the Herald-Standard.