Jul 22, 2009 5 min read

EDITOR’S NOTE: Justin Zackal, sports information director at Westminster College, posted the following story about Chuck Davis on the college’s website. Davis graduated from South Union Township High School and was inducted into the Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame Saturday. Zackal is a Fayette County native and former correspondent of the Herald-Standard. This story is reprinted with permission of Westminster College.Titan basketball great Chuck Davis came back to Western Pennsylvania on Saturday. The 1960 Westminster graduate from Uniontown, Pa., was inducted into the inaugural class of the Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame, along with names such as 1947 Notre Dame Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Lujack and 1936 Olympic gold medalist John Woodruff. The Recruit When Davis was recruited out of South Union High School in Uniontown he made visits to Cincinnati and Indiana and roomed with fellow recruit and future NBA star Oscar Robertson during those trips. After their trip to Indiana, Robertson phoned Davis and said he was going to Cincinnati. Robertson became so successful that the NCAA Division I Player of the Year now receives a trophy with his namesake.

Davis grimaced at the thought of going to Cincinnati and he opted to stay closer to home. He received interest from nearby West Virginia, but racial segregation was still rampant in the South and Davis was advised to pursue other schools.

He never heard about Westminster until he met Park Glass, his high school teacher and the South Union football coach who got to know about this basketball player who held the first-down sticks at the football games. Glass was a Westminster graduate and he took Davis up to New Wilmington one weekend. Davis was hooked.

“I went up there and fell in love with the campus,” Davis said. “It was a beautiful campus.”

The pastoral countryside of New Wilmington personified Davis.

“I was so green,” he said. “I didn’t know anything about college and after I was there I didn’t want to leave.”

Davis worked out for head coach Grover Washabaugh – the recruiting rules were different then – and Washabaugh offered him a full scholarship on the spot. Davis had already received an offer from St. Francis but he accepted and became a Titan.

The Freshman

When Davis got to Westminster he played for the freshman team that often defeated the varsity squad. That team consisted of players such as Ron Minnie, Don McCaig and Johnny Walker.

“We were faster than greased lightning,” Davis said with a smile. “We knew we were going to be good.”

The Titan

Davis was an All-American in 1960. His 1,408 career points, the third most when he graduated, currently ranks 10th all-time. He led the Titans to NAIA Tournament berths in 1959 and 1960 with records of 19-8 and 24-3, respectively. The 1960 Cinderella Titans won four NAIA Tournament games including a 39-38 upset of three-time defending champion Tennessee A&I, a team that had won 18 straight tournament games.

“They were so stunned they wouldn’t leave the court,” Davis recalled of Westminster’s biggest upset in school history. “They just sat there.”

Westminster wound up losing, 66-44, to Southwest Texas State in the national championship game and Davis captured the NAIA “Charles Stevenson Hustle Award.”

The Globetrotter

Davis was often called a “ball-handling wizard.” During a game against Slippery Rock when the Titans held a 15-point lead, Davis was allowed to display his jitterbug elusiveness. Head coach Buzz Ridl held a certain distain for Slippery Rock.

“He said, ‘You go in there and just hang on to that ball,’ ” Davis said.

Somebody cued the jazz tune “Sweet Georgia Brown.” As if auditioning for the Harlem Globetrotters, Davis dribbled circles around the Slippery Rock defenders while procuring possession and running out the clock. Moments likes this is why basketball has a shot clock today.

Davis eventually got that opportunity to tour with the Harlem Globetrotters for a year after college. But after he injured his knee while playing in Brazil, Davis moved on with his life after basketball.

The Man

Davis came back to the states and worked for the New York City Children’s Administration. He started as a caseworker and was promoted to the director of the childcare agency. Davis developed a curriculum for his workers to teach parents the appropriate child-care skills and discipline to obtain their children back from foster families.

“I always thought that as a mother or a father it was innate to take care of people,” Davis said. “These people needed help. I loved talking to people and helping them.”

Davis, 71, who resides in Brooklyn, N.Y., retired after 34 years in 1995. He has three grown children and four grandchildren, ages 4 through 8. His wife, Vera, passed away last year.

“I got high on people,” Davis said. “I never thought I had a job. I didn’t want to retire; I just got tired. I have no complaints. Life’s been good to me.”

The Inductee

Davis wore a sharp white suit with a matching fedora to the Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame ceremony. The event was sold out for weeks with a crowd of over 600 filling the Lakeside Party Center in Uniontown.

A member of the Titan Sports Hall of Fame, Davis had been to these types of events before as an inductee to hall of fame ceremonies from Kansas City to Lawrence County. He probably wasn’t awestruck by Lujack’s Heisman Trophy either. Davis’ nephew, Ernie Davis, won that trophy 1961 and had a movie filmed in his honor, The Express, in 2008.

But there was something special about his induction on Saturday, something that he punctuated in his heartfelt acceptance speech:

“I never thought I’d have the opportunity to stand up in front of my family, friends and neighbors and say ‘I love you.’ “