Description
Mattydale, NY: St. Margaret’s Holy Name Society, 1962. Signed by Ernie Davis and four other Syracuse University athlete alumni. January 21, 1962: A program for the St. Margaret’s Holy Name Society Fathers and Sons Sports Banquet (as such events were then called) program, for a feast honoring Jim Brown and Special Guest Ernie Davis – both former star running backs at Syracuse University, two-time All-American Davis quite recently, having capped his final season at Syracuse in 1961 by becoming the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy. The banquet program was published by St. Margaret’s Church in Mattydale, NY, a northern-edge adjacent suburb of Syracuse, and was funded, of course, by the local business ads that dominated such things. It is octavo in size, stapled wraps, unpaginated, but 20 pp. + covers; in Very Good condition, with faint front cover soiling and four small pieces of dry, removable masking tape on the rear cover. That’s because it was in my scrapbook from back then. The dominant ads were not all that was in this program, however; There were two pages featuring Brown and Davis, a list of honored guests (that’s my penciled remarks on the honored guests page, scrawled at age 13) and, more to the point: the autographs of Ernie Davis, Jim Brown, John Mackey, Maury Youmans and Dave Giusti. Giusti and Youmans were local-boys-make-good former stars at ‘Cuse – Giusti as a pitcher for the Houston Colt 45s (later Astros), the St. Louis Cardinals, the San Diego Padres and the Pittsburgh Pirates, for whom he was named Relief Pitcher of the Year in 1971 by the Sporting News and made the All-Star team in 1973; Youmans was a defensive end for Da Bears and Da Cowboys. But it was the non-local-boy ‘Cuse stars at the banquet who were all to become hall-of-famers: Jim Brown, John Mackey, and the late Ernie Davis. I wonder how many Pop Warner-based Father-Son Sports Banquets get such a lineup at the same dinner these days ? Davis, of course, died some 14 months later, a victim of leukemia, before ever being able to play a down of pro football. The Cleveland Browns, who had acquired him from the Washington Redskins, wanted to team him with the other former Orangeman heavyweight running back at the banquet that night, Brown. There’s your running game. But it wasn’t meant to be. Ernie passed on. Hence, the great rarity of autographs by one of the most memorable Heisman winners in history. Davis was, of course, honored in recent years by a book and a movie, both entitled The Express; coming out of high school in Elmira, NY, his nickname was The Elmira Express. This all belongs to the mists of time, now.
Your provenance for these autographs are 1) Forensic Handwriting Examiner Frank Garo (his certification will accompany the program), and 2)…Me. And a written provenance letter from me, if you want. I was the skinny kid just about done with Pop Warner football, about to go on and get two broken legs, an ACL injury that later gave me a bionic knee, and about one each of every other football injury (you know the routine – but it was worth it, wasn’t it ?), who walked around and timidly got all these autographs the night of January 21, 1962. Don’t worry. I did it twice. I’m keeping the other set. l-eph
