Floyd Little went through 12 tissues during the world premiere of ‘The Express’ Friday at the Landmark Theatre. He said his wife couldn’t understand why he was so emotional, why this former Syracuse University star running back was crying during a movie about football.

It’s because Little was a part of the story he was watching on film. He wore the same jersey number, trained on the same fields and was friends with the historic Ernie Davis.

‘The Express’ recounts the life of Davis, the first black player to win the Heisman Trophy after leading SU for three successful seasons as running back in the late 1950s.

Those who knew Davis, who died in 1963 at 23 years old from leukemia, were the real stars to walk the orange carpet at Friday night’s premiere.

Though the movie started at 7:30 p.m., events began earlier in the day, with an afternoon press conference on the Quad with actors Rob Brown, who plays Davis, and Dennis Quaid, who plays Davis’ coach Ben Schwartzwalder. They were joined by former SU star running back Jim Brown, who first wore Davis’ number 44 on the football field.

‘He was an exceptional human being, a great athlete,’ Jim Brown said at the premiere. ‘The man had unbelievable talent. He had it all. God took him away, and we don’t know what he could have done.’

Jim Brown was among many historic players and coaches to walk the orange carpet, laid out underneath a tent set up to shield attendees from the rain at the Landmark Theatre. SU cheerleaders held a strip of film for Chancellor Nancy Cantor to cut, officially opening the orange carpet event.

Syracuse sports celebrities included football players Jim Brown, Little, Don McPherson, Art Monk and the entire 1959 championship team – Davis’ teammates from the last season he played football. In addition, members of Davis’ family were in attendance.

As Cantor said, ‘Hollywood came to Syracuse,’ in the form of Rob Brown, Quaid director Gary Fleder and author of Davis’ biography Robert Gallagher.

‘The big challenge is really honoring the memory of Ernie,’ Fleder said. ‘There’s so many people who knew and played with him and talked about him. The pressure of getting it right was a big deal.’

Fleder got it right, according to some friends and family of Davis.

‘This movie really takes us back to a time when it wasn’t that great,’ Little said. ‘This gives Syracuse an opportunity to show the kind of school it was, the kind of players and the kind of program we had. I’ve been through all that. I was reminded of what a good decision I made in coming to Syracuse. It was a very emotional thing for me … depicted very well.’

The premiere gave players and coaches a chance to discuss the state of the current football program. The film may serve as a boost to this year’s players.

SU Athletic Director Daryl Gross said the program was recruiting during the event, in the form of inspiring other athletes.

‘I think that the rest of the country is largely unaware of who Ernie Davis even is, let alone his story,’ said Bob Costas, an SU alumnus and current NBC sportscaster, after the film’s premiere. ‘It’s before ESPN, and before every game was nationally broadcast. There wasn’t that much media at the time, so I think for a lot of people, this is going to be an eye opener and boom to the program.’

Following the premiere, attendees headed to the War Memorial Arena at OnCenter for an after party, where a mini-football field was erected – turf, marching band and referee-clad servers included. Historic footage from Davis’ days at SU played continuously, along with footage of the campus now and clips from the film.

‘There is no better place for this premiere to be held,’ said Don McPherson, an SU quarterback in the 1980s. ‘The more I’ve learned about him, the more humbled I am to have played in the place where he came up. He would be tremendously humbled.’

The night was emotional for Davis’ successors like Little, who Davis convinced to play for SU and who later wore the same number 44, and Art Monk.

‘He was a great athlete, but even more, which I am even more impressed with, is that he was a great human being,’ Monk said. ‘He meant a lot to his hometown and treated people with dignity. It wasn’t a football story. It was a life story, and it’s a little piece of Ernie Davis.’

akalliso@syr.edu

Published on September 14, 2008 at 12:00 pm