Walter Francis "Buddy" Davis (January 5, 1931 – November 17, 2020) was an American athlete. After winning a gold medal in the high jump at the 1952 Olympics he became a professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player.Buddy Davis
sports-reference.com Despite contracting

polio Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe s ...

at age nine and being unable to walk for three years, Davis had a standout athletic career at

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

and later won Olympic gold in the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

, Finland, with a leap of . The

Philadelphia Warriors The history of the Golden State Warriors began in Philadelphia in 1946. In 1962, the franchise was relocated to San Francisco, California and became known as the San Francisco Warriors until 1971, when its name was changed to the current Golden St ...

selected the Davis in the second round of the

1952 NBA draft The 1952 NBA draft was the sixth annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on April 26, 1952, before the 1952–53 season. In this draft, ten remaining NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basket ...

. He spent five seasons with the Warriors and St. Louis Hawks, averaging 4.8 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. Davis was Inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1964 and to the Texas Track and Field Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2016. Davis died on November 17, 2020, in

Port Arthur, Texas Port Arthur is a city in Jefferson County within the Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area of the U.S. state of Texas. A small, uninhabited portion extends into Orange County; it is east of Houston. The largest oil refinery in the United Sta ...

at age 89.

References

1931 births 2020 deaths American male high jumpers American men's basketball players Athletes (track and field) at the 1952 Summer Olympics Basketball players from Texas Centers (basketball) Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field Philadelphia Warriors draft picks Philadelphia Warriors players Power forwards (basketball) Sportspeople from Beaumont, Texas St. Louis Hawks players Texas A&M Aggies men's basketball players Texas A&M Aggies men's track and field athletes Track and field athletes from Texas World record setters in athletics (track and field) {{1930s-US-basketball-bio-stub