Anthony Davis (born September 8, 1952), also known as A.D.,Lance Pugmire
For former USC star Anthony Davis, college football fame never translated into fortune
''Los Angeles Times'', November 22, 2010, Accessed November 23, 2010. is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Ther ...

. He played in four professional leagues: the World Football League (WFL),

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

(CFL),

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL), and

United States Football League The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

(USFL). Davis played college football and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

at the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

(USC), where he was part of five national championships, two in football and three in

College career

Davis was a consensus All-American in 1974, and led the

USC Trojans The USC Trojans are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC), located in Los Angeles, California. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ''Trojans'', the women's athletic teams are referred ...

in rushing, scoring and kick return yardage for three consecutive seasons. He is especially remembered for scoring 11

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Amer ...

s in three games against Notre Dame. In a 45–23 USC win on December 2,

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

, he scored six touchdowns which set a school single game record. Two of those scores came on

kickoff return A kickoff is a method of starting a drive in gridiron football. Typically, a kickoff consists of one team – the "kicking team" – kicking the ball to the opposing team – the "receiving team". The receiving team is then entitled to ''return' ...

s. He returned the opening

kickoff Kickoff or kick-off may refer to * Kick-off (association football) * Kickoff (gridiron football) * ''Kick Off'' (series), a series of computer association football games * ''Kick Off'' (album), a 1985 album by Onyanko Club * ''Kick Off'' (mag ...

97 yards for a

after Notre Dame won the

coin toss A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to ...

and chose to kick. After Notre Dame scored on a short pass and narrowed the Trojans' lead, he returned the following

96 yards for a

. In this game, Davis had three kickoff returns for a total of 218 yards, an average of 72.7 yards per return. This set an

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

record for the highest average gain per return in a single game. In his career as a Trojan he returned 37 kickoffs for 1,299 yards, an

record 35.1 yard average. His six career kickoff returns for touchdowns set an NCAA record which stood until 2009, when it was broken by C. J. Spiller of Clemson. Davis' kickoff return average of 42.5 yards in 1974, is the highest kickoff return average for any single season leader ever. He was also the first

Pacific-8 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division ...

player to rush for more than 1,000 yards in three consecutive seasons – 1,191 in 1972; 1,112 in 1973 and 1,469 in 1974. For his career at USC, he carried the ball 784 times for 3,772 yards and 44 touchdowns. Davis was also a repeat (

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: ...

, 1974) first-team All-Pac-8 Conference selection. He was also the third multiple recipient of the W.J. Voit Memorial Trophy, awarded each year to the outstanding football player on the Pacific Coast. Davis won the Voit trophy in 1972 and 1974. On November 30, 1974, he started an amazing rally which brought the Trojans back from a 24–0 second quarter deficit against #4 ranked Notre Dame to a 55–24 win. Just before halftime, he scored on a seven-yard lateral pass from quarterback

Pat Haden Patrick Capper Haden (born January 23, 1953) is the former athletic director at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles from August 2010 to June 2016. He played quarterback for the USC Trojans before playing professionally in ...

. Davis found paydirt a second time on a 102-yard

to open the second half. With only 3:25 elapsed in the third quarter, Davis scored a third touchdown on a six-yard run. Then with still 8:37 left in the same quarter, Davis added his fourth and final

of the game on a four-yard dash, dropped to his knees, went into his " endzone dance", then added a

two-point conversion In gridiron football, a two-point conversion or two-point convert is a play a team attempts instead of kicking a one-point conversion immediately after it scores a touchdown. In a two-point conversion attempt, the team that just scored must run ...

and the Trojans had the lead 27-24. Incredibly, Davis had scored 26 of the Trojans' first 27 points. In 1974, Heisman Trophy ballots were due prior to the end of the season and before that year's USC-Notre Dame game. He finished second in the

voting Voting is a method by which a group, such as a meeting or an electorate, can engage for the purpose of making a collective decision or expressing an opinion usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Democracies elect holde ...

to Archie Griffin of

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

. Afterward, Heisman voting took place after all the regular season games had been played. From 1972–1974, with Davis as the tailback the Trojans compiled a record, three conference titles, two Rose Bowl victories in three appearances and two national championships. He accumulated 24 school, conference, and NCAA records, including over 5,400

all-purpose yards All-purpose yards or all-purpose yardage is a gridiron football statistical measure. It is virtually the same as the statistic that some football leagues refer to as combined net yards. In the game of football, progress is measured by advancing t ...

and 52 touchdowns. Davis' talents were not just limited to football, he was also successful in

as an

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to c ...

and switch-hitter on USC's

, and 1974

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is an annual baseball tournament held in June in Omaha, Nebraska. The MCWS is the culmination of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divisi ...

champion baseball teams. Playing with wood bats at the time, Davis hit .273 with six

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s, 45

RBIs A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...

and 13 stolen bases for the Trojans' 1974 team. During his Trojan career, Davis won five national championships – two in football, three in baseball. As a two-sport standout, Davis holds the distinction of being the only player in school history to start for a national champion football team (1972) and a national champion baseball team (1974). He did not finish his degree at USC. The Notre Dame vs. USC game on November 27, 2004 was titled "Anthony Davis Day", in recognition of the 30th anniversary of the record-breaking game. While at USC, Davis was on the cover of ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

'' magazine three times, including one foldout. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in late 2005 in New York City, and enshrined on August 12, 2006, in

South Bend, Indiana South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total of 103,453 residents and is the fourt ...

Professional career

The Minnesota Twins selected him in the fourth round of the 1975 January amateur entry draft (83rd overall pick) for

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB); however he rejected them, thinking they would be unable to meet his salary demands.

World Football League

Davis was selected by the New York Jets in the second round of the

1975 NFL Draft The 1975 National Football League draft was held January 28–29, 1975, at the New York Hilton at Rockefeller Center in New York City, New York. With the first overall pick of the draft, the Atlanta Falcons selected quarterback Steve Bartkows ...

, 37th overall. At the time, the Jets had veteran quarterback Joe Namath and offered a major stage, but the team's management were not willing to give in to his contract demands. In

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

, Davis opted to play for the Southern California Sun of the upstart World Football League (WFL); he signed a five-year, $1.7-million deal that reportedly included a $200,000 cash bonus and a

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

. He led the WFL in rushing with 1,200 yards on 239 carries and 16 touchdowns at the time of its demise. He also caught 40 passes for 381 yards and one touchdown, while on kickoff returns he ran back 9 for 235 yards and one touchdown. In all, he scored 18 TDs in the WFL for 133 points. His 16 touchdowns for rushing over 12 games is a WFL record. He also threw the ball and completed four of eleven attempts for 102 yards and a touchdown. The league folded during the season in October, and Davis moved on.

Canadian Football League

Davis headed to the

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 ...

, and became the league's first "million dollar man." His time with the

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...

was not happy; his star ego clashed with CFL legend and Argos' head coach

Russ Jackson Russell Stanley Jackson (born July 28, 1936) is a former professional Canadian football player. Jackson spent his entire 12-year professional football career with the Ottawa Rough Riders of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He is a member of t ...

's idea of a team player. He rushed 104 times for 417 yards, caught 37 passes for 408 yards, and scored four touchdowns. During the final regular season game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (in

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Hamilton has a Canada 2016 Census, population of 569,353, and its Census Metropolitan Area, census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington, ...

), Argonauts

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Matthew Reed, desperate to find an open receiver, threw an

incomplete pass An incomplete pass is a term in gridiron football which means that a legal forward pass is not successfully caught by an eligible offensive player within the field of play. An incomplete pass can occur if (1) the ball hits the ground in the field ...

to Davis. When Reed returned to the bench, assistant coach

Joe Moss Joseph Charles Moss (April 19, 1930 – January 31, 2023) was an American gridiron football player and coach. He played college football at the University of Maryland and professional football in the National Football League (NFL) with the Washi ...

told him never to throw the ball to Davis again; he had one carry and called himself the most expensive passing decoy in football.

National Football League

The

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The cl ...

had acquired the NFL rights to Davis in the

1976 NFL expansion draft The 1976 National Football League (NFL) expansion draft was held March 30–31, 1976. The expansion teams, the Seattle Seahawks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Flo ...

, with his old USC head coach John McKay hoping to turn some new magic, but Davis' NFL career was a disappointment. Tampa Bay had lost all fourteen games in

, and injuries to the Bucs' top two quarterbacks in the

preseason In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...

put extra pressure on the offense. In eleven games for the Bucs in

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...

, he rushed 95 times for 297 yards (3.1 yard average), caught eight passes, and scored a touchdown. In , Davis played two games for the

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 a ...

and two games for the Los Angeles Rams, where he rushed three times for seven yards.

United States Football League

In the spring of

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

at age thirty, over four years after he last played with the Rams, Davis had a short stint with the Los Angeles Express of the new

USFL The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

, rushing twelve times for 32 yards.

After football

Following his football career, Davis found initial success as a

real estate developer Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re- lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to othe ...

in the 1980s and early 1990s, while also occasionally acting in minor film and television roles. In 1990, Davis fulfilled a long-time dream and started playing professional baseball in the short-lived

Senior Professional Baseball Association The Senior Professional Baseball Association, referred to commonly as the ''Senior League'', was a winter baseball league based in Florida for players age 35 and over, with a minimum age of 32 for catchers. The league began play in 1989 and had ei ...

, playing as an

for the San Bernardino Pride club. The Pride had a record of 13-12 and were in third place when the league canceled the season on December 26, less than the halfway point in a planned 56-game schedule. In 2020, he was featured in the documentary "Quiet Explosions: Healing the Brain" produced and directed by Jerri Sher. The film discusses CTE, a degenerative brain disease from repetitive brain trauma that Davis suffers from.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Anthony 1952 births Living people African-American players of American football African-American players of Canadian football All-American college football players American football running backs Baseball outfielders Baseball players from Texas Canadian football running backs College Football Hall of Fame inductees Houston Oilers players Los Angeles Express players Los Angeles Rams players People from Huntsville, Texas Players of American football from Texas San Bernardino Pride players Sportspeople from Irvine, California Southern California Sun players Tampa Bay Buccaneers players Toronto Argonauts players USC Trojans baseball players USC Trojans football players 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople