The Express Page #4

The Orangemen can really use

a little help out there.

Let's hope their recruiting is...

better than their

running game.

Hike.

And for the Syracuse faithful,

there's a sense of disbelief,

as Holy Cross has knocked

off the mighty Orangemen.

Let's go, ladies.

Pick it up.

Let's go.

Knees up. Knees up.

Pain is how you learn.

Come on.

Gentlemen, it is not okay

to lose to an inferior team,

especially on our home turf.

Now, we gave no

effort out on that...

field tonight, so we

should feel it now.

Don't you puke

on my gym floor.

Varsity practice only, Ernie.

You don't have to be here.

I know.

I just heard you called

a midnight practice, Coach.

I'm sorry I'm late.

Well, go ahead.

Get in there.

Yes, sir.

Gentlemen, do you think you...

played good

football last year?

Think again.

You think you're here just

to wear a varsity jacket...

and impress the ladies?

Think again.

If you think you know

what pain is, think again.

This is what pain is for.

Now, does anyone

know the last year...

that Syracuse won a

national championship?

Hmm?

You're right.

We've never won one.

You are here to

change all that.

Ladies and gentlemen,

please welcome to the field...

your Syracuse

University Orangemen.

Welcome to Archbold

Stadium, Syracuse, New York,

where the Orangemen

begin the 1959 campaign.

The expectations for

Ben Schwartzwalder...

and the Orangemen

are enormous.

This is a football team

that could go unbeaten.

Hut one.

On first down, Ernie

Davis gets his first carry...

as a member of the Orangemen.

Welcome to Syracuse football.

Will... Will, he said

his name on the radio.

Sure did. I heard it.

I heard it, Pops.

Ernie Davis certainly has...

some big shoes to

fill here today.

And after an unsuccessful...

series of downs

by the Orangemen.

Kansas takes over on

its own 28-yard line.

Hut.

Let's get after it.

Come on, let's get after it.

The receiver is leveled by...

veteran linebacker

Bobby Lundy.

I'm doing your job, 44.

Huddle up.

Ball at the Syracuse

First down and goal

to go for Kansas.

Yes.

- Did he get in?

Did he cross the goal line?

Here's the official signal.

Touchdown, Kansas.

What kind of

pig slop is that?

We haven't gotten

a call all day.

Jayhawks jump

out to a 7-0 lead...

here at the very,

very quiet Archbold Stadium.

Here in the second quarter,

Kansas on top of

Syracuse, 7-0.

Six regular.

Six regular.

The Orange faithful

still waiting...

for something to cheer about.

Hut one.

Sarette back to pass.

Throwing downfield.

It's complete

to his tight end...

down near the

Kansas 30-yard line.

Way to pick up

the blitz, Ernie.

A superb block on the play,

turned in by Ernie Davis.

Second down, eight yards

to go for the Orangemen.

Hut.

Toss play once

again to Ernie Davis.

Get him out there.

Davis to the

Kansas secondary.

Go, Davis, go.

Look at that young man go.

The Elmira Express virtually

walks into the end zone.

The Syracuse Orangemen,

now on top of Kansas, 14-7.

Go for one.

And what an impression

Ernie Davis has...

made on this crowd

here at Archbold.

The Orangemen just may have...

found their next

great halfback.

Hey, Ernie.

Hey, fellas,

how you doing?

You guys coming or going?

Hey. Welcome home, Ernie.

Pops.

They give you some time off?

Yeah, yeah,

long weekend.

Look at you,

all college boy.

You're just gonna dirty

up my college jacket.

Come on, come on,

let's go inside.

You're too good to hug me?

Look at this.

Let me carry that.

Give me your bag.

If they'd run you more

last week against Navy,

you would have blown

them jokers off the field.

Will, we won.

Seems like that coach of

yours like to pass the ball.

I'll get my carries.

Yeah? He promise you that?

No. Thank you, ma'am.

But eventually...

No?

How are your grades, Ernie?

Ernie?

They're good, Pops, thanks.

I'm keeping them up.

I like history, and I'm

taking a business course.

That's good.

'Cause football

is just a game.

It's that degree that's

going to count for something.

Gonna get you a good job.

Where you gonna get a good...

job at, a Negro

with a diploma?

AT&T? GM?

It's football that's

gonna take him someplace.

Otherwise, he gonna be

working right here with us,

cutting coal,

and you know it.

I wanna apologize for him.

You ain't got to

apologize for me, Pops.

Don't you start

it tonight, Will.

Pops... Guys.

- Don't start it tonight.

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.

Relax.

You're both right.

Now, my plan A is

the Cleveland Browns.

Now, if that doesn't work out,

plan B is the

New York Giants.

Come on, Ernie.

We don't wanna be late.

Sorry, my dear, we got

things to do, people to meet.

I'll meet you outside, Ernie.

Jim Crow is alive and...

well right here

in Pennsylvania.

Yes, it is.

But we can no longer

willfully close our eyes...

and pretend that we cannot see...

that he sees us

as beneath him.

Yes.

- No, we cannot.

And we can no longer

stay silent...

when he tells us that

we cannot speak.

Yes.

- That's right.

Abraham Lincoln stood

in a field at Gettysburg,

and spoke of a new nation.

- That's right.

Uniontown is 100 miles away

from his Gettysburg.

We are still yet to be equal.

That is why the NAACP

is calling for...

a nationwide boycott

of Woolworths.

That's right.

That's right.

All right.

Come on.

Boycott. Boycott.

Boycott. Boycott.

Boycott. Boycott.

Come to Washington with us.

There's a bus going

down from the church.

We gonna organize

with Martin Luther King...

and let the people know this

country has got to change.

I don't think I

can be a part of...

what you want me

to be a part of...

right now, Will.

All this.

What you saying?

I got a scholarship.

I can't risk losing it, and

I don't wanna invite trouble.

I see. Did Emmett

Till invite trouble?

Did Rosa Parks?

Who told you this,

your coach?

You don't understand.

It's a different

world up there.

Is it?

You know, your coach

sound a lot like Pops.

No understanding

whatsoever with...

the troubles in this country.

'You boys got no

business north...

of Union Street, you hear me?'

Now, leave Pops

out of this, Will.

Now you got a white

man telling...

you what you can and can't do.

Wait a minute. Hold on.

Watch how you talk to me.

That man don't care

nothing about you, Ernie.

You're not there.

You don't know him.

You just his educated n*gger.

You don't know what

you're talking about.

Tom can toe the line...

and carry the ball,

but that man...

will turn on you.

Just you wait.

You don't think I'm reminded...

every minute of

who I am at school?

Everybody there is

watching me, and...

waiting for me to

make a mistake.

You Ernie Davis.

You got your

name in the paper.

Now that's something

for colored folk...

around here to open up

a newspaper, Ernie,

and see your name,

your face.

And say, 'I know him.

I went to school with him.'

They gonna be

looking up to you.

I think you owe them more

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