<table> </table> Jim Brown, Floyd Little and other Syracuse gridiron heroes made their way back to campus this weekend to celebrate the premiere of &#8220;The Express,&#8221; the movie depicting the too-short life of the Orangemen&#8217;s gifted running back Ernie Davis.</p><p>With Davis&#8217; Kansas City-area connections, a slice of the Heartland was there in spirit.</p><p>Davis&#8217; story is truly amazing. He became the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy and helped Syracuse capture a national championship.</p><p>But his life ended tragically. Davis died of leukemia in 1963 and never joined Brown on the field for the NFL&#8217;s Cleveland Browns in what could have been a history-altering backfield.</p><p>The movie, which opens nationally on Oct. 10, uses football to tell a story of a proud individual whose profile grew along with the civil-rights movement. Syracuse trips to West Virginia and the Cotton Bowl in Dallas provide the racially charged backdrop.</p><p>Davis was named MVP of the Cotton Bowl but wasn&#8217;t allowed to remain for the entire dinner banquet. The team left in protest. This after the Orangemen were denied lodging in downtown Dallas because the hotel refused to accommodate black players.</p><p>As the movie trailer says, &#8220;In a time of change, one man had the courage to achieve the extraordinary.&#8221;</p><p>To those who knew him best, Davis was ideally suited to confront challenges on and off the field.</p><p>&#8220;People remember him as a super athlete, which he was,&#8221; said John Brown, Davis&#8217; teammate at Syracuse and his roommate in Cleveland. &#8220;I remember him as a gentle person who touched many lives.&#8221;</p><p>Including that of Helen Gott, a Syracuse student who became Davis&#8217; girlfriend. Today, she&#8217;s Helen Gray, <em>The Kansas City Star</em>&#8217;s religion editor.</p><p>They met during her sophomore year &#8212; Davis was a year ahead in school &#8212; and his football prowess wasn&#8217;t the attraction.</p><p>&#8220;He made an impression because he was different than what I thought of as a typical jock,&#8221; Gray said. &#8220;I thought of them as being arrogant and self-absorbed. Ernie was pretty self-effacing. He was a gentleman.&#8221;</p><p>But when he put on the pads, Davis stood with the best running backs in the nation. The movie, as movies do, plays fast with facts, but the premise is spot-on. Davis was a powerfully built, 6-foot-2, 210-pound back with breakaway speed.</p><p>It was during his sophomore year that the Orangemen went 11-0 and won the national championship. Then, rankings were final before the bowl games, but the Orangemen confirmed their status with their Cotton Bowl triumph over Texas.</p><p>Syracuse opened that 1959 season with a home victory over Kansas, and the Jayhawks in their light blue uniforms play a role in the movie.</p><p>Davis rushed 10 times for 30 yards in a 35-21 victory that day. Kansas&#8217; total would be the most surrendered by the Orangemen that season.</p><p>The teams met again in 1960 in one of the marquee games of Kansas football history. The Jayhawks were rated fifth, their highest ranking in the history of the polls to date. Syracuse was second. The game on Oct. 1 was nationally televised by ABC, adding to the big-game feel.</p><p>One of Kansas&#8217; best teams took the field that day. Quarterback John Hadl and running back Curtis McClinton led the Jayhawks, but the day belonged to Davis, who rushed for 123 yards and led Syracuse to a 14-7 triumph.</p><p>In his Heisman season, Davis rushed for 823 yards and 15 touchdowns. He led the team in receptions and threw a touchdown pass, and on the evening that he accepted the award, President Kennedy, who was visiting New York that day, asked to meet Davis.