American Express

Gridiron greats: Former Syracuse University standout Jim Brown and Dennis Quaid, who portrayed Brown’s coach Ben Schwartzwalder in The Express, meet the press.

That day, Universal Pictures’ The Express saw its world premiere at the Landmark Theatre in downtown Syracuse (see review on page 13). Salina Street was closed down and given the Hollywood treatment, as an orange carpet as wide as the road was unrolled from the Jefferson Street intersection to the golden doors of the Landmark. Walking down the carpet were all of the stars of the film and some of the most iconic football players to ever suit up for SU.

The weather report called for torrential downpours all day, and it was raining at 6 p.m. when the flashbulbs starting going off as the first of the dignitaries began walking the carpet: 43 members from the 1959 National Championship team that Davis was a part of.

One of those was John Brown, one of three black players on the 1959 roster and Davis’ best friend during his years at Syracuse. “Ernie thought it was either play or go home,” Brown replied when asked how Davis felt about playing in the rain. “The only thing he talked about was winning and to tell you the truth, I doubt he even noticed it was raining on the field when he was running by everyone. . . I don’t think he’d mind a little rain today.”

To an African-American in 1959, when even fountain water was an object of racial segregation, rain might as well have been falling despite blue skies. When it did, the rain that fell on a black man ended up falling on a white man equally the same. Davis recognized those basic principles and let his colorless inner qualities speak volumes in every step, walking, running, juking and jiving—which is why, when his story is told in The Express, you realize you just watched more than a football movie.

“I grew up in Texas and wasn’t aware of Ernie Davis,” said Dennis Quaid, star of Any Given Sunday and Traffic, who plays Davis’ SU coach Ben Schwartzwalder in The Express. “And what the film turns out to be in the end, I think, is a film about grace, and it’s about facing the difficult challenges that we all go through in life, with grace. The film hits you right in the gut and makes you think about your own life.”

And it does, as this reporter can attest from having seen an advance screening of it with the current SU football team. More than half of that fresh-out-of-high school squad appeared to be misty-eyed as they left the theater—and it wasn’t because Davis dies in the end. That part was already known, and it doesn’t appear on screen. It was the ethos of optimism that Davis exuded at all times, even while he was dying, that pulled back the heartstrings and shot teardrops right through the pathos of raw human emotion. 

Inspired by a True Story

While Davis’ story could be re-enacted by a mime if he so stroked the sky, it was the director of The Express, Gary Fleder, who had to carve the portrait of the impression that Ernie left on him when he first immersed himself into his story—a story he believed could transcend 45 years and remain relevant to audiences in 2008 and beyond. “The more you read about him, the more you learn about him and his courage,” said Fleder. “He’s extraordinary.” 

Davis’ life itinerary began on Dec. 14, 1939, born in New Salem, Pa. At age 12, his family moved to Elmira, and he remained there until he enrolled at SU.

“The first challenge,” observed Fleder, “was how do you distill any man’s life down to two hours? How do you find the best two hours to talk about? We chose Syracuse, because we felt the collaboration of Ernie and his coach was a real important time with the civil rights movement just starting to heat up in the late 1950s and early 1960s. I think that relationship to me was the most compelling two hours to tell.

Syracuse spent some time in the spotlight a few weeks ago: Among the scenes (from left) Rob Brown re-enacts Ernie Davis’ introduction to the Syracuse University campus during the film shoot in June 2007; Reggie Schwartzwalder, Ben’s widow, shares a laugh with Dennis Quaid, who played the coach; Juli and Jim Boeheim dazzled their way along the orange carpet for the movie premiere Sept. 12; Don McPherson, who piloted the 1987 team to an 11-0-1 record, walks the carpet; doo-wop greats The Coasters entertain the crowd outside the Landmark Theatre on Friday; another great Syracuse running back, Floyd Little, addresses a press conference on Friday. 

“Our desire was always to find the truth of Ernie and Ben and the truth of the times,” continued Fleder. “You have to consolidate because of screen length and move things around. If the facts remain right about truth, issues involving putting characters together to make one character or moving certain events around to tell a greater truth, that I take responsibility for and support. If we got some of the scores wrong and I think maybe a couple times we did, that’s inexcusable and I’ll take the blame for that. But we tried to get it right and sometimes we took dramatic rights.”

One right they were forced to wrong was that they had to film scenes of Ernie’s life in locations where they didn’t actually take place—due to the wears of time. Fleder noted that many of the stadiums that Davis played college football in do not exist anymore. Most noticeably absent is Archbold Stadium, the home field of SU college football from 1907 until the Carrier Dome opened in 1980. Hence, all of the football scenes in the movie were filmed at Northwestern University’s Ryan Field for authenticity purposes, as that stadium bears a striking resemblance to Archbold—and with the help of computer-generated imagery (CGI) technology and an online auction site, it looks exactly as it did when Davis was playing there.

“We found an old postcard on eBay with a picture of Archbold on it from that time,” recalled Fleder. “After that, we accumulated as many pictures as we could and used CGI to digitally recreate Archbold, and I think people who were around then and remember the stadium will really be taken back in time.” 

June 22, 2007, was the last of a 52-day shoot for The Express, and it was the only day actually filmed in Syracuse. “This is something you can’t fake, and I couldn’t cheat the campus by shooting it elsewhere,” Fleder said during a break between takes on that day.

Shooting commenced at 5 a.m. and lasted well into the night. The 50 extras that were cast from more than 1,200 local applicants milled about the SU Quad clad in the attire of the times. Men sported crew cuts, horn-rimmed glasses, slacks and varsity letter jackets, while poodle skirts were undertoned with bobby socks and sweaters accessorized with scarves caressed the napes of the necks of the ponytailed gals. 

And for that long day’s work, the SU backdrop appears for about three minutes of actual screen time in the finished product.

Rob Brown, who first appeared in the Hollywood limelight alongside Sean Connery in Gus Van Sant’s 2000 Finding Forrester, was given the task of playing Ernie Davis. One of the scenes filmed at SU was Davis’ initial arrival on campus. Racially derisive sign-of-the-time sneers on the faces of the predominantly white contingent of student extras unwelcomed him as he walked past, but Brown portrayed Davis as not seeming to notice. Instead he expressed a look of destiny while riveting his eyes on the bigger picture of his new academic surroundings.

A college football athlete himself while attending Amherst College, Brown bears an uncanny resemblance to Davis, but as he immersed himself into a method acting approach to the character, he found within himself a kindred spirit. “Despite Ernie’s not being here,” said Brown, “I felt that I got to know him a lot and in getting to know him, I became a better person, and that’s the effect that Ernie seemed to have on anyone that he came across.”

Most of the people on set that day at SU were still a biological reaction waiting to happen or too young to remember Davis’ years in college. But there was one extra in the arrival scene who knew him personally: Reggie Schwartzwalder, the coach’s wife. She was 94 when the scene was filmed in 2007; her husband passed away in 1993 at age 83. And it was her presence that gave the director the epiphany that the movie was going to be something more than just spools of film.

“That day of shooting when Reggie Schwartzwalder was in the scene,” recalled Fleder, “there was a moment when she literally looked up at Rob Brown and I felt that I saw a connection between them that drew her back in time. That, to me, just transcended reality. You hope to find these moments where something magical happens that goes beyond something make-believe or smoke and mirrors, and at that moment, I really felt that something happened that galvanized this movie that was extraordinary.” 

Tangerine Dreams

One year later and one year older, Reggie Schwartzwalder carried the honor of her late husband with her as she joined the members of his 1959 team to walk down the orange carpet for the premiere of The Express. The scene was likely a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the 2,400 in attendance and the city, unless Greg Robinson wins more than two games with the current Syracuse football team, a story in Hollywood terms referred to as “gold,” and they decide to bring that to the big screen.

The Coasters, the legendary doo-wop group, entertained the dancing crowd with Express-era tunes such as their biggest hit, “Yakety Yak,” and a cover of Sam Cooke’s “Twistin’ the Night Away” before the honorees were convoyed and dropped off in classic period convertibles to walk the carpet. 

After 43 members of the 1959 team walked the walk, SU icons including Jim Boeheim, Don McPherson, Art Monk, Floyd Little and the greatest football player of all time, the original No. 44, Jim Brown, followed. Since Davis’ story revolves around football, many of those watching from the crowd are longtime fans of the program, which is why it was no surprise that when it was former SU coach Dick MacPherson’s turn down the carpet, he seemed to receive the loudest ovation of the night—perhaps the crowd’s polite way of voicing their displeasure with the current program.

And while Davis’ story indeed transcends football, let’s face it: If he never ran the pigskin, he might not have changed as many prejudiced attitudes as he did and his tale may never have been told. When Davis came to Syracuse, he had probably the biggest shoes to fill in sports on any level: Jim Brown’s.

During his senior year at Syracuse in 1957, Brown averaged 123 yards per game and scored 14 touchdowns in eight games and was named first-team all-America, but the Heisman Trophy eluded him. Not that there was a better player in college football that year—the stats he accumulated in those eight games would garner Heisman consideration in the current 12-game slate. The reason he didn’t win it was because he is black.

It was under circumstances like that, but on a more personal level, that Coach Schwartzwalder enlisted Brown to help recruit Davis to Syracuse. Brown was Davis’ idol, and his appearance sealed the deal. The two remained close friends until the day Davis died. And since the Cleveland Browns drafted Davis with the first pick in the 1962 NFL draft, he would have shared the backfield in the pros with Brown, who was drafted sixth by them in the 1957. But Davis was diagnosed with leukemia shortly afterward and never played a down as a pro.

Jim Brown believed that The Express did justice to Davis’ story and that it will come across to audiences the same way Ernie came across to him. “It’s a great film and I hope that it will do what it’s done already to a small amount of people, to a large amount of people,” Brown said. “It is a human film that speaks of the opportunity in America. It speaks of the ills, but it talks about the solutions and it does come up with solutions and ultimately, what you find out is that we’re all a victim of the times and as we reflect now, we have an appreciation of the great things that occurred even while we were struggling.”

Davis’ winning of the Heisman Trophy in 1962 did little to calm the racial tensions of the time, but it was a step in the right direction, and it opened the door for future black athletes. And reminiscent of when Brown recruited Davis, Schwartzwalder again enlisted his current star to help recruit the next heir to the running back throne, Floyd Little. And just like Brown’s presence sealed the deal for Davis, Davis’ appearance convinced Little to come to Syracuse—despite the fact that he had scholarship offers from 47 of the country’s top colleges. 

“He had me in the first five minutes,” said Little of his first encounter with Davis, when asked on the orange carpet. “He said Jim had chosen him to follow him and he was choosing me. He said the things to me that encouraged me to come to Syracuse and how I would enjoy it here and be treated with respect, how I would get an opportunity to graduate and he was so true.”

After Davis left SU he remained close friends with Little. But with Little—like he did with just about everyone when he was sick—Davis never let on of his illness and remained optimistic until the end. 

“I thought I was bigger than that, and I thought I looked better than that,” said Little jokingly, after he saw The Express. “It was amazing when they showed me running and my conversation with Ernie. I was a little tearful, because Ernie and I did have a good relationship.

“I never had a chance to thank him,” Little continued. “So I’m using this opportunity to say ‘Ernie, thank you for putting me on the right course and I know you said you’d have my back, and I know you said you’d be there with me, and I’ll be damned if you’re not here with me tonight, ’cause I feel you. I feel your presence.’”

And the rest of the town, and those who saw the flick, damn sure felt that same presence. That is in no small part due to SU athletic director Daryl Gross. “When I first got here {2004}, some of the members of the Varsity Club and some of the members from the ’59 team who were so passionate about it would say, ‘Why isn’t this story a movie!’” recalled Gross about the Ernie Davis story. “And I said, ‘Let’s do something about this, let’s try to pitch this.’ And we thought maybe within 10 years we can make this happen, but when you start working with Ernie Davis’ legacy, you get lightspeed, and you get Godspeed. And what we have at the end of the day {The Express} is a beautiful thing and something that we’ll be proud of forever.”

While he deserves absolutely no credit for the rotten state the football program has been in under his watch, this could possibly end up being Gross’ paramount achievement at Syracuse for that sport. On Saturday, Sept. 13, the day after the premiere, a halftime ceremony honored Davis during Syracuse’s game against Penn State at the Carrier Dome. Quaid, Rob Brown, SU Chancellor Nancy Cantor and Gross all made their way out to midfield. When Gross’ name was announced, he was showered with a chorus of boos. While it was deserved to boo the team after losing to Penn State 55-13, what fans don’t realize is that dissing Gross at that time indirectly dissed Davis because, like him or not, Gross was the catalyst of The Express.

It can be argued that The Express coming to fruition has already made this season a winning season. Gross agreed. “This is a win no matter what,” he noted. “The Express is a big-time deal and this is something that doesn’t happen in every community and it’s right here in our hamlet of Syracuse. All I know is this film will help the world show how priceless Syracuse is. And whether it’s a recruit, or someone that wants to build a school here or someone that wants to live here, they will see what this town is all about. Syracuse has such a great name, and now this just puts more polish on it.”

The past meets the future: Beloved coach Dick MacPherson enjoys himself during the unveiling of the Ernie Davis statue (still blanketed, below), while the Syracuse University football team participates in a new tradition, marching through the Quad and toward the Carrier Dome, before each home game.