The Express

Director: Gary Fleder (2008)

Cast: Rob Brown, Dennis Quade, Darrin Dewitt Henson, Chadwick Boseman

Until this movie came out a lot of people probably thought that Jim Brown was the first black athlete to win the Heisman Trophy (Brown was 5th in voting). Actually, it was the running back in the film who replaced him at Syracuse, Ernie Davis who received that honor in 1961.

This film covers his four years of college and working with head coach Ben Schwartzwalder, (played by Dennis Quaid) and dealing with passive racism in at school and overt when Syracuse played Southern colleges culminating in Davis leading the Orangeman to a victory in the 1960 Cotton Bowl over the University of Texas for the national championship. Sadly, after graduating Davis was drafted by the Cleveland Browns, where it was found that Davis had Leukemia and would die at age 23. Even though he never played a down for Cleveland, the Browns retired his uniform number.

The Express is a compelling feature film with generational civil rights implications from that early 1960’s era.

Fun Facts:

Chadwick Boseman made his film debut in this film playing Floyd Little, the next great recruit for Syracuse and  actress Nicole Beharie, who played Ernie Davis’s girlfriend in the film, would end up playing Rachel  Robinson to Chadwick Boesmans Jackie Robinson in “42”.