I saw Ernie Davis play in November 1961

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November 1961. I was 9 years old. It was a crisp day in Chestnut Hill, Mass., for my first football game: Syracuse versus Boston College. My dad, a BC alum, told me Ernie Davis was a great player, so I tried to keep track of his orange helmet that afternoon as he darted around the field.

I remember BC quarterback Jack Concannon, in his shiny gold helmet, under constant attack by Syracuse’s defenders as the Eagles lost.

Davis, the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy, is the subject of a new film, ‘The Express.’

That Syracuse-BC game was so long ago it predates instant replay and SportsCenter. I just looked up some game accounts to see if I remembered things correctly. Syracuse did beat BC, 28-13. Davis scored two touchdowns, one on an interception -- yes, he played on both sides of the ball -- as he rolled up 203 yards and surpassed his Orangeman predecessor, Jim Brown, in total career yardage. But it was Concannon who had the longest run of the day: 79 yards for a TD.

Oddly, of all the players on the field, Concannon would have the longest NFL career — 10 years, mostly with the Bears.

Davis was the top NFL draft pick, and he signed what was then a whopping $200,000, three-year deal with the Browns. But he was diagnosed with leukemia and never played a game in the pros. He died at 23.

I remember reading about his death and getting an early sense of the fleeting nature of youth.

-- Barry Stavro