Having enjoyed great success at the highest levels of football and having experienced the pain of mistakes he made, former Temple star Kenneth Davis had a strong, personal message to the young people in the crowd at the Wildcats’ annual banquet Thursday night at the Frank W. Mayborn Civic and Convention Center.
“You have the opportunity to accomplish anything you want to if you have it here (pointing to his heart) and here (pointing to his head),” Davis said while flanked by his mother and one of his five brothers. “No one can take that away from you.
“Young men, young ladies, grab the bull by the horns and value your time, because once it’s gone, you can’t go back and get it,” he added. “Make sure you get your education.”
Davis, 46, who starred for Temple from 1978-80 and helped lead the Wildcats to the 1979 state championship, will be inducted into the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame on May 2. He was the featured speaker at Temple’s banquet, which honored a 2008 Wildcats team that reached the Class 5A state playoffs for the second straight season.
A three-year starter who played running back and cornerback and also punted, Davis went on to become an All-American at Texas Christian and played in four consecutive Super Bowls with the NFL’s Buffalo Bills as the backup to Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Thurman Thomas.
Legendary former Temple head coach Bob McQueen had special praise for Davis’ mother, turning to tell her, “The Davis family fed a lot of coaches’ families for a long time. It was the experience of a lifetime coaching your kids. I thank you for that, and Temple thanks you for that.”
McQueen expressed his belief that no player he ever coached was more prepared to play on game day than Davis.
“It was wonderful to have the opportunity to coach such a gifted athlete,” McQueen said. “Temple kids always try as hard as they know how. What’s really special is when you have the opportunity to coach someone who has a special gift and talent from God and to go along with that is a great human being.”
Davis spoke of his humble beginnings, saying his late father had the equivalent of a third-grade education and his mother passed the general educational development (GED) test after their family moved to Temple in 1974.
Davis recalled that after the Wildcats lost 15-14 to Plano in a 1978 playoff game, he was lounging around his house when each of his parents told him something profound.
His father told him, “I’d like to see you play one down in the NFL.” His mother told him, “I’d like to see you graduate from college.”
His goal of winning the Heisman Trophy in 1985 - he finished fifth in ’84 - was derailed one game into his senior year when he admitted to accepting cash payments from TCU during the recruiting process. That ended his college career and led to “the lowest point of my life.”
“I sold out for a few measly hundred dollars. To have that Heisman on my mom’s mantle, I’d go back and do anything to change it,” he said before urging Temple’s youth to “think about the decisions in your life very, very hard.”
Not surprisingly, Davis - who’s been the football coach and athletic director at Dallas Bishop Dunne for 11 years - said some of his best memories are getting to share his NFL success and his eventual graduation from TCU with his family.
“To get to share it with my mom, dad, brothers and sisters . . . it’s not the paycheck; it’s the memories,” he said.
Temple coach Bryce Monsen then presented Davis with a framed No. 23 Temple jersey.
Sharing the Wildcats’ 2008 most valuable player award were two juniors - linebacker and fullback Derrick Davis (Kenneth Davis’ nephew), a two-way first-team all-district selection, and running back Lache Seastrunk, an honorable-mention all-state selection for the second straight year.
Senior offensive lineman and team captain Brett Gunn, who received four awards on the night, delivered the traditional “A Senior Speaks” segment.
He credited Kenneth Davis’ brief halftime pep talk for getting the Wildcats fired up before they outscored rival Belton 25-0 in the second half for a 46-21 victory.
“He walked into our run-through, and that 10-second speech got everyone riled up for the next 24 minutes,” said Gunn, who commended the 18 fellow seniors who survived from a group of 88 freshmen in 2005 to play four seasons of football for the Wildcats.
2008 TEMPLE WILDCAT FOOTBALL BANQUET AWARDS
(players selected all awards other than Coaches Award and scholarship awards)
Most Valuable Player - Derrick Davis, Lache Seastrunk
Best Offensive Back - Daniel Carr, Lache Seastrunk
Outstanding Receiver - Tevin Reese
Best Offensive Lineman - Brett Gunn, Ben Rieves
Outstanding Linebacker - Patrick Johnson
Best Defensive Lineman - Garfield Hawk
Best Defensive Back - Toravion Belcher
Outstanding Specialty Team Player - Stedman Moore, Chris Winkler
Wildcat Players Award - Brett Gunn, Ben Rieves
Wildcat Captains Award - Brett Gunn, Patrick Johnson, Tevin Reese
Coaches Award - Itai Meki, Drew Shenkir
Most Conscientious Player - Brett Gunn
Fortitude Award - Ben Rieves
Scholar Athlete - Adrian Ramirez
Bob McQueen Scholarship Award - Jonathan Bane
George Johnson Scholarship Award - Drew Shenkir
Don Davis Integrity Award - Nick Clarke
