PropertyValue
rdf:type
rdfs:label
  • Tom Davies (American football)
rdfs:comment
  • Davies was a native of Gas City, Indiana. He moved to Washington, Pennsylvania when he was 11 years old. Davies played high school football at Aliquippa High School in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, and at Kiski Preparatory School in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania. Davies was working in a Washington factory when he got the chance to play football at Kiski. A friend refused to accept a football scholarship there unless Davies went along. Davies continues to rank among Pitt's all-time leaders in scoring with 181 points and all-purpose yards with 3,931 yards. He was survived by his wife and two daughters.
owl:sameAs
CFbDWID
  • 5175
dcterms:subject
dbkwik:americanfootballdatabase/property/wikiPageUsesTemplate
CFBHOF year
  • 1970
Birth Date
  • 1896-10-14
player years
  • 1918
death place
Name
  • Tom Davies
  • Davies, Tom
Sport
CFBHOF id
  • 20091
Caption
  • Davies in 1921
Alternative Names
  • Davies, Thomas J.
Date of Death
  • 1972-02-29
player teams
Birth Place
coach years
  • 1922
  • 1923
  • 1924
  • 1926
  • 1935
  • 1936
  • 1937
  • 1941
Awards
death date
  • 1972-02-29
Place of Birth
  • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
coach teams
Place of death
  • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
ID
  • 20091
Date of Birth
  • 1896-10-14
Short Description
  • American football player and coach
player positions
abstract
  • Davies was a native of Gas City, Indiana. He moved to Washington, Pennsylvania when he was 11 years old. Davies played high school football at Aliquippa High School in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, and at Kiski Preparatory School in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania. Davies was working in a Washington factory when he got the chance to play football at Kiski. A friend refused to accept a football scholarship there unless Davies went along. Davies enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh where he played four seasons (1918–1921) of football under coach Glenn Scobey "Pop" Warner. Davies played in 31 games for the Pittsburgh Panthers and averaged 150 yards per game over his four-year career. He was selected as a first-team All-American in his freshman season of 1918 and again as a junior in 1920. As a freshman in 1918, Davies weighed only 142 pounds. In his first carry for Pitt, he ran for 13 yards against Washington & Jefferson—then a national power. Three plays later, he ran for 38 yards, "setting the pace for a stellar playing career." Davies helped Pitt to an undefeated season and a national championship in 1918, as he led the team in rushing, passing and receiving. He led Pitt in all-purpose yards all four years that he played. In a 1918 game against Georgia Tech, the freshman Davies accounted for five touchdowns—running 50 yards for a touchdown, returning two punts for touchdowns (a 60-yard and a 50-yard return), and passing for two more touchdowns. After watching Davies run back a kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown in 1918, one writer noted: "When Brother Tom Davies caught the kickoff on the ten-yard line at Franklin Field in Philadelphia one Saturday in November, we saw the prettiest piece of open field work not off at an angle, Tommie ran the length since the days of Jim Thorpe. On a bee line of the gridiron, and in so doing he personally took care of seven men! Then just for fun he added two more. The papers said, ‘Tom Davies Beats Penn.’ It has been the same against Syracuse, Lafayette and Georgia Tech. And now Pitt is counting on another All-American." As a junior in 1920, Davies led Pitt to another big win over the University of Pennsylvania. In what some called Davies’ finest game, he threw a touchdown pass, ran 80 yards for a touchdown, returned a kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown and returned an interception 60 yards for a touchdown. Also in 1920, he led Pitt to a 35–0 win over Syracuse, as he rushed for 255 yards and scored 16 points in only three quarters of play. In December 1920, Davies was elected by his teammates to be captain of Pitt's 1921 football team. Davies was selected as team captain at a team banquet at which the entire team gave Davies “a thunderous cheer.” The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Davies was so affected by the demonstration that he stammered only a few words of appreciation and left the hall saying, “I’m going to phone my mother and tell her all about it.” Davies continues to rank among Pitt's all-time leaders in scoring with 181 points and all-purpose yards with 3,931 yards. He was survived by his wife and two daughters.