Raiders announce death of RB Clarence Davis (USC)

I wonder which of Clarence Davis's friends "pimped" the Raiders on CD's Passing? It had to have been a practical joke....glad he is alive.....

https://youtu.be/flY41yFOY0A

On September 12, 1970 five black football players, Clarence Davis being one of them, made their own special contribution to racial equality in the South. Those five, all starters, played spectacularly while leading an integrated USC team over all-white Alabama by a score of 42-21 in Birmingham, Ala., ironically the birthplace of Davis.

What happened on that night would accelerate the integration process in that region of the country. The all-black backfield, the first ever in NCAA Division I history, saw fullback Sam Cunningham rush for 135 yards and two touchdowns and Davis add another 76 on 13 carries. Quarterback Jimmy Jones completed the backfield triumvirate.

There was plenty of irony in Davis’ place in history. Until he arrived at ELAC in 1967, a future in football seemed more of a pipe dream than anything. He grew up in Birmingham, then moved to the Bronx, New York with his mother after his parents divorced. She then moved the family to Los Angeles when Davis was 13.

At Washington Prep High School, Davis played offensive guard despite being one of the faster players on the roster. He was also a shot putter on the track team. What he wasn’t was a running back. That would come following graduation from high school.

He walked on at ELAC where he was put in the backfield for the first time. All he did for the Huskies and Husky Coach Bob Enger was earn junior college All-American honors and break O.J. Simpson’s JC rushing record in 1968. They won the Western State Conference and advanced to the state title game where they lost to Fresno City.

Davis, who not surprisingly had no scholarship offers out of high school, suddenly was being pursued by the likes of USC, Washington, Arizona and Kansas. He chose USC and became the heir apparent to Simpson, who would move on to the Buffalo Bills as the NFL’s No. 1 overall draft pick. In his first year with the Trojans, Davis rushed for 1,357 yards to earn All-American honors. During his two-year career there, he finished with 2,329 yards and 18 TDs.

A fourth-round pick of the Oakland Raiders, Davis played for the club from 1971-78, amassing 3,640 yards and 28 TDs during his career. As a rookie, he had 734 return yards, 321 rushing yards and 97 receiving yards. He had a couple of memorable moments with the Raiders. In the 1974 playoffs, his “Sea of Hands” catch helped Oakland defeat the Miami Dolphins and advance. With two minutes left, Kenny Stabler heaved an off-balance pass while falling down. With the ball floating into the endzone, Davis and two Dolphins converged. They collided simultaneously, but it was Davis who wrestled the ball away for the score, ironic because he was not known as having good hands.

After coming up short in consecutive AFC Championship games, the Raiders beat the Steelers, 24-7 to win the AFC crown. Davis and the Super Bowl bound Raiders made the cover of Sports Illustrated. In Super Bowl XI in 1977, he played a key role in the Raiders’ 32-14 win over the Minnesota Vikings with 137 yards on 16 carries.

Upon his retirement from football, Davis worked for the Alameda County Probation Department. Davis’ son, Tyler was signed by the Miami Dolphins in 2016 to become the first player from the German Football League to go straight to the NFL. He played collegiately at Missouri

CD played guard for a few games at the start of his career ELAC until his HC (former UCLA football player Bob Enger) moved him to fullback.

Good to see he's still around. He's the forgotten great RB in between all the Heisman winners and near Heisman winners we had from '65 to '81. My dad mentions him once in a while