HOOPS ELITE MAGAZINE
IMPRESSED BY THE EXPRESS
INTERVIEW BY NICK
MERCURIO
Why Ernie Davis? What connection
does your program have to him?
Most people know that Ernie Davis
was the first African American to
win the Heisman trophy, so us being
a basketball team our parents and
players were confused when we decided to name ourselves after a football player. As the story goes he actually played basketball and football
when he first arrived at Syracuse. He
really did not like basketball so the
coach told him to recruit a team and
he would release him. One of the
players he recruited was Dave Bing,
who was from Detroit, and of course
went on to become a legend himself. We wanted our name to reflect
our core values and so we picked
him as an example of strength for
our players. We watched the movie and he was an inspiration. There
was one quote that made me know
this was the man we wanted to
model our organization after. “Either you fight or you give up.” To me
this is the point that you will reach
again and again in life.
31 | Issue 2 - March 2015
What are three things that Ernie
Davis is known for that you try to
pass on to your kids?
First of all, not giving up no matter
what faces you. When he was diagnosed with Leukemia he states that
after laying around he finally got up
and decided to fight it, he says he
never felt sorry for himself because
he had done so much and been
so blessed in the years that he had
spent on earth, he never considered
himself unlucky.
Second was his ability to meet both
the triumphs and tragedies in his
life with humility. When you learn
about what a remarkable athlete
he was and the difficulties he faced
as a player in a segregated world
you have to ask yourself what type
of man you had to be to win the
Heisman trophy, a remarkable player but also a remarkable person. We
try to teach our kids this, we don’t
taunt, we don’t boast when things
go good. The other part about becoming great men I am still trying to
teach is we don’t cry and pout when
things don’t go our way. I also try to
hold myself to this standard.
Last, we admire his dedication. He
was dedicated to making himself
the best. His job was to move the
ball forward and he knew he had to
be the strongest, fastest and most
determined to do this successfully. I
want to teach my players that.
Eric, Have you always had a passion
for Coaching and if so where does that
passion stem from?
I have 5 boys, my oldest two are 31
and 29 years old. I started coaching when they showed an interest
in sports and just stayed with it. I
thought who better to teach them
than me, plus I am an involved and
protective father so I was going to be
there for them and it ended up that
way. When I remarried 15 years ago
I had 3 more boys. We started the
team for them, when the oldest was
just 4 years old. Now one is 11 and 8
and the 4 year old is just starting to