Start with this simple fact: Tommy Davis never has been inducted into the Louisiana High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame.
Ridiculous. A travesty.
The recent announcement of 10 new inductees -- the Class of 2023 -- brought this point home again. Tommy Davis was ignored ... as he has been since this Hall of Fame was started in 1979.
His senior year was 70 years ago. What are they waiting for? Is there an amount of time a candidate must wait, like four decades?
He is -- our opinion, and that of many others -- simply the greatest football player, the most accomplished, in the history of what was Fair Park High School in Shreveport (1928-2017).
He was the star fullback and linebacker on the 1952 team that won the only Fair Park football state championship, and set a state record for points scored.
He was a star at LSU -- a key player on the 1958 national championship as the "Go" (offensive) team fullback and, more importantly, the Tigers' placekicker and punter. He turned pro and was missed by another great LSU team in 1959 when it could have won another national title.
With the San Francisco 49ers, he was one of the NFL's last combination placekicker-punters for a decade, twice a Pro Bowler, set the league record for most consecutive PATs, and was one of the best punters in history.
If you pick the best high school running backs in Louisiana in the 1950s, you'd start with Billy Cannon, John David Crow and Jimmy Taylor. Might add Johnny Robinson and Tommy Mason. Tommy Davis is right there with them.
(And to show how haphazard -- and frankly, dumb -- the selections for this Hall of Fame have been, consider that Cannon and Robinson were not chosen until 2020, so some 65 years after senior seasons. Also in that 2020 class: quarterback Doug Williams, a senior in 1973, and baseball star Rusty Staub, a 1961 graduate.)
Davis was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 1988, a year after his death (of lung cancer) in California at age 52. He was inducted into the American Kickers Hall of Fame in 2014.
When we learned a year ago that he had never made this Hall of Fame, we also were told there was one major reason: He'd never been nominated.
Took care of that last December. (See nomination listings below.)
But he apparently remains invisible to the selection committee.
We are sure that the 10 people chosen for this class are deserving. So are -- we say diplomatically -- the 340 selected (athletes, coaches, principals, administrators, referees/officials, contributors and, yes, even four sportswriters over 44 selection "classes."
(Likely the average sports fan in Louisiana will not even have heard of most of these people; this Hall is very oriented to school principals and coaches. Even more knowledgeable fans might be clueless on these names.)
But no Tommy Davis. That's not right.
Also, if you can believe this, the only athlete from Shreveport's Byrd High School -- one of the great producers of talent and championships for almost 100 years -- was a baseball player, but is in this Hall for his coaching success in girls basketball.
In fact, there is scant representation of athletes from Caddo and Bossier Parish schools (see list below). Two Bossier High athletes were chosen for their coaching careers.
Actually, Fair Park has done as well as any school from northwest Louisiana in this Hall of Fame: running backs and all-around athetes Lee Hedges, Rogers Hampton and A.L. Williams (although Hedges and Williams' selections were based more on their outstanding high school football coaching careers); baseball/football coach James C. Farrar; Olympics high jumper Hollis Conway; and sportswriting legend Jerry Byrd Sr.
Fair Park people would tell you that the Louisiana High School Sports Hall of Fame also should include coaches F.H. "Homer" Prendergast (football), Clem Henderson (basketball/principal), all-around athlete and coach Jimmy Orton, and stars such as Leo Sanford (football), Charles Beasley, Kenny Simpson and Stromile Swift (basketball), and
Joe May, Jerry Dyes and Rod Richardson (track and field).
Oh, and Tommy Davis, a state and national championship star. Yes, he has been nominated.
So, to the selection committee members -- Keith Alexander, Jimmy Anderson (standing chairperson), Eddie Bonine, David Federico, James Simmons, Robin Fambrough, Kim Gaspard, Kenny Gennuso, Kathy Holloway (chairperson), Karen Hoyt, Eric Held, Philip Timothy and Ken Wood -- as Mr. Byrd would have said: You blew it!
Wait 'til next year (again).
This is an incredible years-long oversight.
TOMMY DAVIS qualifications:
High school --Three-year starter at linebacker and fullback, and also the team’s punter and placekicker; Fair Park played in the state championship game, Class AA, each year. Won the state championship in 1952 (the only football state title in the school’s history). As a senior, Davis rushed for a state-record 1,650 yards in the regular season and set a state record with 184 points.
College -- LSU running back, 1953-54, and 1958; also the team’s punter-placekicker in 1958. In the national-championship season of 1958, he was the “Go Team” (offensive unit) fullback, and rushed 69 times for 243 yards, scored four touchdowns. His kicking was the difference in two of LSU’s victories (a field goal against Florida, 10-7; an extra point against Mississippi State, 7-6. His deep punts were a key to Coach Paul Dietzel’s conservative, defense-first philosophy.
NFL -- 11 seasons (1959-69) as punter and placekicker for the San Francisco 49ers. Twice All-Pro (1962, 1963). He made a still-standing NFL record 234 consecutive PAT kicks over his first six-plus seasons; for his career, he made 348 of 350 PAT kicks and made 130 field goals in 276 attempts. As a punter, his career average of 44.7 yards is second lifetime, bested only by Sammy Baugh’s 45.1. His 45.6-yard average led the NFL in 1962.
Louisiana High School Sports Hall of Fame inductees, primarily from Caddo-Bossier schools (by year inducted):
1980 -- Joe Ferguson (Woodlawn football, track and field)
1981 -- Terry Bradshaw (Woodlawn football, track and field)
1986 -- J.D. Cox (Byrd coach, football and baseball)
1987 -- Lee Hedges (Fair Park athlete, multi-sport coach, four Shreveport schools)
1987 -- Robert Parish (Woodlawn basketball)
1989 -- Frank Lampkin (Bossier basketball coach/principal)
1991 -- Billy Montgomery (Haughton basketball coach)
1995 -- Woodrow Turner (Byrd coach track-field and football)
1996 -- James Farrar (football-baseball coach, three Shreveport schools)
1997 -- Rogers Hampton Sr. (Fair Park athlete)
2000 -- Bobby Ray McHalffey (Bossier athlete, Haughton football/track-field coach)
2001 -- Jerry Byrd Sr. (Fair Park grad, sportswriter/editor)
2005 -- Rick Huckabay (Bossier baseball; basketball coach at several schools)
2008 -- Tommy Henry (Bossier coach, LHSAA commissioner)
2011 -- Alana Beard (Souhwood basketball)
2011 -- Hollis Conway (Fair Park track-field)
2014 -- A.L. Williams (Fair Park athlete, Woodlawn coach)
2016 -- Kenny Guillot (Jesuit football, coach in Baton Rouge)
2016 -- Steve McDowell (Byrd baseball, Southwood girls basketball coach)
2016 -- Todd Walker (Airline baseball)
2020 -- Brock Berlin (Evangel football)
