Paul Hertelendy ’53’s Oct. 8 letter brought back memories of Jack Davison ’51. Kaz, Hollie Donan, and Reddy Finney deserved to be All Americans in 1950, but I always felt that Jack was the most valuable player on that undefeated team. He was the only one to play both offense and defense. Not only was he an outstanding runner, but his great blocking enabled Kaz, Bobby Unger, and Billy Kleinsasser to get off a number of long runs. On defense Jack was a sure tackler and a ball-hawk.
The Cornell game was very important that year, but the key to our great season was the 20-14 victory over Navy. (Later, Navy’s upset of Army helped us win the Lambert Trophy.) We would not have beaten Navy without Jack’s heroics. His TD plunge tied the game 14-14, and in the fourth quarter Princeton drove 84 yards highlighted by Jack’s 64-yard run. To quote Al Laney of the Herald-Tribune: “Davison was stopped in the line before he spun and got away and he really ought to have been downed b y the Navy secondary for little or no gain instead of getting loose to cut and run so far.” Jack went on to score the winning TD, and topped it off by intercepting a pass to end Navy’s hopes in the closing minutes of the game.
I was a teammate of Jack’s and a roommate in Holder Hall our sophomore and junior years. A few of us roomed at Tiger Inn our senior year. I was also an usher at Jack’s wedding to Diana. He was not only a superb student leader, football player, teacher, coach, and mentor, but a superb human being as well. After my wife died a few years ago, Jack drove all the way from Connecticut to my home at the Jersey shore and then took me to lunch in Princeton and to attend a lecture on campus. He was exceptionally thoughtful, compassionate, and kind.