Tom Davies (American football)

Playing career

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.

Coaching career

After graduating from Pitt, Davies began a long career as a college football coach. His first coaching position was as an assistant to the legendary John Heisman at the University of Pennsylvania in 1922. At the time of his hiring at Penn, The New York Times noted: "Tom Davies, former Pitt captain and all-American halfback, makes his debut as a Penn coach. The versatile Davies, who raised havoc with a number of Penn elevens in recent years, will instruct in forward passing, punting and straight arming, and will also help Tom McNamara with the scrubs."

Davies received his first head coaching job in 1923 when he was hired as the head football coach for the Geneva College Golden Tornadoes located in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. He spent only one season at Geneva compiling a record of 6–2–1. As of completion of the 2007 season, this ranks him 18th at Geneva in total wins and fourth at Geneva in winning percentage (.722). In 1924, he was hired by Allegheny College where he remained for two seasons. In 1926, Davies was hired as the head football coach at the University of Rochester, where he spent nine years, coaching until 1934. After leaving Rochester, he spent one season as a coach at Carnegie Tech and another at Kiski Prep School.

In 1937, Davies took over as head football coach at St. Thomas College. In his first season, he led the Tomcats to a 6–1–1 record. Prior to the start of the 1938 season, St. Thomas College changed its name to the University of Scranton. Davies's 1938 team finished with a record of 7–2. The team improved in 1939 and completed an undefeated 7–0–2 season. Davies resigned as Scranton's coach in March 1940 with a three-year record of 20–3–3.

After leaving Scranton, Davies went into the insurance business in the Cleveland area.

Although Davies insisted at the time of his resignation at Scranton that he was done with coaching, he was hired in March 1941 to take over as the head football coach for the Western Reserve University Red Cats. Davies served seven years as head coach at Western Reserve, although there was no team from 1943 to 1945 due to World War II, but was discharged in October 1947 by the University Board of Athletics. The dismissal came 24 hours after members of the team demanded that they finish the year under another coach.

Later years

After permanently retiring from football in 1947, Davies returned to the insurance business in the Pittsburgh area.

Davies was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1966 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1970. He died of a heart attack in February 1972 at age 75. He died at his home in Pittsburgh's Highland Park district.