An early morning fire at Ernie Davis Middle School in Elmira on Wednesday destroyed memorabilia of the late Syracuse University running back Ernie Davis.

The fire started in the school’s library at about 4:11 a.m. when a 2-foot-wide hanging plastic lamp began to melt and drip onto the carpet, Elmira City Superintendent Joseph Hochreiter said during a press conference Wednesday. The school’s fire alarm alerted the fire department at 4:16 a.m. and shut down fire doors and the school’s heating and ventilation system. Firefighters arrived just before 4:30 a.m. and put out the blaze that was contained to the library on the third floor, he said.

Many books, photos and newspaper clippings of Davis, the first black man to win the Heisman Trophy, were destroyed in the fire. Hochreiter said the principal, faculty and students’ insistence to move much of the memorabilia to the school’s foyer in recent years helped preserve many items in the collection, but there were still items, some of which he believed were autographed by Davis, housed in the library.

All of the school’s library books and between 20 and 40 laptop and desktop computers were also lost, Hochreiter said. The school was closed to students on Wednesday, one day before winter recess, and will be closed to staff until Tuesday.

Pete Moore, SU’s director of athletic communications, said he was unaware whether the Elmira City School District contacted the university about the lost memorabilia, but SU would help in any way if contacted.

Davis had a long history of involvement in the city of Elmira. He moved to Elmira with his mother and stepfather when he was 12 years old. While attending Elmira Free Academy, Davis was a high school All-American in both football and basketball.

After moving on to SU, he helped the Orangemen win their first national title in 1959 as a sophomore and won the Heisman in his senior season in 1961. In December 1961, the Cleveland Browns selected Davis with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1962 NFL Draft. Davis died of leukemia in 1963 before playing a single down.

Following Davis’ death, Elmira Free Academy was renamed Ernie Davis Middle School.

Tex Noel, the executive director of the Intercollegiate Football Researchers Association, said the lost mementos from Davis’ life and career have no bearing on his legacy, but the loss will have a bigger effect among those who were kind enough to donate the items.

‘It shouldn’t diminish his legacy at Syracuse, but in the process of losing all that memorabilia, you have to think of all the people that donated it and contributed it,’ Noel said. ‘It hurts them because they won’t be able to not just have the memorabilia, but to have the legacy presented in real facts.’

Although there were numerous tangible items reduced to ash in the fire, Noel said this takes nothing away from all Davis accomplished in his short-lived career. The items may not be able to be recreated, but Davis’ legacy continues in more ways than the physical evidence of his days on field.

‘The memorabilia represented the accomplishments of Ernie Davis. Losing the memorabilia is important, yes, because it can’t be replaced,’ Noel said, ‘but nothing can be replaced in the hearts, the minds and the thoughts of the Ernie Davis legacy.’

adtredin@syr.edu

Published on December 23, 2011 at 12:00 pm