If you played sports in Lincoln Parish during Buddy Davis’ career, you probably felt like you were constantly in the spotlight – an elite athlete with unlimited potential. That’s what Buddy wanted.
The legendary sports writer, a graduate of Ruston High and Louisiana Tech, covered everything and everyone like it was the Super Bowl.
Grambling. Louisiana Tech. High schools. Youth sports.
“This guy covered everything. He might be at an 8-year-old Little League game, and then he’d head to spring football practice,” college basketball coaching legend Leon Barmore said. “His brush was so broad; he reached so many people, and they loved him for it. And I did, too.”
On this day five years ago, Orville Kince (“O.K”) Davis died at the age of 72.
“Buddy’s impact goes far beyond the newsroom,” Louisiana Tech president Les Guice said following Davis’ death.
Davis was a one-man band for the Ruston Daily Leader’s sports section.
“Buddy Davis helped put Louisiana Tech on the map,” then-Bulldogs athletic director Tommy McClelland said.
Davis was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.