Despite being a two-time NBA champion and gold-medal Olympian, Walter “Buddy” Davis was never satisfied. Even well past his athletic prime, Davis was always looking toward his next endeavor.
“I’m old and stiff,” he said in a 2012 interview with The Enterprise. “But the competitive zeal? You never lose that.”
Davis, a Nederland High School graduate who went on to share the court with basketball legends and jump his way to Olympic glory, died Monday night of natural causes, surrounded by family members at the Medical Center of Southeast Texas in Port Arthur. He was 89.
“He had an unbelievably Forrest Gump type life,” said Davis’ son, Shaun. “I was honored to be part of it. He went out like he always did — peacefully. I was there when he took his last breath with my hand on his chest. We watched him take his last breath and it was about as good as kids could hope to do with their parents.”
Shaun is quite familiar with his father’s competitive spirit. He’s heard all about it through the years.
The best example came from an interview in the late 1950s with the Philadelphia Inquirer, during which Davis expressed his doubts about the draft stock of soon-to-be NBA center Bill Russell. When a reporter asked Davis for his opinion of Russell, he replied, “I’m not so sure if his skills are going to translate from the college to the pros.”
Russell went on to set the record for most NBA championships by a single player (11) and is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in basketball history. It’s something Shaun never let his dad forget.
“His prediction was Russell was going to be a flop,” Shaun said with a laugh. “I used to give my dad a hard time about that all the time.”
While Davis’ draft analysis was a bit off, his own athletic accomplishments have never been in question.
At the age of 21, he won a gold medal by setting an Olympic high jump record at the the 1952 games in Helsinki, Finland. That summer, he set a separate world record by jumping 6 feet, 10 ¾ inches, and later became the first person to jump over a 7-foot bar.
Davis was drafted by the San Francisco Warriors and won two NBA titles — one with the Warriors (1956) and another with the St. Louis Hawks (1958). He’s a member of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, the Texas A&M Athletic Hall of Fame and the Museum of the Gulf Coast’s Sports Hall of Fame.
“He is unique in that regard,” said Museum of the Gulf Coast director Tom Neal. “We don't have many people like Buddy in the museum.”
Born in Beaumont in 1931, Davis was diagnosed with Polio as a boy, leaving both of his legs and right arm paralyzed. After a three-year bout, Davis fully recovered his ability to walk. He eventually grew to be 6 feet, 8 inches tall and became a multi-sport athlete at Nederland.
“Buddy means a lot to me because the man who used to live across the street from me was a basketball player at Tulane and came down with Polio. It left him in a wheelchair,” Neal said. “Then to meet someone who came back and accomplished what he did at the Olympics. What an encouragement to young athletes to be able to go through as much adversity as he did.”
At Nederland, Davis was a three-time basketball district champion, where he scored 60% of the team’s points his senior year. He was a three-time all-district player in basketball for the Bulldogs, a baseball district champion and made the track and field state meet as a high jumper.
Nederland athletic director Monte Barrow said Davis still serves as an inspiration to athletes at the school.
“Many from a small town like Nederland think it’s never gonna happen for them,” Barrow said . “(Davis) is proof of that. He gives everyone hope and young athletes can use him as inspiration.”
Davis earned a basketball scholarship at Texas A&M after the superb athletic career at Nederland. To no surprise, he excelled as an Aggie in both basketball and track and field.
After his professional NBA career concluded with the St. Louis Hawks in 1959, Davis worked as a banker until the 1980s. He went on to become a civilian employee in the coast guard and worked with FEMA until his eventual retirement.
“To this day, his colleagues at FEMA are constantly calling him and messaging him because when he showed up, his presence was so huge,” Shaun said of his father. “His coworkers and those he helped during disasters loved to hear all of his stories. He poured all that drive into his career.”
Davis is survived by his brother Sonny Davis and sister Rose Arthur, his seven daughters, Mary Edith Barnett, Nancy Louise Arrellano, Colleen Marie Curtis, Hillary Ann Feltman, Karen Frances West, Martha Christine Cerny, and Barbara Esther Burleson, and two sons, Shaun Patrick and Paul Damian.
Davis is also survived by 16 grandchildren. Because of COVID-19 concerns, a memorial service is not scheduled at this time.
jorge.ramos@beaumontenterprise.com
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