FREDERICKTOWN — It would be very difficult, if not downright impossible, to have a discussion about the Fredericktown Athletic Hall of Fame without the last name Davis surfacing.
Sitting in Brake Brothers’ restaurant on Fredericktown’s Main Street, brothers 83-year-old Roger and 86-year-old Ray Davis were only too happy to talk about their family connections to the Hall.
There was no Hall of Fame for athletic exploits in Fredericktown until 1989.
“It is much easier now. When they started, they had to go back 70 years,” Roger said about the inaugural Hall of Fame induction.
“They had a committee, and they were dedicated. Ray was on that committee.”
Lamenting the fact that there was no Google to assist with research back then, Roger said, “They combed through old newspapers.”
The start of a dynasty
No other family has six members in the sacred hall.
“Not yet,” Roger said with a smile.
The dynasty started with patriarch George “Willie” Davis.
Born in 1912, Willie was known in the local news as the “Freshman Phenom.”
He played just one year for the Freddie Red but still made the Hall of Fame in 1989 as a charter member.
Willie raised his family with an appreciation for athletics, but did not pressure his offspring.
“If you asked him how to do something, he knew how to do it, whether playing baseball or football, whatever, but he never pushed. He never told me I had to do anything,” Ray said of his dad.
“He encouraged us to be involved in sports, but he did not force it on us. He’d say, ‘if you want to play, play. If not, that’s OK, too.”
Ray said his dad never talked about himself. The only way he learned about some of the things his father did was through his dad’s teammates.
“He was a very good athlete and intelligent, but because of the Depression, he dropped out of school his sophomore year to help support his family, and never complained,” Ray said.
“It would have been easy to be upset with schools like Ohio State looking at him.”
The athletic department was not the only beneficiary of Willie Davis’ love for Fredericktown High School.
“Our two older sisters are right over there,” Roger said, nodding toward a table near the window. “Our sisters played in the band. Someone said to dad, ‘your girls are in the band, and someone has to help them buy uniforms. They have to buy instruments.”
Willie stepped up, and the Fredericktown Band Boosters organization was born.
The second generation
Ray Davis is Willie’s oldest son. A lifelong Fredericktown resident, Ray graduated from Fredericktown in 1958. He was inducted into the Hall in 1990 for football and baseball.
Younger brother Roger graduated in 1961 and was enshrined in 1989, joining his father as a charter member of the prestigious organization. Roger was a 1965 graduate of Capital University and was enshrined in Capital’s Hall of Fame in 1991.
Sitting in the restaurant, it does not take much of a leap to look at 86-year-old Ray and see in his eyes the fire that made him a Hall of Fame football player many years ago.
Ray began his collegiate football career with the Falcons at Bowling Green State University. He quickly learned one of the differences between high school and Division I football.
“I remember at practice time, the coach put me in on defense. We had a good running back. He was, I don’t know, about 6-2, and you just knew he was going to run over you. He came at me, and when I got up off the ground, my nose was poking through the ear hole,” Ray said, laughing.
He left the Falcons.
After getting married and with a toddler at home, Ray’s wife encouraged him to return to college.
“I enrolled at Capital University (a Division III school), and thought I would have a better chance there. I made the team,” Ray explained.
Putting his hand on Ray’s shoulder, Roger said, “He was a great athlete, and like a second father to me. Our dad was an over-the-road truck driver and was away from home a lot. [Ray] taught me so much.”
Freddie red runs deep
Ray’s son, Jim Davis, graduated in 1988 and was the third generation of the Davis family enshrined in the Hall. He was recognized for football and baseball and inducted in 1999.
Kelsey (Zollars) Budd graduated in 2003 and is Ray’s granddaughter. She was named to the Hall for girls’ track and field and basketball, making her the fourth generation of the Davis family in the Hall of Fame.
Another of Ray’s grandchildren, Merrit Zollars, graduated in 2008. Merrit joins Kelsey as the fourth generation in the Hall and was inducted in 2013. Merritt played football, basketball, and baseball for the Freddies.
Ray thinks there might someday be more Hall of Famers with the last name of Davis.
“I have 16 great-grandchildren,” he said with the pride in his voice that only a great-grandfather could understand.
Willie’s name lives on, too, through an annual golf outing held the first Saturday after the Fourth of July: The Willie Davis Youth Football Outing.
This year’s event, which benefits aspiring third- through sixth-grade football players, is scheduled for July 11 at Chapel Hill Golf Club.
“If you don’t put your name on things, they forget about you,” Roger said, wearing a bright red shirt with Willie Davis emblazoned on the front as he described the Willie Davis Youth Football Association.
Staunch supporters of the current Freddies
Moving up to more recent athletic events, Roger said there is no doubt that this year’s basketball team will make it into the Hall as a team with its 23-1 record.
“The 1949 team was 27-2, but unbeaten [in regular season]?” he said.
The Freddies ended their 23-1 season with a gut-wrenching 61-60, last-second loss to Fairbanks in the district semi-finals.
Roger also follows the present-day Fredericktown gridiron team and has high praise for its head coach.
“That Scott Spitler. Oh my God, what a special football coach he is. He is a life changer,” Roger said.
No future Hall of Fame induction ceremony is scheduled at this time. The most recent induction ceremony was in 2023, when 13 athletes and one coach were enshrined.
