Ernie Davis

Ernie Davis was an American football player, a halfback who won the Heisman Trophy in 1961 and was its first African-American recipient. He played college football for Syracuse University and in 1962 was drafted by the Washington Redskins. Immediately after being drafted he was traded to the Cleveland Browns. Davis was diagnosed with leukemia in the summer of 1962 and died less than a year later at age 23, without ever playing in a professional game