A photo of Nashua High School football star Ed Davis in the 1960 yearbook

On the first page of the athletics section of the 1960 version of the Tusitala, the Nashua High School yearbook, one of the contributing writers penned a well-deserved tribute to a classmate by the name of Edwin Anthony Davis – a blonde haired, powerfully built young man better known as “All-American Ed.”

In fact, that nickname was the headline of the yearbook tribute to Davis, a three-year starting guard for Coach Buzz Harvey’s powerhouse elevens. Davis and Harvey were notified a few weeks earlier that Davis had been named a Scholastic Magazine Schoolboy football All-American.

The prestigious honor prompted the writer to note, “there is only one word to describe Ed Davis, and that is ‘great.’ There can certainly be no one who is more deserving of the title ‘All-American’ than Ed Davis.”

Until, that is, there was John Davis.

Five years after his big brother – although size wise, they both were pretty darn big, just ask any opposing lineman – earned his All-American title, John Davis was the subject of a similar, full-page spread in the 1965 edition of the Tusitala.

The page of the 1965 Nashua High School yearbook "Tusitala" that pays tribute to football star John Davis.

Like Ed, who recently moved to Cape Cod from the Worcester area, John Davis was a guard and the co-captain of the team his senior year. Now, the annals of Nashua High athletic history would cheerfully make room next to “All-American Ed” for “All-American John.”

In what has been a particularly difficult few years for members of the extended Davis family, they and others close to John Davis have been mourning his passing a couple of weeks ago in a local hospice, following a period of declining health.

While Davis’s passing is, of course, hardest on his family, it’s a loss that is also felt by legions of current and former Nashuans who were either part of, or grew up around, the so-called “glory days” of Nashua High athletics, especially the Harvey-Marandos era football teams that dominated not only New Hampshire schoolboy football but the New England – and on occasion, the national – scene as well.

But as it was under the Harvey-Marandos administration, while winning football games may have seemed to many duo’s number one overall goal, it actually placed a close second to achieving strength of character and respecting its close companion, education.

That’s why so many of the accolades bestowed upon Ed and John Davis – beginning with their accomplishments as stellar NHS student athletes – continued to come up in conversations in the ensuing decades.

John Davis, pictured in the 1965 Nashua High School yearbook

Even the ’65 Tusitala reporter who wrote about John Davis’s All-American selection knew how rounded his or her classmate was.

“A true leader” (I paraphrase a bit) both on and off the field whose efforts served as guiding examples for others to follow.

“With all the acclaim he has received for his great talents, he is a very modest person and without a doubt one of the most popular and best-liked boys in Nashua High,” the reporter wrote.

“Capacity Throng Pays Tribute to John Davis,” read the top headline in the sports section of a February 1965 Nashua Telegraph.

The story described an evening of honors for the young man, the third NHS gridster to receive All-American recognition behind his brother Ed in 1960 and the first NHS All-American, stellar end Al Briggs, in 1959.

The page in the 1960 Nashua High School yearbook dedicated to All-American selection Ed Davis also includes coaches Buzz Harvey and Tony Marandos.

In January 1965, shortly after the Scholastic Magazine folks wired John and his family – and Harvey, of course – telling him he was an All-American selection, the committee in charge of the annual Buddy Harvey Memorial dinner made plans to combine Davis’s testimonial with the Harvey dinner.

Charles “Buddy” Harvey Jr. was the son of the legendary coach who, after playing for his father in the 1950s, remained close friends with the kids on every team until his untimely passing at age 31 in November 1963.

Ed and John Davis, and their brother Peter and sister Louise, grew up on Meadowbrook Drive. Their parents, Edwin Sr. and Phyllis, passed some years ago.

In high school, both Ed Jr. and John had the classic “football star and cheerleader” relationships, Ed dating and eventually marrying Judy Parzych, while John dated, and eventually married, Brenda Devereux.

Sadly, Brenda just recently passed, not long after her and John’s son, Mark Davis, died after being suddenly stricken with a heart attack. He was 49.

Mark’s sister, Kristin Davis, wrote a lengthy, heartfelt tribute to her brother on a GoFundMe page she founded to “ease the burden” on their parents, John and Brenda Davis, by “raising money for my brother’s funeral services.”

Kristin Davis wrote that her brother “was always there for me, he taught me so much,” and was “my rock when my life fell apart 18 years ago.”

She referred to the car crash in 2000 that tragically claimed the life of her husband, Milford police Officer Brian Goulden.

The final sentences in the Ed Davis tribute in the 1960 Tusitala and the John Davis tribute in the 1965 Tusitala are remarkably similar. How could they not be?

“There can certainly be no one who is more deserving of the title ‘All-American’ than Ed Davis.”

“There can be no more fitting a title for John Davis than ‘All-American.'”

Indeed, the name Davis is what Purple Pride is all about.

Dean Shalhoup’s column appears weekly in The Sunday Telegraph. He may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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