Under the guidance of Syracuse University football college football team coach Ben Schwartzwalder, Ernie Davis overcomes poverty and prejudice to become the first black man to win the Heisman Trophy, given to the most outstanding player in college football.

Davis was selected by the Washington Redskins in December 1961 and immediately traded to the Cleveland Browns.

He was diagnosed with leukemia in the summer of 1962 and died less than a year later at the age of 23, without ever playing in a professional game.