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Chronicle Profile
Davis had the d
By AUDREY L. WILLIAMS
Chronicle Staff Writer
In inner-city New York, especially down on 153rd
Street and Seventh Avenue, cement was too
dangerous a turf to play tackle football. Instead, you
played basketball ? the man's game. It was htfw you
proved your manhood.
Basketball, the dreamer's game, where in your imaginary
world the ahhhhhhh, a sound effect you
made by expelling air from your lungs, was the audience
that cheered as you scored a 20-footer from
downtown, much to the displeasure of a Lakers
[ guard.
That's how the Wake Forest Basketball Hall of
Famer, Charlie Davis, describes the "dreamer's
game" he and other New York youngsters played.
He played at Wake from 1968 to 1971. For Davis, the
the Portland Trail Blazers.
"They fired me," says Davis. "The bottom line is
1 just wasn't playing well enough. Pro ball is a
business and they pay you well for performing well.
"1 always think about how I had the opportunity
to live the dream," he says. "I dreamed about playing
Oscar, Wilt and Kareem. 1 played 'em and 1
smoked 'em, too."
Davis, who was inducted into Wake's Hall of
Fame in February, is the First black in the school's
150-year history to be endowed with the honor. Today,
he is a personal banker at the East Winston
Branch Wachovia Bank and Trust Co., N.A., and a
Tucker and Banks receive
prancn.
: Banks has been promoted m
to president-branch
fnanager of Mechanics and /M
Farmers Bank Winston- jj I
Salem branch and Tucker HHHB HHH'
has been transferred to the Walter S. Tucker
local office as senior vice
president-city executive. \~ County Chapter of the Im a
Banks joined Mechanics stitute of Banking and is a b
fmd Farmers Bank in 1978 member if the Saint Mat- F
jas new accounts clerk and thews Baptist Church in n
head teller in the Raleigh Raleigh, where she co- v
office. Previously, she has chairs the board of trustees. S
Served as assistant vice Tucker previously served o
president-manager of the as senior vice president-city o
Rock Quarry Road Branch executive in Charlotte. He a
Of Mechanics and Farmers is a graduate of Virginia N
Pank. State College and Stonier B
; She is a native of Raleigh Graduate School of Bank- tl
pnd has served in many ing at Rutgers University. C
capacities with the bank, jpdcfcei; has worked with
5She came to Mechanics and Mechanics and Farmers n
tarmers Bank with over 10 Bank over 25 years, initially C
years banking experience in Durham and transferring C
trom anotner rsortn to cnariotte to assist in the n
Carolina bank. Bank's opening of the N
! She has served on many Charlotte branch. C
boards including the Tucker presently serves V
'American Institute of as a member of the board of tl
^Banking and the Raleigh directors of Mechanics and C
Wendell Branch of the Farmers Bank, as a member C
NAACP. She ispresently a of the board of trustees of n
member of the board of the University of North b
directors of the Wake Carolina at Chapel Hill, n
i
Dixon awarded UNC-G set
V
. virgiftia > Dixon of l
tree Street, has been
awarded an Alumni I
Scholarship to attend the
University of North
Carolina at Greensboro this
fall.
Valued at $1,500 a year, I
-the Alumni Scholarships I
are awarded annually on I
tKiA hacrc academic Stan
ding, intellectual promise, j
character, leadership ability
ambition.
The scholarships are I I
three
additional of
undergraduate study.
a at ^ 11
Asheville High School, Doretha 1
jplans to major in communications
and theatre or Junior Classical League,
.computer science at UNC- In addition, she was a j
G. semifinalist for a National 1
Listed in"Who's Who Achievement Scholarship i
'Among American High and she won first place in a t
^School Students,'' Dixon is Optimist speech contest, i
^treasurer of the National She also is a member of the ]
iHonor Society at her youth choir at her church 1
School, a member of the and a junior member of the ,
dance club and active in the YWCA board of directors. I
lance of a lifetime
family man.
Norwood Todman, the spoiler of Kareem AbdulJabaar's
high school basketball records and the first
black ('66-70) to play on Wake's basketball team, lived
across the street from Davis. When Todman got a
glimpse of him on the court, he let Wake in on the
secret. And it was the assistant coach, Billy Packer,
also a former Wake basketball standout and now a
sports commentator, who followed up on Todman's
tip and offered Davis a chance to play at the school.
It was Todman, Davis, Charlie Scott and Gil
McGregor who were the integrators of the
university's formerly all-white basketball team.
Those dreams that materialized into reality for
Davis are only memories now, and the slightly graying
34-year-old has at least two reminders that pain
him the most ? a bad knee and a bad foot.
plajtiti 'twHfcwtwn twrrwweHfr^w mm1
nard\goo<i Floors at nine," he says. "Now it's taking
its toll on my knee.
"My rookie year with Cleveland, we played the
Detroit Pistons," Davis says. "Bob Lanier's 22 stepped
on my foot and 1 was out for six weeks. Talking
about a man falling down in front of 5,000 people
and crying. Yeah, I cried."
For the past 16 months, Davis has resided in
Winston. After leaving Portland, he lived in
Roanoke, Va., and later New Jersey as a sales
representative for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., then
Keds and then Equitable Life Insurance Co.
He majored in English and minored in speech at
Wake.
promotions
_ e
^ m |p
Julia V. Banks mL
nd is a member of the MBT
oard of managers of flKfe*
v 1 i _ 9 w _ - i ?^H&Sn>:vK
iuniervme t-iospnai, hs mm .
lember of the board of
isitors of Johnson C. mm | Kpr
mith University, member Pf J
f the Housing Authority
f the City of Charlottee |^fc|
nd a member of 'the W
lecklenburg County ABC Jp~J^
loard. He is a member of yl>: I?
ne University Park Baptist f I
He has served as chair- ^ jHRjp:*
lan of the Redevelopment ;
:ommission of the City of ? , rMKlSk p .<
Charlotte as well as chair- ?
ian of the board of the * ijpll^ "
/linority Economic f *V
)evelopment Corporation. # 18'yv- f-'*~
le served as a member of ^ flpS
he board of directors of the fckj?
Charlotte Chamber of lift
Commerce and as a ? 1R-:
nember of the Mecklen- * jft;:
urg County Health Comnission.
< i . jS;*
Urilnvvhin ft L
m
The Alumni Awards Pro-am
at U1SJOG is funded
5y contributions from
ilumni and friends through
he University Annual Givng
Program. During the
1984-85 year, approximatey
17 students will hold
\lumni Scholarships at
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mj
Unlike many of his inner-city playmates, Wake
Davis had the opportunity to live a dream (phot
"Banking is just an extension of everything else m
I've done," he says. "Everybody else thinks I'm just gl
a basketball player. Only two and a half years of my o|
adult life have been basketball." H
ai
It's seldom that Davis says he even attempts a s<
same nf Wnrcp or Tw#?ntv_orn? TWo ar>hoc o?/-l mine
q-.-.w v . v. v v/i i waatj v/nv . I IIV UVUVJ U11U pUUl^
grow more intense with age, he says. bi
Although Davis says he would liked to have re- I'
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IMPORTED AND BOTTLED BY C*^^^V?
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it llliiO?.n>i, II III
The Chronicle, Thursday, May 31, 1984 Pag? A7
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s Forest University Hall of Famer Charlie
d by James Parker).
iained in the pros for at least 14 years and retired in
ory, he isn't bitter he says, because he did get the
pportunity to play in front of a "real audience."
[is focus now is his banking career, his wife, Linda,
nd his daughters, Sharrika and Sydney, whom he
tys he would rather bring up in the South.
"Hopefully, I can find the same level of success in
usiness as I found in sports," says Davis. "If I do,
11 do all right."
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