This year celebrates the centennial season of men's basketball at Tennessee. The News Sentinel continues its series looking into the players, teams and events that have molded an exciting history.
He wasn’t just any run-of-the-mill recruit. In 1961, A.W. Davis attracted a Who’s Who list of college coaches to little Rutledge, Tenn.
Arvis Watsell Davis was the all-time Tennessee state high school scoring champion by the time he fired his last shot for Rutledge High School. He was 6-foot-7 and averaged 35 points a game.
In the end, coach John Sines prevailed and Davis, who would be known fondly both as “the Rutledge Rifle” and “The Man with the Golden Arm,’’ signed to play basketball at Tennessee.
The Vols hadn’t been setting the world on fire in the late 1950s and the start of the ‘60s. But getting Davis on board was a timely turning point. Coach Ray Mears arrived in 1962, just as Davis was ready to suit up for the first time as a sophomore (freshmen were ineligible).
Led by Davis and guard Danny Schultz, Mears first team finished 13-11, UT’s first winning record in three years. It only got better.
Davis, a lanky player with a fine offensive touch, averaged 17.3 points as a junior as the Vols improved to 16-8 and 9-5 in the SEC.
As a senior, Davis scored at a 19.6-point clip and the Vols went 20-5, their first 20-win season in 17 years. A 12-4 record was good for second place in the SEC.
Davis was first-team All-SEC and made All-America teams with the Helms Foundation and U.S. Basketball Writers.
He bowed out with 1,225 points, third best in UT history at the time. He was also an 80 percent free-throw shooter.
Davis was drafted by the L.A. Lakers but never really intended to play pro ball. He coached at McMinn Central High School, at UT as an assistant under Mears and finally at Walters State Community College.
He also found a spot as John Ward’s broadcast sidekick for several years.
You can still spot “The Rutledge Rifle” at most home games, sitting behind the basket along press row.
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Comments » 9
db11_cn writes:
There's a great "sucker trivia" question that applies here.
"Name the 6'7" star who led his tiny E. Tennessee high school team to the state tournament in 1961 and went on to be a standout for Ray Mears at UT."
A.W. Davis is almost always the name quickly blurted out. But the correct answer is Bobby Hogsett of Holston Valley
(now Sullivan East). The catch is, Davis and Rutledge fell one game short of making it to the state (ironically held that year at the Armory Fieldhouse at UT). On the night Rutledge lost, Holston Valley won the other semi-final game to earn the state tourney slot. A Hogsett vs Davis matchup in the finals had been much-anticipated, but it didn't happen.
ggriggs939#223122 writes:
One of his HS opponent's coaches said he had come up with a 'sure fire' plan to stop A W from scoring. He put three men to guard him. A W scored only 35 that night.
The difference between A W and Bobby Hogsett was that
A W played with finesse while Bobby was a driving force around the basket.
Timed_vol (Inactive) writes:
predates my memory by a few years, but I do remember AW helping out JOhn.
It's always a ittle bittersweet to see these old-time pictures, kind of like looking at pics of WWII soldiers: you see guys in their prime, caught in a moment of their life, and it's kind of sad they can't still be at that age and vitality.
WeLoveTennesseeVols writes:
Wow, I remember watching Danny Schultz on TV hitting those (3's-nope, there were no threes then), but long 2's!
ect1983 writes:
I am pretty sure Bobby Hogsett later became principal at his old HS and passed away pretty young from a heart attack....does anyone know ??
db11_cn writes:
True, Bobby Hogsett was more a "Howard Bayne" type player than an A.W.
I think I am correct on the circumstances of his death. Hogsett earned a masters degree in administration. He was working in this capacity at Va. Tech when an ex-employee, whom Hogsett had fired only a few days earlier, returned to the administration building where he confronted, shot, and killed Hogsett. I think it happened in 1980 or '81.
orangebloodgmc writes:
When was Austin "Red" Robbins?
johnlg00#206211 writes:
My high school team played a scrimmage game with the UT freshmen when A.W. was with them. I had never been on the court with anyone that tall! And then to watch him nailing one 15'-18' jumper after another at that height...well, I began to seriously doubt that I could become an All-American after all(;-P)! Needless to say, it was quite an education. I don't think he said a word during the whole scrimmage. He was as quiet, modest, and unassuming as anyone could be with all the attention he had already attracted at that young age. He was my first "favorite Vol" and still in my all-time top five.
BillVol writes:
Fantastic video!!! Great job, Mike!
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