Jim "Coon Dog" Davis (1997) - Southern Miss M-Club Hall of Fame

Jim "Coon Dog" Davis

Induction:
1997

Some men play the game of football for no other reason than the fact that it is a part of them, a part of them that loves the challenge, the competition and chance to be a part of the team that builds and works together to try to reach a shared goal that can be enjoyed by each and every one of them.
   Jim (Coon Dog) Davis was a player like that.
   Jim Davis left high school to fight for his country at the end of the second World War and on completion of that tour of duty, wound up at LSU, from there he reentered the U.S. Marine Corps and fought for nearly two years in the Korean War before finally winding up at Southern Miss, where as a two way tackle from 1952 through 1954 he would establish himself as one of the better linemen in school history.
   As a valuable reserve on Coach Thad (Pie) Vann’s 1952 team, Davis’ blocking on offense and aggressive play on the defensive front helped led the team to its first post-season bowl game of the post World War II era, the Sun Bowl.
   That 1952 team posted a 10-1 record during the regular season, losing to Alabama in the season opener and then running off a string of 10 straight wins. The offensive football team with Davis blocking was one of the most explosive in the history of the school. That ’52 team still holds the school record for most points in a season with 402, an average of 40.2 points per game. That team also scored 60 touchdowns, 39 on the ground and 18 through the air, both still school records.
   The team was a pretty good defensive squad as well that year, recording two shutouts, and six times holding the opponents to 14 points or less.
   Davis’ 1953 team was almost as good. His junior year saw the team defeat an Alabama team in the season opener that many people felt like was the best team in the country. That 25-19 win over the Crimson Tide engineered by Davis and his teammates helped put Southern Miss football on the map. That ’53 team with Davis now solidly entrenched in the starting lineup finished the year 9-2 and would go on to play Texas-El Paso in the Sun Bowl.
   The ’53 defense recorded five shutouts with Davis anchoring the defensive line.
   The 1954 team would finish with a 6-4 mark but Coon Dog was again one of the leaders on offense and defense, that among other things that year defeated Alabama in the season opener for the second year in a row, this time by a score of 7-2.
   In Davis’s three seasons at Southern Miss the teams had a record of 25-8, played in two bowl games, scored over 30 points 13 times and eight times shut their opponents out.
   By the way the nickname Coon Dog came partly because Jim could holler much louder and stronger than any one else and because he was pretty tough and the man you wanted with you when you went to war, whether for real or on the football field.