Robbie Davis – Always a Bulldog

It took me a long time Friday afternoon to get my head, and my heart, wrapped around the news that came to me while I was at the lake, that a dear friend and a CCHS Bulldog icon had likely suffered a heart attack and had died.

When I first sat down behind the microphone to perform the Public Announcer duties at Clinton County High School basketball games for the 1978-79 season, Robbie was a young guard playing for Lindle Castle.

But that hadn’t been my first encounter with this kid. By then, we had already developed an early friendship. While dating my high school sweetheart, Janie Upchurch – who later became my life partner and wife – I would accompany her to the Davis home from time to time and hang out while she picked up some extra spending money baby-sitting for Bob and Irene Davis.

Robbie was actually old enough at the time that the need for a baby-sitter was past, but younger sister Amy and baby brother Michael were still young enough they couldn’t be left alone, meaning that Robbie had to endure a few hours on the weekends with this high school girl watching over them.

Unless I came along, then the two of us would spend the night on the couch talking basketball, basketball and more basketball. I have never, and likely never will again, encounter anyone who could keep so many statistics in his head about players and their performances – later including his own.

He knew everything there was to know about any (then) modern player who had ever worn the blue and white uniform for the University of Kentucky Wildcats and had ever played the game on the Memorial Coliseum floor.

Later, as he donned a blue and white uniform himself and performed for our own Clinton County Bulldogs, he knew at any given time, not only how many shots he had made and missed during a game, but the same about his own teammates on the floor and those of the opponents. Throw in assists and rebounds as well. All the time, while running the game himself from his point guard spot.

Rob came to the office to talk basketball. Rob came to the P.A. table to talk basketball. Rob came to our house to talk basketball. Sometimes other subjects might pop up during a conversation, but not for long – it was always basketball and hardly ever anything outside of sports.

Our friendship grew throughout his high school playing years and likely, I grew closer to that kid than any other of the many I’ve befriended down through the years that was associated with a basketball team I’ve covered and announced, with the one exception of Kevin Dailey, a manager from the early 1990s.

As his playing career continued, his level of competitiveness continued to become more and more intense. He loved to compete and he loved to win. He loved to show his arrogance on the court, and that earned him a bad reputation with many opponents. What they didn’t understand was that with his cockiness and mouthing on the floor, he wasn’t being a bad guy – he was just being an athlete who fiercely believed in himself and his team.

He was just being Robbie.

After he graduated from CCHS, he never really left. He was back at every opportunity while going to college and all through his adult years. At games and practices. Helping coaches, helping volunteering, helping at Booster Club auctions.

Many times, when I knew I would have to miss a game away from the P.A. desk – especially during daytime holiday tournament games – Robbie, who had never had any difficulty talking – was a quick choice to fill in until I could get free.

He coached AAU teams. He coached middle school teams. He came to games, boys and girls, home and away, whenever he could. He was the symbol of the phrase I’ve used here time after time over the years . . .. “Once a Bulldog, Always a Bulldog.”

I made a photo of Rob standing on the ladder after the conclusion of that 1982 championship game, proclaiming Clinton County to be No. 1 and that image has stuck in my mind since that night and has become my “brain icon” of Robbie Davis whenever he comes to mind. This past few days – that image has seldom left my thoughts.

He was a player. He was a fan. He was a son, a brother and an uncle. He was a husband and as fiercely as he was a competitor on the floor, he was as intense when it came to being a father.

He was proud. He was arrogant. He was cocky. He was always first in line when someone – especially a kid, needed help.

As another longtime friend, Mike Beard, said to me Friday just minutes after I had heard the news, “He was one of those guys who would be around forever”.

He was my friend. And I’m going to miss him. So will Clinton County High School basketball.

Once a Bulldog, Always a Bulldog – and Robbie will always be a Bulldog in my heart.