Tommy Ray Davis (October 13, 1934 – April 2, 1987) was an American professional
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
punter and
kicker
Kicker or The Kicker may refer to:
Sports
* Placekicker, a position in American and Canadian football
* ''Kicker'' (magazine), sports magazine in Germany
* Kicker, the German colloquial term for an association football player
* Kicker, the wor ...
for the
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member ...
of the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...
(NFL).
College career
Davis was a member of the national championship winning
1958 LSU Tigers football team
The 1958 LSU Tigers football team represented Louisiana State University (LSU) in American football during the 1958 college football season. After finishing the season with a 10–0 record the team was named consensus national champion by the A ...
.
Professional career
He played from
1959
Events
January
* January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance.
* January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...
to
1969
1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...
for the
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member ...
. He was selected to the
Pro Bowl
The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (since 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's All-star, star players.
The format has changed ...
after the 1962 and 1963 seasons, and was a second-team
All-Pro
All-Pro is an honor bestowed upon professional American football players that designates the best player at each position during a given season. All-Pro players are typically selected by press organizations, who select an "All-Pro team," a list t ...
in 1965.
Davis scored 738 points in his 10 year career, of which 348 were extra points. He missed only two extra points in his career. However, he had the unfortunate accolade of being the least accurate kicker in NFL history (for kickers who kicked for at least 100 attempts), only making 130 field goals out of 276 attempts for 47.1% accuracy.
He also punted for an overall 22,833 yards.
Personal life
Davis died of
lung cancer
Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, is a malignant tumor that begins in the lung. Lung cancer is caused by genetic damage to the DNA of cells in the airways, often caused by cigarette smoking or inhaling damaging chemicals. Damaged ...
on April 2, 1987, in
San Bruno, California
San Bruno () is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, incorporated in 1914. The population was 43,908 at the 2020 United States census. The city is between South San Francisco, California, South San Francisco and Millbrae, Cali ...
. He was 52 years old at the time of his death.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Tommy
1934 births
American football placekickers
American football punters
Fair Park High School alumni
LSU Tigers football players
National Conference Pro Bowl players
Players of American football from Shreveport, Louisiana
San Francisco 49ers players
Western Conference Pro Bowl players
1987 deaths