Eugene Davis

Who is Eugene Davis?

Eugene Davis was an American doctor and surgeon who was also a former head coach of the Virginia Tech college football program during the 1900 season. Davis's team played only 1 home game that season, beating St. Albans. The rest of the schedule was played away beating North Carolina State 18-2, a scoreless tie against the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, lost to the University of Virginia 5-17, defeated Clemson in Charlotte, North Carolina 5-12, and lost to the biggest rival at the time, Virginia Military Institute, 0-5.

He was born in Charlottesville in 1870 to D. C. T. and Mary Davis. Davis was a member of Phi Delta Theta. Around 1898, Davis was elected president of the general athletic association at the University of Virginia, described in an 1899 publication as "the highest honor within the gift of student body". He married Marguerite Sanders in 1910 in Wytheville. He also served as the first health commissioner of Charleston, West Virginia from 1906 to 1909. After practicing medicine in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and his home state of Virginia, Davis served in World War I as a surgeon and medic. He was honorably discharged.