A survivor of multiple shootings, this ex-Cowboy earned his college degree just shy of 40

Keith Davis took his first college course in the fall of 1997, made it to the NFL, was shot multiple times, and on Friday, just a few weeks shy of his 40th birthday, earned his diploma.

“It’s an amazing story isn’t it?” Davis said on Monday. “When I think about it, it brings a tear to my eyes what I had to go through. I wouldn’t change anything.”

These stories never grow old, so enjoy this one: The former Dallas Cowboys safety, who made it on the roster as an undrafted rookie free agent in ‘02 and played six NFL seasons and survived multiple gunshot wounds during his career, is finally a college graduate.

On Friday night in Hunstville, Davis wore the gap and gown, flashed that unforgettable gold front tooth, and walked across the stage at the fall graduation ceremony at Sam Houston State. Davis earned his Bachelor of Science degree in kinesiology.

Since playing his last game at SHSU in 2001, he needed but three more hours to complete his degree. He took the remaining class this fall online to finish.

“Every time I would see him I would remind him,” said Chris Thompson, SHSU’s associate athletics director who has known Davis since he was recruited there. “He really did come here as a student-athlete and he trusted me.

“He promised his mom he would graduate, and if you knew his mom, he was going to have to keep that promise.”

From Italy to the NFL

Few people I have been around in the NFL appreciated being in the NFL more than Keith Davis, who was born at Dallas Parkland Hospital, and grew up in Italy, Texas where he was a standout three-sport athlete; he went on to become an All-American at then I-AA Sam Houston State.

In ‘02, he signed with the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent, and originally made the team on their practice squad. Most undrafted guys don’t make it past the first training camp. Most guys who slip through and land on a practice squad don’t make it to a Sunday NFL roster.

And most guys who are shot don’t make it. And guys who are shot again don’t live, let alone return to the NFL.

Davis did all of it.

He made it the first time because he was beloved by his first coach, Dave Campo.

After Campo was fired, Davis was involved in a shooting where he took a gunshot in the hip and elbow. He was picking up a friend at a Dallas-area night club.

New coach Bill Parcells didn’t suffer such events well, especially from fringe players. Bill was of a mind that nothing good happens after midnight. He cut Davis.

Davis was out of football in ’03, and Parcells brought him back for the ‘04 season. He did because the Cowboys needed players, and it was impossible to dislike Davis, who played the game as if his life depended on it. Because it probably did.

Davis initially made the Cowboys as a special teams player, but later moved all the way up to starting safety. He started 15 games in ‘05, and for a while was a team captain.

“I never knew any other team and it was my dream to play for them,” Davis said. “(Safety) Darren Woodson was my favorite player, and I got to play with him. I’m a kid who lived out his dream, so I never took it for granted.“

Despite interest from the New Orleans Saints, Davis stayed on with the Cowboys after they signed him to a two-year, $3 million contract. Shortly after agreeing to that deal, Davis was shot yet again.

In the summer of ‘06, he was shot driving on a Dallas highway when a car pulled up next to his vehicle and someone opened fire. Davis took two bullets that caused minor injuries.

Parcells retired after the ‘06 season, but Keith impressed his new coach, Wade Phillips.

One of the lasting images of Davis is when he was sitting on the bench with now deceased teammate Terry Glenn following the Cowboys’ playoff loss to the New York Giants in the NFC Divisional round in the ‘07 season. Davis and Glenn sat speechless, while the rest of their teammates headed to the locker room.

Davis signed with the Dolphins in ‘08, but he was released and he came back to the Cowboys for one final season.

The Raiders gave him a look after that season, but injuries had begun to do their thing. He briefly played in the United Football League in ‘10 and ‘11.

He said he has his good days and bad days, suffered multiple concussions from his playing career, and nerve damage gives him problems on his right side. Sleep is no easy task, and he often has to resort to a recliner to do it.

“You know, it is what it is,” he said. “But this is what I had to go through and I’m OK with that.”

A college graduate

Keith Davis played in 84 NFL games, thus securing the coveted NFL pension.

What he had not secured was his college degree. Thompson said Davis actually was on track to graduate back in ‘01, but he “stumbled” with one class.

He has his own business, a wife, four sons, one daughter, and he did not need this degree. But he needed just one class.

“I’d always tell my mom, ‘I’m going to go to the NFL,’ and she’d say, ‘That’s great but I want you to get your degree more than anything else,’” said Davis, who lives in DeSoto. “I wanted to do this for my mother, and to show my kids that anything we start we should finish, no matter how long it takes.”

On three previous occasions, Davis attempted to finish the degree but life got in the way. On Friday, life lined up.

Keith Davis joined the SHSU Hall of Fame in ‘14, is a member of the Southland Conference all-decade team, has a family, survived multiple shootings, is a vested NFL veteran of the Dallas Cowboys, and now he is a college graduate, too.

He’s right. That’s an amazing story.

This story was originally published December 11, 2018 at 7:00 AM.