About Inductee

For the past 15 years, Rick Davis has been steadily climbing the ladder in Alabamas corporate and business world, first at Huntsvilles Teledyne Brown, then the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce, and now since September of 2011 as the Senior Vice President for Economic Development at the Birmingham Business Alliance. As a co-worker once told me, Youre doing great, Rick, Davis mused recently. Youre at the apex of a third mediocre career. The truth is, it may be a third career, but none of it has been mediocre. For nearly 25 years from the mid-1970s until late 1990s, Rick Davis was one of the best sports journalists in Huntsville, first as an award-winning television sportscaster and later as an award-winning sportswriter at The Huntsville Times. In between, he worked in radio and was the first play-by-play radio broadcaster for the Huntsville Stars from 1985-87. A native of Cleveland, Tenn., and a Tennessee graduate, Davis was employed at a small radio station in Knoxville in 1975. My inflated ego told me I was being disrespected, Davis recalled. He asked Vic Rumore, the stations general manager, for a raise. Rumore requested a couple of days to think it over, then called and said, Theres not any more money. I guess youll have to leave. Davis said OK and left. With no job and no prospects, he drove south to visit relatives in Huntsville, where he landed an interview with M. D. Smith, WAAY-TVs general manager. Smith told him that he didnt have anything in the news department, but a sports anchor job was open. You mean, like, on the air? said Davis, dumbfounded. Smith grinned and said, Yes, on the air. Four days later, Davis was on the air at Channel 31, where he worked two different occasions for almost seven years. Between the two stops at WAAY, Davis worked two years at WAFF-TV, Channel 48. I dont know why M. D. hired me off the street without so much as one day of experience in television, Davis said. But it was the turning point of my professional life. It brought me a notoriety that follows me still today. One of his early TV interviews was with Don Mincher, who owned a Huntsville trophy shop after playing 12 years in the major leagues. Years later, Davis called Mincher and told him he was going to apply for the new Huntsville Stars play-by-play radio job. If he got it, would Mincher consider being his color analyst? Mincher chuckled and said, Well, I would, but I think Im going to be the General Manager. Within a few days, Mincher was the GM and Davis was the Stars play-by-play guy. Davis work with the Stars indirectly led to a full-time newspaper job in the sports department at The Huntsville Times. Davis remembers it this way: One of their sportswriters asked, on behalf of his boss John Pruett, if Id help them with game information when the Stars were on the road that first season in 1985. I said sure, and if youd issue me a computer, I could send notes and quotes. At midsummer, Jose Canseco was abruptly promoted to Triple-A while the Stars were in Columbus, Ga. Davis spent hours phoning key people for comments, then transmitted several stories to the paper. Pruett called him the next day. John was amazed, really, said Davis. He said, Son, you missed your calling. I thought, Hmm. Davis came to work for The Times in 1988 and stayed until 1999, covering everything from baseball to SEC football to auto racing. His favorite assignments were the 1991 World Series in Atlanta and then covering the NCLS and the World Series the following year, all the way through. The person who has had the most profound influence on Davis life is his wife, Debbie. She has put up with my I-think-Ill-try-that itch for 29 years, he said. Rick and Debbie have two daughters: Mae Margaret, 24, an Auburn graduate student, and Annie, 21, a junior at Auburn.