THE OFFICIAL ATHLETICS SITE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH ALABAMA LIONS

James Davis, a Clanton, Ala., native, was a four-year letterman and three-year starter  on  the Lions football teams from 1987-90 and was chosen for the Gulf South Conference “Team of the Quarter Century.” He was  the first UNA player to achieve first-team All-America   status in  two different seasons  - 1989 and 1990. He ended his career   as the leading tackler in UNA and Gulf South Conference history  (at that time)  with 528 total stops.  He made 147 tackles in 1990 to become the first Lion to ever make more than 100 tackles in three different seasons. During 1990 he was named GSC Defensive Player of the Week three times, was the National Division II Defensive Player of  the Week twice and Regional Defensive Player of the Week once by the Football Gazette and USA Today. He was named State Small College Athlete of the Year by the Alabama Sports Writers Association in 1990. Davis was a two-time All-GSC and two-time Academic All-GSC selection in 1989 and 1990. He also received the GSC Commissioner’ s Trophy as the top  male student-athlete in the league in 1990-91.

He holds the school record for most tackles in a game with 24, which he accomplished twice. He was the only active player chosen for the GSC Team of the Decade for the 1980s, and he was also named to the 50th Anniversary UNA Football Team in 1998. His many accomplishments off the field include winning the national Phi Beta Lambda Impromptu Speaking Competition in Washington, D.C. in 1990. 

Davis earned a B.S. degree in Marketing and Finance from UNA in 1989 and later added a Master's of Business Administration degree from UNA in 1992. He has served as a teacher and coach at Dallas County High School, Selma High School and Smith's Station High School before taking a position as  principal of Loachapoka Elementary School.  While he was a marketing teacher at Smith's Station , he coordinated the Marketing Education Program of the Year in the state of Alabama for 1997. Davis also serves as a member of the American Red Cross Disaster Team.