ELMIRA, N.Y., March 18 (UPI) -- Officials in upstate New York suspect it was kids who stole the football from the headstone of Heisman Trophy winner Ernie Davis.
The football disappeared from a glass case at the Elmira cemetery where Davis, the first black player to win the Heisman, was buried in 1963.
Tom Henegar, superintendent of Woodlawn Cemetery, told the Ithaca (N.Y.) Journal he suspected the theft was the work of juvenile delinquents because a serious collector would have taken the case as well.
The football was first placed on Davis' grave last year by persons unknown. Henegar said the ball and case have been removed before, but have always turned up elsewhere in the cemetery.
"It's a shame that this happened," said Henegar. "If things aren't nailed down, they will probably be taken but I hope the football will be returned."
Davis won the Heisman in 1961 while he was an All-America player at Syracuse. He died of leukemia two years later without ever playing a game for the NFL.
