A career featuring dozens of home highlights concludes when Davis faces Michigan State’s Joe Williams tonight and Purdue’s Logan Brown on Sunday at Rec Hall. Davis, a three-time All-American from Harrisburg, is 21-1 in home dual meet. But the record includes an asterisk. A 6-4 loss to Ohio State’s J.D. Bergman on Feb. 18, 2005 came at the Bryce Jordan Center.
Davis doesn’t have a precise explanation for his Rec Hall success although it might be attributed to the rush he receives when he enters the main floor of the 79-year-old building. “It used to be a half-hour before my match,” Davis said Thursday. “I would get flushed with all different types of feelings and I couldn’t concentrate and I’d just get super-jittery. Now, that happens for about 30 seconds and I just go out and wrestle. I think that excitement makes me want to go out and overperform at Rec Hall.” Perhaps no Penn State wrestler this decade has evoked more emotions at Rec Hall than Davis. Thumps — the ones that cause fans to become super-jittery — often occur during his bouts. Last week against Michigan’s Anthony Biondo, more than 4,000 fans leaned forward in their seats as Davis worked from the top position. Davis entertained the audience by placing Biondo into three separate cradles to earn a 15-0 technical fall.
The unpredictability intrigued coach Troy Sunderland and assistant Dave Hart when they recruited Davis in 2002. “I remember talking to some of his friends’ mothers and they said Phil is such an outgoing, friendly, charismatic kid that they always felt like he was part of their family when they went on wrestling trips,” Sunderland said. “I think that just comes out on the mat with Phil — the smile, the expressions that he has, waving his fingers with his foot on the line. “Those are the kinds of things fans don’t see real often, and of course, he has the ability to score a lot of points and get pins. Sometimes he’s looking like he’s nowhere and the next thing the kid he’s wrestling is on his back.”
Davis, who never attended a wrestling match at Rec Hall until 2002, has produced bonus points for the Nittany Lions in 15 of his 21 Rec Hall dual meet victories. Two bouts last winter demonstrated Davis’ dominance in the building. After locking a cradle to complete a pin against Bergman, Davis flexed over his fallen opponent, an image that appeared vividly in this newspaper the following day. Two weeks later, he pinned Iowa’s Rick Loera to help the Nittany Lions defeat the Hawkeyes before 5,841 fans. Davis decked Loera during a weekend where he told reporters he would enjoy sending a Dan Gable-coached wrestler to his back. “There’s just so much emotion out there with the way Phil can put points on the board,” said director of wrestling operations Aaron Anspach, a former Nittany Lion heavyweight who followed Davis in matches last season. “The dual meet was basically finished after he got done with somebody. He’s a catalyst for the entire team.”
Davis said no Rec Hall moment epitomizes his career more than a weeknight bout with Lock Haven’s aggressive Morgan Horner in 2005. Davis wasn’t around to see the start of the match. Instead of mingling in Rec Hall, he attended a 6 p.m. physiology class at the Willard Building. Davis told the coaching staff to call him when the match reached 157 pounds because he doesn’t need as much time as some wrestlers to warmup. Davis, who brought multiple Gatorades to class, received the call after the 125-pound bout. He regained his sweat and watched teammates compete before experiencing a messy start to his bout. Davis trailed Horner, one of the best Lock Haven wrestlers to never become an All-American, 6-2 entering the third period. But Davis foreshadowed future success by scoring 14 third-period points to defeat the exhausted Horner 16-6. “It was ridiculous,” Davis said. “That’s how I would describe myself as a person — not even as a wrestler — that match. I don’t care if I’m going to lose by 15, you’re going to wakeup sore.”
It’s possible Williams and Brown could experience similar physical discomfort this weekend. And, by Sunday, Davis might be experiencing emotional discomfort. “I’m going to miss the fans,” he said. “It’s pretty intense. The only thing better than this would be maybe wrestling worlds in the BJC.”
Notes:Sam Harry, a three-time letterwinner in the 1940s who lives in the Harrisburg area, will be honored tonight as Penn State’s oldest living wrestler. The program will also honor members of undefeated teams from 1970-72 and the squad that won the 1953 NCAA title The events are part of the program’s 100th anniversary celebration.
Thanks to Guy Cipriano and the "Centre Daily Times' (State College, Pa.) for the article