Roosevelt Davis never fit into a mold.
Standing at 5-foot-7 and 165 pounds, his physique is not one of a typical football player.
Neither is his career path, as the fifth-year political science student aspires to trade the football field for the medical field by pursuing a master’s degree in nursing.
Balancing hours of practice, weights, film and team meetings in addition to demanding classes can be difficult, which makes Davis’ professional aspirations unusual. Davis, however, is no stranger to taking the road less traveled.
Initially headed to Arizona State after being offered few attractive football scholarships, a phone call from UCLA in the May of his senior year of high school redirected Davis’s course entirely. Three years after the running back walked onto the UCLA football team, Davis became a scholarship player, appearing in all 13 games last season.
Like everything else in his college career, one of his first opportunities to prove himself on the field was far from easy. Davis entered the annual rivalry matchup with USC as a kick returner on Nov. 17, 2012. The then-redshirt freshman faced pouring rain and a team that had trounced UCLA 50-0 just 12 months earlier.
Instead of collapsing under pressure, Davis sprinted for a 21-yard kick return in the Bruins’ momentous 38-28 win.
The redshirt senior’s composure on the field translates to other aspects of his life, as Davis remains undaunted by the additional obstacles he faces on his career path.
Davis attributes his inspiration to tackle a demanding career to his grandmother, Joyce Bennette, the former director of nursing at the Nashville General Hospital in Tennessee, as well as his aunt and mother, who are both medical professionals.
Davis also found support in his father, Roosevelt Davis III, who holds high academic standards for all his children, with Davis’ athletic talent allowing him no exceptions. The running back’s impressive high school transcript was the tipping point in his admission to UCLA, where he was accepted on the basis that he would walk on to the football team.
“We like to see them playing sports and on the football field, (but) our first thing is get an education, get your degree, and that was the promise we had (our children) make to us no matter what,” Davis III told the Daily Bruin in 2012.
Even with his family’s blessing, Davis was insecure at first about becoming a nurse. Bennette said that the various social stigmas surrounding male nurses and whether men could be successful in the field caused Davis to doubt himself. Davis’s grandmother said she used her experience in the field to assuage her grandson’s uncertainties.
“Don’t ever say ‘I can’t.’ … I always tell people it’s not even a word that should be in anyone’s vocabulary,” Bennette said. “Always aspire to do more.”
While Davis told the Daily Bruin in 2012 that he toured the science buildings on campus in awe as a prospective student, it took the running back some time to decide on his direction. When he was lost, he always turned to Bennette for advice.
“There was a short period of time when he felt like he wasn’t making any headways and my thing to him was I sat down and talked to him and said, you know, everyone has those times,” Bennette said. “But you pick up and you think about it and you go on. You don’t let anything stop you from doing what you aspire to do.”
The running back is one of only two football players working towards a nursing career, along with offensive lineman Cristian Garcia. Davis said he and Garcia, a history major, would keep each other awake in their science prerequisite courses after early morning training sessions.
While nursing students log 12-hour shifts in hospitals, Davis and Garcia often spend the same amount of time in the weight room, meeting room or Intramural Field. Garcia said that transitioning to ward shifts won’t be a problem since he and Davis are so accustomed to long hours and hard work.
“You just gotta find any time you can. Sometimes you can either decide to rest or you can study,” Garcia said. “Since both of us have that hard path that we want to do and choose to pursue, we just have to do it. It just has to be part of our lives.”
Davis said focus and sacrifice have been crucial to his success both on the field and in the classroom. His teammates see him as a leader in practice, a so-called “Practice MVP,” which Davis believes will translate to his future profession.
“With football, you’re a brotherhood so you care for each other, so (it’s) just caring for others like you care for your brothers on the team,” Davis said. “I love people and just being able to help other people like I help my team – it’s not all for yourself. I’d be able to help people by being a nurse or anesthesiologist or whatever my pathway turns out to be.”