{"id":297686,"date":"2026-05-18T03:03:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T03:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/297686\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T03:03:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T03:03:28","slug":"texas-hbcu-football-star-william-davis-dead-at-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/297686\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas HBCU Football Star William Davis Dead at 22"},"content":{"rendered":"

HBCU Football Star William Davis
\n Dead at 22<\/p>\n

\n Published
\n May 17, 2026
\n 7:15 PM PDT\n <\/p>\n

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Sam Houston State University is mourning the loss of defensive back William Davis, who has died at the age of 22, TMZ has confirmed.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Sam Houston State University tells TMZ \u2026 “We are deeply saddened by the sudden passing of SHSU student-athlete Will Davis.”<\/p>\n

The school’s Head Football Coach\u00a0Phil Longo\u00a0released a statement saying … “It is with heavy hearts that we mourn the loss of Will Davis. Will was a beloved member of our Bearkat football family here at Sam Houston who touched the lives of everyone he knew.”<\/p>\n

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Coach Longo continues … “Will was an upbeat, positive, passionate young man who will be sincerely missed. Tanya, the kids and I are praying for Will’s family during this difficult time.”<\/p>\n

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Davis had most recently transferred to Sam Houston State earlier this year after a standout collegiate journey that began at Virginia Union University, where he played three seasons from 2022 through 2024. The cause of death was not immediately released.<\/p>\n

Davis joined the Bearkats for spring workouts in Huntsville this past April and was preparing for a fresh start with the program.<\/p>\n

Waiting for your permission to load the Instagram Media.<\/p>\n

After committing to SHSU, Davis expressed excitement about his next chapter, saying the school felt like home right away and emphasizing his desire to find a strong cultural fit far from his home state of Virginia.<\/p>\n

Sam Houston State officials say the program plans to honor Davis during the 2026 season, though details have not yet been announced.<\/p>\n

Will was 22.<\/p>\n

RIP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HBCU Football Star William Davis Dead at 22 Published May 17, 2026 7:15 PM PDT Sam Houston State…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57,223,154,12691,33804],"class_list":["post-297686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-tmz-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}