{"id":298548,"date":"2026-05-18T19:37:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T19:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/298548\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T19:37:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T19:37:11","slug":"texas-college-football-player-william-davis-dies-at-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/298548\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas College Football Player William Davis Dies at 22"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A college football player has died at the age of 22<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">William Davis recently transferred to Sam Houston State University in Texas<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Virginia native had a standout 2024 season at Virginia Union, a Division II HBCU<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">William Davis, a rising college football star who recently transferred to Sam Houston State University in Texas, has died at the age of 22, the school announced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;It is with heavy hearts that we mourn the loss of Will Davis,\u201d Sam Houston State head football coach Phil Longo <a href=\"https:\/\/gobearkats.com\/news\/2026\/5\/17\/football-statement-from-phil-longo-on-the-passing-of-will-davis\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:said in a statement;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;said in a statement&quot;}\" class=\"link \">said in a statement<\/a> on Sunday, May 17. \u201cWill was a beloved member of our Bearkat football family here at Sam Houston who touched the lives of everyone he knew. Will was an upbeat, positive, passionate young man who will be sincerely missed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Davis\u2019 cause of death was not immediately known.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The graduate senior from South Boston, Va., joined the Sam Houston program last month just before spring practice, after playing at West Virginia and Virginia Union, a Division II HBCU, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chron.com\/sports\/college\/article\/sam-houston-state-will-davis-death-22263643.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:according to the Houston Chronicle;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;according to the Houston Chronicle&quot;}\" class=\"link \">according to the Houston Chronicle<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"William DavisCredit: William Davis\/Instagram\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"320\" height=\"480\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/9135ca5921904d1f43256a07454f54d3.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>William Davis<br \/>Credit: William Davis\/Instagram<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">At Virginia Union in 2024, he earned all-conference honors after tallying 56 tackles, two interceptions and making one sack. While at the school, Davis earned his bachelor\u2019s degree in entrepreneurial management.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Follow your favorite athletes on and off the field with <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/people-sports-newsletter-signup-11947275\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:PEOPLE&#039;s free sports newsletter;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;PEOPLE&#039;&quot;}\" class=\"link \">PEOPLE&#8217;s free sports newsletter<\/a> \u2014 sign up now!<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Davis transferred to West Virginia for the 2025 season in which he only played in the Mountaineers\u2019 season-opener.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Now, his new team joins those who are mourning the defensive back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;We lost a member of our Bearkat family this weekend and everyone is in pain today,\u201d Sam Houston athletic director Bobby Williams said in a statement. \u201cMy heart hurts right now for the family, friends, coaches and teammates of William Davis. We are never prepared when we lose someone suddenly in our lives and it&#8217;s especially tough when it is someone so young and still has a full life in front of them. I want to express my sincerest condolences to Will&#8217;s family and everyone whose lives he touched.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Read the original article on <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/texas-college-football-player-william-davis-dies-at-22-11977815\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:People;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;People&quot;}\" class=\"link \">People<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW A college football player has died at the age of 22 William Davis recently transferred&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[108605,5071,18971,27,29,28,108602,108603,108604,108601],"class_list":["post-298548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-bearkat-football","tag-sam-houston","tag-sam-houston-state-university","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-virginia-union","tag-will-davis","tag-william","tag-william-davis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298548","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=298548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}