NIU pays tribute to late CHANCE founder

by Mark McGowan

Every fall, Leroy Mitchell awaited his annual phone call from McKinley "Deacon" Davis.

Davis, founder of NIU's CHANCE program, would press Mitchell for the latest enrollment numbers. How many students, Davis would want to know, were taking advantage of an opportunity for a college education that regular admissions standards might have denied?

"This program, long after he left the university, was his first love," said Mitchell, who took over the CHANCE program in 1980. "It really was a part of who he was."

Mitchell will not hear from his predecessor this fall - Davis died March 20 in Rockford at the age of 70 - but will continue working toward Davis' dream.

He and his staff also will work in Davis' name.

NIU President John Peters announced earlier this month that he has changed the program's official name to the Deacon Davis CHANCE program. Davis and former NIU President Rhoten Smith launched CHANCE (Counseling, Help and Assistance Necessary for a College Education) in 1968 to recruit, retain and graduate educationally disadvantaged students.

"Deacon Davis and the CHANCE program have opened the doors of this university to thousands of deserving, capable students through the years, providing them with great opportunities and energizing our campus through diversity," Peters said. "We are honored to pay tribute to Deacon and his family in this way, making sure his legacy is remembered for years to come."

"We're exhilarated and surprised. He poured a lot of sweat and tears into Northern," said Randy Davis, Deacon's son.

"This is just a great testament to the vision he's always had for the kids going to Northern - that they got a chance to better themselves and make a difference," he added. "That's all my dad was about - for progress and making a difference - with anyone he came in contact with, no matter what their economic background was, instilling in them just to keep pushing on and reach their dreams."

Davis, a basketball star at Freeport High School and the University of Iowa, joined the Harlem Globetrotters from 1955 to 1957. During his travels across the country, he studied the condition of U.S. high schools in the inner-cities and began to envision what one day would become the CHANCE program.

The program enrolled 50 inner-city students at its birth - 2,100 students are in CHANCE today - and had one counselor, Jerry Durley, who offered emotional support, tutoring and academic counseling.

CHANCE now boasts a staff of 18, including the director, the associate director, two assistant directors, 10 counselors and two financial aid counselors. The program has welcomed more than 15,000 students to NIU, thousands of whom graduated and continued their education to become doctors, lawyers, professors, teachers and other professionals who make positive contributions to society.

After his time with CHANCE, Davis served NIU as executive director of intercollegiate athletics and as assistant to the president prior to his departure in 1983. He then became a financial analyst for Primerica Financial Services/Citigroup. At the time of his death, he was a national sales director with offices in Rockford, Chicago and Pittsburgh. Randy and one of his two sisters, Connie Davis, are carrying on their father's franchise.

Yet neither NIU, nor the greater higher education community, has forgotten the presence of Deacon Davis in the two decades since his departure.

"He was a pioneer in his own way. He really did make a significant contribution in terms of minorities coming to NIU," said Admasu Zike, associate vice provost for academic support services. "The diversity right now in this institution really started with CHANCE. He really established the foundation for where we are now."

"The biggest legacy he leaves is that he started bringing in African-American students in large numbers. He introduced them not only to this university but this community," said Mitchell, who early in his tenure as CHANCE director met colleagues from other universities who assumed he worked for Davis. "As a result of what Deacon did with students, we saw more faculty of color, and the whole thing just opened up."

Davis enjoyed a chance to see what he reaped last fall, when he accepted Mitchell's invitation to attend a staff in-service. "We discovered he instituted a lot of the things we do now," Mitchell said, "and we can still do it because it still works."

News of his death came as a shock, Mitchell said. Only five weeks before his death, Davis told the Rockford Register Star he planned to continue in his business for several more years.

"We were glad we made the move we did to invite him back. He was just delighted," Mitchell said. "I'm sad now we didn't videotape it."

Video notwithstanding, proof of the Deacon Davis legacy lives on through each new group of CHANCE students who come to NIU.

Part of that comes from the university's financial commitment to the program, Mitchell said. "Others with federal funding all died and are gone away," he said. "We're still here and still helping kids to achieve some of their dreams."

But it mostly goes back to Davis, whose ultimate goal for CHANCE is still pending and in Mitchell's hands.

"Deacon envisioned that, eventually, the program could go out of business," he said. "If we did this right, enough people would return to their communities to become teachers, to become entrepreneurs, and we could put this out of business. Everybody could come through the front door."

5-12-03