Bob Davis, long known as the “gentleman associate athletic director,” was recruited in 1948 by General Neyland from his Bluefield, West Virginia, high school where he played football, baseball, and basketball for Beaver High School. He mastered Neyland’s intricate single-wing center snaps and served as center on the 1951 consensus national championship team and the Dunkel national crown in 1950.
He served in the army as head football coach at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, in 1953–54 and then coached football and basketball at Sevier County High School. He was head football coach at Carson-Newman College from 1964 to 1965. He served as UT freshman coach from 1966 to 1968 and from 1971 to 1973, coached varsity defensive ends in 1969, and was junior varsity coach in 1970 and from 1974 to 1975. With UT’s reinstatement of wrestling as a varsity sport, Davis was called upon to be wrestling coach and served in that capacity from 1970 to 1974. He then served as administrative assistant to the athletic director, assistant athletic director and operations, and assistant athletic director and facilities.
He was named to the All-Time Tennessee Team selected by the Knoxville Journal in the early 1950s and was inducted into the Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame in 1993. He was honored by UT during halftime of the Kentucky game in 2002 and retired from UT in 2003. His twin brother, Richard, also attended UT.