Vic Davis, a native of Millington, Tennessee, graduated from the West Tennessee State Normal College in 1915 and entered the University of Tennessee in September 1916. After serving in World War I, he returned to UT and graduated in 1920. At UT he was a member of Phi Kappa Phi honorary society, an active member of Chi Delta Literary Society, vice president of the YMCA, and editor-in-chief of the University of Tennessee Magazine. He received the MA from the University of Chicago in 1924 where he was elected to Phi Delta Kappa—the national education honor society.
Davis taught in secondary schools in Tennessee until returning to UT as general secretary of the YMCA in 1925, a position he held until 1933. He was elected executive secretary of the Alumni Association in 1926, and additionally became director of the University Bureau of Appointments in 1933. He was the faculty advisor of the Scarabbean Honor Society.
He was active in the development and maintenance of university traditions, believing that traditions, which generated nostalgia for alumni, were a strong means of increasing alumni support. In 1925 he managed the introduction of Torch Night, in which beginning students took up the “torch of preparation” for a life of service to humankind; and Aloha Oe, a ceremony in the late spring of the year in which the seniors exchanged the Torch of Preparation for the Torch of Service, which they would carry into the world as alumni.
Davis was also instrumental in mounting the contest to produce a UT alma mater and in getting the Nahheeyayli dances started. He was the originator of the Golden Reunions of 50-year graduates and was responsible for class reunions, Alumni Club meetings, and student retreats. For the veterans of World War II, he organized the flying squadron of 10 government experts on veterans’ insurance, educational rights, war surplus property, and loans and other privileges and rights. He held 65 courthouse rallies throughout the state, providing information that would enable returning veterans to make intelligent use of their privileges. He organized the Tennessee Industrial Personnel Conference.
He was editor of the Tennessee Alumnus and Hill-o-Grams for 22 years. Following his death, the halftime ceremonies at the 1948 homecoming honored him with a moment of reverence, while the band played the “Alma Mater” and the card section spelled out his name. On November 3, 1973, alumnus Earl Swingle stood beside Mrs. Victor M. Davis near the Volunteer Statue as she unveiled a memorial plaque celebrating Davis’s contributions to the university.