NEW BOOK was natural for Pirate fan

Lifelong ECU devotee shares experiences from from ‘20 Rows Up’

By Nathan Summers

At some point during his decades of following the East Carolina football team both inside Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium and across the country, people started telling Carl Davis he should write a book about it.

After all, he had spent a long time and traveled thousands of miles trailing the Pirates through countless ups and downs, coaching eras, great seasons, unforgettable players and knockdown, drag-out games. So he did it.

Davis compiled some of his favorite moments, teams, rivalries and unique experiences into the recently published book titled, “My View From 20 Rows Up: One Story of ECU Football.”

A Hickory native an ECU game as a child because his grandfather was a Lenoir-Rhyne fan traveling to watch his own favorite team play, Davis estimates he has rolled up 190,000 miles following ECU football. His book is in many ways a testament to what was learned on that lengthy journey.

“People ask me, ‘Why did you travel to all of those games?’ When I started this, if you wanted to see the Pirates play, you went to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium,” Davis said. “And if you wanted to see them play on the road, you had to get in a car or an airplane to go see them. There was no television for a vast majority of our away games in the ’90s and even early 2000s. Now if you want to see women’s lacrosse, you can. You didn’t use to have that opportunity.

“Once the games became more available on television, I was enjoying so much going to these games and making mini-vacations out of some of these trips, it just kind of snowballed, and here we are.”

Davis has been connected to ECU football since that down even in retirement. But writing a book about it was a completely new challenge.

“I knew nothing about writing a book, I mean zero,” said Davis, a now-retired traveling electronics salesman for the year project, but I didn’t touch it for about two years.” with BYU.

In the summer of 2021, Davis decided he was going to retire at the end of the year. Not long after that retirement, he picked the book up again and really got serious about became available on Amazon last month.

As for what inspired him to actually sit down and start rattling out his ECU memories and game day experiences on a keyboard, the suggestion came from those he met or spent time with or traveled with on those many ECU football escapades.

“I think it was that others were telling me that,” Davis said. “We went for 23 or 24 years and we only missed four football games, home and away. And we missed those because my wife broke her leg when we went to Philadelphia for the Temple game.

It’s not just about the Xs and Os of the given games, either, but about the entire experience of being there — the city, the campus, the tailgate lots and ultimately each stadium’s atmosphere. It’s about retelling some of those you-had-to-be-there moments and about ECU’s relationship with each opponent.

The common theme of all of the games in all of the places is fellow ECU fans. Every one of Davis’ football memories detailed in his book is either something he wants to impart on newer Pirate fans who he thinks should learn about those teams and games and players, or something he knows he wants to retell to people who witnessed those things with him.

… And then I would tell the people some stories that would have occurred on those road trips, and they would say, ‘Man you ought to write a book,’ and I guess I listened to them at some point.

“During all those years, when I would run into somebody and we would ask, ‘Where were you last weekend?’ I would say I was in Syracuse or I was in Miami or I was in El Paso. And they would say, ‘What were you doing in El Paso?’ And I would tell them I was a football game. And then I would tell the people some stories that would have occurred on those road trips, and they would say, ‘Man you ought to write a book,’ and I guess I listened to them at some point.”

In that spirit, a bulk of “My View From 20 Rows Up” is devoted to breaking down, opponent by opponent, the Pirates’ many primary foes regionally, in the team’s multiple conference stints, in bowl games and in other opponents beginning with Appalachian State and ending

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Author Carl Davis

“When you’re on the road, you’re not necessarily isolated,” Davis said. “You run into a lot of people, whether it’s coaches, whether it’s players or players’ families.” published author Bethany Bradsher to help with the editing Charles to write the book’s forward.

Davis said simply showing up at a restaurant in another city wearing an ECU shirt often created an instant connection with other Pirate fans in town for the game.

The book also contains what Davis thought were some relevant superlatives, as well as a section on people he thinks have made substantial impacts on ECU.

“My View From 20 Rows Up” is available from Amazon and locally at UBE and Stadium Sports.