Rob Brown is ready to play

When he read an early draft of the script for "The Express," Rob Brown decided that the role of star running back Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy, was "mine to lose."

And if this seems like some serious moxy from a guy who was a 21-year-old college student with only three films to his credit, well, Brown can back up the claim.

After all, he got the part.

"I tested and tested again. I had a football tryout, even though everyone knew I played football in high school and college," says Brown who turned 24 in March. "I took it with a grain of salt, all the hoops I had to jump through. Ernie earned a lot, and I thought it was fine if I had to earn this role."

In addition to being a holder of multiple school records at Syracuse University and Heisman winner in 1961, Davis — nicknamed the Elmira Express — became an embodiment of achievement during the civil-rights movement. President John F. Kennedy, who had followed his career, lauded Davis as "an outstanding young man who served as an inspiration to the young people of this country."

After college, Davis signed a lucrative contract to follow his fellow Orangemen alumnus Jim Brown (a consultant on "The Express") to the Cleveland Browns. But he never got to play a professional game, although he was the top pick in the 1962 NFL draft, becoming the first African-American football player to be taken No. 1 overall. In 1962, while getting ready for the College All-Star Game, he was diagnosed with leukemia; he died in 1963 at the age of 23. The Browns retired his number.

The movie, which opens Friday, tracks Davis' college years as the running back faced discrimination, Jim Crow laws and the tough-love guidance of Syracuse coach Ben Schwartzwalder (played by Dennis Quaid). At a lopsided victory played in West Virginia, for example, Davis was instructed not to run the ball into the end zone for a touchdown, lest it would set off a riot in the stands.

"He really could move between the white and the black universe seamlessly," director Gary Fleder says of Davis. "My thesis in the film is that Ernie didn't lead with race."

Many people don't remember Davis because his career was cut so tragically short. Before tracking "The Express," Brown had barely heard of him.

"Which is sad, because I'm a black male playing football in college," says Brown, who earned his degree in psychology from Amherst College in May. "He's responsible for a lot of my success and the success of a lot of football players. A lot of his sweat resulted in a lot of the freedoms and liberties I enjoy today."

"That's one of the reasons I wanted to be a part of generating interest in him," Brown continues. "Everybody knows about Jackie Robinson. Nobody knows about Ernie Davis."

Here's what we know about Rob Brown.

Born in the Bronx and raised in Brooklyn, where he still lives, Brown made his film debut at age 16 as a teenage writing prodigy who infiltrates the closed-off life of reclusive writer Sean Connery in Gus Van Sant's "Finding Forrester."

If Hollywood was calling, Brown wasn't listening, electing instead to finish high school and attend college before taking his next movie.

"They told me to go to school, like 'Don't worry about it. The movies and Hollywood will still be there,' " Brown says. "Sean Connery sat me down and said, 'Get your education. Nobody told me to do so, so I'm telling you.' "

Connery's advice jibed with the Brown family's plans. Brown's mother, a social worker, fully expected her son to go to college.

Brown spent 6 ½ years at Amherst, juggling football, classes and the occasional movie role. He appeared in "The Orphan King," "Coach Carter" and "Take the Lead."

Upon finishing the Iraq war drama "Stop-Loss," Brown learned that "The Express" was moving forward, and that more screen tests were needed. One hitch: The actor had beefed up for "Stop-Loss" and was closer to linebacker condition than he was to embodying a running back who could move like the wind.

"He had put on a good 20 pounds since I saw him a year ago," says Fleder. "Players in those days were a lot leaner, so he had to get back down to the right weight."

Bulk aside, Brown was every bit the right man for the job, says Fleder, who acknowledges an Ernie Davis-like persistence streak in the young actor.

"He has this gift that I think is kind of extraordinary: He listens well," Fleder says of Brown. "Watch him on screen and you see him seeing the world around him. He's your portal into this story. You really feel like he's connected."

Charles S. Dutton, who plays Davis' grandfather, noticed the same quality.

"The guy's a natural film actor," Dutton says of Brown. "We would be in scenes together, and I thought, 'Rob, you've got to be a little bit more extroverted, but the camera finds him, and the camera finds him thinking."

Despite acknowledging his admiration for the man, Brown bestowed a nickname upon his director: "Schwartzenfleder."

"He's just hard on people, man, but it's all about the work," Brown says of Fleder. "He doesn't care about feelings. He just wants the work to be good. We're not here to make friends. I'm cool with Gary, but I know he was definitely hard on me. I needed that."

"His preparation style wasn't mine, but I did become the Ben Schwartzwalder to Rob," returns Fleder. "It wasn't racial at all. It was an issue of stylistic differences.

"He's very intuitive as an actor," Fleder continues. "He has to find the truth of a scene or a sequence while shooting. Sometimes I wanted to make sure he came in having prepared that already, having already gotten there emotionally. And sometimes we clashed."

By most reports, Ernie Davis was hard-wired to play football regardless of the cost to his body or public abuse he would face.

Can Brown understand having that kind of drive?

"A lot of people who are driven might now know they're driven," he says. "I kind of found this out working on this film. Gary said to me, 'Look, Rob, you're going to college and doing all these films. Something's up. You're a driven individual."'

"I kind of looked at him, like, 'Hmm. I guess I am,"' Brown says.

"I guess I am."