WASHINGTON (December 8, 2022) - Raised in Jamaica, Michael "Mikey" Davey was a member of the Howard University men's soccer team where he had success both on the field and in the classroom.
 
Mike played a key role as the "defensive lynchpin/quarterback" in helping lead the HU Bison soccer team's defensive unit as the team captured the 1974 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Championship with a perfect 19-0-0 unbeaten and untied record, which still remains as the only NCAA Division I Men's National title by an HBCU. As a testament to his impenetrable defensive performance in that 1974 championship game, Mike was featured on the cover of Soccer America magazine.
 
Apart from that 1974 championship season, Mike was a four-year starter and had the unique distinction of being the only player to start and play every minute in every game over that span. Mike again excelled in the 1975 season wherein he once more led the Bison defense as HU again made it to the NCAA National Final Four.
 
At the conclusion of his freshman year at Howard, Mike was rewarded for earning an exceptional grade point average (GPA) by receiving a written invitation to participate in the Honors Program, from the program chairman. He consistently achieved the required GPA to be included on the School of Engineering Dean's Honors List and graduated with a bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering (BScME) in 1978.
 
Before HU, at 15 years old, Mike graduated from one of the Caribbean's most prestigious institutions - St, George's College High School (located in Kingston, Jamaica). In 1967, Mike had achieved passing grades for the University of Cambridge's (England) General Certificate of Education (GCE) examinations in Ordinary Math, Advanced (Additional) Math, Physics, Chemistry, and English Language.
 
On the field, Mike had played a solid defensive role in helping lead the Jamaican National soccer team as they won the Bronze medal behind Gold medalists Mexico and Silver medalists Cuba in the 1970 Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Football (CONCACAF) international U-20 soccer tournament staged in Havana, Cuba.
 
Mike represented the National Senior team (Invitational XI) just once in a game against Haitian Premier League club team Racing Football Club (FC) in the 1970 Homelectrix Quadrangular Tournament. He was selected among Jamaica's top 31 soccer players that would go into special preparations for a historic soccer game against the incomparable Pele's club team Santos of Brazil. Mike represented Cavalier FC in the Jamaican Premier League (1968-71) while he was still age-eligible to participate in schoolboy competitions.
 
After graduating, Mike was "officed" on the 86th floor, Tower No. 2, World Trade Center (WTC) from 1980 to 1985 where he performed complex finite-element analyses in the designs of thermodynamic systems and components for Nuclear and Fossil-fuel fired electric generating plants for an array of clients spanning the major utility companies.
 
After being transferred from his lofty lower-Manhattan office to the Dallas/Fort Worth (D/FW) area in 1985, Mike continued performing similar engineering analyses for the design of Texas Utilities (TXU) Comanche Peak Nuclear Station's two (2) hulking 1100 megawatts (each) power plant units (1985-90). What would eventually constitute a "career crossover", found Mike balancing out the first decade of his professional career that was centered in the private, Investor-Owned Utility (IOU), design & build side of the energy industry's "fence" with a giant leap over to the public, municipally owned, owner/operator side of the energy industry "fence".
 
In that lofty, lower Manhattan office, Mike was employed by Ebasco Services, a design (and build) engineering firm which formed a private/academic (with Princeton Univ.)/federal (U.S. Govt.) "triumvirate" charged with developing the first Tokamac Fusion reactor from theory to commercial scale electricity generation.

Mike, while working full-time for Ebasco, adroitly managed his severely rationed time, to engage his well-developed (by HU coach/mentor Lincoln Phillips) defensive skills in the prestigious New York International Soccer league (NYISL) for the acclaimed Real Caribe Football Club (RCFC) and to enroll in the Master of Business Administration (MBA) program at Long Island University (LIU-Brooklyn Campus).
 
RCFC's back-to-back titles in the 1980/81 and 1981/82 NYISL seasons, with an undefeated record (8W-0L-2D) in the latter campaign, were mainly due to Mike's "bolting" the RCFC's defense tightly shut with his serious-minded tackling.  At LIU, Mike maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA for the 36 credit hours he compiled within the highly quantitative Management Information System (MIS) major course of study.
 
On the "other side of the energy industry fence", Mike was employed by Austin Energy, the 7th. largest publicly-owned utility in the US, serving over half a million (500,000) customers in central Texas.
 
Shortly after this career "cross-over", Mike obtained his Professional Engineer's (P. E.) License. He would then go on to be Published in the United States Department of Energy (U.S. D.O.E.) Quarterly Newsletter–Energy Matters (2003-04).
 
Mike, a United States Soccer Federation (USSF) licensed coach, also had a passion to give back to the community. He participated in various volunteer programs, such as creating a youth soccer program in a central Texas Municipal Utility District (MUD). He also served as a church assistant director of religious education at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church.
 
Mike's creativity and vigorous recruitment efforts within localities in adjacent communities, plus sky rocketing interest among the nation's youths after feasting on that 1994 summer's staging of soccer's World Cup by the US, triggered an explosive growth in Mike's youth soccer program from just 23 kids registered (with three teams formed) in the Fall 1994 season to over 290 kids (with 28 teams formed) by the Fall 2001 season. Overloaded by enormous logistical, administrative, and technical coaching (this to be his mainline contribution) demands, Mike had to smoothly delegate to a group of responsible, committed parents whom he had recruited to help comprehensively execute the burgeoning day-to-day functions necessary to maintain the program's success/viability.
 
Furthermore, Mike engaged as a "Big Brother" and coordinated with Austin Independent School District (AISD) and BB/BSA administrators to facilitate/encourage/inform CoA employees to build partner relations with at-risk, vulnerable, parentage-deficient AISD middle schoolers. Mike, recognizing that as much as 16-percent of the world's population does not have access to electric power, successfully developed and launched his privately owned enterprise Electricity Generation Equipment Testing, Shipping, and sales in 2018.
 
Several teams in Mike's Offside Soccer Club (OSC) captured Capital Area Youth Soccer Association (CAYSA) Championships and a few attained the Texas State Championships.  Most importantly, several players whose career began and were guided for several seasons, in Mike's program: earned full soccer scholarships to some of the top Division I Colleges/Universities; acquired bachelor's and master's degrees and currently playing professionally in the United States, England, Serbia, Panama and Jamaica.
 
Mike was inducted into the HU Hall Of Fame (Class of 2014) along with his teammates on that historic, all- conquering 1974 NCAA Championship team. A couple years later, Mike was featured, along with his teammates, in the ESPN-sponsored Documentary Movie "Redemption Song" which premiered at the Cramton Auditorium on the HU campus in April 2016 and which became part of a newly-minted set of shorts directed by Spike Lee called "Spike Lee's Lil Joints" that started airing on ESPN's Sports Center on June 7, 2016.
 
About Where Are They Now?

The weekly series of "Where Are They Now?" appears on Thursdays throughout the year.

The series will feature former student-athletes from all sports and eras, highlighting their careers as athletes at the University and what they are presently doing.

All interested former athletes and their coaches should submit a short bio, a recent head shot and contact information on how they can be reached via email to Jade Spurlock (jade.spurlock@bison.howard.edu) and Derek W. Bryant (derek.bryant@howard.edu).

For more information, visit the Bison Athletics website at www.HUBison.com.