BILLINGS — In high school, Terrell Davis played football on a field of dirt and weeds.
"It had potholes, it had gopher holes, it wasn't safe for us to play on," Davis said Thursday during a visit to Billings. "But it was our normal."
It's one reason why Davis, a Pro Football Hall of Fame running back and former Denver Broncos star, is the ideal spokesman for School District 2's ongoing campaign to raise money for badly needed renovations to its venerable football venue, Daylis Stadium.
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Davis, based on his own implausible football journey, was happy to lend his voice to the effort. He was set to speak Thursday evening at the Alberta Bair Theater at an event dubbed "End Zone for Daylis — An Evening with Terrell Davis" to aid in the fundraising endeavor.
"For kids to have a new facility, to have a place to be proud of and go to and say, 'This is our home,' it's huge," Davis said. "To be here, knowing what the task is, knowing that these kids could use a better facility, I'm 100% behind it."
Related: As football season nears, Billings SD2 sets December target to begin Daylis Stadium facelift
A fundraising campaign has been under way for renovations to the 96-year-old stadium since the project was announced last fall. An initial target for groundbreaking was set for early December.
But the $12.5 million cost — with the school district covering half of the expense and the rest coming from naming rights and private donations — was increased to $14.9 million when it was discovered that the football field has a 21-inch upward slope running south to north.
Beyond that, the project calls for replacing the dilapidated west grandstand as well as new and expanded track and field amenities, new locker new rooms, a concession area, new restrooms, a ticket area and more.
"When you have a nice facility you're trying to maintain a level of first-class, a level of excellence, a level that everybody needs to be able to hold," Davis said. "And that's a teachable tool for life."
Davis' hall of fame journey was unlikely, one he referred to Thursday as "very improbable."
Davis, now 52, played football at Lincoln High School in San Diego, then went on to play in college at Long Beach State. But when Long Beach disbanded its football program after the 1991 season, Davis transferred to Georgia.
He did enough at Georgia to pique the interest of the Broncos and then-coach Mike Shanahan, who drafted Davis in the sixth round of the 1995 NFL Draft.
That preseason, Davis was going nowhere — until a huge special teams hit in a game against San Francisco put him on the map, which led to more reps, more trust and eventually a starring role with the Broncos from '95 to 2001.
The Mile-High-Saluting Davis retired as a two-time world champion, was named MVP of Super Bowl XXXII and was the 1998 NFL MVP. Davis was elected to the hall of fame in 2017.
"Greatness can come from anywhere," Davis said. "A lot of times we don't think our beginning could have the ending we want because of how we started out. Nothing is predestined. You can either make it happen or it's not going to happen.
"But mentally you've got to believe you can do it. And when you think like that and you think you can do it no matter where you come from, to me that's the biggest fuel for a kid."
Proper, modern facilities can go a long way toward young athletes achieving their goals.
In August, School District 2 said its fundraising campaign had secured more than $4 million in private donations. But more is needed.
"These kids deserve to have a stadium they can be proud of and show the world, 'This is where we live. This is where we take care of business,'" Davis said. "So that's the task, and I'm sure we'll hit that goal."
