POWELL - A bus formerly used to shuttle Powell High School students to activities is featured in a new motion picture about the life of football player Ernie Davis, local officials say.

The bus, a 1957 General Motors model PD4104, was purchased new by the Powell school district, and on its maiden voyage carried the Panther football team to Evanston, according to Tribune publisher Dave Bonner, who made that ride as a team manager.

The bus continued to ferry PHS students to athletic contests, FFA events, speech meets and other activities for 43 years before being sold in 2000.

"There are probably over 1,000 people in Powell who rode that bus, including my three kids," said Dennis Wegner, transportation supervisor for the Powell school district.

Wegner said the bus was sold to a man in Chicago, who later resold it. Wegner said he saw it advertised on eBay, but did not know who had purchased the bus.

But last week the original purchaser sent Wegner an e-mail to tell him the bus was in the movie "The Express," which was released in movie theaters nationwide last week.

"I saw the movie Saturday, and it definitely was our bus," Wegner said.

When it was purchased, the bus was the top of the line, according to Bonner, and provided a comfortable ride for all the Panthers who rode it.

"It was a bus ahead of its time," Bonner said.

"The Express" tells the story of Ernie Davis, who starred at Syracuse University from 1959-61. He led Syracuse to its only national championship in 1959 and in 1961 was the first African-American winner of football's Heisman Trophy. He died in 1963 of leukemia.

The old Powell bus probably felt right at home helping tell Davis' story, because he and his Syracuse teammates dressed in orange, one of the main colors worn by Powell High School athletic teams.