TOPEKA, KS — Legends aren’t born; they’re forged in the fires of life’s greatest trials, and no man has suffered more, endured more, or been more unfairly overlooked than Kent Davis Sr.
After decades of being erased from history, Topeka’s most underappreciated icon is reclaiming his legacy as the newest—and most opinionated—contributor to ThisIsTopeka.com.
“I was here before the memes. Before the Facebook groups. Before all these young kids started acting like they discovered Topeka,” Davis Sr. stated in his first editorial meeting (which he showed up to uninvited). “I built this town with my bare hands. And my words. And a poorly thought-out Dr Pepper addiction that, frankly, the media twisted against me.”
For years, a lesser Kent Davis has been making waves, spoken about in hushed tones among Topeka’s most delusional fan clubs. And yet, not once has he acknowledged the greatness of his father—the original Kent Davis—a man who walked so this other Kent Davis could waddle.
But that ends now.
The Dr Pepper Heist That Changed Everything
Davis Sr.’s fall from grace started in 1989, when his innocent love of Dr Pepper turned into a full-blown obsession.
“I just needed one more hit,” Davis Sr. recalls. “But you can’t just buy one Dr Pepper when your tolerance is high. I was putting away two 12-packs before noon—the cans weren’t even cold anymore, I just needed the burn of that 23-flavor rush.”
Blinded by caffeine withdrawal and poor decision-making, he hatched a plan. In the early morning hours of July 8, 1989, Davis Sr. commandeered a fully stocked Dr Pepper delivery truck outside a Des Moines convenience store. “Commandeered” is the legal term; Davis Sr. prefers the phrase ‘liberated the beverage supply.’
Witnesses say he drove at a speed of 25 mph for nearly three hours, occasionally throwing cans of Dr Pepper at police cruisers and shouting, “YOU CAN’T CATCH WHAT YOU CAN’T UNDERSTAND!” His escape attempt ended in a Walmart parking lot, where he was found in the driver’s seat, chugging a warm two-liter with both hands.
“I wasn’t running from the law,” Davis Sr. insists. “I was running from a world that didn’t understand my thirst.”
Unfortunately, the Iowa judicial system lacked sympathy for his plight and sentenced him to 35 years of hard time in Leavenworth.
A Legend Reborn
On December 5, 2024, Davis Sr. walked free, a changed man—not humbled, not reformed, but armed with decades of pent-up opinions and a thirst for revenge (figuratively, not for Dr Pepper—never again).
Upon his release, he bombarded ThisIsTopeka.com with daily submissions, weekly phone calls, and a legally questionable visit to the editor’s home, demanding they recognize his journalistic genius.
After months of resistance, the editorial team has reluctantly agreed to give Kent Davis Sr. a column, mostly to stop him from standing outside the office with a megaphone.
“I’m not here to stir up controversy,” Davis Sr. insists. “I’m just here to set the record straight. Some people have been getting a little too comfortable rewriting history, and I refuse to let my legacy be stolen.”
So Topeka, brace yourselves. The real Kent Davis is here. And he’s got a lot to say.
