Don Davison

Don Davison states that his claim to sports “fame” is serving as the manager for Renton High School’s boys basketball state championship team – the first of four won by the school – in 1953.

For Davison, who was born May 29, 1936 in Quincy, Ill., there obviously is a much more significant reason that he enters the Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame. As part of the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association’s centennial observance, Davison conducted long hours of research on state tournament team and individual results dating back to the start of each of the organization’s 24 sports, encompassing as many as 100 enrollment classifications annually. For example, his research took him back to the 1923 boys basketball season and to 1924 for boys track. The data that he compiled became the basis for the history portion of the WIAA website.

The work continues as Davison is now researching and compiling statewide football and basketball standings from the last 50 years. He also supports the WIAA by posting scores and schedules for its postseason football and basketball internet sites, as well as results and statistics for the state football and track & field championships.

For this work, Davison became the first recipient of the Curt and Chee Chee Bruskland Service Award, presented by the WIAA to “individuals who exemplify the ultimate in service to the WIAA.” He also received the John Cherberg Award from the PEMCO Northwest All-Sports Clinic “for dedicated service to high school athletes in the state of Washington.”

For 40 years until Davison retired in 2001, the sports community in Pierce County also benefited from his efforts as a sports reporter and copy editor for the Tacoma News Tribune. In 1996, he earned the newspaper’s Employee of the Year award.