High school basketball: Aurora Christian honors Davidson family in emotional ceremony

Aurora Christian’s game against Chicago Christian earlier this month was a night of celebration. But it was also one that brought a whole lot of emotion.

Just before the game, the school and basketball program recognized the first family of Aurora Christian basketball: the Davidsons.

Aurora Christian basketball coach and athletic director Dan Beebe stood at a podium and introduced Marc Davidson as the first inductee of the newly-formed Aurora Christian Hall of Fame.

Beebe read through the accomplishments of the former all-stater: the stats and records, the leadership and faith, and his courage in battling cancer.

Davidson, who played two years for Lou Henson at Illinois before finishing his career at Trinity International where he was a NAIA All-American and had his number retired, lost his battle with cancer last May at the age of 49.

Beebe highlighted Davidson’s achievements as a player and high school coach, which included eight professional seasons in France out of college and most recently coaching Blackhawk Christian in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to state titles in 2019 and 2021. Just as Beebe concluded his speech a banner was unfurled from the rafters with Marc Davidson’s name and favorite bible verse: Colossians 3:23.

“It was a really powerful moment,” said Matt Davidson, Marc’s older brother and a 1989 Aurora Christian graduate.

Beebe, who said he purposely avoided looking at the Davidson family during his speech to help keep his own emotions in check, said there was an “electrifying atmosphere and buzz in the gym.”

Following a standing ovation, Beebe then announced the inaugural Hall of Fame class would also include Don Davidson, the legendary coach who started the Aurora Christian program, and Matt Davidson, a star player in the late 1980s.

“Don Davidson started athletics at Aurora Christian and both Matt and Marc put Aurora Christian on the map,” Beebe said. “We wanted to honor Marc in a way that is meaningful, with a long-lasting impact on the family. We decided what better way than Marc being our initial Hall of Fame inductee?”

Beebe, who took over the program in 2010, says the impact and affect the Davidson family has had on Aurora Christian “is immeasurable.” The words in describing the influence Don Davidson and his two sons had on Aurora Christian barely do it justice.

“I don’t even know how you would measure it,” Beebe said. “The impact Don Davidson alone has had on the school and the people that have walked those hallways is impossible to quantify.”

Don Davidson, an IBCA Hall of Famer, started up the Aurora Christian basketball program in the late 1970s. Over three decades he turned the program from a start-up to one of the most successful small school programs in the state.

Davidson won 549 games in 31 seasons at Aurora Christian, including two trips to the Elite Eight where the Eagles finished fourth in 1990 and as a state runner-up in 1995. He finished his coaching career, which included stops at Yorkville and Parkview Christian in Yorkville, with 723 career wins.

While he retired from coaching following the 2019-20 season, Don Davidson still teaches at Parkview Christian every day at the age of 77.

As Don Davidson took in everything Friday night, there were a wave of emotions as three decades worth of memories at Aurora Christian came flooding back, including those years coaching his two sons.

“The heaviest emotion came those weeks and that first month after Marc died, but things like this do bring it all back,” Don Davidson said. “It was a very emotional night. So many thoughts were running through my head.

“But as I listened, throughout the ceremony, I just thought about all those days we were all together.”

He also thought about the evolution of the program, building it, sustaining it and all that went into it over three decades.

“I was thinking about those first few years where we didn’t have a whole lot of players or athletes in the school,” Don Davidson said. “Then Matt and Marc, along with their friends and teammates, came along and had success which then inspired other kids in the program. Then there were the younger ones who wanted to be like them and be a part of it and do what they saw them do.”

Matt Davidson, who has been superintendent at Timothy Christian for the past 13 years, said the family has been a part of several ceremonies and memorials honoring his late brother. This one was different.

“First, Dan Beebe did a wonderful job with his speech and capturing all that Marc meant,” Matt Davidson said. “And having so many people back from yesteryear was really neat. But this was probably the best ceremony or memorial — and we’ve been to several since Marc passed — because we were all a part of it and shared in it together.”

Matt said because of that — honoring and recognizing all three Davidsons — there was less crying and sadness during Friday night’s ceremony than previous ones that solely focused on his late brother.

“Those were all about Marc, so there were a lot of tears and a whole lot of getting choked up,” Matt said. “This one brought us all together, with dad and I also a part of the same ceremony. There weren’t as many tears.”

Marc Davidson was dealt a harsh hand. He was diagnosed with renal epithelioid angiomyolipoma, a rare form of cancer, in October of 2020. But his faith was steadfast, unwavering.

He continued to coach while taking on the very aggressive cancer. He rarely ever missed a practice and missed only one game during his cancer fight. And just as he was before the cancer, he was a state championship coach after the diagnosis.

Marc Davidson led Blackhawk Christian to an Indiana state championship in 2019 behind Purdue recruit Caleb Furst. His son, Frank Davidson, one of seven Davidson children of Marc and his wife, Lisa, had a big season and went for 20 points and 12 rebounds in the state championship game.

The pandemic wiped out the 2020 state tournament in Indiana, but Blackhawk Christian and Davidson won their second title in 2021 with two more sons, senior Marcus in the starting lineup and sophomore Jimmy on the bench.

Over the years both Don Davidson and Marc Davidson, with all their successful seasons as coaches, would together remind anyone who asked what success truly looked like and how it was determined.

“What I have said — and I know Marc always said this as a coach when asked how was your season — is we’ll wait 15 or 20 years and see what kind of success we had,” Don said of their joint reflection on success. “We will see what kind of men, husbands and fathers they become and then we will see how successful we were.”

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