Don Davison devoted more than four decades to covering high school sports in Washington, leaving a lasting impact on how prep athletics were chronicled and remembered. As a longtime writer for the Tacoma News Tribune, he became one of the state’s most respected voices in prep sports journalism, earning recognition as the newspaper’s Employee of the Year in 1996.

During his tenure, Davison created a weekly statewide football and basketball standings service, a groundbreaking effort that eventually grew into the WIAA’s nightly report of schedules, scores, and standings. This innovation became especially popular during the WIAA state championships, where thousands of fans, coaches, and athletes relied on his work to stay connected to the action.

After retiring from the News Tribune in 2001, Davison continued to serve the high school sports community as the WIAA’s volunteer historian. With meticulous care, he researched and preserved the history of every sport under the WIAA umbrella, documenting traditions that, in many cases, stretched back more than half a century. His dedication ensured that the stories of Washington’s athletes, coaches, and teams would be remembered for generations.

Davison’s contributions were widely recognized. He received the WIAA’s Curt and Chee Chee Bruskland Service Award in 2005, was inducted into the Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame, and was honored with the John Cherberg Award from the Northwest All Sports Clinic for his “dedicated service to high school athletes in the state of Washington.”

Through his writing, innovation, and historical preservation, Don Davison shaped the way Washington high school sports were celebrated and remembered, leaving an enduring legacy of service to the athletes and communities he so faithfully covered.