San Diego State's Kelvin Davis with coach Steve Fisher and USBWA president Steve Carp.

The United States Basketball Writers Association annually recognizes a player, coach, official or administrator who has demonstrated extraordinary courage reflecting honor on the sport of amateur basketball. Along with the award, the USBWA presents a $1,000 check to the charity or scholarship fund as selected by the recipient.

2009: Kelvin Davis
A 6-3 shooting guard from Waterbury, Conn., Davis was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma last spring. However, the San Diego State senior was able to overcome the cancer and returned to the Aztecs while still undergoing his chemotherapy and radiation treatments. He has appeared in eight games this season for the Aztecs and has averaged 2.5 points and 1.8 rebounds in 10.4 minutes. Davis' saga began last spring when he felt fatigued while playing. Originally, it was thought he may be coming down with mononucleosis. However, there was a lump developing on Davis' neck. He knew about it but he didn't say anything because he didn't want to jeopardize his spot on the team. But his condition grew worse and a trip to the doctor revealed Davis had cancer.

2008: Josh Porter
LSU-Shreveport's Josh Porter was considered a walking miracle after returning to play for the Pilots this season following a life-threatening neck injury he sustained in a game the previous season. Porter, a Shreveport, La., native, fractured the vertebrae in his neck in a collision with a teammate during a game in November 2006. Porter fell so hard that the plastic facemask he wore to protect a broken nose shot across the floor upon impact. Following 10 months of rehabilitation and recovery, Porter was back playing basketball this past fall. He returned to his old form from two years ago when he was an NAIA All-American and led the Pilots in scoring this season, averaging over 22 points a game and ranking among the top five scorers nationally in the NAIA.

2007: Duquense Dukes
Five players were shot in an incident after an on-campus dance before the season started in September. The shooting occurred as the basketball players left the dance. Sophomore guard Aaron Jackson, who suffered minor injuries in the shooting, started for the Dukes during the season. The most seriously injured player, Sam Ashaolu, is on course to play in 2007-08 after being shot twice in the head. After being near death, Ashaolu underwent daily rehabilitation to regain his speech and memory skills. Stuard Baldonado practiced during the season, but didn't play in games after suffering spinal injuries. Two other players, Kejo Mensah and Shawn James, suffered minor injuries and will play for the Dukes next season after sitting out as transfers.

2006: Mike Sutton
The Tennessee Tech coach continued to coach while battling the paralyzing effects of Guillain-Barre Syndrome. In his fourth season at the school, he attended games and practices from his motorized wheelchair.

2005: Grant Dykstra
The Western Washington guard/forward transformed himself into an all-around player, despite having partial use of his right arm due to a childhood accident. Dykstra's right arm was mangled in a grain auger when he was two and required 16 surgeries over the next 10 years. He taught himself to shoot left-handed and learned to dribble with both hands. The 6-4 junior from Everson, Wash., was the leading scorer on the school's NCAA Division II nationally-ranked team.

2004: Trey Schwab
Marquette assistant coach who received a double-lung transplant 26 months after being diagnosed with a rare and potentially deadly lung disease. Schwab continued to coach for two seasons despite undergoing six operations, spending 13 months on a portable oxygen machine and taking an experimental drug that slowed the disease.

2003: Rayna DuBose
Remarkable story of one young lady's fight to overcome a near-fatal brain and spinal cord bacterial infection that eventually led to her losing parts of all four limbs following her freshman year on the Virginia Tech's women's basketball team.

2002: Jamel Bradley
Deaf since he was 18 months old, Bradley overcame an 80 percent hearing loss to have an inspiring career at South Carolina. He led the Gamecocks in scoring his senior season and finished as the all-time career and single-single season three-point scoring leader.

2001: Oklahoma State Basketball Program
Eddie Sutton, OSU Head Coach, accepted the Most Couragous Award on behalf of the Cowboy program after 10 members of the team died in a plane crash on a return trip home from a game at Colorado.

2000: Nathan Binam
A left-handed shooting guard for Oral Roberts University who returned to ORU's starting lineup for his senior year after sitting out one year following a car accident that resulted in Binam having to have the index finger on his shooting hand amputated above the knuckle.

1999: Eddie Shannon
Florida point guard who played his entire high school and college career with one eye because of an injury he suffered in seventh grade. He was hit in the right eye with a rock on the playground and had the eye replaced with a prosthesis prior to his senior year at Florida. He finished his career as Florida's all-time steals leader.

1998: Jacky Kabba
Jacky Kabba left his homeland, war-torn Liberia, to receive a college education and play basketball at Seton Hall University.

1997: Wes Flanigan
Before the 1996-97 season began, Auburn guard Wes Flanigan was diagnosed with cancer in his arm. After major surgery to cut out the malignant tumor, Flanigan returned to have an outstanding senior year for the Tigers.

1996: Corinee "Cori" Carson
The junior guard/forward at Division III Marymount University in Arlington, Va., returned to play basketball just one year after undergoing a liver transplant. She was within two hours of death before receiving a new liver. In her first game back Carson scored 29 points.

1995: Nolan Richardson
The veteran Arkansas coach overcame racial prejudice and the death of his daughter from leukemia in the process of establishing national powerhouse programs at Texas Western Junior College, Tulsa and Arkansas.

1994: Orlando Antigua
University of Pittsburgh forward who overcame numerous obstacles growing up in a troubled New York neighborhood. Played his first two college seasons with a bullet in his head, the result of a street shooting incident while he was a sophomore at St. Raymond's High School in the Bronx.

1993: Jim Valvano
Coached several schools, including Iona and North Carolina State where he led the Wolfpack to an NCAA title in 1983. Waged a year-long battle with bone cancer.

1992: Pete Pavia
A longtime official in college basketball who battled cancer for 13 years while continuing to referee games throughout the country.

1991: Eric Murdock
A star player at Providence College who recovered from an irregular heartbeat and a series of nagging injuries to have a tremendous senior year for the Friars.

1990: Donald Taylor
A homeless youngster from New York City who developed his basketball skill to a point of earning a scholarship to the University of Massachusetts.

1989: Landon Turner
Former Indiana University player who returned to the playing court in a wheelchair basketball league after being paralyzed in an automobile accident in 1981, the summer after his team won the NCAA Championship.

1988: Steve Kerr
Senior guard at the University of Arizona who played a key role on the Wildcats' Final Four team. He overcame the tragic assassination of his father during his college career.

1987: David Rivers
He had a remarkable recovery from an automobile accident and returned to play at Notre Dame.

1986: Bob Wenzel
The basketball coach at Jacksonville who made a miraculous recovery from surgery to correct a brain aneurysm. He returned as JU's coach and led them to the NCAA tournament.

1985: Dennis Schlitt
He battled back from a life-threatening illness to play basketball at the U.S. Military Academy.

1984: Reggie Warford
An assistant coach at Pittsburgh who rescued an elderly couple from their burning home in Lexington, Ky.

1983: Ronnie Carr
A Western Carolina basketball player who survived a serious automobile crash, overcoming post-operative lung and heart complications.

1982: John Flowers
Flowers overcame tremendous personal and physical problems to continue his career at Bowling Green.

1981: Mark Alcorn
A player on the LSU team who was a victim of cancer.

1980: Phil Scaffidi
Cancer victim who played basketball at Niagara.

1979: Bill Wanstrath
A one-armed basketball player who competed successfully at Batesville High School in Indiana.

1978: John Kratzer
A cancer victim who played basketball at William & Mary.