Family of Murdered Coach Ed Thomas Receives Arthur Ashe Courage Award

Arthur Ashe Courage Award of 2010, went to the family of former football coach Ed Thomas, who was murdered by his student.
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Family of Murdered Coach Ed Thomas Receives Arthur Ashe Courage Award
Aaron Thomas, Jan Thomas and Todd Thomas, family and recipients of former football coach Ed Thomas who won the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2010 ESPY Awards at Nokia Theatre on July 14, in Los Angeles, California. (Alexandra Wyman/Getty Images )
7/15/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/102904066.jpg" alt="Aaron Thomas, Jan Thomas and Todd Thomas, family and recipients of former football coach Ed Thomas who won the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2010 ESPY Awards at Nokia Theatre on July 14, in Los Angeles, California. (Alexandra Wyman/Getty Images )" title="Aaron Thomas, Jan Thomas and Todd Thomas, family and recipients of former football coach Ed Thomas who won the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2010 ESPY Awards at Nokia Theatre on July 14, in Los Angeles, California. (Alexandra Wyman/Getty Images )" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1817370"/></a>
Aaron Thomas, Jan Thomas and Todd Thomas, family and recipients of former football coach Ed Thomas who won the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2010 ESPY Awards at Nokia Theatre on July 14, in Los Angeles, California. (Alexandra Wyman/Getty Images )
The sport-oriented Arthur Ashe Courage Award of 2010, presented at the ESPY Award Ceremony which took place yesterday at Nokia Theatre in LA, goes to the family of former football coach Ed Thomas, who was murdered by his student Mark Becker, in June 2009.

The Thomas family was praised for the forgiveness they showed to the perpetrator, Mark Becker, who shot the coach a few days after he was released from a hospital for mental health treatment. Becker is currently serving a sentence of life in prison, according to Examiner.com.

Ed Thomas´s son Aaron accepted the award on behalf of the family. “We went through many tough times, but we had a great example from my father in how to handle adversity,” he said, according to Examiner.

The award went to Nelson Mandela in 2009. Though it is a sport-oriented award, receivers of the award are not limited to athletes, but can be people who transcend sports.