Chris Hixon

He’s remembered as a good-humored husband and loving father, a Stoneman Douglas athletic director and wrestling coach, the man who literally gave the shirt off his back. But to his wife, Debbi, Chris Hixon deserves one more accolade: hero.

"People remember Chris as a hero on that day," Debbi Hixon says. "We remember him as a hero every day. It's not a surprise what happened on Feb. 14. That was just who he was. We remember him as a hero not because of how he died, but because of how he lived. He always put people before himself."

A native of Easton, Penn., Hixon, 49, lived in Hollywood and was a fixture at youth sporting events, first as a high school wrestler, and later as athletic director at Blanche Ely and South Broward high schools. Heroism defined Hixon long before Feb. 14: He served two Persian Gulf tours in the U.S. Navy (Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield), and deployed to Iraq in 2007 as a U.S. Naval Reservist.

But to students he coached, Hixon is hailed as a compassionate, no-nonsense leader who treated them like family.

“Coach Hixon, for me, was a father figure,” Karlos Valentin, a senior, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in 2018. ”We were pretty much with him six days a week — three-to-four-to-five hours. His loss was just terrible.”

Hixon, voted 2017 Athletic Director of the Year by the Broward County Athletic Association, is survived by sons Tommy and Corey, and daughters Jessica and Jennifer. Before his death, Hixon and Corey trained to run a 5K together. Last July at the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles, Hixon and his fellow coaches — Scott Beigel and Aaron Feis — were posthumously honored as 2018 Coaches of the Year.

Donations made in Hixon’s memory will benefit the Chris Hixon Scholarship Fund, awarded to one student athlete each from Blanche Ely, South Broward and Stoneman Douglas. The fund is hosting an Inaugural Chris Hixon Memorial 5K walk/run at 7 a.m. Feb. 16 at Charnow Park, 300 Connecticut St., Hollywood. Go to ChrisHixonAthleticScholarship.com.