Mark Wilson has donated close to $50,000 to the MACC Fund in recent years, including $30,000 this past fall. (Getty)

The Bucks, after all, won seven consecutive divisional championships between 1980 and ’87.

Marques Johnson, Sidney Moncrief, Bob Lanier and Terry Cummings were named NBA All-Stars during that span. Quinn Buckner, Paul Pressey and Moncrief were NBA All-Defensive Team selections. Ricky Pierce won the NBA Sixth Man Award. Don Nelson was twice chosen NBA Coach of the Year.

And Wilson considers himself fortunate to have seen it all happen.

“My dad and I went to Bucks games when I was young,” he said. “Some of the players I most remember are Terry Cummings, Ricky Pierce, Jack Sikma and Marques Johnson … and Brian Winters was one of my favorites.”

Wilson, though, remembers his visits to the MECCA for another reason – one that would have a far greater impact on his life and on those of many others more than two decades later.

“I remember the public-address announcer talking about the Bucks donating $50 to the MACC Fund for winning a tip or hitting a 3-pointer,” Wilson said. “As a kid, I didn’t realize what all of the meant, but I heard it and told my dad, ‘I would like to be able to do something like that someday.’”

Lo and behold, Wilson got that opportunity last year, and he literally made the most of it.

The Pewaukee native, now a PGA Tour professional golfer, and his wife, Amy, last year presented the Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer (MACC) Fund with a $30,000 check, the largest ever given to the charity by a professional athlete.

The Wilsons, who established their “Making a Mark Fore MACC” program in 2004, had previously contributed $5,000 that year and $12,000 the next.

Before the Wilsons determined their 2006 donation, they had to consider the fact that Mark had, in effect, lost his job on the PGA Tour by finishing out of the top 125 on the money list for the year. He had to attend the Tour’s Qualifying School —“Q School” -- for the 10th straight year to get back on the Tour.

Still, the Wilsons were undeterred in their quest to make a difference with the gifts God had given them.

“Our donation was going to be $9,800,” Mark said. “My wife, Amy, and I looked at our finances one day, and we realized the MACC Fund was having its 30th anniversary. Amy came up with the idea of donating a gift of $30,000.

“We’ve been blessed, and we certainly had enough in store to be able to do it. We thought it may prompt others to do something special.”

The Wilsons were right. One of Mark’s sponsors, Jim Fischer, head of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ Metro Milwaukee office and a longtime MACC Fund supporter, continued his company’s tradition of matching Wilson’s annual gifts to the MACC Fund.

“John Cary (of the MACC Fund) and Jim Fischer have been very easy people to work with, and we made it happen,” Wilson said. “My wife and I have committed to donating portions of what we earn. My success means we can do even more, and I know John Cary has some big ideas.

The opportunity to meet some potential beneficiaries of his contributions has only inspired Wilson to do more for MACC.

“I visited cancer patients in Milwaukee,” he said. “I look at those kids … I never had to go through anything like that. A lot of the boys I met were into the Bucks, golf … They asked questions like ‘Have you played with Tiger?’

“Despite what’s happened to them, they all had smiles on their faces, and they still love playing with their friends.”

Wilson knows there is hope for these youngsters, and this conviction inspires him to help them even more.

“One of my wife’s friends had cancer when she was growing up, and she leads a great life today,” he said. “She just had a child a year ago. Seeing someone like her tells you that you can beat cancer. These kids can have a normal life.”

Wilson treasures his childhood memories. Some of his favorite ones take him back to the basketball court.

“Basketball was really my first love,” he said. “I loved basketball, and I was pretty good at it. I played at St. John’s Lutheran School in Lannon. I remember (former Bucks center) Randy Breuer coming to my school for some function. I had a photo taken with him when I was 10 years old.

“When my dad and I would go to the games, we’d always try to get up close. During those years, the Bucks were running off all those division championships. One time, my dad and I made a sign that said, ‘Nellie, please stay.’ We walked around the whole floor holding it up, and everyone, section by section, would cheer as we went by. Being a little kid, you never forget something like that.”

The little kid from St. John’s-Lannon was a hardwood diehard until he realized he might have a longer career in another sport.

“My dad is 5-4, my mom is 5-1, and I stopped growing at 5-8,” he said. “ I stopped playing in my junior year (at Wisconsin Lutheran High School), although I continued to play in a church league for high school-age boys, and I really enjoyed that.”

Wilson’s most serious sports venue, though, became the golf course.

He won the Wisconsin Independent Schools Athletic Association state championship while at Wisconsin Lutheran. He became an All-American during his years at the University of North Carolina and won a state amateur championship.

And he was richly rewarded for all of the dues he paid in Q-School earlier this spring. He earned a dramatic playoff win in the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic and moved him up to seventh place in the FedEx Cup standings with his first Tour victory.

“Obviously, I wasn’t on the radar at all going into the Honda,” Wilson said. “Things really clicked for me. I putted and hit well. Nerves got to me a little bit that Sunday, but I managed to stay on top. I hit some bad shots, but had some good putts, including a birdie on the playoff hole to win it.

“It felt great to be congratulated after winning, even though I wound up coming up a little short of The Masters.”

Wilson, 32, believes his sport of choice was the right one, and looks forward to further establishing himself on the national circuit.

“It’s great to be finished with Q-School,” he said. “I played in the Doral, my first world championship event. I’ll play in the Players Championship. I’ll play in the PGA in August. I get to pick where I want to play, and that will help me because there are some courses where I haven’t played well.

“Golf is so much different than sports where you hit your prime in your 30s. This year, I’ve rested more and I don’t need to physically wear myself out.”

Wilson is not resting, though, in his support of the MACC Fund. Just recently, he decided to team up with a group of teenage golfers to raise more money for MACC.

Golfers from 33 southeastern Wisconsin high schools competed in the Lake Country Charity Invitational last weekend at Erin Hills Golf Course and raised money through pledges and donations.

Wilson was so excited to see his young proteges pitching in that he agreed to play nine holes of golf in July at Erin Hills with the two teams that bring in the most money for the MACC Fund.

And maybe, just maybe, a youngster in the gallery for that exhibition will be inspired to make a difference, just like Mark Wilson was at those Bucks games over 20 years ago.

The Milwaukee Bucks have been commited to the MACC Fund since its inception in 1976. The Bucks have raised more than $1,000,000 for cancer research since 1977 through the Bucks/MACC Fund game, the first major event to benefit the fund. The MACC Fund supports pediatric cancer research at The Midwest Children's Cancer Center at Milwaukee Children's Hospital.

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