Ole Miss football players visit Children's of Mississippi, lift patients' spirits

Ole Miss football players traded Oxford for Jackson and spent an afternoon at Children’s of Mississippi, where children on Mimi’s Playground got autographs, bubbles and a break from hospital routine. The June 10 visit brought Trinidad Chambliss, Jaylon Braxton, Joshua Dye and several teammates into direct contact with patients and families at Mississippi’s only children’s hospital.

Photos from the University of Mississippi Medical Center showed Chambliss signing autographs and posing for pictures with patients, including Ledger Smith, 6, of Brookhaven, and his brother, Beckam. Dye sat down for a game of Connect 4 with Montay Brown, 11, of Meridian, giving the visit a personal touch that went beyond a quick appearance. Braxton blew bubbles and helped children on the playground slide and monkey bars, turning the hospital’s outdoor space into a place for play instead of appointments and waiting rooms.

Terez Davis, Blake Purchase, Troy Everett, Jonathan Maldonado and Luke Ferrelli also made the trip, and children’s child life manager Cara Williams helped lead the group to Mimi’s Playground. The players’ visit fit neatly with the work hospital staff do every day to give young patients a sense of normalcy, especially in a place built for some of the state’s most serious pediatric cases.

Children’s of Mississippi is more than a single building in Jackson. The University of Mississippi Medical Center says it houses the state’s only pediatric emergency room, pediatric intensive care unit, Level IV neonatal intensive care unit and surgery program for congenital heart conditions. That makes visits like this one matter to families from across Mississippi, including places such as Brookhaven, Meridian and even nearby Greenville, where specialized pediatric care often means a long drive to Jackson.

The outreach also matched a pattern around the Ole Miss program under head coach Pete Golding, who has pushed the team to stay visible in the community since taking over in November 2024. Golding has said Ole Miss must “give back to people who create the strong home-field environment the program enjoys.” For a program followed closely in Lafayette County and across the Jackson metro area, the visit showed how Rebel football can reach past Saturdays in Oxford and into the daily lives of families receiving care in Jackson.