A few Memphis football players found themselves in a foot race with a young Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital patient leading the way.

The boy won at least three races and appeared to be having a blast doing it.

The Memphis football team had a full day of community interaction Friday. It started at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and ended with Fan Fest at FedExPark Avron Fogelman Field.

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Several Memphis players already spend time at the hospital throughout the week, but the entire roster and coaching staff showed up on Friday, Aug. 18 for a fun-filled event with the kids. Outside the hospital was filled with life-size Jenga, Connect Four, blowup footballs with a blowup field goal, autograph signings and more.

“Anything that we can do to get the patients’ minds off of being in the hospital (and) being in their room,” Le Bonheur public relationship spokesperson David Henson said. “A lot of times patients are sad, and they don’t want to leave their rooms. But they find out that there are some football players downstairs or (Memphis mascot) Pouncer downstairs or some cheerleaders, they want to see what’s going on.”

The event was mutually beneficial.

The Tigers were having just as much fun as the children were. Spending the early afternoon hanging out with kids who brought smiles to the Tigers’ faces is much more enjoyable than running sprints at practice in the Memphis heat.

“I’m just grateful honestly. We’re all grateful,” wide receiver Joseph Scates said. “I don’t think we would much rather want to do anything else on an off day than to come do this. … It’s always good and heartwarming to be able to come and make those kids feel more powerful in their situations.”

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After spending time at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, Memphis football partnered with Memphis volleyball along with the Memphis men’s and women’s soccer teams at Fan Fest. Players and coaches from each program showed up to the baseball field where there were inflatables, food and other activities for fans to interact with the Tigers.

Women’s basketball coach Alex Simmons even made an appearance to support the event. Football coach Ryan Silverfield said not only is it a chance for the different teams within the athletic department to collaborate, but it offers an opportunity for fans to see players they’ve known of but have never met before.

“We’ve had players that have joined us since spring ball,” Silverfield said. “They have no idea what they look like. So a lot of these guys are going to be looking at the back of a jersey saying oh, you’re so-and-so the newspaper wrote an article about.”

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Memphis is two weeks away from opening the season against Bethune-Cookman at 6 p.m. on Sept. 2 inside Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium. The Tigers have been going full throttle during fall camp to prepare for the season. But they took a day off on Friday to focus on other important responsibilities.

“I think it’s a chance for our players to say hey it’s not just football,” Silverfield said. “What we want to do within our program is yes, winning games is important as anything. Graduating our student-athletes is important as anything. But being able to do what we do in the community is truly a pillar of our program and today is one of those days.”