DALLAS — Ahead of the 88th Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, the No. 9 University of Missouri Tigers took time out of their schedule to visit Scottish Rite for Children.
It's a Cotton Bowl tradition that has been going on for around 40 years, Scottish Rite's Chief Operating Officer Matt Chance said. One team visits Scottish Rite while the other visits Children’s Medical Center Dallas.
"Every year, we have one of the teams from the Cotton Bowl that come and celebrates with us," Chance said. "So we've got Coach Drinkwitz and the entire Missouri team here."
Players, coaches and personnel packed the atrium at the north Dallas hospital to spend time with children and their families playing games, signing autographs and bringing smiles to their faces.
"It's a way for them to have a little bit of a distraction from what they're working through. And our patients, they're fantastic," Chance said. "This absolutely is a way for them to just get distracted from what their cares they are receiving and then move on with the rest of their lives."
The Tigers also met former Scottish Rite patient Rayne Urech and made her their honorary captain for the game on Friday. Drinkwintz even presented Urech with her very own Mizzou jersey.
"I just want to say thank you to Mizzou and the Cotton Bowl and Scottish Rite and everybody. This has been an incredible experience and it wouldn't have happened without them," Urech said.
She will be attending practice on Wednesday and will be attending Friday's game with Mizzou.
In the future, she hopes to go into coaching and she's learning from the best.
"I'm a student assistant right now at my high school and I've just been kind of working towards continuing that in college," she said. "There are so many opportunities for women now, not only in coaching but recruiting in sport, strength and conditioning. And there's all these things you can do that I'm just learning about in the super exciting."
St. Louis area native Luther Burden III was in the atrium with his camera, playing games and making connections with the kids.
"I've got them on camera," he said. "I was playing with the cookie games and so I'm just having a good time. I'm happy to be here," Burden said.
He described it as a 'huge blessing' to represent Mizzou and the St. Louis area in the Cotton Bowl.
"It's everything to me. I've been watching Mizzou my whole life, so for me to just be a part of their brotherhood and be from St. Louis and support my hometown and just support everything that they got going on is just a huge blessing," Burden said.
And what did he have to say to St. Louis ahead of the game?
"Shout out M-I-Z, shout out St. Louis. We are on the map. I love y'all," he said.
The Cotton Bowl Classic will kick off at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 29 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.