‘Honorary Owl’ leaves legacy of love, respect
Boy, 10, a key figure of Rice football, dies after cancer fight
The smallest member of Rice University’s football program always made a big entrance at the team’s afternoon practice, a 4foot-tall ball of energy bounding down the stadium ramp.
Fre’derick “Ziggy” StovallRedd would arrive bearing hugs and handshakes, darting between drills, searching out his favorite coaches and players. As practice dragged on, he’d deliver words of encouragement and the occasional kick in the butt, never bashful about offering an opinion. Most days, you’d never know Ziggy had been battling leukemia half his childhood.
Then, as the evening wore down and practice came to a close, Ziggy’s hulking teammates would gather around him. They would raise their hands together and wait for Ziggy to break the huddle.
“One, two,” Ziggy would scream. “Family,” they would reply. Ziggy, who became an indelible part of the Rice football family over the past three years as an “honorary Owl,” died Friday following a six-year bout with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, one of the most common childhood cancers. He was 10.
Through up-and-down football campaigns, through arduous treatments and periods of remission, Ziggy found a home
on the Rice football field, a boisterous and ever-curious sideline presence.
“He had such a great attitude, so much so that you really did assume that with prayers and medical science, Ziggy would one day play football at Rice,” said the Owls’ former head coach, David Bailiff.
Ziggy’s tenure with the team started in 2015, shortly after he moved from Mississippi with his mother, Philandis, and younger sister to be closer to MD Anderson Cancer Center. His mother connected with Team IMPACT, a national nonprofit that pairs chronically ill children with local college teams, and found a willing partner in Bailiff.
“I wanted him to have big brothers and father figures other than just my dad,” said Philandis Stovall, a single mother. “They just gravitated toward him and he had a good connection with them.”
In April of that year, Bailiff and his staff staged a “signing day” for Ziggy, then 7, proclaiming him the newest member of the Owls’ program. He earned a spot on the team’s roster — 4foot-3, 57 pounds, wearing numbers 7 and 8 (he couldn’t choose between the two). At the time, his cancer was in remission but he was still receiving treatment.
The event attracted media attention, but Bailiff pledged it “would not be a one-day news story.” Ziggy would get near-unfettered access to the team.
From the start, Ziggy blended in. During warm-ups at practice, Ziggy would sidle up to players as they stretched. After practice, Bailiff would return to his office to find Ziggy in his chair, rifling through desk drawers. Sometimes, Ziggy would pop in to positional meetings to offer his opinion on a player’s effort or technique.
“He was so bold, man,” said Matt Simonette, an offensive lineman and team captain in 2015. “He didn’t care if you were the star or not. He called you out if you weren’t giving 100 percent energy.”
Along the way, relationships developed. The team’s young offensive coordinator, Billy Lynch, and his wife Carla grew close with Ziggy’s mom, setting up play-dates between their children. When Ziggy’s family moved, Rice players showed up to haul boxes. Driphus Jackson, the team’s starting quarterback in 2015, became a big-brother figure, shooting a stern look and a three-word reminder — “love and respect — when Ziggy got lippy with his mom.
In the summer of 2016, Ziggy rang the bell, signaling his treatments were over. Four months later, the cancer returned, this time in his bone marrow.
Then, about a week ago, Ziggy’s health took a turn. His mother started contacting Rice’s coaches and players, many of whom had scattered across the state. Several showed up at the hospital bearing food and flowers. Jackson, who stayed in close contact with Ziggy’s mother, phoned one final time.
“His last words to me were, ‘I love you,’” Jackson said. “The thing that will forever stick with me is the fact that he was able to say that.”