Ole Miss’ Mac Brown Named to Uplifting Athletes Rare Disease Champion Team

Ole Miss’ Mac Brown continues to add to his accolades off the field as the senior punter was named a member of the 2021 Uplifting Athletes Rare Disease Champion Team on Tuesday.
 
For more than a dozen years, Uplifting Athletes has celebrated leaders in college football that have made a positive and lasting impact on the Rare Disease Community through its Rare Disease Champion initiative.
 
When he was in seventh grade, Brown had a modest goal of raising $500 for a childhood friend’s dad who had been diagnosed with ALS. Along with a group of neighborhood friends, Brown started a lemonade stand, Awesome Lemonade Stand, in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, to help his friend’s family.
 
10 years later, that $500 goal has ballooned to over $145,000 raised by Brown and his friends for ALS research. The Awesome Lemonade Stand is held on a late day in June and the 2021 fundraiser raised nearly $45,000 alone.
 
Besides the Awesome Lemonade Stand, Brown has participated in many community service activities around the Oxford and Mississippi area including: Student-Athlete Advisory Council, Sweetheart for residents at The Blake in Oxford, Reading with the Rebels, Hope to Dream, Special Olympics, plus much more.
 
Brown, also a member of the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team, has averaged 44.0 yards per punt this season for the Rebels. Twelve of Brown’s 38 punts have gone for more than 50 yards.
 
Joining Brown on the 2021 Uplifting Rare Disease Champion Team are: Florida State offensive lineman Dillan Gibbons, Temple long snapper Sam Fraley, SMU running back Tyler Lavine, Northwestern long snapper Peter Snodgrass and Oklahoma State long snapper Zeke Zaragoza.
 
Each member of the 2021 Rare Disease Champion Team will be honored and celebrated during the Uplifting Athletes Young Investigator Draft on Saturday, Feb. 5, 2022 at Lincoln Financial Field, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Brown and the Rebels return to action on New Years as they take on the No. 7 Baylor Bears in the Allstate Sugar Bowl. The kickoff is set for 7:45 p.m. on ESPN.

Staff Report