BATON ROUGE — Five student-athletes from the nationally ranked LSU football team visited the children’s ward at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center last Friday.
Redshirt freshman quarterback Matt Flynn, sophomore offensive lineman Peter Dyakowski, junior offensive lineman Rudy Niswanger, senior offensive lineman Harold Bicknell and sophomore tight end Keith Zinger talked to the children, signed autographs and participated in activities with the children at the hospital. The Tigers have worked closely with the children’s ward over the past few years to get student-athletes involved with the hospital.
Last year while in New Orleans for the 2004 Sugar Bowl, members of the football team visited a local hospital to hand out gifts to the children in the pediatric ward. They players and head coach Nick Saban were given personally decorated “Tiger hats” by the children.
The hospital visits are sponsored by the Shaquille O’Neal CHAMPS/Life Skills program. The CHAMPS (Challenging Athletes Minds for Personal Success)/Life Skills Program was designed by the NCAA to help student-athletes realize higher academic achievement, increase likelihood of graduation and enter a chosen profession with a higher level of vision, knowledge, motivation, self-responsibility and greater overall success. In Spring 2003, the CHAMPS/ Life Skills Program at LSU honored one of the Tigers’ most memorable graduates, Shaquille O’Neal, by naming the program after him.