The ACU Wildcats will be back at Shotwell Stadium next Saturday at 6 p.m. to take on McMurry. The game has been designated the “Pediatric Cancer Awareness Game benefitting the P4X Foundation” as the Wildcats join the fight against pediatric cancer. September is Pediatric Cancer Awareness month and ACU football players will join those from Hardin-Simmons and McMurry universities as well as Abilene, Cooper, Wylie, Abilene Christian and Fort Worth Christian high schools in wearing a special ribbon decal on their helmet at each of their respective games during the entire month. The ribbons were purchased by the P4X Foundation, which was established earlier this year in memory of Rex Fleming, the late son of ACU associate director of athletics for media relations Lance Fleming.
Rex battled a cancerous brain tumor for two years before succumbing to cancer on Nov. 25, 2012, at the age of 10. The foundation has been established to raise money to, among other things, provide iPod touches and Apple iTunes gift cards to pediatric cancer patients at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth. However, the foundation’s assistance will not stop there as it will work in many ways to help children and families battling cancer. While Rex was fighting his disease, the P4X logo (created and designed by Grant Boone and Todd Mullins) stood for “Pray 4 Rex.” Now it has taken on a new meaning as it was changed to “Play 4 Rex” in deference to Rex’s passion for sports. It could also mean to do whatever you’re doing in life the way Rex did: with passion, with purpose, and with love.
ACU athletics is playing a vital role in helping raise money for both the P4X Foundation as well as the Rex Fleming Endowed Scholarship at ACU. Next Friday (Sept. 6) at the World Famous Bean on the ACU campus, $1 from each lunch ticket sold ($5) will go directly to the P4X Foundation. And next Saturday at the ACU-McMurry game, $1 from each ticket sold on both sides of the stadium will go directly to the scholarship fund. Local cancer survivors Callie Cochran and Tatum Flaming will be on hand to participate in the coin toss and a halftime video will be shown detailing the P4X Foundation’s first trip to Cook Children’s on Aug. 19 to hand out iPod touches. Also, the ACU athletics training staff will be wearing P4X Foundation T-shirts and a booth will be set up under the home stands on the west side of the stadium where fans can order those same T-shirts or make a donation to the foundation fund. Members of the ACU Student-Athlete Advisory Committee will also be walking through t
he stands passing the bucket for the P4X Foundation.