• Vote for Greg Stevens For Rare Disease Champion Award Here
Eastern Illinois football offensive coordinator
Greg Stevens was one of six finalists chosen for the 2015 Rare Disease Champion Award announced by Uplifting Athletes.
The Uplifting Athletes Rare Disease Champion Award is given to a leader in college football who has realized his or her potential to make a positive and lasting impact on the rare disease community.
Nominees for the 2015 award were solicited from any NCAA FBS, FCS, Division II or Division III institution or college football programs nationwide.
The other five finalists chosen to determine the seventh winner of the award are: Auburn wide receiver Sammie Coates University of South Florida offensive lineman Quinterrius Eatmon, Baylor wide receiver Levi Norwood, Minnesota Senior Associate AD Dan O’Brien and UCLA cornerback Marcus Rios.
A public online vote will be live from January 12th until January 31st to determine the 2015 Rare Disease Champion. You can vote once each day for your favorite finalist.
The finalist with the most votes will be winner. The champion will be officially announced February 1st to kick off Rare Disease Month.
The 2015 Rare Disease Champion will be honored as part of the Maxwell Football Club Awards Gala on March 13th in Atlantic City at the Tropicana.
Stevens joined EIU head coach Kim Dameron’s staff in the winter of 2014. During June he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s large B-cell lymphoma. Stevens and his team of doctors immediately attacked the disease as he had regular treatments that lasted until early October. Throughout the process Stevens never missed a Panthers practice or game as EIU ranked in the Top 20 in the FCS in both total offense and rushing offense this past season. Following the season Stevens underwent a bone marrow transplant to lower the percentages of the cancer returning. He has returned to office as the spring semester has started and the Panthers are in the midst of recruiting for the upcoming football season.
Of the previous six winners, three were FBS players, one FCS player, a Division III quarterback and an administrator from AFCA.
Uplifting Athletes is a full service national nonprofit organization aligning college football with rare diseases and raising them as a national priority through research, outreach, education and advocacy. What makes Uplifting Athletes unique is that our university chapters are run by current football student-athletes, providing them with an opportunity to gain management and leadership skills while learning how to leverage their assets and abilities to make a positive and lasting impact. Each chapter adopts one out of approximately 7,000 rare diseases (such as Aplastic Anemia, cystic fibrosis, pediatric brain cancer, kidney cancer, Leukemia, Neimann Pick Type-C, Neuroblastoma,, Fanconi anemia, etc.). For more information about Uplifting Athletes, visit
www.upliftingathletes.org.