TCU coach says Iowa St. girl might come to game

Abby Faber, the young Iowa State fan pictured with TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin in a photo that went viral, might get another chance to shake hands with him and the rest of the Horned Frogs.

“I hear a rumor she might be coming in for this ballgame,” coach Gary Patterson said with a smile Tuesday at his weekly press conference. “So if she does, hopefully I’ll get an opportunity to meet her and her parents.”

The Horned Frogs play West Virginia at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. It will be their first game since the win at Iowa State on Oct. 17, when 7-year-old Abby was on the field for the pregame coin toss with players from both teams.

In an image captured by Star-Telegram photographer Paul Mosely, Boykin knelt to greet Abby, diagnosed with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy at age 3, in her wheelchair. The image circulated on the Internet once Boykin posted it on his Instagram page, and national news outlets began highlighting it. Facebook and Twitters users also reposted it.

A group of TCU students began an online fundraiser for the young girl that brought in more than $15,000 in a few days.

“Our kids do a lot of that stuff,” Patterson said of Boykin’s gesture, which he said actually followed the same by defensive tackle Davion Pierson. “I think that’s one of the reasons we have the relationship with the community that we have. Because graduating’s important, acting right’s important, giving back’s important. If you don’t do that, then you’ve taught them the wrong lessons.”

Patterson said Boykin may have gotten more out of the encounter than Abby.

“When you give without trying to get something out of it, usuually you get a lot more out of it than the person that needed it,” he said. “Because they always give back so much.”

This story was originally published October 27, 2015 at 2:04 PM with the headline "TCU coach says Iowa St. girl might come to game."