{"id":153621,"date":"2025-11-19T09:15:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T15:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=153621"},"modified":"2025-11-19T11:50:59","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T17:50:59","slug":"oxford-couple-boosts-support-for-student-athletes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/oxford-couple-boosts-support-for-student-athletes\/","title":{"rendered":"Oxford Couple Boosts Support for Student-Athletes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ole Miss names women’s basketball locker room in donors’ honor<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

by Bill Dabney<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

An Oxford <\/strong>couple, both University of Mississippi<\/strong> alumni, recently increased their support of Ole Miss<\/strong> athletics programs. In return, the university’s Department of Athletics<\/strong> is naming the Rebels’ women’s basketball locker room in their honor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emma Gaines<\/strong> and Brandon Dixon<\/strong>, who made a gift of $125,000 to the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation<\/strong> in 2023<\/a>, recently increased their gift, hoping the funds will help give student-athletes the extended knowledge they need to proactively navigate life after graduation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThink about this: Our university will give an academic scholarship to help someone who has great capability in music cultivate that talent,” said Dixon, who earned a master\u2019s degree in educational leadership from Ole Miss<\/a> in 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I view athletes the same way. These young men and women have amazing abilities, so let\u2019s cultivate those talents and give them the skills and education they\u2019ll need later in life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaines earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in biological science in 2016 and a nursing degree in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William Fisher<\/strong>, assistant athletics director of development, said he\u2019s grateful for the couple\u2019s desire to support student-athletes comprehensively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBrandon\u2019s background in development gives him a unique understanding of how vital private support is,” Fisher said. “Generous gifts like his and Emma\u2019s are essential to the strength of our programs and the long-term success of our student-athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A renewed interest in Ole Miss basketball, specifically the women’s program, inspired the couple to increase their pledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re fortunate to live close to campus and can make it to games,” Dixon said. “The one thing I tell people about any sport \u2013 be it football, softball, basketball, whatever \u2013 go to one game and you’re going to feel invested; you\u2019re going to be hooked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to realize the level of competition that these athletes are playing, and you\u2019ll understand how fortunate you are to get to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Ole Miss women’s basketball coach Yolett McPhee McCuin (right) greets University of Mississippi alumni Brandon Dixon (left) with his wife, Emma Gaines, outside the team’s locker room. Dixon and Gaines have increased their gifts to athletics in hopes of helping student-athletes acquire the life skills they will need after graduation. Submitted photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
The Ole Miss athletics department has named the women’s basketball locker room in honor of University of Mississippi alumni and donors Emma Gaines and Brandon Dixon. Submitted photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ole Miss names women’s basketball locker room in donors’ honor by Bill Dabney An Oxford couple, both University<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123462,"featured_media":153623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17687],"tags":[27695,33136,27696,7067,17476,655,27699],"class_list":["post-153621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-university-of-mississippi","tag-brandon-dixon","tag-department-of-athletics","tag-emma-gaines","tag-ole-miss","tag-ole-miss-athletics-foundation","tag-university-of-mississippi","tag-william-fisher"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Dixons-and-Coach-Yo.jpg?fit=1080%2C1754&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153621"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153649,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153621\/revisions\/153649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}