NEW ORLEANS — Archie and Olivia Manning’s tight-knit family is often referred to as the first family of American football. Now, there is the Manning Family Children’s hospital in this city where the two native Mississippians have lived for the last 54 years.
Seventy-year-old Children’s Hospital of New Orleans Wednesday night officially took on the new name after what hospital officials called “a transformational gift” from the Mannings.
At an event on the riverfront during Super Bowl week here, Archie Manning called the hospital’s name change “our family’s finest hour.”
The Manning family’s investment of their time and money in children’s hospitals is nothing new. Said Archie, “It kind of runs in the family.”
It does. A children’s hospital in Indianapolis was renamed for Peyton Manning, the couple’s middle of three sons, in 2007. Two years later, in Jackson, University of Mississippi Medical Center established the Eli Manning Children’s Clinics at Children’s of Mississippi after the Mannings’ youngest son contributed and raised millions of dollars. Eli Manning also has helped raise $25 million for a children’s cancer care in New Jersey.
Said Archie Manning, “I told my sons that no matter what they did on the football field or elsewhere in their lives, the naming of those hospitals in Indianapolis and Mississippi were their finest hour. I feel this is our family’s finest hour. Nothing else matches this.”
He quipped, “I’m just glad Cooper (oldest son), Olivia and I are now in the hospital business.”
In a more serious tone, Archie Manning said, “I am 75 years old. I am entering the fourth quarter of my life. When this (renaming) was suggested, I thought this would be a really worthwhile and fun association in the years ahead.”
Hundreds of attendees paid at least $1,000 a ticket to Wednesday night’s event. Featured entertainment was an often hilarious round table discussion, moderated by Cooper Manning, who could make a living doing stand-up comedy. Olivia Manning, who rarely makes public appearances, stole the show when she told about taking young sons Cooper and Peyton to a Saints game at the Superdome, site of Sunday’s Super Bowl. Those Saints won only one of 16 games and were soundly defeated that day. When Saints fans booed lustily, seven-year-old Cooper asked, “Mom, can we boo, too?” Peyton, two years younger, chimed in, “Mom, can we wear one of those paper bags?”
Said Olivia, “I told them I wasn’t bringing them to any more games, and I didn’t go to any more games that season myself.”
Cooper also told the story and showed a videotape of brother Eli arm-wrestling Raising Cane’s founder and CEO Todd Graves. The loser was to donate $1 million to the children’s hospital. Eli won, by the hardest. Graves wrote a $1 million check and also sponsored Wednesday night’s plush event. As the tape played, Cooper Manning quipped, “Look, Todd is ordering chianti while Eli is in a full sweat!”
In Mississippi, the Mannings, Eli in particular, have helped raise millions for Children’s of Mississippi and UMMC overall with the Manning Family Fund.
“The Mannings have been so supportive of us over the years,” UMMC Vice Chancellor LouAnn Woodward said by phone on Thursday morning. “They have been so gracious and are so widely respected. They are the closest thing we have to royalty in Mississippi.”
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