OXFORD | Cooper Johnson, this past Christmas season, picked up then-7-year-old Henry Ullrich and provided a few hours of a suitable, perfect holiday present.

The catcher and the fellow Illinois native and Ole Miss super fan went to a local baseball facility in the Chicagoland area to play catch, take a few rounds of batting practice and bond over Gatorade and “magic batting gloves” that Johnson presented to Ullrich while enjoying an afternoon of joking while playing a shared passion.

Ullrich, a few months later, lit up when recounting the special day. Wardrobed in a red UM interlocking cap and a powder blue Ole Miss baseball shirt, the second grader at Corpus Christi Catholic School mentioned Johnson first when asked which Rebels were his friends.

“Cooper gave me magic gloves, and we hit the ball hard,” Henry said between shy giggles and continuous smiles.

His dad, Jeff Ullrich, provided Johnson a compliment that he repeats often about many Ole Miss athletes. With a sincere demeanor that comes from a place of care and unlimited appreciation, he shared his version of that holiday surprise for his son.

“Cooper is the nicest kid and an incredibly kind person,” Jeff said. “He’s an incredible person and a wonderful role model for Henry. That’s who I want Henry to grow up like some day.”

Johnson turns 20 years old in 22 days. The statistics say Henry likely won’t make it to that someday.

Jeff was on his way to a business trip when the call came. It was a Thursday night in October 2015, and his family of four, including son Henry and daughter KC, had been the picture of health leading up to that moment. No prior history, no warning, nothing but a blindside shot that changed the idea of the future.

Henry was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic disorder characterized by progressive muscle degeneration and weakness. Symptoms typically begin by the sixth birthday, and the disorder affects males much more often than females. Currently, Henry has some trouble with stairs and is “about a quarter as fast as the other kids.”

“There’s nothing I hate more than business travel,” Jeff said. “I’m really good at story time and snuggling and don’t like being away. The doctor called and one day your life changes.”

Henry, who celebrated his eighth birthday this past weekend in Oxford for the baseball series against Arkansas, will likely lose mobility around 12 years old, and 18 years is his life expectancy.

Jeff and his wife, Lauren, made the committed decision to not hide the predetermined plight from their children. Henry, as best an eight-year old can, understands what’s to come and struggles in the summers more than other times, as he’s left to more alone time and without the constant activity that’s common the rest of the year.

He plays baseball on a year-to-year basis and has been cleared for coach pitch this summer. Henry and KC are parented the same, as quality behavior and hard work are compensated with trips and activities. KC, 10, struggles with why it’s happening to her best friend.

“It’s an incredibly positive experience in the weirdest way,” Jeff said. “I don’t want it to happen to any child but if it’s going to happen to one, you know it might as well be a family that loves each other and has a good support system, and he has taught us so much to appreciate every single day and don’t take anything for granted. There’s so much to learn there. I’m a future person. I spend my time worrying about the future and worrying about tomorrow, and I realized I should enjoy today and what I have.”

Since 2010, there has been an annual college home run derby in Omaha, Nebraska. The somewhat made-for-TV event follows the basic format of the MLB All-Star Game sideshow, as 10 or so college power hitters meet to blast away at TD Ameritrade Park.

Jeff, a loyal South Carolina fan and college baseball enthusiast, flipped on the 2016 edition as mostly background noise on a summer night in July. It was nine months after Henry’s diagnosis, and East Tennessee State’s Hagen Owenby beat Houston’s Joe Davis in the finals.

However, Henry wasn’t concerned with those two or SEC West sluggers Brent Rooker and Greg Deichmann. No, the other SEC representative, Ole Miss’ Colby Bortles, caught his eye. He liked the bat flip and the power, and even though Bortles’ 10 home runs didn’t advance him past the first round, little Henry was hooked.

“Honestly I thought it would be a one time thing,” Jeff said. “The home run derby was on but I was half watching. Two days later he was all-in.”

Following the broadcast, Henry and KC took to the iPad to research Bortles. There they found The Season, an Emmy award-winning Ole Miss production that profiles the Rebel teams and players. One episode showed the Ole Miss baseball road trip to Coastal Carolina, and that featured Bortles and infielder Tate Blackman.

Soon Henry discovered The Season for football and the other sports, and Bortles was cemented as his favorite player — and Ole Miss as his favorite team.

“The power of that show,” Ole Miss athletics director Ross Bjork said. “The production quality alone and then they see it’s an Ole Miss production. We tell stories through that show and people gravitate to it. This is a perfect example in a perfect meaning of why we do the shows. One family and one young man.”

Said Jeff: “I think if they didn’t have The Season this goes away. Instead it reinforces it. It just flows from season to season. I hadn’t watched a college basketball game in 25 years, but I watched 15 of them this year because Henry wanted to watch the Rebels. He hates the 8 p.m. starts because he has to go to bed at halftime.”

Jeff was a mergers and acquisitions attorney for years before moving his family to Illinois in 2014. Unknown at the time, the freedom of his schedule and even the odd layout of a downstairs bathroom have become serendipitous occurrences with their situation.

Among his current professional duties, he works with State Farm Insurance. So, when Henry chose to attend a baseball series in 2017, State Farm sponsorship coordinator John Althoff, without any request from Jeff, sent an email to Bjork, explaining Henry’s circumstance. Althoff and Bjork have known each other since Ole Miss’ AD was on the staff at UCLA.

Henry’s seventh birthday featured the trip to Oxford for the Ole Miss-Mississippi State series, and the Rebels had a surprise waiting for him.

“I wouldn’t have expected anything or cared,” Jeff said. “I was just a guy going to a baseball game with his boy because that’s what I know. It’s everything that’s right with college sports.”

Prior to one of the games, Henry sat the in the dugout and met Bortles and the other players. Bortles taught him the bat flip that first caught Henry’s eye, and he left with pictures, autographs and a fandom that went from strong to locked in stone.

“I just kind of started talking to him,” Bortles said. Soon I didn’t want to leave this kid. I wanted to keep hanging out with him. The next day I saw him on the Square and we met each other’s families and talked another half hour.

“His smile is contagious. When he smiles everybody smiles. It was more impactful for me than him.”

The family returned to Oxford for the win over Vanderbilt in football last fall, and they traveled to St. Louis for the SEC Basketball Tournament in March. The hospitality and small deeds that became lasting memories aren’t strictly baseball-related. All-SEC football players AJ Brown and Greg Little met Henry that weekend last year and remembered him this past Saturday when he walked up at spring practice.

In the team hotel in St. Louis, Ole Miss guard Terence Davis stopped for pictures and a conversation.

“Terence walks by and for no good reason stopped and chatted and took a picture just because he’s a good person,” Jeff said. “There’s something about the culture here that’s incredibly unique. It’s different. It’s a culture of thoughtfulness and they are wonderful role models.”

The decision for Henry to come back for another birthday celebration was an easy one. While KC enjoys music and concerts and playing the violin, Henry is fan-focused on Ole Miss sports. He passes summer nights listening to Tigers minor league games so he can follow Bortles.

Johnson, who is from just north of Chicago while the Ulrich family is two hours south and in the middle of Chicago, St. Louis and Indianapolis, has formed a personal connection to Henry through shared understanding. The sophomore lost his sister, Sophie, to a year-and-a-half battle with leukemia in 2002. Sophie died at five years old, and Cooper was three years old at the time. He has a tattoo on his wrist to honor her, and it’s made him more aware of struggles around him and how he can impact other people.

While he was home over Christmas and Henry was in Chicago at Lurie Children’s Hospital, he saw an excellent opportunity to grow their connection.

“(Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco) preaches it but personally I take time to go out of the way considering some of the stuff my family has gone through,” Johnson said. “It kind of means more once you’ve seen the other side of things and been there before. Once you’re on the other side a hello and a conversation and to be touchable means the world.It goes so much farther than people know. It’s bigger than baseball.”

Henry mentions Bortles, Brown and outfielder Ryan Olenek as his friends along with Johnson. Olenek shared a hug with him upon first meeting last year, picking the boy off the ground and wrapping him in his arms. Olenek was the first player to approach him a year ago. He said, “my name is Ryan, what’s yours,” and the friendship began.

“I like Ryan a lot,” Henry said.

At the end of spring football practice Saturday, Brown ran toward Henry and started a conversation about the Cam Newton jersey birthday present Henry received earlier in the week. Little, a 300-pound offensive tackle, came over, got on a knee to shrink to Henry’s size and the two talked about LEGOs.

“Cooper and Ryan and AJ Brown are great,” Jeff said. “AJ Brown is the nicest person in the world, just a wonderful human being. He and Greg come down to Henry’s level and talk to him. They never try to get him to their level.”

Ole Miss is in the final stages of a $20 million construction project to Oxford-University Stadium. The yet-to-be-completed phase includes a new locker room and many training and player amenity areas for the Rebels under the stadium.

The training portion of the facility will feature a fueling station with drinks, food and supplements. Ole Miss is naming that section of the expansion after Henry.

“It’s funny because you think you’re doing a service to other people and all of a sudden you see kids like Henry, and you’re getting the benefit out of it,” Ole Miss hitting coach Mike Clement said. “I think our players feel that way. I hope Henry and his family feel that way. I think he’s given us more than we’ve given him.”

Henry already has November 3 circled, as his dad’s South Carolina Gamecocks come to Oxford for a football game. Jeff knows that will be the next major reward for a job well done. And Illinois State, which is in the same metropolitan area as the Ullrich family, gets a visit from Ole Miss basketball next season. They’ll attend that one, “for sure,” Jeff said.

And in the middle there will be many television broadcasts and Twitter conversations. Henry’s social media account houses his thoughts with spelling and grammar assists from his parents. He says he wants to pitch like Parker Caracci and hit like Tyler Keenan. Names that meant nothing less than three years ago but are now fixtures in Ulrich family life. Grateful and continually surprised, Jeff, above all else, wants his son happy. Ole Miss helps make that happen.

“It’s the people here,” Jeff said. “This is sports Disneyland for Henry… We’re fortunate, right, Hen? It’s a wonderful message of hope.”