TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo football punter Bailey Flint might be the most interesting man on campus.
The 25-year-old Australian is now in his fifth year in the Glass City.
He’s studied theatre abroad in Moscow, been in the school plays at Toledo, but now, in his final year with the Rockets, he’s leaving his mark in the community.
Flint has been able to experience a ton since he’s arrived in the United States, but maybe the most important part of his lasting legacy will be what he did off the field.
He has volunteered his time in many ways, but most recently he’s worked with First Days Daycare.
He used to go in to read and spend time with the kids, but during the pandemic, he’s made YouTube videos of himself reading books for the kids to watch.
"Coming from a reasonably low socioeconomic area myself in Australia, coming over to America and then seeing kids in these similar positions and then realizing that I have a platform where I can possibly help them, it's just a no-brainer for me," said Flint.
Flint has now taken that one step forward.
With the recent passage of name, image, and likeness rules in the NCAA, he couldn’t benefit like other athletes because he’s from Australia.
So, he had to get creative and that’s where his newest project comes in. He’s teamed up with Jupmode here in town to make 419 t-shirts.
"The shirt that I'm wearing right now, I'm number 49, and then this is me punting in the middle, so it makes the 419," said Flint. "Which I thought was kind of a cool little idea."
The proceeds from the sale of this shirt will go towards helping the daycare that has become near and dear to his heart.
"Mostly playground equipment, different things like that, just so the kids have some stuff. Just to update the facilities a little bit," said Flint. "They have a couple computers there that don't even work, their TV is a little jagged. Just little things like that because they are there all the time, they're there from six in the morning to 12 at night, a lot of parents of these kids are working graveyard shifts and things like that so they can't see their kids very often so these kids are growing up there. Anything I can do to help and give them the best foot forward in life, I'm going to do it."
Flint recognizes the platform he’s been given while playing with the Rockets and he wanted to take advantage of that to help kids any way he could.
"I was thinking about it and these kids see us playing on television, they know that we play for the Rockets, they see this. They see this larger-than-life figure in front of them and I know that I can be that and I'm not abusing that, I'm using it to the best of my ability," said Flint. "Toledo's given me the opportunity to stand in front of people and to help influence them in a very positive way and I'm really appreciative of that."
If you’d like to purchase one of these shirts to help an awesome cause, click here.