When Austin Randall agreed to have his cheek swabbed by the National Marrow Donor Program (formerly known as Be the Match) in fall of 2024, the current University of Minnesota Duluth football junior didn't think much of it.

 

At the time, the Bulldog quarterback wasn't aware that former kicker Curtis Cox had become UMD's first match just months earlier, and he wouldn't have foreseen that two other Bulldog athletes would later become matches and eventually donors. 

 

"We were doing some volunteering and some of the guys on the football team were trying to get people to do it up outside Romano Gym," said Randall. "It was my freshman year, and I just walked past and I saw everyone in there and they asked me to do it.  I didn't think anything would come from it, but I'm like, you know, why not? You know, try to help someone in need. So I did it not thinking anything would come from it ever."

 

A year and a half later, something did come of it. A native of Waconia, Minn., Randall got the call this past March that he was a match for a 45-year old man that had cancer. And one of his first calls after he was told he was a match went to UMD head coach Curt Wiese, who has had some experience with both current and former players being matches for the program.

 

"I called Coach Wiese, telling him that I thought it was something I had to take, and he said, yeah, you can't pass this up, this is somebody's life," said Randall. "I said, I agreed and we talked about it and he said it should be good, even though at the time it was actually supposed to be mid-season."

 

"I received a phone call from Austin about five months ago excited about his opportunity to help another person," said Wiese. "Austin is a great teammate and person and his willingness to help others around him is part of what makes a tremendous Bulldog."

 

"To be honest, it caught me by a surprise, but, I mean, I just want to thank God for giving me an opportunity to affect someone's life positively, and he gave me the strength to go along through with it," said Randall. "They were talking to me, and I said, yeah, it's something I'd want to do. And I feel like it's something you can't really turn down."

 

Randall is now the fourth Bulldog athlete in two and a half years that has made the heroic decision not to turn down the chance to help a complete stranger. Cox made the life-saving bone marrow donation in January of 2024. Current redshirt junior men's basketball player Owen Leach got the second call up for a UMD athlete, and donated 930 million stem cells in January of 2025. And just over a year ago, in June of 2025, former Bulldog defensive lineman Brian Konz donated his bone marrow to a two-year old girl with leukemia.

 

While Randall hasn't talked to any of the previous UMD donors, he is aware now of the athletic department's tie to the program.

 

"It's crazy, and it's awesome that people are doing it, and I think more people should just try to be a match," said Randall. "If you are, I mean, you get to help somebody in need, so that's the biggest thing. I knew we had a kicker in the past that did it, and he donated bone marrow, and that's a prop to him, because that's harder than a stem cell, it's more on your body, so props to Curtis for that. I knew later about Owen Leach after I did it, or when I was about to do it, but I never got to talk to him about it. ?I just knew what Curtis did in the past, and I knew kind of like what he was able to do with it, how it affected the person's life afterwards. And I'm like this is something you have to do, you know?"

 

Once Randall agreed to donate his stem cells, he was set up with a representative from NMDP named Megan Bien. Randall speaks glowingly of the people he worked with, and specifically Bien.

 

"I don't think I could have got anyone better," said Randall. "She helped me through the whole process, was always answering my texts, always answering my calls, let me know everything I needed to do, where I needed to be, was always on top of stuff, and it made everything go so smoothly. So props to them, they made it really easy for me and not much I had to really worry about because they covered everything. They told me the whole process throughout what I need to do, where I needed to be, and I just listened to them and it went pretty smoothly." 

 

Randall's donation involved donating stem cells through a transfusion.

 

"Days leading up to the transfusion, I had to get this medicine injected into me, said Randall. "My transfusion was scheduled for July 6th, so then the days prior, (July 2-5), I had to get shots daily. And the nurses who came to the house were great people. The first day, I had to go to the hospital, and they injected me, two shots in my stomach, and then the following day, I had a nurse come to my house. ?She gave me two shots in the shoulder, and then the following day, I had another nurse come to the house, gave me two shots in the shoulder. And then the following day, I had a nurse come to my sister's house where I was that night before I flew out early that morning, and she gave me two shots in the stomach again. And then the day of the transfusion, I got two more shots in my stomach." 

 

The shots helped Randall produce more stem cells that would be harvested for the patient he was helping.

 

"It had a few side effects, a little fatigue and pain in my lower back. But again, Megan set me up with medication that worked for me, and they took care of all of it, so I'm grateful for that. I mean, it worked out perfectly for me. I was fine, and I had a little soreness, but nothing crazy." 

 

Randall flew to Houston for his procedure on July 5th, and was put up in a hotel with his sister, who joined him on this life changing experience.

 

"The morning of the July 6th,  I got in there at 7 a.m.," said Randall. "They ran a few tests on me and then they started my transfusion and if I'm correct, it was done at around 4:30 p.m. It was a pretty long process, a long nine hours, but great nurses that were there, they helped me through everything with anything I needed, they were helping me, always checking up on me, and again, NMDP did everything, even got me lunch when I needed it. I had snacks throughout. It was it was a great experience. They did a great job, just great care by the nurses. I was sitting there for nine hours, couldn't really do much, and they were constantly checking up on me, constantly making sure everything's okay." 

 

Randall committed to donation when he thought the procedure might collide with the season. When it ended up being moved up to July, the timing was perfect, though the Bulldog quarterback was willing to do whatever he had to do to help out.

 

"It comes down to saving someone's life," said Randall. "No matter what you have going on, no matter what you have planned, I feel like that's a time you can't say no to. You know, you get a chance to affect someone's life in a positive manner, and God gave me that opportunity, and I'm grateful for that. So I had to take advantage of it, and that's it. ?I mean, you get an opportunity like that, you can't turn it down no matter what the circumstances are. You just put yourself in the other family's shoes and think, what would I want this guy to do? You know, like, this is someone I love, this is something I care about. I got to do something about it. 

 

Randall will receive updates on his patient in about a year, but says his understanding is that things went smoothly for him and that the process was understandably harder for the man receiving the stem cells

 

And his words for other Bulldogs looking ahead to this fall's drive and any potential matches that may come out of it?

 

"If you get the opportunity to, I'd say, do it, and I'd say, the feeling you get after doing it and knowing that you just affected somebody's life in a positive manner, which is what I feel like all of us are called to do," said Randall. "There's no feeling like it."

 

UMD's SAAC will again host another National Marrow Donor Program drive on Oct. 7 in the Romano Gym Lobby and inside the Kirby Student Center. Both locations will be open to the public from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

For more information on the National Marrow Donor Program, click here.

To read about Curtis Cox and his donation story, click here.

 

To read more about Owen Leach's donation story, click here.

 

To read more about Brian Konz's donation story, click here.