From Day 1, launching to something greater has been in UAB’s DNA

Dr. Chuck Dietzen was finishing his medical training at UAB’s Spain Rehabilitation Center when he caught a segment on the local news in the fall of 1989. It showed Coach Jim Hilyer talking about something few people at the university were even aware of: football. At UAB. Sort of.

Dietzen picked up the white pages and dialed the number himself.

“I saw Coach Hilyer being interviewed as the head coach,” Dietzen recalled in an interview with the B Club Insider. “And I did what anybody would do back then — I picked up the white pages and called Coach Hilyer. I said, ‘Hey, are you coaching this club football team? Because I think I qualify as a medical grad student.’ And he said, ‘Well, yes I am, and we’d love to have you try out.’”

And just like that, UAB’s football journey gained a quarterback — one who was on quite the journey himself. Dietzen had been a star prep QB in Indiana — as well as a hockey and rugby player. He turned down an opportunity to play pro ball overseas — chasing his medical education while suiting up for this new outfit in the Magic City.

Dietzen took reps under center in between shifts, sometimes still in his hospital scrubs. When he practiced, he stayed on call — literally.

“Coach (Tuffy) Crowe had my beeper and a pocket full of quarters so I could answer the calls coming in,” he said. “That would sometimes interfere with our running the offense.”

He became one of the faces for a team that wasn’t supposed to exist — and certainly wasn’t expected to last. But it did. And it started with a student-driven push for a team — and some wink-wink encouragement along the way.

Unofficial — but very real

On paper, UAB didn’t have a football program in 1989. Officially, there was no team. The athletics department didn’t sponsor it. The university administration didn’t endorse it.

But if you were standing at Legion Field for the first home game on the night of Oct. 23, 1989 — if you saw the green and gold uniforms, the helmets, the coaches, the crowd — you knew full well: UAB Football had arrived.

In a front-page news story in The Birmingham News the next morning, reporter Wayne Martin wrote:

“But all the nervousness at the opening of UAB football may not have been on the field… There may also have been some other nervous people who didn’t show up at UAB’s home opener.” (The Birmingham News, Oct. 24, 1989)

Among those absent: UAB’s top officials. The administration and Board of Trustees had gone to great lengths to distance themselves from the effort — but not to stop it. Instead, the program was allowed to form, operate and play… as a club.

Athletics Director Gene Bartow, the most powerful sports figure in UAB history and the architect of Blazer basketball, publicly kept his distance — even as he helped behind the scenes. Asked about the opening game, Bartow said:

“It is exciting,” said Bartow. “There are a lot of people out here enjoying UAB football. This is the way it should be in the fall in Alabama.” (The Birmingham News, Oct. 24, 1989)

It was Bartow’s way of blessing the thing without calling it what it really was: a test run for a potential NCAA team.

The team practiced daily. They wore full pads. They ran full-contact drills, had structured depth charts, film study and game plans. Hilyer, a former Auburn assistant, NFL staffer and professor in UAB’s School of Medicine, was technically a volunteer. But he wasn’t just out there for fun.

“This is not your typical club team,” Hilyer told The Birmingham News. “Most club teams are recreational. This team is much more organized — and competitive.” (The Birmingham News, Oct. 24, 1989)

That organization started with a tryout pool of more than 100 players, many of whom hadn’t played in years. From there, Hilyer and his staff — which included volunteers like former Auburn star linebacker Freddie Smith and former NFL safety Fred Bohannon — selected about 50 players who stayed on the roster through the fall.

Some were undergrads. Others were med school residents, sales reps, engineers or military veterans. One was 27-year-old James Joyce, a former Harding University standout who had to explain to his wife that he was playing football again. She thought he’d lost his mind.

“Our main concern was a knee injury, but the physical showed everything is OK,” Joyce told The Birmingham News. (The Birmingham News, Oct. 8, 1989)

They didn’t run plays on a campus quad. They played games at historic Legion Field, where they were charged a discounted rate of $1,000 per game in rent. They sold tickets. They appeared in the newspaper — despite the fact that the university made no effort to publicize them.

Administrators reportedly grew frustrated when scores began showing up on the wire services — without their approval. The university issued no press releases, and Andy Marsch, the assistant director of student life, defended the blackout:

“We don’t feel it would be appropriate to provide information to the wire service on one club sport and not the others,” said Marsch, who of course was actually a big supporter of football and has since had sons Alec and Aron suit up for the Blazers. (The Birmingham News, Oct. 24, 1989)

They were a team that didn’t officially exist, covered by a press office that wouldn’t officially acknowledge them — but they played anyway.

“We’re just having a good time,” Bartow said. “I guess this does make some people nervous. But it shouldn’t.” (The Birmingham News, Oct. 24, 1989)

Misfits, Marines and med school quarterbacks

UAB’s first football team didn’t have scholarships, a training staff or even full administrative support. What it did have was an orthopedic surgeon under center, a drama student at running back and a Ph.D. on the headset.

Dr. Jim Hilyer wasn’t just a football guy. He was a UAB guy. A professor in the School of Medicine. A biomechanist. A trusted part of the university’s elite academic structure.

When administrators or trustees looked at this rogue football project, they didn’t see a maverick. They saw one of their own — and that gave the effort just enough institutional cover to stay alive.

The players were no less unorthodox. Some were undergrads. Others were medical residents, engineers or veterans.

Dietzen and John Flotron, the two quarterbacks, led the locker room with nicknames and hijinks. “Medhead and Deadhead,” they called themselves — one finishing his residency, the other a Grateful Dead follower.

Chuck Tuggle, a lineman on the club teams, remembered Flotron as the offbeat offset to Dietzen’s surgical precision. “The joke was, ‘That guy hears music the rest of us can’t hear,’” Tuggle said.

“We used to joke about standing in the middle of the Legion field and have the announcer saying, ‘ladies and gentlemen, direct your attention to the middle of the field because there are the first football players at University of Alabama Birmingham.’”

They weren’t always serious — unless they needed to be. During one practice, they stood beside former Marine and drama major Kevin Hanners in the backfield and acted out lines from the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful.

“One of us would go, ‘Well, Ridge, it’s not my child,’ and the other would say, ‘But it is!’” Dietzen recalled. “Hanners was trying to keep a straight face. Eventually he’d start laughing and, of course, we’d have to run more laps.”

But through the laughs, they built something real.

Bring on the games

The opener on Oct. 7, 1989, was a 35–0 loss to Marion Military Institute. It was the first game in school history, one without the NCAA stamp of legitimacy.

“No school officials or politicians showed up. No dignitaries offered congratulations. No television stations filmed highlights. The band didn’t play. But UAB’s football team finally played a game.” (The Birmingham News, Oct. 8, 1989)

They lost every game that season. But the losses weren’t the point.

Against Miles College on Oct. 23, the Blazers finally scored. A Jay Campbell field goal put points on the board — and marked a moment.

“They didn’t win, but they scored, and that was a first this season,” wrote Wayne Martin. (The Birmingham News, Oct. 24, 1989)

The administration stayed quiet. But 2,500 people showed up to Legion Field anyway.

“If there had been some way to let people know, we probably would have had 5,000,” Bartow said with a sly smile and a wink. (The Birmingham News, Oct. 24, 1989)

On Nov. 6, 1989, Hanners became the first Blazer to score a touchdown when he scampered in from 8 yards out in a 27–14 loss to the Samford University junior varsity at Legion Field. A win? That’d have to come the next season. But good things were ahead.

The fire had been lit. And it wasn’t going out.

Legacy and launch

The scoreboard said 0-6 in 1989. The record books barely noticed.

But the legacy? It’s everywhere.

Several players with ties to the club teams — RB Pat Green, DB Tommy Harrison, LB Sandy Jackson, DB Kevin Holden, WR Manuel Philpot and DE Vince Elliot to name a few — would become starters, leaders and even record-holders after UAB officially joined the NCAA ranks.

And Dietzen, the doctor/quarterback?

He would go on to found a global nonprofit, become a renowned pediatrician, run for Congress, meet the Pope and Mother Teresa, travel the world on medical missions and speak internationally about healing and hope. He even became a pro wrestler — aka Dr. Doom — to help raise awareness and money for those efforts. But people still ask him about his football days.

“One of my favorite memories was running to the hospital for an emergency,” Dietzen said. “People said, ‘Didn’t that bother your patients that you were showing up in dirty, sweaty scrubs?’ And I said, ‘No, absolutely not. I mean, it’s Alabama. I felt it was just as important to be a quarterback as it was to be a doctor.’”

And for Dietzen, the goal wasn’t wins. It was camaraderie.

“There were a lot of things I missed about football,” he told B Club Insider. “Not the least of which was the camaraderie. The friendships, the purpose. That was what this gave us.”

And though they weren’t officially NCAA athletes, they felt like UAB football players — because they were. They just got there early.

“It was neat to be a part of history,” Dietzen said. “We were making progress… and we were enjoying the opportunity to play ball.”

Decades later, Dietzen still keeps in touch with many of his old teammates.

“To this day, John Flotron — Deadhead — and I, Medhead, still keep in touch. Chuck Tuggle remains a great friend. It was an honor to make history with that group of guys.”

That’s UAB Football. From the beginning, it was never just about the game. It was about opportunity. About access. About brotherhood. About launch.

That last word is emblazoned on the football facility walls today. It’s part of one of Trent Dilfer’s program culture points — Serve. Grow. Launch — and it seems a fitting reminder of the program’s origins and path from Day 1.

That mission didn’t start with a slogan, though.

It started with a med student, a borrowed field and a football team many people didn’t believe in — but that refused to be denied.

It wasn’t glamorous. But it was meaningful.

It was barely funded. But it was deeply committed.

It wasn’t official. But it was real — as real as anything since.

The truth is, UAB Football didn’t kick in the front door.

It tiptoed in through the side entrance, with a med student under center, a drama student in the backfield and a Ph.D. on the headset.

And once it got inside, it refused to leave. And it’s still launching Blazers to success on and off the field.