Back When: The day the people brought UAB football back from the dead

Timothy Alexander had been up all night.

It was May 31, 2015, and the next afternoon UAB President Ray Watts was expected to announce whether the football, bowling and rifle programs — discontinued six months earlier — would be reinstated.

“Tomorrow, June 1st — one of the biggest days in my life,” Timothy said that night. “Whether it’s gonna be a party. Whether it’s gonna be a protest.”

The short version of how they got here: On Dec. 2, 2014, Watts announced the termination of the 23-year-old UAB football program — along with bowling and rifle — three days after the Blazers had beaten Southern Mississippi 45-24 to finish 6-6 and secure bowl eligibility for the first time in a decade. A university-funded review had found the program financially unsustainable.

What happened next was unprecedented in college sports.

Timothy Alexander — a paralyzed former UAB football player on scholarship — rolled into Bill Clark’s office that day. “Coach, I’m going to fight to get this program back,” he said, as recounted in “Ever Faithful, Ever Loyal: The Timothy Alexander Story.” “I’m not going to stop fighting until we get it back. And when we get it back, we’re going to be bowl eligible first year back.”

Over the next six months, #FreeUAB trended worldwide. Timothy rolled his wheelchair to more than 50 city council meetings across the state. State polls showed 83 percent of voters favored reinstatement. Students voted to raise their own fees. Alumni mailed their pledge cards back to the university’s capital campaign with a hashtag scrawled across them: #notanotherdime. Clark, at his Conference USA Coach of the Year ceremony, paused on his way off the stage: “Y’all don’t stop giving them hell.”

But heading into late May, it still was not a done deal. Then a group of prominent Birmingham business leaders — a group UAB came to know as the “Gang of Seven” — stepped up. That was the tipping point.

Athletic director Mark Ingram later retold the scene, as recounted in “Ever Faithful, Ever Loyal”: “This guy on the back wall stands up and he says, ‘You know Dr. Watts, I’m not really a sports fan. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a football game at UAB. But I’ve seen what this has done to our community and we’ve got to fix this. I’m in for a million.’ And this guy doesn’t even go to our games!”

Another million. Another million. A half-million. Around the room. The City of Birmingham pledged $2.5 million over five years. Pledges would exceed $48 million.

At 4 p.m. on June 1, 2015, hundreds of UAB supporters stood outside the administration building on 20th Street on the south side of Birmingham in green and gold — the same spot where the first rally launched the Free UAB movement. Flags waved. The marching band played.

Timothy had called them together minutes earlier. He asked them to bow their heads for the teammates who had to transfer, for the ones they might never see again.

“Remember — we are family,” he said. “And when he makes the announcement at 4 p.m., it doesn’t start with a party today. We got work to do tomorrow.”

Family on three. One, two, three.

“FAMILY!”

Inside the building, Watts stepped to the podium. Thousands watched on Birmingham television. Alumni across the country streamed it online. Timothy and the crowd watched on a screen from the sidewalk.

“Given the broad base of support never before seen, as of today, we are taking steps to reinstate the football, rifle and bowling programs.”

Timothy closed his eyes. Turned his face to the sky. Arms up.

“I am just elated right now. I am so excited,” he said through tears. “I have not been able to stop crying today because I am so happy. We have fought so hard for this and all of the hard work is paying off.”

Then: “A lot of people used to question me. They never believed in the students. They never believed in the fans at UAB. And now today, June 1st, at 4 p.m. — UAB football, bowling and rifle is back.”

One hundred and eighty-one days after UAB football was declared dead, the people brought it back.

What the papers wrote

The Birmingham News gave it the full front page. Jon Talty’s lead story — “What happens next?” — detailed the massive rebuild ahead: more than 50 players lost to transfer, no coaching staff beyond Clark, millions still needed for facilities. Alongside the story, Talty profiled the “5 Key Groups That Made It Happen” — Justin Craft, the former player who “made this happen more than anyone”; Jack Williams and Walt Maddox providing political power; Jimmy Filler and Don Hire rallying the business community; Shannon Ealy and Sam Miller holding the athletics department together; and Timothy Alexander, who “in many ways embodied the face of the UAB student doing everything he could to get his team back.”

The editorial board called it “a watershed moment in university history” and wrote that “Blazer nation is now bigger and stronger than ever before.” Kevin Scarbinsky’s column on A1 carried the headline: “Watts blinked, his wrecking ball cracked, football has new life.”

USA Today went national — Paul Myerberg’s headline: “UAB alive again but far from well.”

On ESPN, Paul Finebaum put it plainly: “I’ve never seen anything quite like this. The people won. The little people, the average guy in the street. Joe Schmoe was finally heard.”

Two hours southeast, the Dothan Eagle tracked down Izell Reese, the former UAB defensive back who had a six-year NFL career with the Cowboys, Broncos and Bills. Reese had driven from Atlanta to be there.

“It was a surreal moment,” Reese told the Eagle’s Jon Johnson. “It’s unheard of to have this happen to a Division I program, but to get it reinstated all within the last six months is a great feeling.”

“What drove me to fight is the next young man who comes from Dothan, or Troy, or the state of Alabama, or any state on signing day, and is now going to have that opportunity to put on the UAB football hat.”

The payoff

On Sept. 2, 2017, UAB ran out of the tunnel at Legion Field in front of 45,212 fans — a program record. Before kickoff, Timothy was lifted out of his wheelchair at the 40-yard line. With braces on his legs, he walked 10 yards to midfield to deliver the game ball.

“Tim walking to midfield was the exclamation point for The Return,” Jordan Howard — Timothy’s 2014 Blazer teammate who went on to star for the NFL’s Chicago Bears — said in “Ever Faithful, Ever Loyal.” Howard had worn a green “Free UAB” bracelet on his wrist for every game at Indiana and in the NFL.

UAB won 38-7. The Blazers — ranked dead last in preseason polls at No. 130 — went 8-4, finished second in Conference USA’s Western Division, led the league in attendance and qualified for the Bahamas Bowl. Exactly as Timothy had predicted.

Clark was asked if winning was necessary to validate what happened. “Somebody said, ‘We need to win next year to really make this thing right,’” he said. “I said, ‘What? We’ve already won.’”

They kept winning. From 2017 to 2021, UAB went 46-20 under Clark — ranking among the top 15 Group of Five programs in the country. The Blazers appeared in three consecutive Conference USA championship games, winning the title in 2018 and 2020. They won four consecutive bowl games, including the 2018 Boca Raton Bowl and Clark’s final game — a 31-28 upset of No. 13 BYU in the 2021 Independence Bowl before he retired due to a back injury. Clark was named national coach of the year in 2018. The program moved into the $175 million Protective Stadium in downtown Birmingham and joined the American Athletic Conference.

The program they said couldn’t be sustained became one of the best stories in college football.

Tim Stephens is the co-author of “Ever Faithful, Ever Loyal: The Timothy Alexander Story.” Additional sources: The Birmingham News, June 3, 2015; USA Today, June 2, 2015; The Dothan Eagle, June 2, 2015; The Associated Press.