Back When: The Blazers and Bulldogs fought in football

The first time UAB and Samford played football, two Samford players were hospitalized, a coach injured his wrist trying to break it up and both benches emptied onto the field at Seibert Stadium.

That was October 1989. UAB was a club team. Samford sent its junior varsity.

These schools are about 3 miles apart in Birmingham, separated by a short stretch of U.S. 31. They play each other all the time — UAB leads the women's basketball series 8-3, the volleyball series 26-9 and the men's basketball series 4-0. They have met dozens of times in baseball.

But football has been different. Saturday's game at Protective Stadium will be only the second time these two programs have met on the football field under NCAA rules. The first was on Oct. 31, 1992, when Terry Bowden's Samford beat Jim Hilyer's UAB 49-3.

The official record says one game. The full record is longer than that.

The monsoon at Seibert Stadium

Samford head coach Terry Bowden had already made his position clear. Reid Adair, sports editor of The Kaleidoscope, UAB's student newspaper, reported that Bowden "once said that there was room for only one football team in Birmingham. Needless to say, it wasn't at UAB."

In October 1989, UAB's new club football team traveled across town to Seibert Stadium on the Samford campus for a game against the Samford junior varsity. It was the club team's second game. Their first had been a 35-0 loss to Marion Military Institute.

The game almost didn't happen. According to Adair's account in The Kaleidoscope, Samford officials tried to cancel the game on the afternoon it was scheduled to be played. They said the sprinklers had been left on all weekend and the field was too wet. Then they said they could only have half the field ready.

The UAB club organizers forced the issue. The game went on — in monsoon-like rain, with 10-minute quarters instead of the standard 15. UAB's coaches and players were not told about the shortened quarters in advance. They found out by looking at the scoreboard after the first drive, Adair wrote.

More than 200 UAB fans showed up at Seibert Stadium in the downpour. Only 15-20 Samford fans were there, according to Adair's account. Bowden's wife and others watched from the press box, where Adair reported they were "cheering for the home team and bad-mouthing the UAB program."

Samford's JV won 14-0 on a 33-yard run by Rodney Hawkins and a 1-yard quarterback sneak by Charles Culp, both in the second quarter. UAB managed 75 total yards and two first downs but never crossed Samford's 40-yard line. Safety Sandy Jackson led UAB with 11 tackles.

The game ended in a brawl.

Cary Estes reported in the Birmingham Post-Herald that a fight broke out in the final seconds and both benches emptied. Samford linebacker Pat Scanlon suffered a neck injury and was hospitalized. Samford defensive back Eric Skipwith suffered facial injuries and was also hospitalized. Samford JV coach Bob Stinchcomb injured his wrist trying to separate players.

Game film showed an unidentified UAB player punched a Samford player during punt coverage, Estes reported, and then another fight broke out between UAB's Vince Elliott and Samford's Scanlon. Elliott admitted grabbing Scanlon's facemask.

"I just saw two guys piled up fighting and I tried to pull them apart," Elliott told the Birmingham Post-Herald. "Suddenly one of their guys spun me around and popped me under the chin. That's when I grabbed his facemask. I'm ashamed that it happened. I just lost my head."

Despite the loss, safety Sandy Jackson saw progress. The week before, Marion Military Institute had beaten UAB 35-0.

"That comes from our coaching staff," Jackson told the Post-Herald. "They've brought us a long way in a short period of time. I think we're competing at a higher standard right now than any of us really thought would be possible this quickly."

UAB coach Jim Hilyer, who built the program from a club team into an NCAA program, addressed the fight after the game.

"I think I've stressed to my players the importance of playing with class and dignity and leaving with your head held high," Hilyer said. "Obviously, that (the fight) is not the way to do it. One of my players got in a swinging battle and the next thing I know both teams were on the field. I'm not sure what started it. We did our share, but obviously both teams were involved."

Hilyer saw defensive progress despite the loss and the fight. "The final play detracted somewhat from the UAB defense holding Samford to only a pair of touchdowns," he said. "It was a far cry from the 35-0 blowout Marion Military Institute inflicted on UAB last week."

Stinchcomb, the Samford JV coach, told the Post-Herald the game was never meant to be taken seriously.

"This was a JV game and we're not going to tear up our field for a JV game," Stinchcomb said. "We invited them over to scrimmage with us because that's what it was — with us — a scrimmage. But we're not going to ruin our field over it."

Adair responded in his Kaleidoscope column a week later.

"If it was a scrimmage, why did they keep score?" Adair wrote. "Why did they have officials (even though they were high-school refs)? Why did they play on their varsity game field instead of a practice field? Why were they wearing game jerseys instead of practice tops?"

Adair called it "merely Samford's way of trying to discredit the success that UAB's club team has been building."

He predicted the two schools would not play football again: "I would sincerely doubt that UAB and Samford will play each other in football again in the near future, whether it be a club team vs. a junior varsity or actual Division I-AA competition in a couple of years."

They played again the next year.

The 1990 rematch at Legion Field

On Nov. 5, 1990, the two programs met again at Legion Field. Same setup: UAB's club team against Samford's junior varsity.

Candis Meador reported the game for The Kaleidoscope. Samford scored first on a 12-yard touchdown pass, but UAB answered with three straight scoring drives. Quarterback Barry Bearden — who had played four years of basketball at UAB — connected with Wendell Montgomery on a 48-yard touchdown pass to tie it. After a Samford fumble, Bearden threw a 31-yard pass that tipped off a defender's hands and into the arms of wide receiver Doug Taylor, who fell into the end zone. UAB led 14-7.

"I've been waiting on that touchdown for two years," Taylor said.

Sandy Jackson — the same safety who had led UAB with 11 tackles in the 1989 game — picked off a Samford pass with six seconds left in the half. Bearden hit Donnie Oliver for a touchdown. The extra point was no good, but UAB carried a 20-7 lead into the locker room.

UAB fumbled six times. Three were consecutive botched center-to-quarterback exchanges. Samford recovered the third and scored to tie it at 20. With 6:41 left, UAB fumbled the kickoff return. Minutes later, another fumbled snap. Samford recovered, scored on a 34-yard touchdown pass and won 34-20.

Six fumbles. Samford held the ball for 21 minutes in the second half. Its final three possessions all came from UAB turnovers.

"There's no excuse for why we lost," Hilyer said. "We just couldn't hold the ball, and we gave them the ball in critical situations."

Oct. 31, 1992 — the only official meeting

By 1992, UAB had moved from club football to NCAA competition. The program was in its second year of NCAA football, competing in Division III without scholarships. Samford, coached by Terry Bowden, was one of the top I-AA programs in the country. A crowd of 6,156 showed up.

Samford's first offensive drive covered 78 yards in 12 plays. Tank Edwards, who finished with 81 yards on 10 carries, went the final 3 for the score. It was 7-0 with 3:17 left in the first quarter.

UAB answered with a drive that started late in the first quarter. Chris Bradford completed a 13-yard pass to Henry Ray, and Kevin Thomason kicked a 41-yard field goal early in the second to cut it to 7-3.

"It was pretty exciting for a quarter," Hilyer said. "We held it to 7-3 against their first units."

The Birmingham News reported what happened next: "The Bulldogs piled in three touchdowns in 4:36."

A 71-yard drive in three plays — Edwards ran 16 and 29 yards, Ellis got the last 26. Then noseguard Chad Mobley sacked Bradford at the 5-yard line and recovered the fumble in the end zone for a touchdown. Then Marcus Durgin returned a punt 63 yards for another score. It was 28-3 with 9:06 left in the half. Hilyer said the 71-yard drive "took away our adrenalin."

Ellis scored again on a 4-yard run to make it 35-3 before halftime. Samford scored twice more in the second half with backup quarterback Mel Hackbarth — a 10-yard pass to Allen Murphy and a 41-yard pass to May. The final: Samford 49, UAB 3.

UAB turned the ball over seven times — four interceptions and three lost fumbles.

Some of the players mentioned earlier in this story were part of the 1992 team. Pat Green — who had returned a punt in the 1990 club game against Samford's JV — carried 19 times for 54 yards. The Birmingham News wrote that Green "never quit running up stream." David Self, pictured in the 1989 club game closing in on a Samford ball carrier, and Sandy Jackson, who had 11 tackles in the 1989 brawl game and an interception in the 1990 loss, had been with the program since the club days. Elliott played on UAB's first NCAA team in 1991.

Late in the game, with the score already 49-3, UAB drove to the 2-yard line. Samford put its starting defense back in.

"The only thing I'm disappointed in, they put the first defense in when we got to the 2-yard line late in the game," Hilyer told the Birmingham News. "They had it out of reach 49-3, but obviously didn't want us to score."

Mobley, who had scored a touchdown on the fumble recovery, confirmed it.

"When they got close, we didn't want them to get in," Mobley said. "But they gave 100 percent. Give them credit for doing the best they could with what they had."

I was there, photographing the game as a student assistant in the UAB Sports Information office. A lot of UAB folks thought Samford ran up the score. I don't think that's what happened. But Samford wanted to send a message to its much larger neighbor with much larger ambitions for the future — and 49-3 sent it.

"We fought as hard as we could," Hilyer said. "There's no complaining about the effort. We were outclassed, but we knew that. The most obvious difference was speed. In some ways we could play with them, but couldn't handle their speed. Our kids were still trying at the end as much as at the beginning."

That was the last time UAB and Samford played football — 34 years ago.

Kickoff Saturday is 2:30 p.m. at Protective Stadium. There may be pyrotechnics during the game, but for a series that supposedly is not a rivalry, there have already been some fireworks.