UAB football coach Bill Clark lauds program's progress, looks to new stadium

Bill Clark, head football coach at UAB, told an audience at the Harbert Center downtown on Wednesday, April 27, that his program badly needs the new downtown stadium that is being planned to supplant an aging Legion Field.

Clark said that he had told Mayor William Bell and other officials that people in the football program are not that concerned about the particular type of stadium that gets built.

“We don't care if it’s a dome or open air,” he said. “We just need a stadium.”

Clark offered his remarks at an annual luncheon fundraiser for Firehouse Shelter downtown, including the nonprofit’s current capital campaign to raise money for a badly needed new facility to replace its current 110-year-old building.

The coach, whose team will take the field at Legion Field on September 2 after a two-year hiatus in the program, also touted the virtues of UAB and a recently resurgent Birmingham, discussed some of the virtues and life lessons that he and his staff seek to instill in Blazer players and talked about the importance of the Firehouse and its work with the homeless.

'Blessed to live in Birmingham'

Clark celebrated the city -- “You don’t know how blessed we are to live in Birmingham” -- and the university, which is in the midst of a construction boom.

He said he is trying to use this sense of momentum in the city to feed his reborn program.

“There are some great things going on at UAB and some great things going on in the city, and I’ve been selling that,” he said. “That’s why we are recruiting so well.”

He offered what he called some “behind-the-scenes” insight into the rebirth of the UAB football program, which was axed in late 2014 and sat idle in 2015 and 2016.

Prominent Birmingham realtor Tommy Brigham called Clark in May 2015 on behalf of some a group of local business people and Blazer supporters to assess his interest in returning as Blazer head coach, the coach told attendees.

“He said, ‘We will get involved if you tell us you will get involved,” Clark said.

“There was a pause… a long pause,” Clark said, referring to his hesitancy at the time, drawing laughs from the crowd of at least 200 people.

Finally, Clark gave Brigham the answer he was hoping for.

“I said, ‘I’ll get involved if you give me your word that this will be done right,” he said.

Brigham agreed, and the program was on its way to resuscitation.

Fundraising for football 'a big deal'

The program has since raised about $43 million, according to Clark. “That’s a big deal,” he said.

“In addition to having major-league university and -- I think -- the greatest city in America, and now we have the facilities,” Clark said, referring the programs new practice fields, weight room and other amenities.

“We’ve gone from some of the worst facilities in America to some of the best,” he said.

Clark said that after securing those on-campus facilities, the next step for the program is to see the construction of a stadium.

He said that UAB is also planning to create a “world-class” sports medicine program, building on such assets as the school’s nutrition sciences program. “That’s coming,” he said.

'Not playing to lose' in 2017

During a brief question and answer session, Clark declined to predict his team’s won-loss record for the upcoming season.

“But we are not playing to lose,” he said, who added that the team’s goal each year will be to win a conference championship.

And the Blazer players are confident, according to Clark. “These guys are expecting to win,” he said.

Clark was asked why he decided to stay in Birmingham and said there were “a ton of factors” involved.

One factor was the potential he saw in the program even before he entered the college coaching ranks at Jacksonville State University, according to Clark. “As a high school coach, I saw what UAB could be,” he said.

He said he was also impressed by the UAB backers he met and how they fought passionately to restore the program. And there was “faith in the Lord, a wife who was happy in Birmingham,” he said. “It kind of all worked together.”

'Going beyond football'

Clark said that the Blazer program seeks to instill important life values in players, “things that go beyond football.”

The players are taught to put the team before themselves; to be prepared to do good work on the field, at practice and in the classroom; and to avoid “whining, complaining and excuses,” the coach said.

They are also taught to seek to be known for enthusiasm, great effort and showing respect to all people, according to Clark.

Clark and his players recently volunteered to serve a meal at Firehouse, and the coach said they will continue the relationship. “UAB football will be involved, since they are just blocks from our campus,” he said.

“For whatever reason, (the homeless) are in the situation they’re in, and we have to help them,” Clark said.

'Dire straits'

Attendees also heard from Firehouse shelter client Syd Love, a U.S. Army veteran originally from Center Point, who offered his testimony about the way the facility’s transitional housing program has helped him escape homelessness.

Love said he became disabled in 2013, then found himself on the streets after refusing what he said was substandard V.A. housing in dangerous neighborhoods.

“Without the Firehouse, I would have been in dire straits,” he said.

'A scary time for nonprofits'

Firehouse director Anne Wright Rygiel discussed how much the organization needs a new, larger facility, especially in a “scary time for nonprofits” when government funding is going down.

She said that on any given night in Birmingham, there are about 1,200 homeless men and women, but that there are only 528 beds available in local emergency shelters.

Meanwhile, rents in the booming City Center continue to go up, making matters even more difficulty for the working poor to find housing, according to Rygiel.

She also expressed part of the vision of the Firehouse, which served about 5,000 men, women and children last year.

“Everyone has the ability to change and be successful,” she said.

For more information about Firehouse and its fundraising efforts, go to firehouseshelter.com.