History fades away at Legion Field

[AUHansel 0]

after last nights UAB game, somone wrote this article

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Up the rickety, pulsating elevator, down the wet cement concourse, behind an anonymous orange door, sits a story.

It's the story of a stadium. Its birth. Its life. And pretty soon, its death. This is the seldom-used upstairs office of Walter Garrett, the 35-year stadium manager at 77-year-old Legion Field.

The room overflows with programs, jerseys, helmets, hats, ticket stubs, posters, pennants, pins -- every imaginable memento from a place with a glorious football past. There's the architect's original drawings of the 83,000-seat stadium. The 1975 purple TCU helmet worn by Kent Waldrep the night he was paralyzed. And a blue-and-white 20-year-old jersey from quarterback George Mira of the World Football League's Birmingham Americans.

Garrett has been here for all of it, from eight different pro football franchises starting and failing to the countless Iron Bowl battles between Auburn and Alabama. He was here in 1996, when 86,000 fans filled the place to watch an opening-round soccer match in the Olympics, and was here Wednesday night, when 9,200 people showed in a driving rainstorm to watch UAB turn a 10-point third-quarter lead into a 25-point fourth-quarter loss.

"It's different," Garrett said. "You'd obviously rather have it rocking and rolling. But that means more headaches, too. A night like tonight, you can pretty much open the gates and take a nap."

It wasn't always that way. Originally constructed as an intimate, 21,000-seat venue in 1926, at a cost of $439,000, Legion Field quickly soared in capacity and fame. It hosted every Iron Bowl from 1948 to 1988, and then ever other year until 1999. It hosted the first nationally televised night game. It's the place where Bear Bryant passed Amos Alonzo Stagg as college football's all-time winningest coach.

Johnny Unitas played here. So, too, did Doak Walker, Bobby Layne, Dick Butkus and Sammy Baugh. Tom Landry has roamed its sidelines, as has Bobby Bowden, Tom Osborne, Bobby Dodd, and of course, the Bear.

Across the stadium from Garrett's office, on the façade of the recently condemned west-side upper deck, a set of fainted, chipped and barely legible white letters spell out Legion Field's one-time importance. It reads:

BIRMINGHAM -- FOOTBALL CAPITAL of the SOUTH.

On this night, both end zones of the football capital are covered with massive green UAB tarps. Where seats are available, the silver color of open benches dwarfs the speckles of people sitting in them. Outside the stadium, a scalper sells three tickets for $10. And 2 hours per kickoff, there are 17 total tailgaters around the entire stadium.

"In some ways, it's disappointing and sad," said UAB assistant coach Pat Sullivan, who grew up in Birmingham and played in Legion Field as a Heisman-winning quarterback at Auburn. "But nobody can take away the traditions and the memories. And in that respect, there aren't many places like this one."

The same place where fans came to see Joe Namath pick apart Auburn or Bo Jackson vault over Alabama has become the greatest example for why the city needs a new downtown dome. The argument is that Legion Field's façade is crumbling. And its surrounding neighborhood is unsafe.

Auburn stopped playing home games here in 1988. Alabama had two more games scheduled through 2007 but backed out this fall, when preseason inspections revealed the stadium's west-side upper deck was unsafe for fans. Now there's talk of excavating a Bryant memorial in front of the stadium and moving that, too, to Tuscaloosa.

The stadium's only regular tenant these days? UAB, which averages roughly 20,000 fans a game, struggling mightily to fill even the bottom bowl of the massive facility. Instead of hosting Alabama-Notre Dame, Legion Field has become the nation's largest football stadium for a non-BCS school.

It makes rummaging through Garrett's upstairs office -- one of two he has in the building -- all the more fascinating. Yet as he walked in the office and flipped on the light he said, "it's just a bunch of junk."

Some junk. There are ticket stubs for everything from a CFL game to a George Strait concert. There's a piece of the Astroturf from Bryant's 315th career victory. There's a game-worn coaching sweater from Birmingham American's coach Jack Gotta. And a can of Rolling Tide Red, " 'Bama's own soft drink."

"I don't know if I ever even tried this stuff," Garrett said. "Feel the can - I think it's starting to evaporate."

On another shelf sit three footballs -- one from the World League, one from the Canadian Football League and one from the XFL. Fittingly, they're all flat. Legendary Legion

"When I get out of here, I'm going to have a big sale on eBay," he said. "Maybe make a house payment or two out of it."

With the upper deck scheduled to come down and plans in the works for a downtown dome, one that could potentially bring a Final Four to Birmingham, Legion Field is without question in its final years. Thus it's fitting, in a way, that Garrett plans on retiring sometime in the next year.

As a kid, he grew up just a couple of miles from the stadium, climbing 100 feet up the light towers to jump 6 feet into the stadium. When he started with the Birmingham Parks and Recreation Department in 1968, it was nothing more than a summer job. Thirty-five years later he hasn't left.

Wednesday night, after showing off his suite-level shrine to Legion Field, an office he says he visits but once a month, Garrett stepped out, closed the door and tried to lock it behind him. But the lock jammed and the door refused to close.

Finally, after several seconds of jiggling the lock and teasing it with a fingernail, the door cooperated and shut. Garrett smiled and shook his head.

"See," he said. "The place is getting up there. Sometimes even the locks even act funny.

"But you know what? Even when this place is gone, its legacy will live on. It's like Wrigley Field. Fenway Park. Lambeau. You just say the name and everybody can picture it."

LINK

[jared52 4,354]

"But you know what? Even when this place is gone, its legacy will live on. It's like Wrigley Field. Fenway Park. Lambeau. You just say the name and everybody can picture it."

118315[/snapback]

Yeah, but all I can see is a dump in the dumpiest part of Birmingham. I hated LF and having seen several games there and sold up-teen cokes-in-a-tray to earn money for our basketball team at HTJH, I won't be sad if they tear it down. It's an eyesore.

[WarTim 3,456]

Bulldoze it and bury it. I will be happy to hoist the first and last shovel of DIRT !!

[jared52 4,354]

Bulldoze it and bury it. I will be happy to hoist the first and last shovel of DIRT !! 

118357[/snapback]

No, no Tim. That stadium is built out of garbage, and built on garbage... so you'll hoist the first and last shovel of GARBAGE!

A side note: Why am I so cynical today?

[DKW 86 7,419]

If they fixed it up. Bought out the surrounding neighborhood for a block or so, maybe two. And reconstructed the upper deck. Maybe a few would go there again and maybe we could get a bowl game there for DIV II and a lesser Div Ia as well.

It would cost less than a new stadium and might remedy the problems.

My problem with LF is that it has been in such bad shape for so long that I really do not care to ever go there ever again, even if it was renovated. The bad memories of the rust and faded paint are too much in mind now.

[Draven 0]

I lived in Birmingham for a good while and seen a number of games in LF, I have a little respect for the old place just from hearing the older generations talk about it. It once like the article hints was a symbol of what was good in that city but now its all the other way around. Sadly no matter how much they renovate it, the people are much like DKW, the way it is now will always stick out in there mind no matter how many layers of paint they slap on.

The Dome is an idea that is even more ridiculous than fixing LF; as anyone from Birmingham will tell you or at least on with some sense, a dome will be good for about a year but unless they level everything around it in downtown for 20 blocks on all sides they will never be rid of all the lower income/project housing people. The crap with that comes in where to but them because, Trussville, Inverness, Mtn. Brook, Vestavia Hills, and the like are not going to allow them to be shipped out to these areas. So LF should come to its final rest, no dome should be built and Birmingham will continue upon the path to its ultimate faith.... a gangland.

[TexasTiger 12,835]

If they fixed it up. Bought out the surrounding neighborhood for a block or so, maybe two. And reconstructed the upper deck. Maybe a few would go there again and maybe we could get a bowl game there for DIV II and a lesser Div Ia as well.

It would cost less than a new stadium and might remedy the problems.

My problem with LF is that it has been in such bad shape for so long that I really do not care to ever go there ever again, even if it was renovated. The bad memories of the rust and faded paint are too much in mind now.

118376[/snapback]

I don't know about the particulars here, but sometimes fixing a dilapidated structure cost more than making a new one. And hoping for urban renewal in that area is taking quite a chance.

I always resented the extortion the locals would extract for parking your car on the street. But I always knew, I was leaving my car in their "hands." I have a few memories, but I don't miss it.

[AlohaTiger 0]

I've only been to that rat hole three times, once to see Bama play S Miss(I believe) and that was cause the ticket came with a bottle of Jack Daniels(yes, I was just a stupid kid when I did so) and then twice to see two very disappointing Iron Bowls. With that being said, I have only three words left to say......

WHERE'S THE SHOVEL????

[CarolinaTiger 0]

when it goes away, and if no dome is built, where will UAB play its football games?

or is the plan now to combine the UAB & UAT football programs and have UAB/T games played at bryant-denney?

[WarTim 3,456]

No need to worry. Haven't you heard? little bear is gonna' do away with UAB football!

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

I grew up in B'ham and played FB in high school there. But it's time for bama's second home to get the demolition ball.

[WarDlowe 39]

I think that the best bet would be to level Legion Field, and if people inisisted on having a big sports facility in the Birmingham area, the best bet would be to expand the Hoover Met. It's in an area of town that people like to go to, and the Birmingham Barons have the most consistent level of attendence of any team that plays in Birmingham. I worked for the Barons for the past 2 years, and during the SEC baseball tourney last year someone told me that the stadium was designed to be expanded. Just a thought. I think a dome in Bham is a bad idea because if it is built, it will be the biggest, nicest, most unused and abandoned stadium in the country.

[Argo 8]

I think that the best bet would be to level Legion Field, and if people inisisted on having a big sports facility in the Birmingham area, the best bet would be to expand the Hoover Met.  It's in an area of town that people like to go to, and the Birmingham Barons have the most consistent level of attendence of any team that plays in Birmingham.  I worked for the Barons for the past 2 years, and during the SEC baseball tourney last year someone told me that the stadium was designed to be expanded.  Just a thought.  I think a dome in Bham is a bad idea because if it is built, it will be the biggest, nicest, most unused and abandoned stadium in the country.

118457[/snapback]

I figured when they level LF, UAB will play it's home games at the Hoover Met. No way they are gonna build a football team a new stadium when they can't fill it. Also, you are correct about the dome. It would probably attract some big events in the first couple of years, but that would be about it. I don't think they could get the SECCG and it's obvious that UA doesn't want to play it's home games in Birmingham.

[MaterSandwich 0]

Boy, I sure miss that 50-50 split at AU-UAT games that bama fans always crowed about. Funny how it always looked like 70-30. I've got a lawyer friend that bought gold certificate seats at LF. Think he could give them away to a UAB fan?

I say implode LF and sell DVD's of it on Slimeball. They could use the money as donations for a sewer system in Mulga.