Leading the charge

Why would Hatton Smith step to the fore, summoning some of the top business leaders in Mountain Brook and around the metro Birmingham area to help lead the resurrection of UAB football?

Smith, a resident of Mountain Brook and CEO emeritus of Royal Cup Coffee and Tea, has a ready answer.

“You know why the business community did it?” Smith said. “Because they believe that UAB is good for Birmingham. And they believe that football is good for Birmingham.”

Smith is the chairman of the UAB Athletics Campaign Committee. It was Smith, along with a few friends, who began recruiting committee members. 

The committee is not filled with deep UAB ties. There are some longtime boosters, including Nowlin & Associates founder Charlie Nowlin; Don Hire, the retired president of Armstrong Relocation Company; Steve DeMedicis, president of Red Mountain Technologies; and Jimmy Filler, retired president and treasurer of Jefferson Iron & Metal Co. But most of the committee members don’t have UAB connections.

So how did they come together? It began with a phone call from Nowlin to ARC Realty chairman and CEO Tommy Brigham, who were longtime friends. That conversation led to a breakfast meeting at Birmingham Country Club that included Nowlin, former UAB football player and current Nowlin & Associates president Justin Craft, Smith, Brigham, O’Neal Industries chairman and CEO Craft O’Neal and a few others. 

“We sat down with Justin and Charlie and began talking about what it could look like,” Brigham said. “I guess the neat thing was this was more important than just football, it’s important to our city. We thought very strongly that if we could get in front of some of the city leaders… it would help.”

That turned into a recruiting effort that was spread out among several people and eventually landed more than 50 of the most influential business leaders in Birmingham.

“All of a sudden you just have this wide array of people who, historically, have never been associated with UAB, particularly the athletic side of it, deciding that this matters for the city of Birmingham,” Brigham said.

That’s the ray of hope that UAB football coach Bill Clark had been looking for. 

His UAB football program — the one he took over in January of 2014 after leading Jacksonville State to the Football Championship Subdivision playoff quarterfinals — was shelved this past December. Clark quietly worked in the background while the UAB community banded together and fought for the return of the program. Plans to bring the program back were announced in June, with the 2017 season as the target date to be back on the field, but Clark, who has yet to receive a needed contract extension, still felt unsure. That changed, however, when Clark looked around and spotted community leaders everywhere he glanced.

 “I feel great about our people and how hard they fought, but it was one of the most exciting times in all of this,” Clark said. “It was probably one of the best meetings I’ve ever been in. It was guys who were serious. It wasn’t, ‘Well, we hope,’ it was, ‘We’re going to do something.’ I think that’s where we are right now.”

Craft, who played for the Blazers from 1994 to 1996 and was instrumental in the fight to bring back UAB football, said the tone changed once everyone was on board. 

 “I’m just so happy that those guys had the belief and passion for Birmingham that they have and they stepped up,” Craft said. “I said to someone, ‘It’s hard to get that many people to agree that the sky is blue.’ Every one of those guys on that list agrees that UAB football and a successful UAB football program is great for Birmingham and great for the economy. I think that’s what drew everyone together is realizing we have an asset that is being minimized, and what we need to do is maximize it.” 

Maximizing the university’s athletic program means improving the athletic facilities. UAB Athletics Director Mark Ingram detailed facility upgrade proposals when the Finish the Drive Capital Campaign for Blazer Athletics was launched with a celebration at the UAB Alumni House on Aug. 18. Included in the plans were a two-story football operations building with coaches’ offices, locker rooms, a weight room and training room, a turf practice field for football, a new track and field complex that would include a turf field for band practice and intramurals, baseball and softball clubhouses, a practice facility for men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball, a new beach volleyball stadium and a tennis facility.

 “Right now we are woefully behind the pack in facilities, and that’s where this campaign becomes such a priority to me and all the coaches,” said UAB men’s basketball head coach Jerod Haase. 

Ultimately, though, this is much deeper than a football team and improved facilities. This is about a city moving forward. 

“First of all, when you look at where Birmingham is today, what’s taken place with the development of Regions Field and Railroad Park, there is a significant amount of development taking place right now,” Brigham said. “There is a renaissance going on in Birmingham. It just seemed obvious to me and our group that this was a common sense step continuing this renaissance forward.”