UAB Blazes to Bowl Victory Two Seasons after Being Revived

This is one of those stories that just warms the left cockle of a college football fan's heart.

In one of the most self-serving moves the sport's ever seen -- and face it, that's damn hard to do -- the University of Alabama at Birmingham president did what he had to do to shut down the football program, allegedly because it was losing money.

 

More to the point, OG was a huge Crimson Tide booster, and this move freed up his Saturdays to be in Tuscaloosa and other SEC stops.

The thought of dropping football at an Alabama school -- Alabama, for chrissakes! -- is damn near sacrilege, something Dr Ray Watts found out the hard way.

So, he did that Grinchy heart-growing thing and brought the gridiron Blazers back.

 

Amazingly, coach and proven pied piper Bill Clark never lost faith, and after only two years of rounding up the troop and adding reinforcements, the Blazers fashioned an impressive 10-3 campaign this season.

Dudes claimed the Conference USA championship by edging Middle Tennessee in a comeback 27-25 victory in Murfreesboro to earn a fitting reward, ie- a berth in the Boca Raton Bowl.

 

And now, capping off a near-miraculous rise from the ashes, UAB laid a 37-13 beatdown on MAC champion Northern Illinois.

It was music to Blazer alumni everywhere:

 

And so it was that the Blazers racked up their first-ever bowl victory.

Fittingly, Birmingham will be celebrating. What's even more satisfying for them is it's a party that almost never had a chance to even exist.