Birmingham’s Legion Field hosts final UAB game; few tenants left

The University of Alabama at Birmingham has played its last game at Birmingham’s Legion Field, leaving the stadium known as the “Football Capital of the South” with few tenants. That history was on a lot of minds at the UAB spring intrasquad game Saturday.

“I was thinking of all the great memories I have had here,” UAB coach Bill Clark told local news outlets. “The high school games, the great locker room celebrations, the Children’s Harbor games. Legion Field has given us some great memories.”

UAB is heading to new Protective Stadium, scheduled to open in October in downtown Birmingham near its campus, after 30 years at city-owned Legion Field. The stadium named for the American Legion opened in 1927 and was host to University of Alabama and Auburn University games for decades, including the annual Iron Bowl between the two schools. That game hasn’t been played in Birmingham since 1998.

Auburn once hosted as many as three games a year at Legion Field, but played its last home game there in 1991. Alabama played its last home game in Birmingham in 2003. The Alabama High School Athletic Association’s football championships left after 2008, and most Birmingham public schools have started playing at their own stadiums. One notable tenant that remains is the Magic City Classic, the annual tilt between Alabama A&M and Alabama State that remains scheduled for the stadium this fall.

The stadium, which once held 83,000, saw its capacity cut to 71,000 in 2005 after its upper deck was removed because of structural issues.