They don’t have their own football program anymore, but that doesn’t mean they never had a program. As scores of college football programs undergo spring games on Saturday to prepare for the future, former UAB players will gather for their own spring game to honor the past.
“It’s not what you really want, but it’s a chance to kind of get everybody from the program’s past together and say, ‘Hey, we still love this and this is a huge part of our university and we want to celebrate that,’” former Blazers kicker Lee Miller told the Associated Press.
UAB canceled its football program following the season, joining Pacific as the only Division I schools to shutter football in the past quarter-century.
In what they’re calling the Sons of UAB game, 120 former players are expected to gather for a flag football game at Legion Field. Included among that group are former NFL players Josh Evans, Joe Webb and Darrin Reaves, as well as NFL hopeful and return man extraordinaire J.J. Nelson.
“It’s grief,” Evans told the AP. “I still can’t believe it’s over with. I never would have thought this would happen. I always thought it would get better. I’m still in complete shock.”