The upper deck of Birmingham's Legion Field once had the words "Football Capital of the South" emblazoned on its facade. In 2005, the upper deck was torn down because it was unsafe.
That alone serves as a microcosm of the history of the venue once considered among the best in America.
It was the home of the biggest rivalry in college football, the Iron Bowl, for many years. It hosted arguably the most significant college football game of all time, the inaugural SEC Championship Game between Alabama and Florida in 1992. It even helped birth a new football program at the University of Alabama-Birmingham in 1991.
But while "The Old Grey Lady" has had her day in the sun, the sun has long since set on the stadium. The SEC Championship Game left Legion Field in 1994, and the Iron Bowl followed suit six years later. Last year, the stadium played a significant role in (temporarily) killing the same UAB program it helped build.
What went wrong? What happened to cause Legion Field from being a place where championship games were held to being a place that SEC teams are ashamed to play a bowl in?
The stadium is old, for sure. Legion Field was built in 1926. But the Rose Bowl was built in 1921, and it still plays host to some of the biggest games in college football.
The difference between the Rose Bowl and Legion Field, besides location, is that the city of Pasadena, California, still treats the Rose Bowl as the city's crown jewel. Numerous renovations have been made to the Rose Bowl in recent years, including an improved press box and a new videoboard.
Birmingham, on the other hand, stopped caring about its football stadium years ago, and it shows.
While the Rose Bowl is still hailed as one of the greatest stadiums in American sports, Legion Field is considered one of the worst. On the stadium review website Stadium Journey, Legion Field scored a 1.7/5 and a 2/5 on two writer reviews, as well as a 1.8/5 "crowd score." Those numbers place Legion among the worst-reviewed college football venues on the entire site, which features reviews of 250 college football stadiums.
Other older stadiums have been treated with care by their cities, but Legion Field has not been so lucky. Before the 2004 season, when it had been determined that the upper deck was unsafe, the University of Alabama withdrew its scheduled games at the stadium, and the Crimson Tide haven't returned since.
There have been no major renovations to the stadium in many years. The closest the stadium's come to being full since the Tide left town is the 2013 Birmingham Bowl between Ole Miss and Pittsburgh, and even that game fell approximately 12,000 tickets short of a sellout.
On a Thursday night in 2011, UAB defeated Southern Miss, a team ranked No. 22 in the BCS standings, at Legion Field. The attendance was a mere 14,103.
The city of Birmingham's poor treatment of Legion Field drove away the SEC Championship Game, the Iron Bowl, and Alabama football altogether. That negligence, coupled with poor decision-making by the University of Alabama Board of Trustees and the higher-ups at UAB, helped kill the Blazer football program, though the team will return in 2017.
When the Blazers return, hopefully they won't be calling Legion Field home for too much longer.
"The Grey Lady on Graymont", as it's referred to by some, was once great, and shouldn't be forgotten. It's hosted some of the greatest and most important college football games ever played. A plaque of Paul "Bear" Bryant still stands in front of the stadium, serving as the lone remnant of Legion's legacy.
However, the stadium serves little purpose anymore. All it's good for is a mediocre bowl game and a temporary home for UAB football when it returns. Legion Field lacks any semblance of the charm that once made it the "Football Capital of the South."
All that remains is a dilapidated, outdated monstrosity of concrete and astroturf.
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