BSC takes the field, at long last

After nearly 70 years, college once again playing football
Friday, September 07, 2007
RAY MELICK
News staff writer

To put it in terms a good Methodist would understand, the revival began with dinner on the grounds, followed by a baptism in front of a crowd that was filled with the spirit.

Birmingham-Southern College brought back football Thursday night, playing - and winning 41-13 - against the junior varsity of Mississippi College in front of an announced crowd of 3,383 at Legion Field.

That may not sound like much compared to Alabama or Auburn. But the student section, estimated between 500 and 600, represented almost half the student enrollment of the United Methodist Church-affiliated school.

"There was a sense of anticipation on campus," said BSC president Dr. David Pollick, whose vision of college athletics included the controversial decision to leave Division I competition while bringing football back to a school that fielded its last team in 1939. "It's been fun, and that's something that's been missing from the campus for a while."

With all but the lower-level press box-side stands closed down and the students all gathered in one section, BSC created a fairly loud football atmosphere.

The official pre-game party began with several hundred students, faculty and friends gathered outside Bill Battle Coliseum on the campus just after 4 p.m., near two long tables loaded with free hot dogs, chips, chocolate chip cookies, soda and water.

For the next hour, the dozen or so tables set up in the parking lot stayed full and other fans sat along curbs or on grassy areas.

About 30 minutes before the scheduled 6 p.m. kickoff, many students began to leave campus through the `walk through' gate on the corner of Arkadelphia and Eighth Avenue West for the block-and-a-half walk to Legion Field.

Neighborhood residents waved and called out, "good luck." Many students said they had never been down that sidewalk just outside the campus fence.

The Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity already had grabbed prime tailgating space by the student entrance to the stadium, where they had the grill going and the beer flowing by 4 p.m.

"This is twice what I thought it would be," said senior Brent Dana (SAE) , from Lafayette, Ga. "This won't keep us from going to big Auburn and Alabama games. But it may keep us from some of the smaller games. For one thing, we can tailgate a lot closer to the stadium here than we can at Auburn. When the stadium gets built on campus, it will really be fun."

One of the fans, 19-year-old sophomore Demetrius Foy, said, "This bridges a gap between alumni and students."

Beside being a student at Birmingham-Southern, Foy was voted in as the pastor of Spring Valley Baptist Church outside Gainesville on Sunday. Spring Valley was one of the churches burned two years ago in the arson case involving three former BSC students.

"I'm glad things have turned out the way they have," Foy said. "We got our facility back. And this is my home away from home now.

"Birmingham-Southern was generous, doing more than they had to do. But we're glad they did," he said, speaking of BSC donations to help rebuild the churches.

As for football, Foy said the atmosphere all over campus was different on game day. "Everyone was talking about the game," he said. "Students were wearing their colors to class, and it was just a lot of fun."

One fan who showed up to enjoy the game was Dr. O.C. Weaver, a former professor of philosophy at Birmingham-Southern who attended Panther football games as an undergraduate from 1931 to 1935.

"I don't remember much about the last one," said Weaver, who turns 93 on Sept. 20. "I can tell you I didn't think I'd ever see another (BSC) football game. I thought we were out of football."

Pollick was everywhere on this night, mixing with the students at the on-campus tailgating party, spending time on the field before the game with the players, and then working the club level where guests and donors of the school gathered to watch this game.

"Just the 500 new students that came on campus this fall changed the atmosphere," he said. "There is a real sense of excitement. I can't remember this level of excitement at any Division III game I've ever been at before."