Birgmingham's staid Legion Field has been used by several schools since it first opened in 1927, though it is most widely remembered as Auburn and Alabama's alternate home site from opening until 1991 and 2003, respectively. It has also played permanent host to a number of other Yellowhammer programs, including Birmingham-Southern, Samford (formerly Howard), and most recently, the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB).

The Old Gray Lady, however, is no longer the permanent home to a single college program -- the Blazers left following the 2020 season. Legion Field is now mostly the site of a number of annual bowl games and classics, including the famous HBCU rivalry Magic City Classic, between Alabama State and Alabama A&M. It also formerly hosted the (NCAA) All-American Bowl and the Birmingham Bowl; the former relocated to Tampa Stadium, while the latter has moved to the newer Protective Stadium.

NC State played in both of those bowl games during their time in the Magic City, winning once against a ranked team and losing once in an unranked game.

  * Non-conference games

In the beginning of the 20th century, Birmingham was growing at a rapid rate. Thanks to a confluence of abundant coal, iron ore, and limestone situated nearby, Birmingham became one of the country's leading steel producers, especially in the south. That, plus easy rail access, meant there was an abundance of jobs, drawing workers in from the surrounding area. This lead to a precipitous increase in population, with numbers quadrupling between 1890 and 1910.

Legion Field was built on about a quarter of the 40-acre lot which made up McLendon Park, a leisure park in western Birmingham which opened in 1924. Though the city's old public stadiums (Rickwood Field and the State Fair Grounds) were not widely considered deficient at the time, the move was pitched as a forward-looking financial investment: city planners pointed to towards not only the rising popularity of the sport (Georgia Tech had recently drawn over 100,000 spectators in a season, while more locally the Alabama-Georgia game had brought over 17,500 fans to Rickwood), but also its increasingly lucrative nature, arguing that the stadium's estimated $150,000 bill (over $2.7 million in 2024) would be paid off in under 10 years. City planners adopted the measure in late 1926, and work began the following May.

It was expected from the beginning that the field would be a memorial to fallen soldiers, though the exact name wasn't decided upon until June. Despite some weather-related delays in mid-July, the field was still tracking to open for the Fall, though missing the originally-anticipated October opening date. Made of concrete and steel with a brick finish, the western portion was built up twice as tall as the eastern. Designed with an eye towards future expansion, it opened with 21,158 seats (or about 25,000 with temporary seats) but a design to hold just under 100,000 in the distant future. Architect David O. Whilidin "looked far into the future," wrote one paper, but "how far he looked no one can tell." Initial construction costs were more than double the initial expectation, tallying up $361k in fees (over $6.5 million in 2024) [1] [2].

Howard and Birmingham-Southern dedicated the plant on November 19th, 1927 to a crowd of about 16,000, and less than a week later, the Tide swept into the stadium for the first time, nearly filling the structure while hosting Georgia en route to a 6-20 loss. Local high school teams also saw action in the inaugural season, and they continue to use the field to this day. Several spectators commented that there wasn't a bad seat in the house, despite its size.

In addition to the grandiose quarters, the stadium also came with all the bells and whistles: a training table, an enclosed glass press box, and restrooms. The following spring and fall saw the installation of a cinder track, an electric scoreboard, and lights. The scoreboard, among the first electric editions in the south (as well as the largest), was installed on the Eighth Avenue (north) side of the field and was an impressive 18 feet tall and 60 feet wide; its construction, donated by the Birmingham News, cost $6,000, and displayed the score and penalties (each penalty was paired with matching numbers provided in the accompanying game program); early promises said it would show time remaining, but that feature wasn't installed until 1933. As for the lights, the forty-eight 1,000 candlepower bulbs at a cost of $10,000, the first night game was a high school game between Ensley and Hueytown on September 21st, 1928; Howard and Spring Hill held the first collegiate game, on September 28th. A memorial entrance arch, funded partly by the opening Howard game in 1927, was constructed during the 1929 football season [3] [4].

How long exactly was architect Whilidin looking into the future? Preliminary answer: very far. We still haven't seen his 100,000 seat super-stadium come to fruition, though partly that's because subsequent construction efforts didn't follow his original plans. Though temporary stands would be brought in occaisionally (there were about 5,000 such seats in 1945), Legion Field wasn't permanently enlarged until 1947-1948. In the former season, 10,000 seats were added in the south endzone for a horseshoe configuration. The following season, the dwarf east side was enlarged to match the old west; the west side was also expanded. Permanent seating capacity was upped to 41,698, plus 2,500 bleacher seats located at the north endzone [5].

That expansion was critical to reviving one of football's most influential rivalries: the Iron Bowl, between Auburn and Alabama. On ice since 1907, the enlarged stadium played host to the revived game from 1948 through 1988. It was a logical place to resume hostilities: both had used the field as a neutral site since 1928 and 1927; further, Legion Field was the state's largest stadium, more than double that of Alabama's Denny Stadium (25,000) and the Tigers' Auburn Stadium (21,500) at the time. Both teams would continue to host a number of their "home" games in the Magic City through 1991 and 2003. (It was even Alabama's full-time home field for a season, in 1998, when major renovations at Bryant-Denny Stadium forced the Crimson Tide to shift their games to Birmingham), leaving for a preference to play on campus and a perceived drop in prestige of the stadium [6].

Two years after receiving the contract to revive the Iron Bowl, the Old Gray Lady got new lights, and a lot of them. Where the old plant had 48 lights, the new one held more than ten times that, with 504 floodlights on six towers. In addition to bringing new levels of daylight to the playing surface, the new lights were also considered TV-ready. In 1951, portions of the old scoreboard (in particular the dial clock) were replaced with an electric model; the remainder of the old board remained in place. The entire scoreboard was replaced with an electric model, located on the same steel poles as the original, in 1963 [7].

The next round of improvements didn't come easily. After significant wrangling over what the best next step was, city planners decided to add an upper deck to the west stands plus about 2,000 seats to the lower bowl of both sides; it was expected to add 10,826 seats to the venue, for a grand revamped capacity of 53,817, which included about 1,200 temporary seats in the north endzone. Work began around April 1961 and was not expected to be completed until the mid-season Tennessee vs Alabama game, held October 21st; construction wasn't expected to impact the bevvy of high school games which would precede it.

The construction did not exactly go off without a hitch. Less than twelve hours before kickoff, the upper deck failed its safety inspection: several columns were out of plumb, which had in turn caused some diagonal braces to bow outwards. The condemnation of the upper deck forced the stadium to offer relocated patrons to unsold spots in the endzone, or to about 3,000 borrowed chairs set up about the field; temporary bleachers, numbering about 8,000, were later constructed. Fortunately, the malformed stands could be remediated and were pressed into service the following season, with no impact to total capacity [8].

Not one to rest on their laurels, Birmingham city leaders set about enlarging Legion Field once again in 1963, with officials hoping to turn temporary seats in the north endzone into permanent ones. Rather than following the original curve of the bowl, the seats were installed as close to the field as possible. Construction started late in 1963 and went through 1964, allowing 3,639 of the total 13,884 new seats to be put in use for the season-opening game against Georgia on September 19th, 1964; everything was brought to completion by early November, when Alabama hosted LSU. An above-capacity crowd inaugurated the 67,701-seat venue. Other work included a new press box and the removal of that shiny new scoreboard installed a year before with twin scoreboards in each endzone; a point of irony considering the first board lasted nearly four decades.* Construction cost ran nearly double the initially-estimated $800,000 (over $8.1 million in 2024) raised in bonds; because of this, new dressing rooms and elevators, which were originally included in the proposal, were delayed two years while additional funding was secured [9].

In 1970, the field's grass turf was replaced for the first time with an artificial surface; Poly-Turf was the "plant" of choice, though it was replaced with Astro-Turf within 5 years after quickly turning ragged in appearance. Next on the docket was replacing the old bowed horseshoe section to the south, which were far from the field of play, with compact stands to match the addition on the north side; the work cost $3.1 million (about $11.3 million in 2024). As part of the renovation, the roughly 4,500 seats of the old south endzone were removed and replaced with 10,100 new seats, matching the other sidelines in elevation; revamped capacity was said to be 75,713 (though it was often reported to be 75,808 after the fact). Simultaneously, the old south endzone scoreboard was replaced. The new item was capable of emergency messaging, a feature which a trapped scoreboard operator used after becoming trapped while piloting the board for the first time: "Guard: I'm locked in the press box" [10].

Just ahead of the 1991 football season, the entire stadium was revamped from head to toe. Several of the stadium's most recent major changes were implemented in this revision. The lesser of those changes was the decision to paint the stadium gray, earning its current nickname of "Old Gray Lady"; the venue had formerly been olive green in color. The other work implemented was the construction of new private boxes, called skyboxes. The revised capacity was listed as 80,591, though like before it was later reported as 83,091 for unclear reasons. The scoreboards were also replaced once again [11]. Natural grass returned to the stadium from 1995-2005 (a requirement in order to host the 1996 Olympic soccer matches), but was replaced by FieldTurf in 2006; another new scoreboard was installed in 2000.

Since that change, Legion Field has gradually lost its footing as one of football's preeminent venues. Auburn left first, spurning the field permanently following the 1991 season after having taken a hiatus previously, in 1989. The nickname began to take on a somber, rather than regal, tone, as Alabama also left the stadium following the 2003 stadium as the decade-old facelift wore off. While Auburn left to emphasize the value of playing at home, Alabama annulled their contract because the 9,000 seat upper deck was condemned (again) with structural concerns. This time, resuscitation was more difficult, and the upper decks removed in 2005. "It has served us well," wrote Birmingham columnist Scott Anderson, "but perhaps it's time to make Legion Field a part-time facility.... Don't raze it," he pleaded, "just let it rest a little" [12].

And that's precisely what Birmingham has done. The UAB-Blazers, the upstart local college team, remained the primary tenant through 2020 (except a two year pause in 2015 and 2016 when they did not field a team) when the city opened Protective Stadium, a shiny new complex which also drew the local soccer team (Legion FC), USFL team (the Stallions), and a portion of the state highschool championship rotation. The new field even took the Birmingham Bowl, the city's replacement to the Hall of Fame Classic, which had relocated to Tampa's Tampa Stadium in 1985 and rebranded as the Outback Bowl. Birmingham continued the event's legacy for 5 years as the All-American Bowl before announcing the Birmingham Bowl in 2006.

Presently, the only college football which remains at Legion Field is the Magic City Classic, the famous HBCU match between Alabama A&M and Alabama State, which has used the venue since 1940. High school athletics also persist on the field. The last professional teams to use Legion Field were those of the USFL, which used both Legion Field and Protective Stadium as dual "bubble" homefields in 2022 to minimize travel costs and ensure easy compliance with lingering Covid procedures.

* An added layer to the irony: the new scoreboards went on the fritz in barely a year, malfunctioning throughout the 1967 Alabama-Florida State game which resulted in a 37-37 tie (Birmingham Post-Herald, October 9th, 1974, p. B2).

Photos of Legion Field