It doesn’t take much to get Bill Clark talking about Protective Stadium. On a recent Monday morning in Birmingham, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) football coach and some prominent friends shared their excitement over the new home of the Blazers, which is rapidly transforming from construction site to multipurpose mecca ready for kickoff later this year.

Clark likes to say “there are a million heroes” who helped make this long-awaited stadium come to life. The movers and shakers in that recent discussion have been among the most instrumental, but even among those distinguished individuals, Clark said one gentleman stood out: Alabama state Sen. Jabo Waggoner.

Waggoner’s support has been critical to some of the key components that are changing the face of Birmingham, from brand-new Protective Stadium and refurbished Legacy Arena, which are expected to revitalize Uptown and the entire Northside community; to the reborn UAB football program, which has won two of the past three Conference USA championships; to the University of Alabama at Birmingham itself, voted the No. 1 young university in the country each of the past two years.

Alabama state Sen. Jabo Waggoner, right, received the UAB President’s Medal from UAB President Ray Watts. (UAB)

UAB honored Waggoner at its May 1 graduation ceremony by presenting him the President’s Medal, one of its highest awards, “in recognition of his strong and visionary leadership in the Alabama Senate and his effectiveness in collaborating with higher education, industry and other constituencies statewide,” the university said. “The productive partnerships he has helped forge continue to advance vital shared aims: improved health, education and economic development throughout Alabama and the nation and restored American preeminence in science and technology around the globe.”

The graduation ceremony took place at Legion Field, the original home of UAB football. Waggoner helped pave the way to the program’s new home at Protective Stadium, which the Blazers will open Oct. 2 against Liberty University. On that subject, Clark said, you can hear in Waggoner’s voice what this latest triumph for the university and the city means to the dean of the Alabama Legislature, who sponsored a key bill three years ago to provide a portion of the funding for the project. “He feels really proud of it,” Clark said, “and the work that’s gone into it.”

“I’ve been in a lot of stadiums in my life,” Waggoner said. “This stadium is going to be far beyond what I expected. It is a well-built, well-planned, well-located stadium right here in the heart of the Northside. It is going to be a game-changer for Birmingham.”

It was Waggoner who sponsored 2018’s Senate Bill 311, which has provided revenue necessary for the stadium build and arena upgrade from auto leases and rentals. Adding to the financial contributions from the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center Authority, the city of Birmingham, the Jefferson County Commission and the corporate community, Waggoner’s legislation was a key milestone in completing the funding formula that allowed these projects to move forward. Clark noted “how critical (Waggoner) was in helping us secure the stadium through his efforts at the state level. He was instrumental in helping push that through.”

Like his career with the longest record of service in the history of the Alabama Legislature – he served in the House from 1966-83; his run in the Senate began in 1990 – Waggoner’s efforts on behalf of UAB and Birmingham go back decades and continue today.

Alabama state Sen. Jabo Waggoner recently received the UAB President’s Medal. (UAB)

Now serving as a board member of the UAB Athletics Foundation, Waggoner added his significant voice to the successful 2015 effort to bring back the UAB football program. Fellow board member Justin Craft, a former Blazer football player who contributed to that effort himself, remembers the credibility Waggoner brought to the fight.

“There are a lot of heroes who’ve been a part of this movement to bring back UAB football, but there are a few who don’t get the credit they deserve,” Craft said. “I tell you, Jabo, he was right there every step of the way, seeing the vision and believing that Birmingham could be a better city with a strong UAB.”

UAB football is only part of the story. Thanks in large part to the teamwork of Waggoner and Senate colleagues Rodger Smitherman and Greg Reed, as well as other members of the Jefferson County Legislative Delegation, Gov. Kay Ivey announced last year that the state will provide $50 million in funding for the Altec Styslinger Genomic Medicine and Data Sciences Building at UAB.

Waggoner called genomic medicine “the future of health care,” and this state-of-the-art facility is expected to keep UAB on the cutting edge of research in a game-changing discipline.

UAB has grown into an internationally renowned research university and academic medical center that also happens to be the state’s largest employer. As a Birmingham native and Ensley High School graduate, Waggoner remembers well when UAB was nothing more than an extension center of the University of Alabama whose campus, such as it was, ended at 18th Street, a long way from Interstate 65.

His earliest memories there are visits as a teenager to the old Hillman Hospital to see “the only dermatologist in town,” Dr. Ray Noojin, who treated his eczema.

While Waggoner was a young state legislator, UAB’s renowned first president, Dr. Joseph Volker, had a bold vision of what the newly independent university could become. Dr. Rudolph Davidson, who served in many key roles at UAB, primarily as the institution’s chief lobbyist, remembered that “Dr. Volker’s goal was to have a ‘comprehensive’ university. That was his word.”

To reach that goal, UAB needed land to expand and money to purchase the land. The 1975 state appropriations bill that provided $8.5 million and change for UAB to purchase about 35 city blocks of urban renewal land allowed the university to expand all the way from 18th Street to I-65. Davidson ran point from the UAB side in that forward-thinking venture and Waggoner sponsored the legislation.

Protective Stadium is under construction with plans to open in time for the 2021 UAB football season. (UAB)

A rendering shows Protective Stadium, under development next to the BJCC. (Populous)

Consider just some of the buildings sitting on the land that groundbreaking 1975 legislation allowed UAB to purchase, from Bartow Arena to the Collat School of Business to the Football Operations Center. UAB President Ray Watts called that legislation “the foundation for the future growth of our academic and clinical programs.”

“As we look back,” Watts said, “it stands as one of the major milestones that allowed us to become the powerhouse university that we are.”

That milestone was just the beginning of Waggoner’s contributions to the university, which earned him the UAB President’s Medal the same year that Protective Stadium will debut.

“Of all the hundreds of bills I’ve helped to become laws, that bill in 1975 is probably the most far-reaching piece of legislation I’ve ever sponsored,” Waggoner said. “Every time I drive through the UAB campus, I look around and say, ‘Wow! Where would Birmingham be today without UAB?'”