BACK WHEN: UAB's first football homecoming — 96 gallons of Jell-O and 54 points at Legion Field

It's homecoming week at UAB.

The Gurney Derby rolls down 10th Avenue South at noon Wednesday. The homecoming parade begins on 14th Street South at noon Thursday and runs to University Boulevard. ESPN's SportsCenter on Campus will broadcast live from outside Protective Stadium at 4 p.m. — the first time SportsCenter has come to Birmingham. The Blazers host East Carolina at 6:30 p.m. Thursday on ESPN, and UAB is pushing to fill Protective Stadium with an aggressive ticket promotion: children 12 and under get in free when an adult purchases a reserved ticket. Use promo code U12FREE at UAB's ticket page — reserved tickets start at $22 and range up to $55 depending on seat location. The online promo code is valid until 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 15; after that, families can redeem the promotion at the Protective Stadium box office. The full homecoming schedule is at calendar.uab.edu/homecoming. For more on the SportsCenter broadcast, read ESPN's SportsCenter on Campus coming to Birmingham for first time.

Thirty-two years ago, UAB didn't have a football homecoming. Homecoming was a winter event, centered on basketball, held in February when nobody wanted to be outside. In 1994, they moved it to October. The Blazers scored 54 points. And a 21-year-old student named Amanda Jeffreys made 96 gallons of green and gold Jell-O.

UAB held homecoming in February for years. The university didn't start playing football until 1991, and by the time the program was three years old, homecoming still orbited basketball season. Nobody lingered. The weather made sure of that.

"We have never had so many people come outside and talk," Jeffreys told the Birmingham News. "They would always come, grab the food and go back inside. You wore heavy coats and thermals and you still would freeze."

The decision to move homecoming to fall was made the previous spring. Football was heading from Division I-AA to I-A — the jump would come in 1996 — and the university wanted a homecoming atmosphere that matched the direction of the athletic program. October weather in Birmingham cooperated where February never did.

"This is just so much more conducive to a homecoming atmosphere," Jeffreys said.

Jeffreys chaired both the last winter homecoming and the first fall one. She organized a week of events that had nothing to do with basketball: a Jell-O Olympics at UAB Mini Park, a talent show, gurney races, a bonfire and pep rally at Seven-Eleven Field with fireworks at 7:15, a tailgate party with hot dogs and baked beans in a parking lot at Sixth Avenue and Eighth Street that turned into a makeshift drive-in showing *Speed*.

Andrea Martin, an alumni relations officer, said the goal was to make homecoming university-wide. "We wanted this to be university-wide, not just one school," Martin told the News. "It cuts all across campus. It wasn't just an undergraduate type of thing."

Kerry Adams, a junior broadcasting major, put it simpler: "You should always have homecoming during football season."

The football game was Saturday afternoon at Legion Field. UAB vs. Charleston Southern. The Blazers were 3-4. Charleston Southern had lost 10 straight.

It was a mismatch from the first snap. Charleston Southern's punter shanked one, and John Whitcomb hit Pat Green on a 20-yard swing pass to score on the Blazers' first offensive play. Charleston Southern tied it 7-7 on Jon Belk's interception return, and that was the last time the visitors were competitive. UAB scored 47 unanswered points.

Green added two more touchdowns on runs of 1 and 19 yards. Robert Davis ran 10 times for 90 yards and scored on a 2-yard run. Jermaine Johnson scored on a 12-yard run. Whitcomb threw for 258 yards and two touchdowns on 16-of-25 passing, including a 51-yard strike to Davis. Shannon Nowak caught a 1-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Kevin Drake. Kevin Thomason kicked field goals of 46 and 47 yards. The defense forced four turnovers.

UAB 54, Charleston Southern 14. The Blazers rushed for a season-high 187 yards and put up 473 total yards. Paid attendance: 20,237.

"We played about as well as we can play," head coach Jim Hilyer said. "I don't know if we can play any better than we played today on both sides of the ball."

Charleston Southern coach David Dowd offered a different perspective. "With the schedule we're playing against, it would take a real ding dong to expect us to win a football game," he said.

At halftime, Wyndall Ivey was crowned Mr. UAB and Kelly Wright was crowned Ms. UAB.

Roseanne Barr was supposed to appear on campus the Saturday before the game. She canceled. It didn't matter.

The whole point of moving homecoming was to build something around football — a week of events, an atmosphere, an identity that a university founded in 1969 was still trying to earn. The theme that year was "A New Tradition: Go for the Gold," a nod to UAB's 25th anniversary.

Thirty-two years later, the homecoming game is on ESPN. SportsCenter is broadcasting live from outside the stadium. Kids get in free. The Gurney Derby is still on the schedule.

Nobody has to make 96 gallons of Jell-O anymore.