Back When: Stacy Keely blocked the kick, and UAB's return became real

Jonathan Barnes had been 8-for-8 for his career on field goals in the final two minutes of regulation or overtime. Earlier that season, he had beaten Western Kentucky on a last-second kick. With three seconds left at Legion Field on Oct. 7, 2017, he lined up a 30-yard attempt to beat UAB.

On the other side of the line, UAB called "sugar" — the scheme that puts the tallest defenders at the center of the line for a block attempt. Shaq Jones, a senior linebacker and team captain who had been on the roster in 2014 when the program was shut down, was supposed to be on the end. He looked over and saw Jamell Garcia-Williams, who stood 6-foot-8, next to him.

"I'm pretty tall myself, but I saw Williams and he's a lot taller than me, so I asked coach if I could switch," Jones said.

The coach said yes. The switch put Stacy Keely — a redshirt junior defensive lineman, 6-foot-7 and 250 pounds — and Garcia-Williams side by side at the center of the line, directly in front of the kicker. Barnes had made kicks like this his entire career. He had never tried one against two men that size, that close, with the game on the line.

The kick came low and straight on. Keely and Garcia-Williams both leaped. Keely got a hand on it and knocked it down at the line of scrimmage. The ball bounded back to Barnes, who picked it up and tried to run. Keely ran him down around the end and tackled him.

"They're two tall dudes, got on the team, and it worked out in our favor," Jones said.

UAB 23, Louisiana Tech 22. Players stormed the field before the officials could signal the play dead. In the stands, 27,213 fans jumped in disbelief. They hugged each other. Some openly wept.

Tears of joy.

This Saturday, UAB hosts Charlotte at Protective Stadium in the 10th annual Children's Harbor game. The Blazers are 8-1 in the tradition, including four consecutive victories. Last year's game produced a 31-24 upset of No. 22 Memphis in Alex Mortensen's first game as head coach. Ninety-nine children will have their names on the backs of gray jerseys this weekend.

The tradition has been part of UAB football for a decade now, but it carried weight from the first game — a team picked dead last in America, wearing the names of sick children, blocking a field goal with three seconds left to beat a program whose fans had mocked UAB when it discontinued football.

UAB got the last laugh, and in doing so, kicked off a meaningful tradition with an unforgettable moment.

David Crane called the finish on the UAB radio network: "Thirty-yard attempt, middle of the field. Snap, spot, block — blocked it! Picked up by Barnes, running to the near side, and tackled. UAB wins!

"The Fairytale ending belongs to UAB!"

When you know the whole story, the call is an understatement.

"It really does not truly get any better than this, for so many reasons," UAB Coach Bill Clark said afterward. "They were playing for their teammates, they were playing for our alumni on homecoming against a conference opponent, but the special part was playing for those kids and those names on the back of their jerseys. It wasn't made up, it really was that important and special to them."

The Blazers wore the names of children served by Children's Harbor — a nonprofit dedicated to strengthening families of seriously ill children through no-cost counseling, support services and programs — on the backs of their jerseys. It was homecoming. It was the first Children's Harbor game.

In the locker room, the Blazers celebrated like they had won a national championship. Among them was Emme Nichols, a Children's Harbor patient who had undergone surgery for a brain tumor. Shaq Jones' No. 42 jersey had her name on the back.

Emme's father, William Nichols, had played for UAB from 1991 to 1994. When Clark came into the program in 2014, he told former players, "You guys are family," Will recalled in a UAB Athletics video about the tradition. His daughter had been diagnosed in June 2015 — what the family thought was the flu on a vacation turned out to be a cancerous brain tumor. Eight-year-old Emme had surgery two days later.

"I was told that Emme had a brain tumor and then we were told it was cancerous that night," her mother, Aimee Nichols, said in the video. "So we had our world flipped upside down from a healthy girl who we thought had a virus — now we have cancer and a brain tumor."

When Children's Harbor connected patients with players for the first game, Jones wore Emme's name. He had a reason he had not told anyone.

"The condition that she had — she had a tumor in her brain — my mom has the same," Jones said in the video. "She suffered with the same problem. When I met her I was just like, I would love to wear your name, represent you. But not only am I representing you, I represent my mama. So it's like a perfect match."

"I thought it's gonna be the game that I remember the most in my college career," Jones said, "because it's not about me, you know, it's about more than me."

UAB had been picked 130th out of 130 teams in the preseason. The program had been shut down in 2014 and, after months of protest and fundraising, reinstated in 2015 with the first season of competition set for 2017.

UAB fans already hated Louisiana Tech before the Bulldogs came to Legion Field. The hard feelings traced to the BJCC in March 2015, three months after UAB's football program was killed. The CUSA basketball tournament was in Birmingham that year. Louisiana Tech fans showed up for the semifinal and chanted "We've got football!" at the Blazers — in UAB's own city, to a fan base still raw from losing the sport and in the middle of a frantic fight to get it back.

UAB was a No. 4 seed at 16-15. The Blazers beat Louisiana Tech 72-62 in overtime. They won the CUSA tournament. They earned a bid to March Madness and knocked off No. 3 seed Iowa State in the first round. The basketball team answered the chant on the court. Now, two years later, the football team had a chance to answer it on the field.

Louisiana Tech was a projected contender for the Conference USA championship. Skip Holtz had built a program in Ruston that expected to compete for conference titles. The Bulldogs had a kicker who owned the final two minutes of football games. UAB had lost all five previous meetings with Louisiana Tech, the closest a 32-29 defeat in 1997. UAB fans wanted this game, but they did not know whether their team was ready for it.

Spencer Brown, a freshman from Kimberly, answered the question early. UAB held Louisiana Tech to three-and-outs on its first two possessions, and Brown opened the scoring with an 11-yard rushing touchdown. Andre Wilson returned a punt 46 yards to set up A.J. Erdely for a 3-yard touchdown run. UAB led 13-0 before the first quarter was half over.

J'Mar Smith hit Teddy Veal on a 16-yard touchdown pass — aided by a pass interference penalty on UAB — to cut the lead to 13-7. Barnes added a 39-yard field goal in the second quarter. Nick Vogel answered with a 27-yard field goal for UAB. The Blazers took a 16-10 lead into halftime with Brown already at 78 rushing yards and Wilson adding eight catches for 105 yards.

Louisiana Tech tied the game 1:50 into the fourth quarter when Kam McKnight scored on a 1-yard speed sweep. Then McKnight taunted, and the penalty pushed the extra point back to the 18-yard line. Barnes — who had missed only five extra points in his career entering the game — pushed this one wide right. Tied at 16, and Louisiana Tech had just handed UAB a free point.

Erdely drove UAB 56 yards in 11 plays. He finished it with a 1-yard quarterback keeper at the 6:02 mark. Vogel converted the PAT. UAB 23, Louisiana Tech 16.

Smith connected with DeJuawn Oliver on a 42-yard touchdown pass with 3:32 remaining. Barnes lined up for the extra point that would have tied the game, but an illegal procedure penalty backed the Bulldogs up five yards. Barnes missed again. Two extra points in the fourth quarter, two penalties by his own teammates, two misses from a kicker who almost never missed. Louisiana Tech trailed 23-22 because it could not line up without drawing a flag.

The Bulldogs' defense forced a three-and-out and gave the offense one last chance. Smith threw to Veal and Boston Scott for 41 yards on the final drive, setting up at the UAB 13 with seconds left.

Louisiana Tech committed 10 penalties for 95 yards — more than half the total the Bulldogs had accumulated through their first five games. Six infractions came in the second half. Both of Barnes' missed extra points followed teammates drawing flags that moved the kicks back. A disciplined Louisiana Tech team wins that game without needing Barnes to kick a field goal at the end.

But UAB won the game at the line of scrimmage, not just on Louisiana Tech's mistakes. Brown ran for 165 yards behind an offensive line that controlled the point of attack against a defense built for a conference championship run. Erdely scored twice, including the go-ahead keeper that capped the 56-yard drive. The Blazers' five-man fronts held Boston Scott — Louisiana Tech's best back — to 48 yards on 14 carries. Smith threw for 209 yards and two touchdowns, but when it mattered most, UAB's front owned the line.

It was UAB's first victory over Louisiana Tech, its first Conference USA win since the program's return, and the first chapter of a tradition that has defined the program ever since. The Blazers entered the game 2-2. They finished 8-4 and qualified for a bowl game. The rivalry with Louisiana Tech burned through the remaining years both programs shared Conference USA, across both sports. Skip Holtz, the Louisiana Tech head coach that October afternoon, would later come to Birmingham and win three consecutive spring football championships with the Stallions in the USFL and United Football League.

Keely signed with the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent. Jones coaches high school football in the Birmingham area and remains close to Emme Nichols to this day, as do many Blazers who connected with children and their families through Children's Harbor.

The gray jerseys have come out every year since. Eight more Children's Harbor games have been played, and the Blazers have won seven of them. This Saturday at Protective Stadium will be the 10th.