UAB Football To Honor Young Hospital Patients With Personalized Jerseys Saturday

BIRMINGHAM, AL - The UAB Blazers face Louisiana Tech this Saturday at Legion Field, and will be donning jerseys honoring the children and families of Children's Harbor Family Center. The Blazers will wear the names of patients on the backs of their jerseys, as well as block off a section of Legion Field's bleachers so the families of the children can watch the game.

"Children's Harbor has absolutely become a part of the Blazer family," said UAB coach Bill Clark. "I intend for this relationship to grow with our program. As we build, there will be even more we can do to provide encouragement and a positive distraction to support the terrific work Children's Harbor does."

The center is located inside the Benjamin Russell Hospital for Children just off UAB's campus in Birmingham and serves seriously ill children and their family through free services. The UAB football team adopted Children's Harbor as one of their community charities in 2016 and the Blazers make regularly scheduled trips to the hospital to build relations and encourage patients. (For more updates on this story and free news alerts for your neighborhood, sign up for your local Birmingham Patch morning newsletter.)

"Recognizing these children and their families is a way for UAB to show our support and to let them know they are not in this fight alone," said Director of Athletic Mark Ingram. "It is going to be a special day at Legion Field at our Homecoming game on Oct. 7 and we hope everyone will join us to take part in something truly unique."

The 100 game jerseys will be presented to each child and their family after the game.

Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images