UAB, Coach Bill Clark, Children’s Harbor continuing one of the best college football traditions in the nation

Children's Harbor
Former UAB Head Coach Bill Clark meeting a Children’s Harbor patient at 2021 Champions for Our Children press conference (Pat Byington/Bham Now)

Today, Children’s Harbor and the UAB Football announced they will be celebrating the 8th Anniversary of the “Champions for Our Children” game on October 7th with help from former UAB Head Coach Bill Clark.

UAB’s Journey with Children’s Harbor

In 2016, former head football coach Bill Clark and his team began volunteering at the Children’s Harbor, an Alabama-based non-profit dedicated to strengthening the families of seriously ill children.

The following year, Clark and the team adopted Children’s Harbor as their community charity. Since then, UAB football players have worn their jerseys with the name of a Children’s Harbor child stitched on the back for homecoming.

It has become one of the best traditions in college football.

A special gift from Coach Clark

For the upcoming season, on Saturday, October 7, one hundred children will be represented on the custom Children’s Harbor/UAB jerseys. Thanks to a $25,000 donation from The Bill Clark Family Foundation, each child will receive their special jersey at the end of the UAB football season.

“We started the Children’s Harbor game in 2017 with the idea of playing for the patients and former patients of Children’s Harbor. When we decided to put the names on the back of our jerseys, it made our team know they were playing for the names on the back and not just themselves.”

Coach Bill Clark

YOU can support Children’s Harbor too

UAB football
(Children’s Harbor)

The public is also encouraged to support  the jersey project and Children’s Harbor programs through the Bill Clark Family Foundation. 

“Our partnership with UAB Football and sponsors like the Bill Clark Family Foundation embodies the profound impact we can create when communities come together. This initiative exemplifies the very essence of our mission – to provide solace and support to families navigating the challenges of serious illnesses. Together, we’re lighting up the lives of these young champions and showing them, they are never alone.”

Cat Outzen, CEO, Children’s Harbor

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Pat Byington
Pat Byington

Longtime conservationist. Former Executive Director at the Alabama Environmental Council and Wild South. Publisher of the Bama Environmental News for more than 18 years. Career highlights include playing an active role in the creation of Alabama's Forever Wild program, Little River Canyon National Preserve, Dugger Mountain Wilderness, preservation of special places throughout the East through the Wilderness Society and the strengthening (making more stringent) the state of Alabama's cancer risk and mercury standards.

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