20 years later, The Old Gray Lady survives

She's been loved, and she's been left.

Built up and torn down.

And through it all the Old Gray Lady - or, as the former site of the annual Iron Bowl is better known, Legion Field - is surviving.

"What we try to do is host as many events as we can," said Melvin Miller, director of Birmingham's Parks and Recreation Board, "and we'd love to continue to do that.

"We want the stadium to be utilized."

For decades, the University of Alabama's football team used Legion Field - at the time much bigger than Tuscaloosa's Bryant-Denny - to play its marquee games against Tennessee and Florida, and of course, the Iron Bowl against Auburn.

In 1989, Auburn took its half of the series to campus, and Alabama followed suit soon thereafter, playing the final Iron Bowl in Birmingham nine years later. The Alabama-Auburn game will be played today at 1:30 at Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium.

With the improvements to Bryant-Denny Stadium, planned to soon seat 101,000, it just didn't make sense to play in Birmingham anymore, Alabama athletic director Mal Moore said Saturday.

"Playing at Legion Field was always a unique and special experience for us," he said. "Unfortunately, so many realities changed over time that it made it impossible for us to continue that tradition. As it is now, I think both programs are able to benefit a lot more from the game and what goes on around it.

"That's not to diminish what we had at Legion Field, but so many more things are possible now with a home-and-home series that benefit us from a recruiting standpoint and many other things."

The Southeastern Conference Championship game didn't take that long to leave Birmingham behind. Alabama and Florida played the first two title games at Legion Field before the contest was moved to Atlanta's Georgia Dome in 1994, where it remains.

Even high schools have made their relationship with the self-proclaimed "Football Capital of the South" a memory. Starting this year, the cities of Tuscaloosa and Auburn will alternate the job of hosting the Alabama High School Athletic Association football championships, the Super Six.

Legion Field's social calendar has lost defining annual events over the years, yet all is not lost. For smaller colleges, Legion Field, which in 1996 was host to Olympic soccer, still has value as an athletic venue.

It is the full-time home to the University of Alabama-Birmingham football team,

but sees only a modest draw. The Blazers have averaged 19,138 in their four home games this season.

The Magic City Classic, however, has flourished in its time in Birmingham, recently becoming one of the biggest of the historic black colleges' marquee games.

The 2008 game between Alabama A&M and Alabama State pulled in 69,113 fans, around 2,500 shy of capacity.

With a parade and other pregame events, the glut of fans translated into a gain of $12.8 million for the Magic City, according to the Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Birmingham has even shown potential in the overgrown NCAA bowl season. Hosting the Papajohns.com Bowl since 2006, the financial impact of the game nearly doubled in its first two seasons.

In its inaugural year, the game created $4.2 million of revenue for the city. The next year, that figure nearly doubled, checking in at $8.1 million.

"It was a nice situation for us," Miller said. "That game, I think, is growing in popularity and even the teams that the Papajohns.com Bowl draws."

Despite the many advantages to hosting the Iron Bowl on the respective schools' campuses, the absence of Legion Field is felt, according to a longtime Auburn official.

"It's been bad for the intensity of the game because it's no longer every play - as coach (Pat) Dye would say - in Birmingham, every play was a big play," former Auburn athletic director David Housel said. "It's kind of like the Yankees and Mets when they play in New York.

"If it's a no-gain, that's a great play for the defense. If it's a 5-yard play, that's a great play for the offense. So one side or the other is cheering like hell every snap of the ball. We don't have that any more."