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Photos by Savannah Schmidt.
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Photos by Savannah Schmidt.
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Photos by Savannah Schmidt.
Vestavia Hills resident Chuck Turnbough is a science and sports-loving superhero.
Turnbough, a professor of microbiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham since 1980, specializes in the research of Bacillus anthracis, or anthrax. This bacteria releases deadly spores that have historically been used as a form of biological warfare, but Turnbough’s research aided in creating detectors that curtailed its threat.
This scientist’s career as a Blazer fan, however, is just as notable.
When UAB disassembled its football program in 2014 for financial reasons, Turnbough decided to fight back for his beloved team and the whole student body. Out of Turnbough’s resilience came the T-shirt slogan “We’ll be Back.” He printed this phrase on 830 UAB Football T-shirts to hand out at the campus and the Vestavia Hills Publix.
Over the next three years, Turnbough and his colleagues donated money, collected student petitions and campaigned at the Alabama State House to bring back the team.
“We had a saying, ‘They tried to bury us, but they didn’t know we were seeds,’” Turnbough said. Their campaign raised the $19.5 million required to bring the program back and even helped acquire the additional $20 million for resources.
In 2017, Turnbough printed a new slogan on his shirts: “We are Back.” Today, his group of science professors enjoys UAB tailgates in a new light.
“Mission accomplished,” Turnbough said.
