1991 Football Team Included In Samford's 2025 Hall Of Fame Class

Samford Athletics announced its 2025 Hall of Fame class earlier today and the 1991 edition of its football team was among the inductees. 

1991 FOOTBALL TEAM
INDUCTEE CLASS OF 2025
The 1991 Samford football team set the standard for Bulldog football squads. The team set the school record for regular-season wins with 10 and for overall season wins with 12. The Bulldogs finished the regular season with a 10-1 mark and entered the NCAA Division I-AA (now FCS) Playoffs for the first time in school history. Playing each round on the road, Samford earned wins at New Hampshire (29-13) and James Madison (24-21) before falling to eventual national champion Youngstown State in the national semifinals. The run to the semifinals is, to date, the deepest playoff run at the Division I level in program history. The Bulldogs finished the season ranked in the top 10 of the national I-AA rankings for the first time in program history.

Let's look back at the final victory in a highly successful season, as the Bulldogs travelled to Harrisonburg, Virginia, to take on James Madison. The article below is from the December 9th, 1991. Birmingham Post-Herald. 

One to watch: Samford RB Kobe Hughes

As a result of Birmingham-Southern University closing its doors earlier this year, a number of players from the 2023 Panthers had to relocate in order to continue their education and football careers.

Among them is BSU's top academic performer, Kobe Hughes, who will play his senior year at Samford.

Hughes graduated with honours from Helena High School. He participated in three games for BSU in 2021 and 2022 combined before taking a much larger role last year. 

In BSU's final season, Hughes carried 146 times for 647 yards (4.4 average) and three touchdowns. He added 118 yards on 11 receptions.

I'm not certain where Hughes stands on the depth chart at the moment. Looking at 2023 statistics, Damonta Witherspoon is the lone returnee with significant contribution at the position (314 yards on 77 attempts). Let's see what Hughes does with the opportunity. 

Scans from the 1935 Birmingham Southern Yearbook

The previous post shared images from the 1934 Samford, then Howard, yearbook and in particular emphasized a victory over Birmingham-Southern.

The following year, Birmingham Southern won the Dixie conference and defeated Howard handily. And so in the spirit of equal time, here are a few scans from that school's 1935 yearbook summarizing the previous season's successes. 

Scans from the 1934 Samford/Howard Yearbook

Being the 1934 yearbook, it references the previous year's football team. That club won the institution's first championship, doing so as a member of the Dixie Conference at the time.

Fun to see the added emphasis given to the Birmingham Southern game. Unfortunately, it isn't of the highest quality, but I dug up the Post-Herald's stats sheet from that game as well.  

2023, Sept. 4th: Hiers Named SoCon Offensive Player Of The Week

SPARTANBURG, S. C. – Samford graduate student quarterback Michael Hiers was named the Southern Conference's Offensive Player of the Week when the league released its weekly football awards on Monday.

This is Hiers first SoCon Offensive Player of the Week honor of the season and the sixth in his career.

The Preseason All-American threw for 375 yards on 28-of-35 passing with a career-high five touchdowns in the Bulldogs' 69-14 season-opening victory over Shorter. 

2023, May 31st: "Hiers Named Preseason All-American By Athlon Sports"

Since Miles' pre-season All-Americans were posted here earlier today, it seemed to make sense to also note Samford's own Birmingham native who was also so honoured a few weeks back. 

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – With less than 100 days left until kickoff at Seibert Stadium, Samford senior quarterback Michael Hiers was named a Preseason All-American by Athlon Sports, the publication announced on Wednesday morning. 

Hiers was named an All-American by the Associated Press and Stats Perform following his debut season for the Bulldogs in 2022. This is his first preseason award heading into the 2023 season.

The reigning Southern Conference Offensive Player of the Year threw for a league-best 3,544 yards and 36 touchdowns to tie Devlin Hodges' single-season mark that he set in 2016. 

Hiers ranked top 10 nationally in completion percentage (76.6%/1st), completions per game (27.15/3rd), passing efficiency (165.2/8th), passing touchdowns (36/4th), passing yards (3,544/6th), points responsible for (2,234/6th) and points responsible per game (18/7th) for the 2022 season. 

Looking to defend its SoCon title, Samford opens the 2023 season on Thursday, Aug. 31 at Seibert Stadium against Shorter. 

Nov 30th, 1939: "Panthers Close Howard Series in Sensational 9-6 Win"

After sharing some of the hype around the final game of the Birmingham-Southern / Howard (Samford) series from 1939, I'd meant to include a result as well but never got around to it. Two weeks later, here we are.

The first two images are from the next day's Montgomery Advertiser while the bottom once is from the Birmingham News. The News had a much more details summary but for a 9-6 game, the one below seemed sufficient.

Kenny Morgan (35), Howard left halfback, is shown picking up four yards to the Howard 334-yard line at the close of the first quarter.

Nov 26th, 1939, Birmingham News: "Ace Howard Flankman"

While "Ace Howard Flankman" would make a great name for a pulp novel character, in this context it refers to one of Howard College's, now Samford, top players.  

This is the other side of the page on which the spotlighted player from last night, Eugene Pierce, appeared in promotion of the final game between Birmingham-Southern and Howard College at Legion Field on November 30th, 1939. End Ed Richardson was expected to have a significant impact in the game's result.

Sept 1st, 1984: "Bulldogs Ready For First Game Since 1973"

Since UAB's return to the field in 1990 was recently given a little spotlight, in the spirit of equal time I shall do the same for Samford. The article below, again from the Birmingham Post-Herald, was published on the day that the team would take the field for the first time in more than a decade. 

It...Wouldn't go so well. The Bulldogs lost 82-09. Baby steps, man. 

(Anniston Star, Sept 2nd, 1984)