Football, Baseball Fields at Bank Independent Stadium Named for Legendary UNA Coaches; Special Ceremony to Take Place in February
Nov. 27, 2024
Michelle R. Eubanks , UNA, at meubanks@169577.com, 256.765.4392
FLORENCE, AL – The Florence-Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau has named the field at Bank Independent Stadium Bobby Wallace Field in honor of the Lions’ legendary head football coach who saw the team through three Division II National Championships in 1993, 1994, and 1995. The University of North Alabama Foundation has committed to naming the baseball field in honor of Mike D. Lane, UNA’s head baseball coach who saw the team achieve 25 straight winning seasons from his hire in 1984 until his retirement in 2008.
A special ceremony that will official unveil the plans for both fields is set for Feb. 1, 2025, and will be an opportunity for the coaches, former players, student-athletes, and others to celebrate this significant naming.
“Our organization values the relationship between the City of Florence and the University of North Alabama,” said Rob Carnegie, President and CEO of the Florence-Lauderdale CVB. “Our organization has a broad footprint, much like UNA’s, and our desire with this gift is to make an impact across the area. We feel this is a great opportunity to do that. Further, we see this as something that will only drive millions of visitors here for years to come.”
Coach Wallace said he is deeply honored by the gift and the recognition for him, the program, and the hundreds of student-athletes he coached. “I would like to thank (UNA President) Dr. (Ken) Kitts, (UNA Director of Athletics) Dr. (Josh) Looney, Kevin Haslam, the Florence-Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau, and anyone else that contributed to making this happen,” he said. “It means so much to me and my family. I pray every coach, player, manager, and trainer that was at UNA during those years feels a part of this. I also want to thank all the great fans that supported us. It was a special time!”
The UNA Foundation has also committed to the naming of the baseball field the Mike D. Lane Field, in honor of this coach’s numerous accomplishments. And both namings are for the useful life of Bank Independent Stadium.
“I thank the good Lord for letting this old ball coach have this privilege,” said Coach Lane. “It is something we can all take pride in, and, from what I have seen, it will be a great place for people to watch the game. From the standpoint of the players, it is an upgrade to what we had. A field is very unique and very important to players.”
Wallace and Lane were at UNA at the same time, and both achieved renown in their respective sports. Lane arrived to campus first in 1983, taking over a program that had just one winning season in the six years prior to his arrival. The Lions went on to 25 consecutive winning seasons with a 908-398-12 record under his leadership. In his second season in 1985, the Lions went 46-11-1 to set a school record for single-season wins, which still stands today. His teams won 40 or more games six times, won five Gulf South Conference championships, appeared in 10 NCAA Regionals and one World Series in 1999.
Lane’s Lions had a remarkable 571-156-4 record at home over his 25 seasons, including a record 32 home wins in 1999. Meanwhile, Wallace arrived on campus in 1988 and lead the team for 10 seasons in his first stint. The Lions posted an 82-36-1 record that included six NCAA Division II playoff appearances, three Gulf South Conference championships and three consecutive NCAA Division II National Championships in 1993, 1994 and 1995.
Over those three seasons, UNA posted a combined 41-1 record, making Wallace the first coach in collegiate football history to win as many as 40 games in just three seasons. The three straight national titles also made UNA the first school in the history of NCAA scholarship football to win three straight national titles. Wallace was a three-time GSC Coach of the Year and three-time Division II National Coach of the Year. He was also selected as the Division II Coach of the Quarter Century (1972-97). He was inducted into the Division II Football Hall of Fame in 2010 and has also been inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and the Gulf South Conference Hall of Fame.
Wallace left UNA in 1997 for an FBS level job at Temple University, where he coached until 2005. He then coached at West Alabama from 2006-10. After his time in Livingston, Wallace decided to come home to Florence for his second stint as head coach of the Lions. In his second term at UNA from 2012-16, Wallace led the Lions to a combined 44-15 record that included four straight GSC championships from 2013-16, four straight NCAA playoff appearances and a berth in the 2016 Division II National Championship Game. In total, Wallace finished with a 126-51-1 record at UNA with 10 postseason appearances and a 20-7 postseason record. He is the winningest coach in UNA and GSC history.
Dr. Looney worked alongside UNA’s Vice President for Advancement Kevin Haslam to secure both opportunities.
“Honoring our past while building our future is a priority with Bank Independent Stadium, and there is no better way to honor the legacies of great UNA teams, athletes, and moments than by placing the names of these two incredible leaders on the new field surfaces,” said Looney. “We’re incredibly grateful to the Florence-Lauderdale CVB for their partnership in Bank Independent Stadium and future events that will positively impact The Shoals. It’s certainly fitting that Coach Wallace and Coach Lane will be a visible part of the growth in our community for years to come.”
About The University of North Alabama
The University of North Alabama is an accredited, comprehensive regional state university offering undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degree programs through the colleges of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering; the Sanders College of Business and Technology; Education and Human Sciences; and the Anderson College of Nursing and Health Professions. Occupying a 130-acre campus in a residential section of Florence, Alabama, UNA is located within a four-city area that also includes Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia. UNA Athletics, a renowned collegiate athletics program with seven (7) Division II National Championships, is now a proud member of NCAA Division I as part of the Atlantic Sun and United Athletic conferences. The University of North Alabama is an equal opportunity institution and does not discriminate in the admission policy on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, disability, age, or national origin. For more: 169577.com and 169577.com/unaworks/.