There should be a parade.

This UAB football team deserves to be celebrated with a victory parade through the streets of Birmingham, or at least Five Points South. The Blazers went from nothing to conference champions in two years. Two years! A rising phoenix doesn’t have anything on some resurrected Southside Dragons.

For the first 24 years of its existence, the UAB football team never won a conference championship and their most wins since turning Division I-A in 1996 were seven. Since the return, the Blazers have set a program record for wins two years in a row (8-5 and 10-3), and now this, a championship.

And it’s not just that they did it. It’s the way they did it.

In the championship game, sophomore running back Spencer Brown of nearby Mortimer Jordan High School rushed for 156 yards and 31 carries. Redshirt freshman quarterback Tyler Johnston of Spanish Fort played for injured senior quarterback A.J. Erdely.

For the season, the Blazers’ defense ranked ninth nationally in scoring (17.4 points per game), 10th in total defense (300.2 yards per game) and third in sacks (3.31 per game). Opposing quarterbacks might have nightmares for life thanks to UAB’s defensive line of Garrett Marino (Mission Viejo, Calif.), Quindarius Thagard (Luverne, Ala.), Anthony Rush (Raleigh, N.C.) and Jamell Garcia-Williams (Palo Verde, Nev.).

All are junior-college transfers, and all took chances on this team that refused to die.

So, give these guys a parade. Give this city a party. Birmingham has earned it. It needs something to celebrate.

The rebirth and quick rise of UAB football is one of the best stories in sports this year and any year, but it’s about so much more than a game. It’s about a city that refused to let its team die. This town has a complicated past that still causes difficult challenges in a lot of ways. It’s splintered by money and race and politics and property values and education systems and favorite BBQ restaurants and many other things.

Heck, Birmingham’s divisions even have divisions, and all these competing distinctions hold everything back. (Except for the BBQ. We can’t have enough smoked meats.)

The story of UAB football is what happens when Birmingham comes together, and sets aside its differences for common cause and believes in itself. From death sentence to champions in four years.

When UAB president Ray Watts made the decision to end UAB football back in 2014, that blunder of all blunders triggered something in this city I didn’t know it had. Pride.

They prepared for a lot, but they weren’t counting on pride when they killed UAB football. They weren’t counting on Timothy Alexander and his wheelchair leading protest marches through the streets.

Birmingham is known for a lot of things. It’s not known for pride. Thanks to UAB football, it is now.

That’s the most important thing here. That’s what makes this so special.

Behold, one of the greatest stories in the history of college football. They killed it, and now it’s stronger. To quote a band that knows a little something about the happy afterlife, “Don’t tell me this town ain’t got no heart,” sang the Grateful Dead in “Shakedown Street.” “You just gotta poke around.”

Birmingham is proud of this team, and proud of what it represents.

“Win as one,” was the team’s slogan for this season. They won Conference USA as one by beating Middle Tennessee State by two: UAB 27, MTSU 25.

This doesn’t happen without the Bill Clark, but Clark isn’t the only reason for UAB’s success. It took an entire city. Look what you did, Birmingham. Look at what you accomplished when you all came together.

UAB hasn’t lost a game in this town since the return, 12-0. Pride is undefeated. And this is just the beginning. Clark agreed to a new contract extension. The new stadium is coming in 2021.

It’s time to shake down these streets, Birmingham. Give this team a parade, or least a BBQ feast in Railroad Park. Birmingham might still have its differences, but it’s working on it, and everyone enjoys some good smoked meats.

Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group. He’s on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.