Hannah Stephens stood inside her University of Alabama dorm room, focused her eyes on a flimsy poster board and painted "Roll Tide" in fire-red letters. She tried her hardest not to stain her bathroom floor. Luckily, the woman who today is known as "UA Sign Girl," was able to keep her floor unblemished.
That same day in 2011, the sophomore carried her first homemade sign to the Crimson Tide's softball game. It was spring. Her friend Jaclyn Traina was a pitcher on the team and the banner was her way of showing extra support. After the game, Stephens noticed the genuine appreciation from the players and vowed to attend as many Alabama sporting events as she could. Swimming. Gymnastics. Basketball. Softball. Soccer. Baseball. Football. Stephens was normally somewhere in the crowd during her time at college.
"Hannah always sat in the front row and was the loudest fan," gymnast Lauren Beers said in an email, adding that she enjoyed spotting Stephens in the stands.
A year later, Stephens, a sports broadcasting major, aimed to create bolder signs, opting to ditch her enthusiastic "Roll Tide." Stephens who, has a heart-shaped face with light-brown hair and cheery eyes, was most widely spotted at Alabama football games. On some occasions, she even painted her face half-red and half-white. "The paint was so cold," Stephens recalled.
Still, her signs made the most noise. There was the time she told Mississippi State football fans, "You hold cowbells, we hold crystal balls." In another instance, she name-dropped a particular Patriots player, "Tom Brady's footballs are harder than Ohio State's schedule."
"Her signs at games are so creative and witty," said Traina, now 24. And without hesitation, Traina shared her favorite sign created by Stephens. "[It] read Ronda Rousey's fights lasted longer than Auburn's chance at a national title."
Stephens has frequently camped out before football games to guarantee a front-row spot. She normally stood on a concrete slab in the student section. The gray concrete "pedestal," her description, was marked with cinnamon-red, black and dark blue colors, paint from her signs.
By 2013, Stephens was known throughout campus as the "UA Sign Girl." Her new nickname stayed with her, after the football team defeated Tennessee 45-10 on Oct. 26, 2013. Alabama's weather that day was warm enough for Stephens to leave her apartment wearing a short-sleeve shirt to the home game, where she held a poster with a proposition for Alabama's head coach. After the game, Nick Saban was asked about Stephens' sign during a news conference.
"I saw a clever sign in the student section. It said 'We'll stay for 60. If you stay forever,' " said a reporter who recited Stephens' words. "Is that a deal?"
"Sounds like a good deal to me," a grinning Saban said. "Hey, I love it here. And I'm too damn old to go someplace else and start all over again. I can tell you that ..."
"I was honored and humbled," Stephens said, her words coated in a Southern accent. That night, another Alabama fan created a Facebook page specifically for Stephens, which has more than 5,500 likes. Following the success of the Facebook page, she quickly renamed her Twitter handle to @UASignGirl to stay in uniform with her Facebook page. Through all the media exposure, Stephens has remained grounded. "Everything I am is because of God," she said.
Stephens is quick to give thanks to a higher power. As an only child, she grew up in a Southern Baptist home, where both her parents worked. Her father is a retired police officer and her mother is a teacher. Stephens, who works for a marketing firm in Alabama by day, interns for a sports radio show at night and writes as a freelancer whenever she can find time, spent most of her youth in Clanton, Alabama, before moving to Washington state and then back to Alabama. She has always been drawn to sports.
Back in high school, she tried out for the basketball team and was cut. She blamed the coach's decision on her 5-foot-2 frame, but still maintained a peppy attitude as she rooted for her classmates during games. As a freshman at Alabama, she was a walk-on to the rowing team, but had to stop due to an injury. "I have thoracic outlet syndrome. Basically from overusing my [arms]," she explained.
Besides rowing, she had a dream of making the Olympic weightlifting team. "I pray that if God wants me to, it will happen, but since my injuries, it has been kinda put on hold," she said. Stephens still religiously works out seven days a week at a gym, where she does CrossFit, push-ups, power lifting, squats and bench presses.
On Thursday, her Crimson Tide will play Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium in the College Football Playoff. Stephens, who graduated in 2014 with a degree in sports broadcasting, wasn't able to purchase a ticket, so she'll be watching, yelling and pacing from home. "I even do push-ups or air squats when I'm nervous [during the game]," Stephens said. She did make clear that she's never received any free tickets from the university.
"I just love the intensity and aggressiveness of Alabama football," she said. "There's beauty in every sport."
