When Prosper Kasim cut toward the top of the penalty area for Birmingham Legion FC against Charlotte FC two weeks ago, took aim, and fired into the left corner of the goal at Protective Stadium, it brought a crowd of almost 13,000 fans to their feet.

For many in attendance, relative newcomers to the club, it provided the highlight of a night that will go down in club history – Legion FC’s first victory, at its first attempt, against an opponent from Major League Soccer in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.

At the same time, in a strange way, it was exactly the sort of moment Morgan Copes had envisioned when he and a group of friends and acquaintances founded the Birmingham Hammers almost a decade ago.

“I think Michael Owen was quoted one time,” said Copes. “Somebody asked him about all the goals he scored in his career. He said, you know, the big ones obviously stick with you, but for the most part they all feel a little bit like dreams that just come and go.

“I was sitting there next to my wife and holding my two-year-old son. Part of the reason we did all of this with the Hammers is because we ultimately wanted to see generations of families come out and support the team. Here I was holding my kid as the goal went in, so it’s kind of fun, seeing a dream that ended up coming full circle.”

While Copes and Killian began the plan for a club in the Magic City, in Lopez - an ESPN veteran - the group added expertise in event management which provided a key facet in its progression. A broadcast intern for the Worldwide Leader in Sports in Chicago during the 1994 FIFA World Cup, Lopez was older than the excitable young financiers who had the vision, but when Copes sold him on what they had in mind – and after his own homework on the potential of soccer in Birmingham – Lopez jumped on board.

“[Morgan] got me a lot closer to the game, and I developed an even greater appreciation than I had to start with,” said Lopez, who now works as the Special Events Planner for Bassmaster and its television production. “And I'm not going to lie – he knows this – I kind of felt they needed an old guy. They needed someone like me to kind of help bring them together, but it worked well.

“We had someone from finance – that's not my background – and then someone who was really intimate with the game in Morgan, and a couple others. We really made a good team. I was like, ‘this is the group that can do something like this.’”

The Hammers turned heads locally, added additional owners in Chuck Thiele, Alex Finkelstein and Jeremy Love, and in turn the group was approached about the potential to take a club into the professional ranks. In 2017, Copes was on stage at Good People Brewing – where the idea for the Hammers had originated – as part of the staff for what would become the new USL Championship club Birmingham Legion FC.

Copes’ presence as the first official Legion FC employee helped bridge the eras, but as importantly for both him and Lopez the new image and logos for the new club provided a nod to the past.

There was the hammer, anvil and three sparks in Legion FC’s crest, the three sparks representing – in Copes’ words – passion, pride and community. There was also the continued use of the phrase Hammer Down in the stadium and online.

Both believe those elements helped Legion FC stay true to its origins.

“‘Hammer Down’ was our main phrase, and that’s the part when you get emotional, hearing 1,000s of people chant a phrase,” said Lopez. “We were initially like, ‘well, what if it’s hammer whatever.’ We eventually got to ‘Hammer Down’, and now to hear that continued as their primary chant, to see the iconography, to see the hammer and the logo when they score a goal, the PA announcer – the voice of God – chanting ‘Hammer Down.’ … I really have to give them credit, because they really did, in my opinion, a good job of linking the connection.

“They kept what the fans got used to and the fans adopted, and then they transitioned that and improved upon it.”

Continuity has been a theme on the field for Legion FC as well. Kasim was one of three players in the lineup for the club’s Round of 16 victory against Charlotte FC on May 24 alongside midfielder Mikey Lopez and goalkeeper Trevor Spangenberg that appeared in its first official game in 2019. That feeling of togetherness and camaraderie between the players and the fans before, during and after games is something Lopez and Copes believe has helped the club continue to grow its following, with ready accessibility to everyone within the staff a great selling point for future fans.

“It means a lot,” said Lopez on what it means now to have helped found the Hammers. “I’m so glad I stuck around, and I got involved. I made friends that I’m going to have for the rest of my life. When Morgan got married a couple years ago, I got my online Minister certificate and married him. We’ve all become close, but it means a lot because it means that I came together with a group of people, and a new group in the community was formed. There are people who are watching soccer here, here, here, and here. And we were able to create something that helped bring people together.

“It’s really cool to see the extension of what we started, bringing all those fans together, cheering on the same cause. Any opportunity you can have people standing next to each other, who don’t know each other, high-fiving each other, I mean, that’s a success in my book.”