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In 20 years, the Crimson Tide has gone from small startup to one of the premier programs in the country

Two decades ago, Patrick Murphy was operating on sheer faith in selling University of Alabama softball.

That’s all he had.

Murphy, an assistant coach for the startup program at the time, remembers sending out flyers to potential recruits with one theme: Believe without evidence.

There was no history. No stadium. No reason to believe.

But Murphy believed anyway.

“That’s how we recruited our first four or five classes,” Murphy said, “because we didn’t have anything to show them.”

The Crimson Tide program enters its 20th season Friday in Orlando against Fordham and Rutgers in the UCF Classic.