Alabama basketball fans have come and gone — celebrated and suffered — over the decades leading up to Saturday’s Final Four flag planting.

Some became famous. Others infamous.

But there’s just one Face.

You remember the one, rising to fame in perhaps the leanest of years when Final Four runs were celebrated in the NIT instead of its big brother. A viral sensation that transcended sport, that mug was practically everywhere in 2012.

More than a decade later, that Face and its owner Jack Blankenship is doing more smiling than … well … that menacing Face.

When the Crimson Tide tips off Saturday night in the Arizona desert, the Face 2.0 will be watching along from his Manhattan apartment — living a life he at least partially credits to Alabama hoops and his first brush with fame.

“I have a lot of fun watching them with my wife in our apartment,” Blankenship said by phone Friday. “It’s quite the opposite environment from the front row of the Crimson Chaos section. It’s really been a roller coaster since my freshman year.”

An understatement in every way.

For the uninitiated, The Face became a meme in the infancy of memes back as a freshman attending Alabama basketball games in 2012. The Tuscaloosa native was sitting in the student section, then located behind the basket closest to the visiting bench, where he held out a cardboard cutout of his Face in a particularly unique state.

It became an instant internet hit, leading to appearances on the Today Show, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, ESPN … you name it, The Face was on it.

And it changed Blankenship’s life.

Then an engineering major, he was happy to live that life but he always had dreams of working in late-night television. His Face Guy media tour in New York planted that new seed complete with connections he wouldn’t waste.

It led to an internship at The Tonight Show in 2014, then an internship at Saturday Night Live and eventually a full-time job at The Tonight Show. Alabama hoops was in the middle of coaching changes and general instability but its facially famous fan’s career was blooming.

Blankenship said he “absolutely” owes the kickstart of his career to sitting in the front row of Coleman Coliseum holding a cutout of his snarled face.

Still with The Tonight Show, Blankenship has appeared several times alongside Jimmy Fallon. In 2017, he played the melodica with the nose of his famous Face.

His official title is footage research coordinator.

“It’s funny because my job is to find viral videos, show them to Jimmy and the writers,” Blankenship said. “So, in a sense, I’m finding the next me. And it feels weirdly poetic.”

He’s also taking the stage for a one-man show that relives his first brush with fame. “Jack Blankenship: A Funeral for My Face” is an hour-long performance where he recounts his “15 minutes of fame as ‘The Alabama Face Guy.’”

The show is set to debut April 11 — just days after the Final Four game — in Brooklyn. It takes a look at all angles of his viral fame that wasn’t all bits and gags. There were times when it wasn’t clear if he was in on the joke or the butt of it.

Blankenship recalls one particular moment at a popular Tuscaloosa snow cone shop, Summer Snow. An elderly lady pulled up in her car, leaned out the window and asked if he was The Face Guy.

“Well let’s see it,” he remembers her requesting. “Then I do The Face. She laughs at me and drives away … It’s interesting when people want to take pictures of you instead of with you.”

Still, the whole saga netted far more positive than negative.

It also help grow the relationship that became a marriage. This goes back to 2020 when looking for love the modern way, on a dating app. His match, Allison Frasca searched his full name, found his brush with fame and actually found it relatable. She previously went viral for writing a musical that only used various versions of “All Star” by Smash Mouth.

“So we had that in common and helped break down our barriers. I felt like any time I would date in the city, it was somewhat of an elephant in the room — you can decide if that pun was intended — but everything with her felt very natural.”

They got married last October.

So it’ll be The Face and his bride on the couch Saturday night watching history in Arizona from their Manhattan apartment. He’s a long way from the lean years in Coleman Coliseum but so is the team he grew up supporting.

He rarely gets spotted in public anymore, Face fame fading at least in New York, but the internet never forgets.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” he said. “Twelve years ago, to think of where I am now to where I was then, I would be surprised. But I’m very thankful. And it’s really poetic to see how far the basketball team has come and that I’m getting a lot of the similar interactions as I got 12 years ago.

“I couldn’t be more excited.”

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.