UAB Blazers

Infobox college athletics
name = UAB Blazers
| university = University of Alabama at Birmingham
conference = Conference USA | division = Division I FBS
director = Brian Mackin
city = Birmingham
state = Alabama
stateabb = AL
teams = 17 intercollegiate sports
stadium = Legion Field
arena = Bartow Arena
mascot = Blaze
nickname = Blazers
fightsong = UAB Fight Song
color1 = Green
color2 = White
color3 = Old Gold
hex1 = 008000
hex2 = FFFFFF
hex3 = CFB53B
pageurl = http://www.uabsports.com/
pagename = www.uabsports.com

The UAB Blazers are the forest green and old gold-swathed athletic teams at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, generally known as UAB. The school is one of the twelve member institutions of Conference USA (C-USA) and participates in Division I of the NCAA. The school's football program, as with all other C-USA members, participates in the Football Bowl Subdivision (still frequently referred to by its former designation of Division I-A), the higher of two levels of Division I competition in that sport The UAB football team is led by Neil Callaway and plays its home games at 71,594-seat Legion Field. The school's men's basketball team, coached by Mike Davis, plays in 8,508-seat Bartow Arena.

While the football team entered post-season play only recently, the men's basketball program has a long history of success spanning several decades. In addition to football and basketball, UAB also has programs in men's sports for baseball, golf, soccer, and tennis. Women's sports programs include softball, basketball, golf, soccer, synchronized swimming, tennis, track and field (indoor and outdoor), cross country, rifle and volleyball.

Football

seealso|UAB Blazers football.

UAB made the move to Division I-A, now FBS, football in 1996 and made the jump to Conference USA in 1999. Since then, UAB has made a habit of playing many of college football's traditional powers. In 2000, UAB achieved a monumental victory by beating LSU in Baton Rouge. In 2004, UAB reached yet another milestone earning their first bowl trip in school history, the Hawaii Bowl. Though young, UAB's football program continues to make large strides both in on the field success and in attendance. UAB plays its home football games at Legion Field, where the latest average attendance is 23,139 according to NCAA figures. [cite web|url=http://www.ncaa.org/stats/football/attendance/2006/2006_football_attendance.pdf |title=2006 National College Football Attendance |publisher=NCAA |format=PDF |accessmonthday=March 30 |accessyear=2007]

Basketball

Men's Basketball

The UAB Blazers, in effect, started their entire athletics program with the creation of a men's basketball team in 1978. Setting the standards high from the start, UAB hired former UCLA, University of Illinois and Memphis head coach Gene Bartow. Known to many as the "Father of UAB athletics", Bartow led the Blazers to almost instant success. In 2004, the school once again gained national attention when it upset No. 1-seeded Kentucky in the second round of the tournament and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen.Since their inaugural season, the Blazers have made 13 appearances in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament including 3 Sweet Sixteen appearances and 1 Elite Eight appearance. UAB has also appeared in the NIT a total of 9 times, including 2 appearances in the NIT Final Four.

After only 29 years of basketball, UAB has had 26 winning seasons including memorable wins over Virginia, Kentucky, Louisville, Alabama, Florida, Villanova, Indiana, and Memphis, among others. The Blazers have amassed an impressive 595 wins to only 355 losses since 1978 giving UAB one of the best all-time winning percentages in college basketball history. The UAB men's basketball team has been ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll more than 30 times in school history and has even been ranked among the Top 10 in the nation. Up until the early 1990s, UAB played its home games at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex. Today, UAB plays its home basketball games in Bartow Arena where the Blazers have won more than 80 percent of its games. The current head coach, Mike Davis, was named head coach of the Blazers in the spring of 2006 and became just the fourth head coach in UAB basketball history.

Blazers ISP Radio Network

UAB athletic events can be heard on the following stations:
* WUHT-FM 107.7 Birmingham/Tuscaloosa/Gadsden/Anniston/Cullman
* WJOX-FM 100.5 Birmingham/Tuscaloosa/Selma/Demopolis
* WTXO-FM 98.3 Talladega/Ashland/Oxford/Alexander City
* WSPZ-AM 690 Birmingham/Huntsville/Montgomery
* WIQR-AM 1410 Montgomery/Prattville/Selma/Greenville/Troy
* WACT-AM 1420 Tuscaloosa/Brent/Eutaw

References