The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Blazers Welcome Injured Military To Baseball Game
3/29/2009 12:00:00β―AM | Baseball
March 27, 2009
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- UAB welcomed more than 25 injured service men and women to Young Memorial Field on Friday night for its baseball series opener against Savannah State.
The group included military personnel from all over the country, including as far away as Hawaii, who were in Birmingham for the U.S. Paralympic Military Sports Camp. The camp is for veterans who have sustained physical injuries and is organized by Lakeshore Foundation's Lima Foxtrot Program for Injured Military and the United States Olympic Committee's Paralympic Military Program.
UAB donated tickets for all camp participants as well as Lakeshore Foundation staff members.
Alabama native, 1st Lt. Brian Hicks threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the game. Hicks, who was an engineer for a medical unit while serving in Iraq, suffered long-term nerve damage as the result of an injury he sustained on a resupply mission, and he ultimately had his left leg amputated. Now a civil engineer, he is training for his first triathlon since the amputation.
Fellow veteran, Sgt. Noah Galloway, also an Alabama resident, led the crowd in the singing of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch. Galloway suffered the loss of his left arm below the elbow and his left leg above the knee in an attack during his second deployment to Iraq.
At the paralympic sports camp, participants competed in various activities, including archery, basketball, shooting, swimming, track and field, sit volleyball and cycling.
