The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Letters from Mark Ingram
1/7/2016 12:00:00 AM | General
Dear Blazer Nation,
Happy New Year! I hope all of you had a fantastic holiday season spent with family and friends. It was truly
The Fall semester was a
The Blazer Basketball programs are off and running! Coach Jerod Haase and the UAB men's basketball team is 11-3, including a win in the Conference USA opener this past weekend vs. Middle Tennessee. The Blazer men have won eight games in a row and 20 straight contests in Birmingham dating back to last season. Coach Randy Norton and the UAB women's team won five-straight games in December, en route to a 7-5 overall record following their first C-USA game. Both programs are undefeated at Bartow Arena this season, proving that strong and vocal home crowds help win games. We encourage you to attend as many contests as you can and be our 6th man!
For the second straight year, UAB will serve as the host of the 2016 Conference USA Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments at Legacy Arena. Make sure to order your tickets today, as March Madness will be here before we know it. I am sure you recall what a magical run the Blazer men's basketball program made last year, winning three games in three days to capture the C-USA Tournament Championship. We want all of our fans to have an opportunity to support our men's and women's programs as they compete for the league title. Call the UAB Athletics Ticket Office at 205-975-UAB1 or visit UABSports.com to reserve your seats.
On December 1, the UAB Department of Athletics, in conjunction with the UAB National Alumni Society, were proud to honor the life of former Blazer Basketball student-athlete Torey Ward, who passed away tragically in a plane crash last April. A Birmingham native, Torrey was a rising star in the college basketball profession and will be missed by all who knew him. To honor his memory, the Torrey Ward Legacy Scholarship Fund has been established to benefit future generations of UAB student-athletes. Those wishing to make a
Following the November Board of Trustees meeting, Head Football Coach Bill Clark, myself and a team of athletics and university personnel have identified a final group of architects who will present their ideas in January regarding the design of our football operations facility. Once the architect is selected, we will begin to design the building and determine exactly what it will look like. We are all very excited about this project and grateful to the Board for providing us with the ability to proceed with planning this critically important facility.
Coach Clark and his staff did a fantastic job recruiting this past Fall. On December 16, and in the days to follow, we signed 20 new Blazers during the mid-year signing period. These young men will report to campus and begin classes next week. We plan to sign 30 more students on National Signing Day, February 3, and will have a party at Iron City Grill that evening to celebrate our current team and learn about the new signees. Details for this event will be announced in the near future.
We recently had an opportunity on December 9 to dedicate BBVA Compass Field, the new home for UAB men's and women's soccer. This was a great event attended by the leadership from our friends at BBVA Compass, UAB administration, Birmingham community leaders and of course, our student-athletes and coaches. This venue is the first of many outstanding facilities we will add to our landscape to benefit our
You may recall, we have established an internal goal to collect $4.5 million of the nearly $18 million pledged to the Football, Bowling & Rifle Reinstatement Fund by January 15. We are making strong progress towards this goal and want to thank everyone who has advanced their pledge payments
Earlier this week, we announced that our development office had
We look forward to seeing you at Bartow Arena in the near future! Thank you for all you do to support Blazer Athletics!
Go Blazers!
Mark T. Ingram
Director of Athletics
University of Alabama at Birmingham
