| Blaze | |
|---|---|
 Blaze outside a UAB Football Game | |
| University | University of Alabama at Birmingham |
| Conference | The American |
| Description | Green dragon |
| First seen | January 6, 1996 |
 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(February 2012) |
Blaze (officially Blaze The Dragon) is the mascot of the University of Alabama at Birmingham's athletics teams. The mascot is based on a fire-breathing European dragon. [1]
The first mascot was introduced in 1978 as an unnamed furry pink dragon during a men's basketball game but disappeared the following season due to unpopularity. During 1979 to 1992, UAB introduced another mascot named Beauregard T. Rooster, a chicken originally worn by an UAB employee Frank Sutherland as a Halloween costume but halted due to concern of trademark infringement lawsuit by San Diego's Chicken's. In 1993, the school voted a new mascot Blazer the Warrior, a Viking warrior but retired the next season due to children being scared of the mascot. [2]
On January 6, 1996, "Blaze", a friendly green dragon was introduced at a basketball game. "Blaze" is considered a member of the spirit squads and appears at all football and basketball games. Blaze's head has appeared on the sides of UAB's football helmets since 1996, when the team moved up to Division I-A.
The Portland Trail Blazers are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference. The team played its home games in the Memorial Coliseum before moving to the Moda Center in 1995. The franchise entered the league as an expansion team in 1970, and has enjoyed a strong following: from 1977 through 1995, the team sold out 814 consecutive home games, the longest such streak in American major professional sports at the time, and which has only since been surpassed by the Boston Red Sox and the Dallas Mavericks. The Trail Blazers are the only NBA team based in the Pacific Northwest, after the Vancouver Grizzlies relocated to Memphis and became the Memphis Grizzlies in 2001 and the Seattle SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City and became the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008.
Blaze may refer to:
Terry Porter is an American former college basketball coach and former player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was most recently the head men's basketball coach at the University of Portland. A native of Wisconsin, he played college basketball at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point before being drafted 24th by the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1985 NBA draft. In Portland, he played ten seasons with two All-Star Game appearances. Porter spent 17 years in the NBA as a player. Following his retirement as a player in 2002, he began coaching in the league. Porter has twice been a head coach, first with his hometown Milwaukee Bucks and then with the Phoenix Suns.
Michael Davis is an American basketball coach. He was most recently the head men's basketball coach at the University of Detroit Mercy, a position he held from 2018 to 2024. Davis also served as the head men's basketball coach at Indiana University Bloomington from 2000 to 2006, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) from 2006 to 2012, and Texas Southern University from 2012 to 2018.
Bartow Arena is an 8,508-seat multi-purpose arena in Birmingham, in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is home to the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Blazers men's and women's basketball teams as well as the women's volleyball team. The arena is named after Gene Bartow, the coach who built the school's men's basketball program from scratch over the last quarter of the 20th century. UAB initially played their games at the Birmingham–Jefferson Convention Complex Arena, now known as Legacy Arena, but moved its games to the on-campus facility beginning with the 1988–89 season.
The UAB Blazers football team represents the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in the sport of American football. The Blazers compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and American Athletic Conference. The team is led by head coach Trent Dilfer, who was named the program’s 7th head coach on November 30, 2022. Home games were previously held at Legion Field in Birmingham from the 1991 season to the 2020 season. A new stadium, Protective Stadium, has been the home of the Blazers starting from the 2021 season. The new stadium's capacity is over 47,000.
The UAB Blazers are the varsity intercollegiate athletic programs that represent the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The school is one of the fourteen member institutions of the American Athletic Conference and participates in Division I of the NCAA. The school's men's basketball team plays in 8,508-seat Bartow Arena. The Blazers' colors are forest green and old gold. The men's basketball program has a long history of success spanning several decades.
The UAB Blazers men's basketball team represents the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in NCAA Division I men's college basketball, with the 2023–24 season being the Blazers' first as members of the American Athletic Conference. The Blazers play home games at Bartow Arena and are coached by Andy Kennedy. UAB has appeared 17 times in the NCAA men's basketball tournament and most recently appeared in 2024.
The 2004 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, part of the 2004 bowl game season, took place on Christmas Eve 2004, at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii. The competing teams were the UAB Blazers, representing Conference USA (C-USA) and the Hawaii Warriors, representing the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). Hawaii won the game, 59–40. This was the third Hawaii Bowl, and was sponsored by Sheraton Hotels and Resorts.
The 1996 UAB Blazers football team represented the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in the 1996 NCAA Division I-A football season, and was the sixth team fielded by the school. The Blazers' head coach was Watson Brown, who entered his second season as the UAB's head coach. They played their home games at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama and competed as a Division I-A Independent. The Blazers would finish their inaugural season at the I-A level with a record of five wins and six losses (5–6).
The Battle for the Bones is a sports rivalry between the University of Alabama at Birmingham Blazers and the University of Memphis Tigers. The two NCAA Division I schools compete in various sports, with men's basketball and college football in particular being prominent.
Bill Bradford Clark is a retired American football coach. He was the head football coach at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He held the position from 2014 season until June 24, 2022, when he retired because of health issues related to his back.
The 2014 UAB Blazers football team represented the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in the 2014 NCAA Division I FBS football season as a member of the East Division of Conference USA (C-USA). They were led by first year head coach Bill Clark and played their home games at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama.
Tyson Helton is an American football coach and former quarterback, who is the current head coach of the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. He played college football at Houston from 1996 to 1999. He previously served as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Tennessee (2018), quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator at USC (2016–2017), offensive coordinator at Western Kentucky (2014–2015), and as an assistant at Cincinnati, UAB, Memphis, and Hawaii.
The 2020 UAB Blazers football team represented the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the 2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Blazers played their final home games at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama, and competed in the West Division of Conference USA (C-USA). They were led by fifth-year head coach Bill Clark.
The 2020–21 UAB Blazers basketball team represented the University of Alabama at Birmingham during the 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Blazers, led by first-year head coach Andy Kennedy, played their home games at the Bartow Arena as members of Conference USA.
The 2020–21 UAB Blazers women's basketball team represented the University of Alabama at Birmingham during the 2020–21 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The team was led by eighth-year head coach Randy Norton, and played their home games at the Bartow Arena in Birmingham, Alabama as a member of Conference USA.
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