Sounds like changing the President won't resolve the root issue there. Somebody else is obviously calling the shots.
You need a name change!
UAB Forum
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Sounds like changing the President won't resolve the root issue there. Somebody else is obviously calling the shots.
You need a name change!
We need out from the system, but that takes a state constitution amendment and a statewide vote where 80% of the state votes Crimson Tide. We're trying to force changes in how the board of trustees is structured, but that happens in the statehouse too. Most of the legislature graduated from UA Law.
It's an uphill slog.
It's an uphill slog.
How much of losing your football program was a consolidation of football in one state program lest you draw any state attention away from the cult in Tuscaloosa?
Sounds like it. UA also have the J-school?
Form a coalition with Auburn-leaning constituents?
BandDad, Thx for posting and enlightening us about UAB I had heard about the football problem, I had no idea about the rest of it. ISU had been down played by our BOR for a long time, but times are changing. Hope things do for UAB also. It's fun to meet posters from other boards who come to visit and are civil.
Our best guys could barely get a walk on as a practice player at Bama. We had a couple that transferred out to big schools, most notably Jordan Howard, who will be running behind Indiana's line next season.
There's a little of that, in that the BoT basically sees any donation, ticket sold, t-shirt sold, as dollars robbed from their pocket. Nevermind that our people would only want a bammer shirt to wax the car with. Mostly it's that Paul Bryant, Jr., Bear Bryant's son, hates UAB and has systematically screwed us for the last ten to twelve years.
That sounds like paranoia, but the story goes a long way back. Bryant is a vindictive SOB and has a long memory. Gene Bartow started our athletic program. UAT would never have allowed that had they ever dreamed we'd play D1 football, but it was "just basketball" so it went forward. Bartow lost out on several dirty recruiting incidents, and Clean Gene didn't like that much. When we were after Buck Johnson and Ennis Whatley and had them verbally committed, they were the linchpin of that class. Charles Barkley was nibbling at signing to play with them. On signing day, reporters were at Johnson's house and asked him where he would go. He said "UAB", and his mama slapped him on the back of the head and said "Oh hell no you're not, I'm not giving back my refrigerator, you're going to Alabama." This was the story that made Paul Finebaum's career as he was a new writer at the Birmingham Post-Herald at the time. Bartow got angry enough to write a letter to the NCAA and call them on it. In the letter he said that Bear Bryant had fostered a pattern of cheating at Alabama, and all you had to do to prove it was to look at what his assistants had done as head coaches, getting their teams on probation. Bartow pointed to Danny Ford, Charlie Pell, Pat Dye, Jackie Sherrill and others.
http://articles.latimes.com/1993-08-04/sports/sp-20220_1_sam-gilbert (The money quotes are on page two, but read the whole thing for flavor)
The letter got out, and all hell broke loose. Little Bear never forgot and has taken it out on us ever since. It was not a coincidence that our football was shut down just before he retired from the BoT due to age. Here, here's an example, one of many...
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/9891201
http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/5881996/33094119
Anyhow, it's a long and convoluted story, but we have been systematically cockblocked by the Board of Trustees. There are 15 of them. 13 went to UAT. One has an MD from UAB - but graduated undergrad at UAT. One is a legit UAB grad and still holds track records there, but she is married to Bobby Humphrey, ex-Bama RB. It might be noted that Bobby works for Bryant Bank (yes, that Bryant), so she isn't going to say boo. UAH has no representation on the board whatsoever. Moreover, the new president pro tem of the BoT was the Chairman of Bryant Bank, and another board member's son manages a branch of that bank.
Starting to see how things work? Chicago has nothing on good ol' boy corruption.
It's a mess, and the people we're dealing with on that board are some of the richest and most influential men in the state. Moreover, the board is self-appointing. They decides who gets in, they decide who gets booted (for not doing what the hell they were told), and there is little to no oversight as they spend billions of dollars of state money, buying concrete and rebar from themselves or their business partners.
This is how bad it is - the state governor is titular president of the board. There was a conference of nursing students in Montgomery from schools around the state and he addressed them. He was asking who was from where, and asked about the students in green and was told they were from UAB. "Do you still have football there?" he asked by way of a joke. He was promptly told that he wasn't funny and that they didn't drive all the way there to be insulted.
That's why we fight.
It might be added that in his first campaign for governor, Paul Bryant, Jr was his campaign manager. Bentley's biggest claim to fame is that he was Bear Bryant's dermatologist. By state law, candidates cannot use titles when they run for office, so he changed his first name to "Doctor". His full name and title is now Dr. Doctor Robert Bentley. You can't make this stuff up.
So. You'll hear two cheers, mostly. "Fire Ray Watts" and "F-R-E-E-U-A-B". You'll spot us pretty easily, a lot of us will be in shirts that say #FREEUAB on the front.
Count your blessings, guys.
It's not just about football either. Students in physical therapy are out of student jobs. The band - how do you recruit for a marching band and the music department when there is no football? How do you have Homecoming?
Heh. Anyhow. That's why we're mad.
There's a little of that, in that the BoT basically sees any donation, ticket sold, t-shirt sold, as dollars robbed from their pocket. Nevermind that our people would only want a bammer shirt to wax the car with. Mostly it's that Paul Bryant, Jr., Bear Bryant's son, hates UAB and has systematically screwed us for the last ten to twelve years.
That sounds like paranoia, but the story goes a long way back. Bryant is a vindictive SOB and has a long memory. Gene Bartow started our athletic program. UAT would never have allowed that had they ever dreamed we'd play D1 football, but it was "just basketball" so it went forward. Bartow lost out on several dirty recruiting incidents, and Clean Gene didn't like that much. When we were after Buck Johnson and Ennis Whatley and had them verbally committed, they were the linchpin of that class. Charles Barkley was nibbling at signing to play with them. On signing day, reporters were at Johnson's house and asked him where he would go. He said "UAB", and his mama slapped him on the back of the head and said "Oh hell no you're not, I'm not giving back my refrigerator, you're going to Alabama." This was the story that made Paul Finebaum's career as he was a new writer at the Birmingham Post-Herald at the time. Bartow got angry enough to write a letter to the NCAA and call them on it. In the letter he said that Bear Bryant had fostered a pattern of cheating at Alabama, and all you had to do to prove it was to look at what his assistants had done as head coaches, getting their teams on probation. Bartow pointed to Danny Ford, Charlie Pell, Pat Dye, Jackie Sherrill and others.
http://articles.latimes.com/1993-08-04/sports/sp-20220_1_sam-gilbert (The money quotes are on page two, but read the whole thing for flavor)
The letter got out, and all hell broke loose. Little Bear never forgot and has taken it out on us ever since. It was not a coincidence that our football was shut down just before he retired from the BoT due to age. Here, here's an example, one of many...
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/9891201
http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/5881996/33094119
Anyhow, it's a long and convoluted story, but we have been systematically cockblocked by the Board of Trustees. There are 15 of them. 13 went to UAT. One has an MD from UAB - but graduated undergrad at UAT. One is a legit UAB grad and still holds track records there, but she is married to Bobby Humphrey, ex-Bama RB. It might be noted that Bobby works for Bryant Bank (yes, that Bryant), so she isn't going to say boo. UAH has no representation on the board whatsoever. Moreover, the new president pro tem of the BoT was the Chairman of Bryant Bank, and another board member's son manages a branch of that bank.
Starting to see how things work? Chicago has nothing on good ol' boy corruption.
It's a mess, and the people we're dealing with on that board are some of the richest and most influential men in the state. Moreover, the board is self-appointing. They decides who gets in, they decide who gets booted (for not doing what the hell they were told), and there is little to no oversight as they spend billions of dollars of state money, buying concrete and rebar from themselves or their business partners.
This is how bad it is - the state governor is titular president of the board. There was a conference of nursing students in Montgomery from schools around the state and he addressed them. He was asking who was from where, and asked about the students in green and was told they were from UAB. "Do you still have football there?" he asked by way of a joke. He was promptly told that he wasn't funny and that they didn't drive all the way there to be insulted.
That's why we fight.
It might be added that in his first campaign for governor, Paul Bryant, Jr was his campaign manager. Bentley's biggest claim to fame is that he was Bear Bryant's dermatologist. By state law, candidates cannot use titles when they run for office, so he changed his first name to "Doctor". His full name and title is now Dr. Doctor Robert Bentley. You can't make this stuff up.
So. You'll hear two cheers, mostly. "Fire Ray Watts" and "F-R-E-E-U-A-B". You'll spot us pretty easily, a lot of us will be in shirts that say #FREEUAB on the front.
Count your blessings, guys.
It's not just about football either. Students in physical therapy are out of student jobs. The band - how do you recruit for a marching band and the music department when there is no football? How do you have Homecoming?
Heh. Anyhow. That's why we're mad.
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I would be all for this if I was there on Thursday. It makes so much more sense than chanting "Free UAB" like some other guy said in his own thread. Your prez sounds like a Grade A ******.
You're slandering ******'s everywhere.
Yeah, we're reaching out to who we can for whatever support we can get, trying to get media scrutiny. Our frats and sororities are reaching out to their chapters there for instance.
That's another one. We barely have a greek system, had to fight for years to get it, and are not allowed space for houses on campus. I sat at the last BoT meeting as the board voted to fund two eight million dollar houses on campus at UA. The frats do pay, but the university floats bonds for it. These were replacing still good houses that were not as nice, and they want the campus to look nice.
Bama has approaching a billion dollars of such debt. UAB has construction debt, but has zero debt for facilities in the athletic department, and it has been zero for the last five years. Zero.
Mostly because we're not allowed to build what we want.
Yeah, we're reaching out to who we can for whatever support we can get, trying to get media scrutiny. Our frats and sororities are reaching out to their chapters there for instance.
That's another one. We barely have a greek system, had to fight for years to get it, and are not allowed space for houses on campus. I sat at the last BoT meeting as the board voted to fund two eight million dollar houses on campus at UA. The frats do pay, but the university floats bonds for it. These were replacing still good houses that were not as nice, and they want the campus to look nice.
Bama has approaching a billion dollars of such debt. UAB has construction debt, but has zero debt for facilities in the athletic department, and it has been zero for the last five years. Zero.
Mostly because we're not allowed to build what we want.
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I ******* LOVE FINEBAUM!!! Phyllis is to the T what you are talking about.
For those of you who have no idea who Phyllis is...here you go. Do yourself a favor and listen to all of them.
[video=youtube;6n6jxMKUluE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n6jxMKUluE[/video]
Pass. I get enough of that crap already.
Classic trailer park fan. Can find the campus and the stadium following the signs. Couldn't find the library if her life depended on it. Probably hasn't seen the inside of a library since she dropped out of the 11th grade, at that.
Classic trailer park fan. Can find the campus and the stadium following the signs. Couldn't find the library if her life depended on it. Probably hasn't seen the inside of a library since she dropped out of the 11th grade, at that.
Can't stand Finebaum. Way too many like Phyllis down there facilitating the Bryant Jr's of the world reign of corruption- and not just football.
Never been to Birmingham, but I was surprised when I read a bit about the University yesterday. Seems like an impressive school.
I had a hard time finding a restaurant in downtown B'ham. Didn't have much time and Yelp didn't help, wish I could have been closer to campus.
We've got a pretty good guide to the town up on our board, check it for next time. http://csnbbs.com/thread-45191.html
It depends on where you go, where you're staying. We have some world class restaurants here, Frank Stitt has several places here and is a Beard Award finalist almost every year and Chris Hastings at Hot and Hot Fish Club beat Bobby Flay on Iron Chef. If you stay in downtown proper or by the Civic Center the choices are limited.
If you got over to Southside by the campus, or Lakeview, there are tons of choices. Great brew pubs.
If you are any kind of gearhead, especially if you like motorcycles, the Barber Motorsports Museum will blow you away. If there's one thing in this town thats no kidding world class, it's that facility. Huge motorcycle collection, plus some cars including the largest Lotus collection outside of the factory. George Barber also built a track that is regularly used by the high end bike tours and the Indy cars run there. It's flat jawdropping. Everybody thinks Nascar and Talladega when you come down here, but Barber's track blows that away. The cars even turn two different directions! Imagine that!
http://www.barbermuseum.org/gallery.php
https://www.barbermotorsports.com/higpa-home.php
Alabama has the Robert Trent Jones golf trail, a dozen lovely courses across the state. Two of them are in B'ham.
It's a really liveable city. I guess I ought to warn you about the heat and humidity though - come down here in August or September and you'll find out.
It depends on where you go, where you're staying. We have some world class restaurants here, Frank Stitt has several places here and is a Beard Award finalist almost every year and Chris Hastings at Hot and Hot Fish Club beat Bobby Flay on Iron Chef. If you stay in downtown proper or by the Civic Center the choices are limited.
If you got over to Southside by the campus, or Lakeview, there are tons of choices. Great brew pubs.
If you are any kind of gearhead, especially if you like motorcycles, the Barber Motorsports Museum will blow you away. If there's one thing in this town thats no kidding world class, it's that facility. Huge motorcycle collection, plus some cars including the largest Lotus collection outside of the factory. George Barber also built a track that is regularly used by the high end bike tours and the Indy cars run there. It's flat jawdropping. Everybody thinks Nascar and Talladega when you come down here, but Barber's track blows that away. The cars even turn two different directions! Imagine that!
http://www.barbermuseum.org/gallery.php
https://www.barbermotorsports.com/higpa-home.php
Alabama has the Robert Trent Jones golf trail, a dozen lovely courses across the state. Two of them are in B'ham.
It's a really liveable city. I guess I ought to warn you about the heat and humidity though - come down here in August or September and you'll find out.
Between everything BandDad has posted about the U of 'Bama BoT and the whole Bobby Lowder good 'ol boys club over at Auburn...... that's just one messed up state for higher learning.
