re: UAB Creates Athletic Foundation to Circumvent U of A Board of Trustees

quote:

---

After being blocked by the Board of Trustees in its quest to promote assistant coach Pat Sullivan, who became head coach at Samford, UAB turned to LSU offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher. UAB and Fisher agreed on basic contractual terms, with half of Fisher's annual UAB salary -- ballpark: $600,000 -- to be subsidized by private boosters.

UAB was going to get the coach it wanted, a coach whose rumored arrival already was waking up the comatose UAB football program -- yet would have been on the hook for less salary than ex-coach Watson Brown, who made $375,000. It was perfect.

Little Bear's Board of Trustees said no. You want to know why? So do I, but Little Bear wouldn't return my messages. So here's the theory I'm working on, a theory based on conversations with multiple sources with a vested interest in UAB football:

Alabama also is in search of a football coach. The Crimson Tide has gone a month without one, raising the obvious possibility that its next coach has been selected but cannot be unveiled. Someone like, say, Miami Dolphins coach Nick Saban, whose NFL acumen is debatable but college resume (Michigan State, LSU) is beyond reproach.

When he was at LSU, Saban's offensive coordinator was Jimbo Fisher. If he's going to return to college football, his choice for offensive coordinator would likely be Fisher. By making Fisher its head coach, UAB would have stood in the way of that, making the Alabama job less attractive to Saban. Alabama can't afford that.

And who does UAB think it is, anyway? The Board of Trustees did the Blazers a favor in 1996 by letting them become a Division I-A football program, but magnanimity has its limits, and for Little Bear's Board, this was a line UAB was not going to cross.

Little Bear's board told UAB it would not approve the hiring of Jimbo Fisher.

---

quote:

---

What kind of man is capable of such a plot? Not sure. But here's the kind of man Little Bear is:

He made a fortune from dog tracks, including the notorious track at Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, which closed in 1995 after reports of monstrous dog abuse. He's a catfish kingpin whose farm processes 700,000 pounds per week. He's a Civil War buff who has been a ranking member of the controversial Sons of Confederate Veterans, which "is dedicated to the promotion of traditional Southern ideals ... to hold in perpetual remembrance all that was great and good."

Yeesh.

In 1989 Bryant was quoted in Esquire as describing the clientele at his Alabama dog track as "a low-class, low-income crowd ... generally your lower class of blacks, your welfare blacks, you want 'em to have enough room to get in and out, but at the same time you want to get as many in as possible."

In 2000 the Legislative Black Caucus seized on those comments to try to block his appointment to the Board of Trustees. Little Bear said Esquire invented the quotes. Little Bear got his way -- he got onto the Board of Trustees.

UAB has the football coach to show for it.

---

quote:

---

And who is Paul Bryant Jr?

---

quote:

---

Where else but the Rant can you have a thread about domes, UAB, Birmingham vs ATL vs Dallas, water wars, lifelong UA Boosters switching teams, and throw in a little Gene Bartow and basketball.

---

quote:

---

Oh, I wouldn't travel to Legion Field or to a new stadium on UAB campus in downtown B'ham either. Just wouldn't leave my pad in Mountainbrook to go watch the UAB Blazers play ball ~ no thanks

---

quote:

---

Well this was a good way to kill 40 minutes.

My family has been to several of the schools in the state. Sisters, cousin, brother-in-law all went to Alabama. My wife and I went to Troy. Dad and his sister went to UAB in the 70s, and then he went on to Med School at South Alabama.

I asked him why he supported Alabama instead of UAB, and he said it was simple. When he went there, the school was still fairly new, and he said everyone was an Alabama fan. He's even been to Troy games with me against UAB wearing Troy gear and cheering for Troy instead of where he has two degrees from.

It is just not an "athletics" based school. It is big on commuters and people who are adults going back to get their degree, or graduate/doctorate degrees. Another brother in law of mine finished up there a few years ago. I don't think he has even set foot in any of the athletics facilities.

---

quote:

---

Plus I got a big laugh that the Georgia water wars was brought up. Where else but the Rant can you have a thread about domes, UAB, Birmingham vs ATL vs Dallas, water wars, lifelong UA Boosters switching teams, and throw in a little Gene Bartow and basketball.

---