CSNbbs

get the answer before monday at noon. Name the individual who was a player (and also acted as coach) of the first NCAA sanctioned sports team at UAB. This person is also the oldest living athletic alumnus of UAB.

Red Farmer



Let me think on that one a while........

nope. Ill sign out soon and wont be back online till Monday. Just post your guesses and argue amonst yourselves. Ill reward the first correct answer with a Full Montie BBQ, and will post the answer Monday at lunchtime.

I'll bet he (or she Dawg) played tennis in the very early days of UAB

or

Went to the Medical School in the 30's

Dr. Charles P Grant?

As the official Blazertalk Historian, let me give my expert answer....






























I don't have a freaking clue. :wave:

I would guess soccer and I cannnot think of the last name of the guy I am thinking about but his first name was Bob but for the life of me I can't remeber his last name. OK I think his last name was Norman.
I'm guessing Bob Norman because I would guess, that going by the seasons, soccer would have been the first sport and I think Bob Norman was the first coach.

I was going to UAB athletic events in the early 70's when they had club teams sponsored by the PE Dept. I saw Coach Gino play baseball at Fair Park and on the current basbefield site where home plate was in the current right field, I saw UAB basketball in the Bell Gym and they actually had a gymnastics team as well.

Interesting guesses so far, but no cigar, folks. BTW, Giangrosso was on our first baseball team, according to the 'legend' Im thinking of.
The time period is similar to that for "G", not some time before UAB existed as an undergrad school ( in reply to CPt Terror's thoughts).

BlazrDawg Wrote:Interesting guesses so far, but no cigar, folks. BTW, Giangrosso was on our first baseball team, according to the 'legend' Im thinking of.

Giangrosso was on a club team that played for UAB in the early to mid 1970's, but not on our first NCAA sanctioned team, which started with our whole intercollegiate athletic program in 1978-79.

Knute Rockne?

Tick Tock ,TIck Tock. The countdown has begun

Herman Bremer, member and first coach of the UAB golf team.
He is a great UAB fan ( particularly of the football team ) and still plays a mean round of golf ( comes close to shooting his age more times than not ).

Sorry, I mispelled my friend's name. He is Herman Brehmer. Their first year, 1970, was when Dr James Sharman, UAB AD, announced the receipt of a telegram from the NCAA that UAB was sanctioned at their spring meeting in Washington DC.
The UAB golf team's first opponent was Tulaneand the match occurred at the Lakewood CC in New Orleans. THe other members of the team were Jack Echols JR, Jim Wright and Larry Hibbler. Other teams that they played the first year were LSU- New Orleans, Auburn, UT Chattanooga, Montevallo, and Florence State.

BlazerDawg, I think I can comment on this one. James Sharman happens to be my father (he passed away in '97). He was the AD at Samford during the 50's and 60's (hired Bobby Bowden) but came to UAB in 68 to start the PE Department. Although he functioned as the de facto AD for a short time he never actually had that title here. The PE Dept did sponsor athletic teams during the 70's but they were never actually affiliated with NCAA but only club teams who did play NCAA teams. There may have been a telegram from the NCAA authorizing NCAA teams to play UAB, but UAB was never a full member of the NCAA until Coach Bartow arrived.

As bftb said, Gino was on a club team not an NCAA team.

Don, I was quoting from a newspaper ?? article that Herman Brehmer sent me. Heres the report, verbatim.
Headline- Dr Sharman announces NCAA accepts UAB as member.

The university of Alabama in Birminghan is now a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Dr James Sharman, UAB's athletic director, announced today that the school had received by telegram approval of its application from the NCAA in anual convention in Washington. "We'll get off the ground this spring with some golf and possibly some baseball," Dr Sharman Added. "Herb Brymer, who was at Jefferson State last year is working with our golfers; and we have one match each with Tulane and Lousiana State at Neworleans plus more with Florence.
"We have some boys who are interested in baseball and we may get into that on a limited scale this spring."
In the meantine, Dr Sharman says, UAB is "hunting places and officials" for an intra-mural program which includes 14 basketball teams and 10-12 in volleyball.

BlazerDawg, there was always some level of contention when we began athletics at UAB in 1978-79 (actually 1977 when Bartow first came, though we didn't compete until the next school year) over whether the "program" that had been around in the early 1970's was really officially intercollegiate athletics. But really there was never really a question.

You can look at all the NCAA records, etc., and the first time that UAB shows up on the scene was the fall of 1978.

Here's one excerpt from UABsports.com that gives a little insight (from Coach Gino's bio):

Giangrosso played baseball at UAB from 1973-74, on teams that were sponsored by the physical education department (prior to the school's entry into NCAA intercollegiate athletics with the 1978-79 school year). He was selected as the team's MVP in `74 and given the squad's Most Dedicated Award in `73.

Here's the link: <a href='http://uabsports.collegesports.com/sports/m-basebl/mtt/giangrosso_larry00.html' target='_blank'>Coach Gino bio</a>