This play opened on November 10, 1999 as the first UAB Department of Theatre production to be held in the new Sirote Theatre. The work had been adapted by Karma Ibsen to be set in the Antebellum South.

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Legion Field was a host site for soccer matches as part of the XXVI Olympic Games held in Atlanta, Georgia.  Over 431,200 people attended the eleven matches held in Birmingham.  The West Field on the UAB campus was used as a practice site, and UAB was the location for a reception honoring local volunteers.  This parade traveled down South 20th Street through the UAB campus.

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On January 25, 1997, the arena was formally rededicated as the Gene Bartow Arena, renamed in honor of UAB’s founding Athletic Director and first coach of the men’s basketball team. Coach Bartow made the first shot in the building when the UAB Arena had originally been dedicated on May 19, 1988.

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Basketball team celebrates courtside, circa 1991.

Jacque Nero (#35) and teammates celebrate courtside at a women's basketball game in the UAB Arena [now Bartow Arena].  Nero was a Blazer student-athlete from 1989 until 1992.  She became UAB's first-ever women's player to earn the honor of Conference Player of the Year (1991); she repeated in 1992 winning the same award.  She holds many records at UAB, ranking third all-time in points scored and fifth all-time in rebounds.  Nero was inducted into the UAB Athletics Hall of Fame in 2018.

March traditionally serves as the month for intercollegiate basketball tournaments, both within a conference and in the national NCAA tournament.  The UAB Women's Blazers have five regular-season conference championships and one conference tournament championship.  The Blazers have played in two NCAA tournaments and appeared in the Sweet Sixteen Round in 2000.

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Blaze examines the fairway, 1997

In the fall of 1995, UAB unveiled the logo for a new university mascot, a green dragon.  The costumed dragon debuted to the public on January 6, 1996, at a men's basketball game with student Wyndall Ivey as the first to wear the new costume. The UAB Blazers defeated the favored Tulane Green Wave 71-70 before a crowd of more than 6,000.  A campus-wide Name the Dragon contest was held following the debut, and in February the mascot received a name, Blaze.  The student who submitted the winning name received a free trip to New Orleans for the UAB basketball game at Tulane.

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The new UAB mascot was unveiled on October 18, 1995, and debuted to the public at a basketball game in Bartow Arena on January 6, 1996. The green dragon named Blaze is the university’s fourth mascot since 1978 when the athletic program was established. Student Wyndall Ivey was the first student to don the dragon costume.

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The university fielded a club team in 1989 but in the fall of 1991 UAB began play as an NCAA Division III team.  In the game played in Jackson, Mississippi, the Blazers lost to Millsaps College.

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Prior to the start of the 1998-1999 season, UAB announced that the season would be the final one for its long-running Town and Gown Theater program.  Six shows were produced as part of that final season:  The Glass Menagerie, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Red Hot & Cole, You Can’t Take it With You, and Cabaret.  The production of Cabaret closed on May 16, 1999, ending the 49-year run of Town and Gown Theater and ending the university’s use of the Clark building on Hatcher Place in Caldwell Park.  In 2000 the Metropolitan Arts Council acquired the old theater building and a renovated and newly renamed Virginia Samford Theatre was reopened in 2002.

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A marble statue of Christopher Columbus was unveiled on the terrace of the UAB Smolian International House as part of Birmingham’s Columbus Day celebration. The project was supported by the local chapter of the Knights of Columbus and by the Bruno family. UAB President Charles A. McCallum, Jr. (far right), Joseph S. Bruno (center), and other guests are shown with the work of sculptor Ugo Sordelli.

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Ground was broken for a major renovation and expansion of UAB's health sciences library in September 1994. The new addition was completed in 1996, the renovation was finished in 1997, and the "new" Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences was dedicated in ceremonies on May 2, 1997.

The Frank and Kathleen Ellis Ryals Building, a new home for the School of Public Health, was dedicated October 29, 1996. The Ryals was the first building constructed solely for use by the school. Previously other facilities around campus had been used by Public Health as space became available. Dr. Eli Capilouto was dean of the school from 1994 until 2001. He was Provost of UAB from 2002 until 2011.

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Dedication of the Henry B. Peters Building, 1994

At a dedication ceremony on October 19, 1994, the 19-year-old optometry building was renamed as the Henry B. Peters Building in honor of the school's founding dean.  Dr. Peters was recruited to UAB in 1969, and he established the first optometry school in the United States within an academic health center.  Dr. Peters stepped down as dean in 1986 and was named professor and dean emeritus.  He then served until 1988 as the first executive director of the UAB Research Foundation.

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Dr. Thomas Wdowiak, an astrophysicist at UAB, worked on several NASA research and exploration teams and helped design the Mars Rover vehicles.  Once the rovers were on the planet, Wdowiak “drove” them from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and from his home in Birmingham.  His NASA colleagues named a ridge on the western rim of the Endeavour crater on Mars as Wdowiak Ridge in his honor following his death in 2013.  Wdowiak was a member of the faculty of the Department of Physics from 1976 until his retirement in 2005.

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Dr. Horns-Marsh, professor of Education, carried the UAB Mace when it was first debuted at the June 4, 1989, commencement ceremony. Created by local sculptor Cordray Parker, the mace was commissioned by Justine and Samuel B. Barker. The Barkers were leading patrons of the local arts community, and Dr. Barker was the first dean of the UAB Graduate School.

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Dr. John D. Jones, vice president for Student Affairs, watches a member of the UAB community participating in the groundbreaking for a new international house. The Bertha and Joseph Smolian International House on 10^th Avenue South was formally dedicated on April 28, 1992. It was named in honor of long-time UAB benefactors; an earlier International House on 9^th Avenue South had also been named in honor of the Smolians.

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President Charles A. McCallum, Jr., speaks to the crowd assembled for the ceremony.  When opened in 1993 the building was named in honor of Alabama Representative Tom Bevill. Seated on the platform with Dr. McCallum are UAB officials (left to right) Drs. John R. Durant, Vice President for Health Affairs; Victor J. Matukas, Dean of Dentistry; and James A. Pittman, Jr., Dean of Medicine.

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Dr. Joan F. Lorden, dean of the Graduate School, hoods Stevie Wonder during UAB's commencement ceremony.  UAB awarded the honorary Doctor of Music degree to Stevie Wonder, the world-renowned singer, composer, and musician.  Wonder worked extensively over the years with long-time UAB faculty member Dr. Henry S. Panion, III, who served as chair of the UAB music department from 1994 until 2000.

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