Hospital staff enjoy the spring weather by having a picnic outside of the New Hillman building, circa 1993.

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UAB sponsored the inaugural Into the Streets volunteer event day on Saturday, April 10, 1999.  Over 300 students participated in a wide variety of sponsored events, such as planting flowers and trees, painting houses, and picking up litter around the city and along the Cahaba River.  Dr. Virginia Gauld, Vice President for Student Affairs (far left), joined students from UAB Greek organizations as they spent time doing some urban farming.

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The expanded and renovated Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences was rededicated in formal ceremonies on May 2, 1997. The original three-story building was opened in 1971 and had been named in honor of Lister Hill, Alabama's long-time member of Congress.

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The Blizzard of 1993, the so-called “Storm of the Century,” impacted 26 states and much of eastern Canada, bringing record snowfall across North America.  Over the weekend of March 12-13 Birmingham received 13 inches of snow but some locations in the metropolitan area received up to 17 inches. This was a record for a single snowfall and was more than ever received during an entire winter season. All activities at UAB except for essential hospital services were cancelled and many staff remained at their jobs for days.

Image: Progress Notes yearbook

Radio host Michael Feldman (right) interviews Alabama author, journalist, and storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham as part of the weekly radio broadcast of "Whad'Ya Know?"  The syndicated National Public Radio program was broadcast live on Saturday, November 2, 1996, from the stage of the concert hall at UAB's new Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center, which had just opened in September.  "Whad'Ya Know?" was a long-time staple of the broadcast schedule for UAB's WBHM 90.3 FM Public Radio Station.

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Olympic flame travels through the UAB campus, 1996

Gordon Richmond, an administrative associate in the Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, carries the Olympic Torch as part of the Olympic Torch Relay.  Richmond, who was also a graduate student in the School of Public Health, was one of eight UAB community members who carried the torch as it made its way through Birmingham and on to Atlanta, Georgia.  The night-time route took the relay team through the UAB campus, south down 14th Street beside the UAB Arena to 11th Avenue and through Five Points, and north on 20th Street past the UAB Administration Building and University Hospital.  The City of Birmingham hosted soccer matches in July 1996 at Legion Field as part of the XXVI Summer Olympic Games held in Atlanta, and UAB’s West Field served as the practice field for several national soccer teams, including the US men’s team.

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Trash Gordon, the new mascot of the UAB Recycling Program, was introduced that month and appeared at events on campus and around the metropolitan area. The program also introduced a new theme: "We're litter free at UAB: reduce it, redo it, recycle."

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The UAB License Plate debuted in April 1991 as part of the state’s collegiate license plate program.  The program supported the UAB National Alumni Society and raised funds for student scholarships.  The new tag, which was introduced in 1996, was the second tag layout and featured UAB’s new mascot, Blaze the Dragon.  Dr. J. Claude Bennett served as the fourth president of UAB from 1993 until 1996.  Prior to being named as president, Bennett had been the chair of the university’s Department of Microbiology and chair of the Department of Medicine.

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The University Hospital Maintenance Department began collecting for the Christmas Toy Fund in 1981 to ensure that hospitalized patients received gifts during the holiday.

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Student orientation, August 1997 

New UAB students receive information packets at the university's student orientation, held in the Hill University Center in August 1997.  The freshman class in 1997 totaled 2,220 students.  Total UAB enrollment for the fall term was 15,850 students at the undergraduate level through the advanced professional schools.

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The office of Student Affairs has long hosted an annual event each fall term to welcome new incoming students to the UAB campus.  These events provide information on the various student groups and campus organizations, offer live entertainment, and often feature free food for attendees.  Formerly held in the UAB Mini Park, more recent fall events have been held on the UAB Campus Green.  The 2022 event, Connect Fest, was held on the Green on Sunday, August 21.

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UAB first observed Martin Luther King, Jr., Day as a university holiday in January 1993.  But the university had held or participated in various commemorative events in prior years.  In 1991 UAB students participated in a wreath-laying ceremony in front of the statue of Rev. King located in the city's Kelly Ingram Park; the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church is in the right background.  This ceremony was one of several UAB events held that year to mark King Day.

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At a basketball game on January 9, 1993, UAB unveiled a new mascot, the Blazer.  The mascot scared children at the basketball games, and many segments of the university community objected to the sword carrying militant Viking-like warrior.  The Blazer was withdrawn before the start of the fall football season.  It would be two years before a new mascot, Blaze the Dragon, would be unveiled.

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In 1990 ground was broken for a new outpatient clinic for The University of Alabama Health Services Foundation.  Designed by renowned architect I.M. Pei, the facility was named in honor of Dr. John W. Kirklin, former chair of the UAB Department of Surgery and former president of the foundation.  The Kirklin Clinic was dedicated on June 5, 1992.

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Aboard Columbia was Dr. Lawrence “Larry” DeLucas, a member of the UAB faculty and a UAB alumnus.  The university’s first astronaut and the first optometrist in space, Dr. DeLucas was a payload specialist aboard NASA space mission STS-50. Columbia and crew returned to earth on July ninth. This image is an official NASA photograph.

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Some UAB students, who were leaving campus for the summer, made known their travel plans by decorating Hippocrates for a beach holiday. The 5,000-pound marble sculpture by Greek artist Kostas Georgakas commemorated the Greek father of western medicine. The piece was presented to UAB in 1971 by Sam and Agatha Nakos, local Birmingham business owners, and originally stood in the courtyard in front of the Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences. In 1996 the sculpture was moved into the ground-floor lobby of the newly expanded library building.

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Following a debut during an away game, the marching band performed at home for the first time at Legion Field on September 17, 1994, with music professor Clifford Winter (second from right) as band director and student Brian Wilson as the first drum major. UAB had hosted a pep band for basketball games since the late 1970s, but a new NCAA-level football team needed a marching band to perform during half-time shows.

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Formally established in November of 1992 by President Charles A. McCallum, Jr., the UAB Archives is a campus-wide repository charged with maintaining UAB's records of historical value and with collecting the history of the health sciences. Previous attempts to collect historical material by the Department of Medicine and by the Jefferson County Medical Society helped in the development of the new campus repository. The archives was initially housed in the ETS area (pictured here) of the Mervyn H. Sterne Library. In 1998 the UAB Archives became a unit of the Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences.

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First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton invited college students from around the country to create ornaments depicting the “Twelve Days of Christmas,” the chosen theme for the holiday season. Ornaments submitted by the UAB students were displayed on a 19-foot tree in the Blue Room. The UAB students were given a private tour of the White House as thanks for their contributions.

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