Brian Mackin understands the history of UAB athletics, and it shows in his office furnishings. Mackin was named the school’s fourth full-time athletics director (AD) on February 14, and he brings strong green-and-gold credentials to the job. Just how strong is his Blazer spirit? Consider one of his first moves when he joined the athletic department in 2002.

Mackin learned that Gene Bartow’s old desk and credenza were still on campus, locked away in storage, and “I said I wanted them,” he recalls. For the new arrival, these pieces were not dusty relics but a direct link to the man who started the university’s athletics program from scratch in 1977. When it arrived, the desk offered yet another Bartow connection. “There was even a whistle of his still in the drawer,” Mackin says. “That desk will stay with me.”

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Mackin is more than a fan; he has already contributed his fair share to UAB sports history. He came to the university in 1979 out of Mountain Brook High School, starting out as a shortstop on Coach Harry Walker’s second Blazer baseball team. Mackin shifted to first base and became a solid line-drive hitter and sure-handed fielder. His .385 batting average and 17 doubles in 1983 remain among the top 10 UAB individual performances in those categories.

After graduating with a degree in finance from the School of Business and playing one season of pro baseball in the Houston Astros organization, Mackin joined Vulcan Materials, where he held management positions in sales and market analysis. He became sales manager at Southern Ready Mix in 1990 and joined Dunn Construction in 1993, rising to vice president in 1999. Mackin remained a devoted Blazer fan, and when the opportunity came to join the athletic department in 2002 as senior associate AD, he jumped at the chance to put his skills in fund-raising, corporate support, and marketing to work for UAB.

Mackin’s promotion to the AD role was a historic moment for a program that began competition in 1978. Bartow, UAB’s first AD, was also the head men’s basketball coach. Herman Frazier, his successor, also had significant responsibilities with the United States Olympic Committee. Watson Brown, the school’s third AD, doubled as head football coach, and Richard Margison, who preceded Mackin on an interim basis, was also UAB’s vice president of financial affairs and administration. In contrast to his predecessors, Mackin will give his full attention to the AD job.

UAB Magazine: What have your first few months on the job been like?
Brian Mackin: In the first 100 days or so, I set out to focus on our organization—the athletics staff, coaches, and internal operations of the department. I met with every coach and every staff member and let them talk to me about what we do well and what we could do better.

The most exciting thing we did was put together an academic reform group, made up of senior leaders in the department. We looked at initial eligibility, continuing eligibility, and academic support. And we took a very hard look at the APR [academic progress rate] for each of our programs.

UAB: How does your work in athletics differ from your jobs in the business world?
BM: When it boils down to it, the key to both types of jobs is dealing with people. The big difference is that there is so much passion in athletics, and that heightens certain decisions. When you make a decision in business, it will affect your job, or your boss, or your customer, but usually it’s pretty much contained. When you make a decision in athletics—whether it has to do with a coach, raising season-ticket prices, or raising donation levels—it affects a lot of people. The passion in athletics brings a whole new element to this job.

UAB: How did your experience as a student-athlete at UAB shape you?
BM: I came here to be part of starting a program. I thought it would be a challenge and would be an opportunity to play at a Division I school quickly, and my experience with Coach Walker helped give me the chance to play professional baseball.

Coming to UAB gave me the opportunity to be at a young university and make a difference, not only on the athletics side but also in academics and in student life. I roomed with Jeff Young, one of my teammates at both UAB and Mountain Brook, and we were among the first residents in Rast Hall. I helped start Theta Chi fraternity and was involved with student government. It was exciting because everything was so new, and you could see students begin to rally around athletics.

UAB: What memories stand out from your UAB playing career?
BM: A big highlight came during my sophomore year when Coach Walker brought the St. Louis Cardinals here to play us at Rickwood Field. I think they beat us 7-2, and we faced Lary Sorensen, Jim Kaat, and Bruce Sutter. I’ve been a Cardinals fan all my life, so playing them was a dream come true.

UAB: All of UAB’s previous athletic directors had other duties. What does it mean for you to devote all of your attention to Blazer athletics?
BM: I like to say that I am the first full-time UAB athletic director. I think our staff and coaches are excited to know that someone is waking up every day focusing totally on making UAB athletics better. I’m very thankful that we had Coach Bartow, Watson Brown, Herman Frazier, and Richard Margison before me. It’s unbelievable what they achieved, given that they had other responsibilities. I want to take all of the positives they brought to the university and grow it from there.

UAB: What does athletics mean to a metropolitan university such as UAB?
BM: I have seen UAB develop from the beginning of its athletics program, and I know what athletics has done for the school. We are a small piece of the whole university, but the exposure we give to the university is tremendous. And it plays a vital role in alumni support and giving.

UAB: The university’s facilities clearly are sub-par for a Division I-A program. What are your plans in this area?
BM: We are committed to getting all of our teams to play and practice on campus. When I was a student here, we practiced and played at Rickwood Field and the basketball team practiced at Bell Gym and played at the Civic Center. We’ve been fragmented, and we’ve had to use off-campus facilities to grow our programs. But our plan is to enhance our facilities on campus.

Right now we have several projects about to begin construction or out to bid. We finished renovating our track in the summer. We will start construction on our academic center this fall, and we will start on our weight and training facility, with both of those components due to be completed by April 2008.

Those projects represent everything that the student-athlete touches—academics, strength and conditioning, and athletic training.

UAB: What comes after that?
BM: We will address our softball and tennis programs, building the facilities they need on campus. Then we will look to the new football facility, which will house locker rooms, meeting rooms, and coaches’ offices. That will be built where we currently have a parking lot, behind the Ullman Building off 6th Avenue South.

The next step will be to renovate Young Memorial Field for baseball and West Campus Field for soccer.

UAB: Blazer football is heading into a new era, with the departure of Watson Brown last spring and the hiring of former Georgia, Alabama, and Auburn assistant Neil Callaway. What do you see in the future for UAB football?
BM: Neil Callaway is a perfect fit as our head football coach. He brings in a tough, disciplined approach to both academics and athletics. He’s earned the respect of our student-athletes, and I think he has put together a fantastic, experienced coaching staff. In recruiting alone, his ties to Alabama, Auburn, and Georgia should be very important to us. Those schools represent the region where we’ve been most successful in recruiting in the past. Neil also brings a winning attitude with him. He’s won everywhere he’s been, from playing for Coach Bryant at Alabama to coaching under Pat Dye at Auburn and Mark Richt at Georgia. I think that kind of experience wears off.

Coach Callaway is ready to take us to another level as we build new facilities and take a hard-nosed approach to academics and athletics.

UAB: Where do you see UAB football playing in the future?
BM: We’ve watched the Birmingham dome project from afar, and until there is a commitment and a definite direction on that, we will wait and see. What’s good for Birmingham is good for UAB, and, we hope, vice versa. It’s just very uncertain what will happen with the dome.

Legion Field has been a great partner for us and provided the arena that has allowed us to compete on the Division I level. That’s where we see ourselves over the next five years, for sure.

UAB: Mike Davis’s first men’s basketball team finished with a losing record, but his first full recruiting class was ranked ninth in the country by one analyst. What do you see ahead for Blazer basketball?
BM: Basketball is the sport that put us on the map; that’s the program we’ve always been known for. I was on the search committee when we hired Mike Davis, and I thought it was very important that we bring in somebody who could keep us in the national spotlight, who could recruit and also be very serious about the academic side—someone who wanted to be at UAB. We wanted someone who could take a very respected program to the next level and be here for the long term. Mike was successful at Indiana, so he’s proven he can coach. And on the academic side, he graduated 15 of the 16 players he brought into the Indiana program. He’s from Alabama, and he wanted to come back, and he brings great expectations with him.

UAB: What about UAB’s Olympic sports, those other than football and men’s basketball?
BM: Those programs are winning right now, without the facilities they need, and it’s so encouraging to see that. By building these new facilities, we think we will give our Olympic sports a chance to recruit and compete even better.

UAB: How has your business experience helped in your role as athletics director?
BM: I have a B.S. in finance, so I’m familiar with financial statements and balance sheets. My dad was in the banking business, so I’ve been exposed to the financial side all my life. That helps when it comes to running an athletic department that is an $18-million business. My approach to leadership of the department is that this is a business and we need to run it like one. I was exposed to selling and customer relationships in the business world, and it’s no different in athletics with the relationships we have with fans, donors, faculty, staff, students, and alumni.

UAB: What are the key challenges facing UAB athletics?
BM: When you look at ticket sales, fund-raising, and academics, we have established a base, even without the facilities we needed and limited academic support. We can take that base to new levels, realizing where we came from and appreciating the people who were behind building UAB Athletics to where it is today.