Brian Mackin

“I came into this position with a business background in sales and management. With both types of jobs, when it boils down to it, the key is dealing with people. The big difference is that there is so much passion in athletics, and that heightens certain decisions, certain outcomes. 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.”

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Brian Mackin was named the fourth athletics director in UAB history on February 14, and no one can question his green-and-gold credentials. Mackin came to UAB in fall 1979 out of Mountain Brook High School, starting out as a shortstop on Coach Harry Walker’s second Blazer baseball team. He was 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. He went on to play one season in the Houston Astros organization.

On becoming a Blazer: “I came here to be part of starting a program. I thought it would be a challenge and 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 afforded me the opportunity to be at a young university and make a difference, not only on the athletics side but also on the academic side 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 SGA. It was exciting because everything was so new, and you could see students begin to rally around athletics.”

On his UAB playing career: “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. “We had pros come in every fall to work with Coach Walker on hitting. I remember meeting guys like Omar Moreno, Phil Garner, Mike O’Berry, Mookie Wilson, and Terry Puhl. We were exposed to a level of baseball that we never would have seen without Coach Walker.”

On the importance of athletics at UAB: “I have seen UAB 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 the university is tremendous. And it plays a vital role in alumni support and giving.”

Mackin was a devoted Blazer fan, and when the opportunity came to join the athletic department in 2002, he jumped at the chance. He became senior associate athletics director for external affairs, responsible for fund-raising, corporate support, and marketing.

Mackin’s appointment as athletics director was a historic moment for a program that was born in 1977 and began competition in 1978. Gene Bartow, UAB’s first AD, was also the school’s head men’s basketball coach. Watson Brown, the school’s third AD, was also head football coach. Herman Frazier, the second AD, also had significant responsibilities with the United States Olympics Committee. Mackin will give his full attention to the AD job.

On his approach to the AD position: “I like to say that I am the first full-time UAB athletics director, who has not had shared responsibilities. I think our staff and coaches are excited in knowing that I wake up every day thinking about ways to make UAB Athletics better and better. “I’m very thankful that we had Coach Bartow, Watson Brown, and Herman Frazier 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.”

On his first four months in the job: “In the first 100 days or so, I set out to focus on organization—the athletics staff, coaches, the internal operations of the department. We took a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) approach. 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. “We then focused on our organizational chart, trying to streamline job responsibilities so that we are all moving in the same direction and we are able to make decisions quickly. “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. We will develop a five-year plan that we will present to Dr. Garrison in August. We are very serious about it, and we want all of our programs to meet the minimum APR standard that is mandated by the NCAA.”

On the value of business experience in his new role: “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 finance all my life—which helps when it comes to running an athletic department that's an $18-million business. My approach to leading 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.”

On boosting UAB’s facilities for athletics: “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 either in construction or out to bid. We are renovating our track, and that will be ready in mid-July. We will start construction on our academic center in August, and then 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. “After that in our facilities plan, we will address our softball and tennis programs, building the facilities they need on campus. Then we will look at the new football facility for locker rooms, meeting rooms, and coaches’ offices. We would also like to put the athletic department staff in that facility, so they will all be together. 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.”

On UAB football: “I think our football program has a tremendous upside. 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 Jim Hilyer started football here as a club program and helped us get to the Division I-AA level. Watson Brown took us to the Division I-A level and made us competitive in a whole different arena. We are very proud of what those coaches and players did, and the sacrifices they made, to get us to where we are. We don’t want to lose sight of that. “Now I think Coach Callaway is ready to take it to another level as we build new facilities and take a hard-nosed approach to academics and athletics.”

On Blazer basketball: “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 academics, 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.”

On UAB’s Olympic sports: “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. We want to make sure that we get the message out that our Olympic sports have done a fantastic job with very little in the way of facilities.”

On paying tribute to the father of UAB Athletics: “When I heard Coach Bartow’s desk and credenza were in the warehouse, I said I wanted them. There even was a whistle of his in the desk from when he left it. The desk had a black covering on it, and Don Hire of Armstrong Relocation helped me get it recovered in green. That desk will stay with me.”

On the challenges ahead: “When you look at ticket sales, fund-raising, 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. “It’s unbelievable what our coaches, student/athletes, and staff have accomplished with what they’ve been given. It’s really a great untold story.”