The UAB football team competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision and plays it's home games at “Legion Field” stadium that has a seating capacity for 71,594 spectators. The official colors of the team are Forest Green, White and Golden. The program began its football season in the early 1990s unlike other colleges and universities who started off a long time back. The Blazers quickly moved up the ranks at a very fast pace after the commencement of their first NCAA sanctioned Division III football team in the year 1991.

Jim Hilyer was the first head coach of the team, coaching from the year 1991 till the year 1994. Later Watson Brown took over from him in the year 1995 but later left for “Tennesee Tech” in the year 2006.

Recently, former Alabama player and Georgia offensive coordinator Neil Calloway was named head coach on December 17, 2006.

Blaze is the official mascot of the University of Alabama at Birmingham's athletics teams. He is a fire-breathing European dragon.

In the year 2004, UAB earned their first bowl trip in school history to the Hawaii Bowl. Though a fairly young side but talented, UAB's football program continues to make big headways both in terms of the success on the field and crowd attendance.