The school is one of the fourteen member institutions of the American Athletic Conference and participates in Division I of the NCAA.

The news that UAB would be starting a men's basketball team in the spring of 1978 had everyone in school and in the town excited.

A member of the American Athletic Conference, UAB sponsors teams in six men's and eleven women's NCAA sanctioned sports.

UAB's president announced on December 2, 2014, that the school's football, bowling, and rifle teams would be terminated for economic reasons.

However, the school announced on June 1, 2015, that pledges of additional revenue had been made, allowing the terminated programs to be reinstated.

"[9] The UAB Blazers, in effect, started their entire athletics program with the creation of a men's basketball team in 1978.

Setting the standards high from the start, UAB hired former UCLA, University of Illinois and Memphis head coach Gene Bartow.

[citation needed] The UAB men's basketball team has been ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll many times in school history and as recently as 2010.

Though largely overshadowed by the men's basketball program at UAB, the Blazers women have a strong history in their own right.

No team in Conference USA has advanced further than the Blazers' Sweet Sixteen appearance in the NCAA tournament of the 1999–2000 season.

He held the post for two years before leaving to accept the offensive coordinator job at the University of Louisville, replaced by Bill Clark.

In 2011, an effort to build an on-campus stadium failed to gain approval by the University of Alabama board of trustees; this served as a harbinger of the program's eventual termination following the 2014 season.

In 2018 the Blazers overachieved, completing their best season to date by finishing the year with a school record of 11–3 and a dominating win (37–13) over Northern Illinois in the 2018 Boca Raton Bowl.

The men's team plays their home games at UAB's West Campus Field.

The highest attended home soccer game in UAB history came in 2011 when 3,141 fans saw the Blazers defeat Clemson 2–1.

Although many traditions, cheers, and chants take place at each home game, there is one that "stands above the rest," according to current head coach Mike Getman.

Led by alumni super-fan Andrew Robillard, who has not missed a UAB men's home soccer match in 22 seasons, the whole student section sings "God Bless America" in unity.

The UAB women's soccer team has won the Conference USA Championship 3 times in ten years, including the most recent in 2006.

[13] The UAB men's tennis team has produced numerous player who have gone on to the ATP World Tour.

[15] Over the program's history, UAB has made 7 appearances in the NCAA Men's Golf Championship tournament including 6 times in the last 10 years.

The stadium was built after parents of softball players filed a Title IX complaint against the university.

UAB lost to #2 overall seed Florida Gators in the Super Regionals 4–3 and 1–0 to barely miss advancing to the College Softball World Series.

When both teams were members of Conference-USA, the UAB–Memphis football rivalry was called the Battle for the Bones (sometimes known as "The BBQ Bowl") and included both professional and amateur barbecue contests as part of the pregame festivities.

Former mascots included a strange cartoonish Nordic warrior named Blaze the Viking in 1993 and a rooster named Beauregard T. Rooster, which remained the school's mascot until 1992 when Coach Gene Bartow thought it would be a good time to change as UAB joined the Great Midwest Conference and a pink unnamed furry dragon in 1978.