January 18, 2011

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center and UAB Men's Basketball are teaming up Jan. 22, 2011, for the second Bartow Classic, a fundraiser for the Coach Gene Bartow Fund for Cancer Research at the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center.

UAB is hosting Memphis and will tip off at 6 p.m. It will be televised nationally by ESPN 2. Tickets are $27 for lower level reserved seats and $22 for upper level reserved seats. They can be purchased online at UABSports.com or by calling 205-975-UAB1 (8221).

The game, sponsored by UAB Medicine, recognizes former UAB Men's Basketball Coach and Athletics Director Gene Bartow for his decades of commitment to UAB and intercollegiate sports. It also is designed to raise awareness of the importance of supporting cancer research and patient programs at UAB. Bartow, who retired from collegiate coaching in 1996, is undergoing treatment at the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center for stomach cancer. He will attend the game.

UAB Athletics will donate $2 for every ticket sold (excluding season tickets) to the Coach Gene Bartow Fund for Cancer Research. Bartow has been battling cancer since April 2009, and the fund was established in his honor at the first Bartow Classic in December 2009.

Bartow is considered by many as the "founding father" of UAB athletics. As the UAB Director of Athletics from 1977 until his retirement in 2000, Bartow developed an intercollegiate sports program there from its infancy into one that featured 17 sports. He helmed the UAB Men's Basketball program for 18 seasons, 1978 to 1996, compiling a record of 366-203 (.643). He led the Blazers to the NIT in the program's second year of existence and followed that up with seven straight NCAA Tournament appearances, including trips to the Sweet 16 in 1981 and the Elite Eight in 1982. In all, he led UAB to 14 postseason appearances, 10 of which were NCAA Tournaments. In 1997, UAB renamed its basketball venue, Bartow Arena, in his honor.

Bartow, who still ranks in the top 20 among winningest NCAA Division I basketball coaches and was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in November 2009, also has significant ties to the Memphis program. He coached the Tigers from 1970-74 and led then-Memphis State to three consecutive postseason appearances, including a berth in the 1973 NCAA Final Four. A 1989 Alabama Sports Hall of Fame inductee, Bartow was voted as one of the top 10 most influential figures in Alabama sports for the past century by The Birmingham News. He is the president of the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies.

About the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center
The UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center is among the 40 cancer centers in the nation to meet the stringent criteria for the National Cancer Institute's comprehensive designation. The center is a leader in groundbreaking research, reducing cancer disparities and leading-edge patient care.

About UAB

Known for its innovative and interdisciplinary approach to education at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is the state of Alabama's largest employer and an internationally renowned research university and academic health center; its professional schools and specialty patient-care programs are consistently ranked among the nation's top 50. Find more information at www.uab.edu and www.uabmedicine.org.