Samford Bulldogs
Encyclopedia
Samford University
fields 17 varsity teams (8 men's and 9 women's). The Bulldogs have done well in recent years in both football and men's basketball, participating in the 1999
and 2000 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
. The women's basketball team made its initial NCAA tournament appearance in the 2011 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament
. The school is a member of the Southern Conference
in Division I of the NCAA (FCS in football), after moving from the Ohio Valley Conference
in 2008. The Samford Athletics staff is headed by athletic director Martin Newton, whose appointment was announced on March 9, 2011.
Even when it was Howard College, the school's colors were Red
and Blue
. Today, the red tends to be a bright color and the blue is usually depicted as a darker, navy blue. Both colors are primary (though, as the name of the student fan club, The Red Sea, and the name of the student newspaper, The Crimson, show that many Samford students lean toward red).
In addition, there is something of an intracity rivalry between Samford and Birmingham-Southern College
, located across town. This is particularly the case in baseball and basketball. Alabama's premier private institutions of higher learning battle for state-wide bragging rights.
Samford also contends against SEC powerhouses and fellow Alabama institutions Alabama
and Auburn
in some sports—and often fares well. For example, in 2006 the Samford baseball team defeated Auburn in the annual game at the Hoover Met
and in 2010 the Samford basketball team defeated Auburn for the third time. Samford's baseball team also defeated #21 Alabama in 2011.
Tennis
Bowling
Dodgeball Tournament
Ultimate Frisbee
Ultimate Frisbee Home Web Page
Volleyball
Kickball Tournament
3v3 Basketball Tourney
Bowling
Ultimate Frisbee
Ultimate Frisbee Home Web Page
Soccer
Dodgeball
4v4 Volleyball
Softball
Samford University
Samford University, founded as Howard College is a private, coeducational, Alabama Baptist Convention-affiliated university located in Homewood, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, United States. It includes the , Cumberland School of Law, McWhorter School of Pharmacy, Brock School of Business, Ida V....
fields 17 varsity teams (8 men's and 9 women's). The Bulldogs have done well in recent years in both football and men's basketball, participating in the 1999
1999 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
The 1999 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 64 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 11, 1999, and ended with the championship game on March 29 at Tropicana Field in St....
and 2000 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
2000 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
The 2000 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 64 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 16, 2000, and ended with the championship game on April 3 in Indianapolis, Indiana...
. The women's basketball team made its initial NCAA tournament appearance in the 2011 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament
2011 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament
The 2011 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament began on March 19, 2011 and concluded on April 5, 2011. The Texas A&M Aggies won the championship....
. The school is a member of the Southern Conference
Southern Conference
The Southern Conference is a Division I college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association . Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision . Member institutions are located in the states of Alabama, Georgia, North...
in Division I of the NCAA (FCS in football), after moving from the Ohio Valley Conference
Ohio Valley Conference
The Ohio Valley Conference is a college athletic conference which operates in the midwestern and southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in the Football Championship Subdivision , the lower of two levels of Division I...
in 2008. The Samford Athletics staff is headed by athletic director Martin Newton, whose appointment was announced on March 9, 2011.
Facilities
- Seibert Stadium - Seibert StadiumSeibert StadiumSeibert Stadium is a 6,700-seat multi-purpose stadium in Homewood, Alabama. It is home to the Samford University Bulldogs college football team. The facility opened in 1958 and is named for F. Page Seibert, who in 1961, donated money for the completion of the stadium...
has been home to Samford's football team since 1958. Over the years, Seibert has seen some memorable football, including the Bobby BowdenBobby BowdenRobert Cleckler "Bobby" Bowden is a retired college football coach. He coached the Florida State Seminoles football team from the 1976 to 2009 seasons...
era (1959–62), a one-loss season in 1971 and the Terry BowdenTerry BowdenTerry Bowden is an American football coach at the University of North Alabama. Bowden was previously the head coach at Salem University , Samford University , and Auburn University . Bowden is the son of former Florida State University head football coach Bobby Bowden...
era, which ended with a 14-game Bulldog winning streak in the stadium. In Fall 2005, the playing surface, which had always been natural grass, was replaced by a new LSR Blade Synthetic Surface. The artificial turf also includes an extensive drainage system. The stadium is named for F. Page Seibert, a Daytona Beach, Fla., businessman, who donated the money for the completion of the stadium in 1961 with the addition of the stands of the west side. The largest crowd in Seibert Stadium history was in 1994 against Steve McNairSteve McNairStephen LaTreal McNair was an American football quarterback who spent the majority of his NFL career with the Tennessee Titans....
and Alcorn State when 11,189 fans showed up. The stadium holds 6,700.
- Cooney Family Field House - The new 39000 square feet (3,623.2 m²) Cooney Family Field House is located in the south end of F. Page Seibert Stadium on the Samford campus.The $7.5 million building was completely funded with private financial support, according to W. Randall Pittman, Samford's vice president for university relations. The new field house includes locker rooms, training rooms, weight rooms, equipment storage, offices and meeting rooms for Samford's football program. A second-level terrace will be used to host special events, especially on football game days. The building replaces facilities in Seibert Gym that date to that building's construction in the late 1950s. A third level on the building will be finished at a later date. That level will be used to house academic and administrative offices during transition periods of other new construction or building renovations on campus. "This new building provides our football program with state-of-the-art facilities at an important time for Samford athletics," Bob Roller, the athletic director at the time of construction, said. "With the university's move to the Southern Conference, it is critical for us to compete at all levels – on the field, in the classroom and facilities – with our new conference counterparts." Visiting teams will continue to use locker rooms and other facilities in Seibert Hall adjacent to the stadium, Roller said. Gary C. Wyatt General Contractor LLC is the Birmingham-based contractor for the building, which was designed by Davis Architects of Birmingham.
- Seibert Hall - Originally opened in 1959, the lower floor played host to Samford basketball until the main gym was added in 1961. At that time, the basketball teams moved upstairs and have used the facility for the past 41 years. It has been home to Samford volleyball since 1987. It was replaced by Corts Arena in the new Hanna Center (see below) when that facility was completed in Fall 2007. Seibert Hall is also named for F. Page Seibert, a Dayton Beach, Fla.Daytona Beach, FloridaDaytona Beach is a city in Volusia County, Florida, USA. According to 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the city has a population of 64,211. Daytona Beach is a principal city of the Deltona – Daytona Beach – Ormond Beach, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, which the census bureau estimated had...
, businessman, who donated the money for the completion of the upper floors. It was the largest donation at the time to then-Howard College.
- Pete Hanna Center - A new, state-of-the-art multi-purpose facility has been completed (with the exception of landscaping, and other minor details), as a part of Samford's improvement campaign, The Promise, next door to Seibert Hall and its Bashinsky Fieldhouse. The new building was christened Pete Hanna CenterPete Hanna CenterThe Pete Hanna Center is the building housing the 4,974-seat Thomas E. and Marla H. Corts Arena on the campus of Samford University in Homewood, Alabama...
on Friday, October 19, 2007, while the arena itself was designated the Thomas E. and Marla H. Corts Arena. The facility was scheduled for completion by Homecoming weekend 2007 (October 19–21), but was still being worked on up to the last few hours before the first Homecoming event in the center was to take place on October 18. The new facility, one of the largest buildings ever built to strictly conform to Georgian style architecture, holds 5,000 for basketball and volleyball, 6,000 for concerts and commencements, and cost $32 million. Samford, wanting to show that the Hanna Center will truly be a multi-purpose facility, hosted three back-to-back major events on the Hanna Center's opening weekend. On October 18, Samford chose to make the first event the annual J. Roderick Davis Lecture, featuring author Walter IsaacsonWalter IsaacsonWalter Isaacson is a writer and biographer. He is the President and CEO of the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C. He has been the Chairman and CEO of CNN and the Managing Editor of TIME...
. On October 19, the center was officially christened and the 141st Annual Homecoming Alumni Gala Dinner was held on the Corts Arena floor. On October 20, the Homecoming concert, featuring Little Big TownLittle Big TownLittle Big Town is an American country music vocal group. Founded in 1998, the group has comprised the same four members since its inception: Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Jimi Westbrook, and Phillip Sweet. The quartet's musical style relies heavily on four-part vocal harmonies, with all...
, was held in the Corts Arena. The new fitness facility in the Pete Hanna Center for faculty and students opened on Monday November 26, 2007. The center is named after Birmingham businessman Pete Hanna, who played football for Samford when it was Howard College in the 1950s. The arena is named after Samford's president emeritus and his wife. Dr. Thomas Corts retired as Samford's President in May 2006 and died in 2009.
- Joe Lee Griffin Field - Samford's baseball program plays at Joe Lee Griffin Field, a 1,000-seat facility that was constructed in 2000.
- Samford Track and Soccer Complex - Located across Lakeshore Drive from the main campus, the Samford Track and Soccer Complex was opened in the spring of 2011. The facility hosted the 2011 Southern Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships just hours after the official ribbon-cutting ceremony. The complex, which includes a nine-lane track with a regulation soccer field inside the track,is also scheduled to host the 2012 SoCon Women's Soccer Championship.
- Other facilities
- Pat M. Courington Tennis Pavilion
- Bulldog Softball Field
Mascot and school colors
Samford's intercollegiate athletics teams are nicknamed the Bulldogs, and the team is represented by a costumed bulldog, complete with spiked collar and nasty growl, at football and basketball games. Spike, as he is called, has also been known to appear at other competitions where Samford is competing.Even when it was Howard College, the school's colors were Red
Red
Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked eye...
and Blue
Blue
Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal...
. Today, the red tends to be a bright color and the blue is usually depicted as a darker, navy blue. Both colors are primary (though, as the name of the student fan club, The Red Sea, and the name of the student newspaper, The Crimson, show that many Samford students lean toward red).
Rivalries
Samford, as the newest member of the Southern Conference, will be looking to start new rivalries with their newfound conference foes. Their geographically closest conference opponents are Georgia Southern and UT- Chattanooga.In addition, there is something of an intracity rivalry between Samford and Birmingham-Southern College
Birmingham-Southern College
Birmingham–Southern College is a 4-year, private liberal arts college located three miles northwest of downtown Birmingham. Founded in 1856, it is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Approximately 1400 students from 30 states and 23 foreign countries attend the college...
, located across town. This is particularly the case in baseball and basketball. Alabama's premier private institutions of higher learning battle for state-wide bragging rights.
Samford also contends against SEC powerhouses and fellow Alabama institutions Alabama
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
and Auburn
Auburn University
Auburn University is a public university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 25,000 students and 1,200 faculty members, it is one of the largest universities in the state. Auburn was chartered on February 7, 1856, as the East Alabama Male College, a private liberal arts...
in some sports—and often fares well. For example, in 2006 the Samford baseball team defeated Auburn in the annual game at the Hoover Met
Hoover Metropolitan Stadium
Regions Park, formerly known as Hoover Metropolitan Stadium or The Hoover Met, is a minor league baseball park located in the Birmingham, Alabama, USA, suburb of Hoover. It has been the home of the Birmingham Barons of the Southern League since 1988, replacing historic Rickwood Field in Birmingham...
and in 2010 the Samford basketball team defeated Auburn for the third time. Samford's baseball team also defeated #21 Alabama in 2011.
Fall intramural sports
Flag FootballTennis
Bowling
Dodgeball Tournament
Ultimate Frisbee
Ultimate Frisbee Home Web Page
Volleyball
Kickball Tournament
3v3 Basketball Tourney
Spring intramural sports
BasketballBowling
Ultimate Frisbee
Ultimate Frisbee Home Web Page
Soccer
Dodgeball
4v4 Volleyball
Softball
Traditions
- Fight song.: "Fight, Fight, Fight / For Samford Bulldogs, / Go onward to victory. / Oh, we’ll wear the red and blue, / Samford, we’re all for you / And we love you, too! / Fight, Fight, Fight, / For Samford Bulldogs, / Go onward to victory. / Oh, we’ll give a cheer or two, / Samford, we’re all for you! / Fight! Fight Fight!"
- Alma mater.: "Oh, Samford Alma Mater true / Her halls shall ever ring, / With sounding glories of the past / With plans and future dreams. / On knowledge that we seek, O Lord, / We pray thy blessings true. / With pride we pledge our hearts and minds, / To the Samford Red and Blue!"
External links
- Samford Sports - Official site of Samford athletics