The rivalry between the UAB Blazers and Memphis Tigers might not be the biggest to many college football fans, but it’s full of history, bad blood, and even barbeque.
How did these teams become rivals, and why is their game called the Battle for the Bones?
What is the Battle for the Bones?
UAB and Memphis are relatively new teams in the context of college football, so the rivalry extends well beyond their years on the gridiron.
Like most good rivalries, it started with geography and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Located just under 250 miles away from one another, Memphis, Tennessee, and Birmingham, Alabama, are connected by the I-22. You know college football teams love a good highway rivalry.
But this rivalry started well before UAB fielded a football team. In fact, it started with the Blazers’ first basketball coach, Gene Bartow. Bartow coached Memphis (then Memphis State) from 1970-1974 before becoming the first head coach at UAB, staying with the Blazers from 1978 to 1996.
The teams first played in 1984, playing twice more before they joined the same conference in 1992. They played at least twice a year until conference realignment in 2013. They kept the rivalry warm and are now back together in the American Athletic Conference.
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When UAB first moved to the Division I level in football in 1997, the teams began to meet on the gridiron.
In 2006, people decided the rivalry deserved a trophy, and since fans had resorted to hurling barbeque-related insults at each other long before, the teams decided to play for a large bronze rack of ribs: the Battle for the Bones.
UAB vs. Memphis Rivalry History
Despite being the newer FBS team, the Blazers have owned this rivalry.
They got out to a slow start, losing the first two games, before rattling off seven straight wins from 2000 to 2006.
The teams split the next six games before taking a break when UAB folded the football program. It took a while to get back to the yearly rivalry game. When the Blazers joined the AAC in 2023, though, the game started back up.
Memphis won last year’s game. Find out if the Blazers can get revenge and claim one for Alabama white sauce on Saturday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
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