Samford Bulldogs

File:Samford Bulldogs.jpg

Samford University Bulldogs

Samford Bulldogs are the athletic teams for Samford University. Bob Roller is athletic director.

Athletics

Samford fields teams in 13 varsity sports (6 men's and 7 women's). The Bulldogs have done well in recent years in both football and men's basketball. The school is a member of the Southern Conference in Division I of the NCAA (Division I Football Championship Subdivision in football), after moving from the Ohio Valley Conference in 2008. The Samford Athletics staff is headed by Bob Roller and Peter Neuberger, both who have been at Samford for more than six years. Pat Sullivan is head football coach.

See also Samford Bulldogs football

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 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).

Rivalries

Samford, as the newest member of the Southern Conference, will be looking to start new rivalries with their newfound conference foes. Their geographiclly closest conference opponents are Georgia Southern and UT-Chattanooga.

In addition, there is something of an intra-city 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 fare well. In 2006, for example, the Samford baseball team defeated Auburn in the annual game at the Hoover Met.

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!"

Facilities

• Seibert Stadium - Seibert Stadium has been home to Samford's football team since 1958. Over the years, Seibert has seen some memorable football, including the Bobby Bowden era (1959-62), a one-loss season in 1971 and the Terry 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 McNair and Alcorn State when 11,189 fans showed up. The stadium holds 6,700.

• 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 will be replaced by Corts Arena in the Hanna Center (see below) when that facility is completed in Fall 2007. Seibert Hall is also named for F. Page Seibert, a Daytona Beach, Fla., 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 Center on 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 Isaacson. 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 Town, 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.

• Griffin Stadium - In the spring of 2000, the Bulldogs baseball team opened its newly remodeled Joe Lee Griffin Field. Renamed Joe Lee Griffin Stadium, the 1,000-seat facility, constructed in Samford's Georgian-Colonial style, is complete with the baseball offices and locker room housed in the facility.

• Other facilities
  • Darwin C. Hardison Tennis Center
  • Bulldog Soccer Field, across Lakeshore Drive from the main campus
  • Lady Bulldog Softball Field

References

• Samford Bulldogs. (2008, August 27). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:50, August 28, 2008 [1]