 UAB won both its first conference championship and bowl game in program history in 2018.UAB football began with the play of an organized club football team in 1989.After two years competing as a club football team, on March 13, 1991, UAB President Charles McCallum and athletic director Gene Bartow announced that the university would compete in football as a NCAA Division III team beginning in the fall of 1991, with Jim Hilyer serving as the first head coach.