The tournament was first held in 1992 as the Bruno's Memorial Classic, with
Bruno's Supermarkets as the title sponsor. The name stems from the founders, Angelo and Lee Bruno (brothers of Bruno's founder Joseph Bruno), who were killed in an
airplane crash shortly after the December 1991 press conference announcing the tournament's inception as the '''Bruno's Classic'''. From its beginning, the tournament was staged at the
Greystone Golf & Country Club, in the Inverness section of the Birmingham suburb of Hoover. Since its inception, the Bruno's Memorial Classic has been one of the most popular stops on the Champions Tour, usually attracting all of the top money winners. With the loss of the annual
Iron Bowl college football game between
Alabama and
Auburn, which was formerly played at
Birmingham's Legion Field, the golf tournament has become Metro Birmingham's largest sporting event. In 2006, Bruno's Supermarkets—which had undergone a series of financial struggles, various ownerships, and the loss involvement by Bruno family members—announced it would reduce its sponsorship commitment to the tournament.
Regions Financial Corporation, a
banking and financial services company based in Birmingham, stepped in as the title sponsor, with Bruno's remaining as a presenting sponsor. At the same time, tournament organizers announced that the site would move to the new Ross Bridge course, approximately 15 miles (25 km) west of Greystone at the other end of the city of Hoover.
Ronnie Bruno, son of Angelo Bruno, continues to serve as chairman of the tournament. Additionally, the group that managed the tournament, run by Ronnie Bruno and
Gene Hallman, later became a full-time event-management company known as the Bruno Event Team. The team runs a wide variety of events, mostly sports-related, including many championships for the
Southeastern Conference. On January 30, 2009, Bruno's Supermarkets confirmed that it would no longer be a presenting sponsor of the golf tournament thus ending its 17-year association with the event. (The company soon after declared bankruptcy, with the assets eventually becoming part of
Belle Foods, which also subsequently went bankrupt.) ==Winners==