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“She’s always made me better. … She has the biggest heart of anybody.” Saban said.
“She’s been the person that has the compassion to make it happen for us,” he later added.
The Sabans have also given more than $1.5 million to first generation scholarships at the University of Alabama.
And despite being called the GOAT, the greatest of all time, with seven college football national titles — the most of any coach and one more than another famed Alabama coach, Paul “Bear” Bryant — Saban said he is most proud of the nearly 700 college graduates his football program produced in 17 years.
“Seeing guys develop for life after football was probably more important than just winning a game,” he said, adding that the relationships with players were his favorite part about coaching.
Saban spoke much about coaching his players to have discipline, make good decisions, develop character and be accountable — and how those ideas apply to parenting.
“How many times do your kids say ‘I don’t feel like studying, I don’t feel like cleaning my room’?” he asked. But to promote good choices, coaches and parents have to ask young people, “How is this behavior going to help you accomplish these goals you set out?”
Saban also talked about the values he learned from his parents — especially his father, Nick Saban Sr.
His father often told him that “compassion is the greatest indicator of your character” and that “the most important judgment you pass is not the one you pass on others but the one you pass on yourself.”
His father also instilled a philosophy that Saban passed on to his players — to only be satisfied when they reached their full potential on and off the field.
“It’s more important to give your best effort — to be the best you can be, to do the best you can do — than to win,” he said.
Though Saban didn’t speak directly about his faith — he’s a member of the Catholic Church and attends Mass at St. Francis of Assisi in Tuscaloosa — his language often drew from Christian themes.
He mentioned the Golden Rule, “reaping what you sow,” “God-given” talent, blessings and prayer.
“I always ask, ‘How do you pray? Do you pray to be blessed, or do you pray to be a blessing?’” Saban said.
Many Crimson Tide fans — and Tuscaloosa residents — have certainly felt blessed since he landed in Tuscaloosa in 2007.
Even here in Montgomery, what would’ve been enemy territory for Saban a year ago — less than an hour from the campus of Auburn University, Alabama’s in-state rival — he drew thunderous applause.
Rhonda Zorn Fernandez, a board member for both Faulkner and The Christian Chronicle, said she was “more excited than an Auburn grad should be” to hear Saban. And President Henry, a member of a long line of Auburn alumni, praised Saban’s accomplishments through adoption and charity.
Fernandez and Henry’s eagerness to have Saban was indicative of the impact he’s made on the state.
“The relationship we have with the community — it doesn’t matter how much money you have, is something you can’t buy,” Saban said.
This piece is republished with permission from The Christian Chronicle.