Brother awash in fifth national championship

Look out, Bear!

Brother is one step behind you

I’m fond of saying, during life’s ups and downs, and on the golf course, “Sometimes you get the bear; sometimes the bear gets you.”

Well, Nick “Brother” Saban, after Alabama beat Clemson last night for his fifth national title (one at LSU), is only one behind the Bear (Paul Bryant), who has the most national titles of any college coach in history at six.

And Brother is young enough, at 64, and obsessed with The Process enough, to get the Bear before he’s finished

Brother was winning the top prize even when he was at Monongah High, when he quarterbacked the Lions to the 1968 state football title, the 3^rd of five state football championships for Monongah.

Counting the 1955 baseball title, that makes six top titles, just like the Bear.

For good measure, Brother made All-State in baseball as an infielder and in basketball as a guard.

Not bad for a kid from Carolina who set teenage girls’ hearts a-thumping when they watched Brother wash cars at his father’s service station on Helen’s Run outside Worthington.

Brother's father, Nick Saban, Sr., who bought a bus and used it to haul Pop Warner Idamay Black Diamond football and baseball players to practice and games, inbued Brother with the stern, steely stuff that leaders are made of.

Diana “Dene” Saban Thompson, Monongah Elementary teacher who gave him the nickname Brother that sticks to this day, must be as proud of him as all Monongah High alumni are.

Well done, Brother!

Monongah’s Phillip Joy summed it up eloquently:

Fellow Marion Countians, this was a very special night for us.

 

No matter where we may have ended up in our lives our careers, or where we may reside, we're proud of our roots! One of our own represented all of us on the national stage once again in the College Football National Championship Game.

Coach Nick Saban won his 5th national championship and 4th with Alabama.

The values that we all share and learned in the hills of Marion County, West Virginia, and the skill that only Brother Saban has was on full display.

 

We love ya Nick! Tide Rolled!