Brother and Terri Saban

Sabans donate to Project Graduation

Nick Saban, Class of 1969, has donated valuable University of Alabama memorabilia signed by the football coach and his wife, Terri, to the 30th annual Marion County Project Graduation.

They will be prized prizes raffled off to raise money to keep graduates from engaging in risky behavior at parties after graduating. Project graduation began in 1988, the year that Brother quarterbacked Monongah High to the state football championship.

Since, Brother has won six national titles, at LSU and Alabama, tying Paul “Bear” Bryant, also an Alabama coach, with the most national crowns in college football history.

Brother won the national at Louisiana State in 2003 and at Alabama in 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2017. He is considered the greatest coach in college football history.

Previously, after his Monongah and Kent State coaching careers, Brother was head coach at Toledo and Michigan State and was a defensive backs coach at WVU in 1978 and 1979.

Brother and Terri also will share a recorded message with this year’s Marion County graduates.

VanGilder reached out to Saban and his wife of 46 years, Terri, with the idea of celebrating milestones in Marion County. The Sabans donated multiple items to MCPG, and are going to dedicate some time to share a message with the graduates.

They have donated millions of dollars to Nick’s Kids Fund, which helps children.

Brother inherited his helping ways. The late Nick Saban, Jr. would “buy” worthless items from down-on-their-luck Marion Countians to help them out and provided football and baseball equipment to the children Nick, Sr. coached in Pop Warner and other leagues.

Saban and the former Terry Constable have two children, Nicholas and Kristen.

Saban's sister, Dianna “Dene” Thompson, Class of 1968, a Monongah Elementary teacher who lives in Hutchinson with husband Leroy, gave Nick the Brother nickname that stuck to this day.