Brother has been named Coach of the Decade and #2 coach of all time by USA Today.

Brother – Nick Saban to the world who didn’t know him as the quarterback of the 1968 Monongah High state championship football team – is the Alabama football coach.

For coach of all time, he is second only to Paul “Bear” Bryant, also an Alabama coach. Brother has won five national titles, four at Alabama and one at LSU. Bear Bryant has six national titles.

Brother was born Nicholas Lou Saban, Jr., but his sister, Dene Saban Thompson, later a teacher in Monongah, gave him the “Brother” label that has stuck to this day in Marion County.

Dene married Leroy Thompson, Class of 1964, who played football under the late, legendary Monongah High Coach Jim Feltz.

Brother’s father had him working at the Saban service station and washing cars when Brother was 11 years old. Former Monongah High girls told me how, by the time Brother was at MHS, they would show up just to watch a shirtless Brother wash the cars with water bouncing off his chest and giggle like schoolgirls.

Brother’s net worth is $36 million. He spends a big chunk of that helping mentally challenged children via Nick’s Kids in Alabama, Michigan and West Virginia, his stopping places in life (he was Michigan State football coach, and later the LSU coach where he won his first national title).

Brother has been married to Terry Constable Saban since 1971. Their children are another Nicholas Saban, the third such name in the family since Brother’s father is the late Nick Saban, Sr., who coached both football and baseball for children in Carolina and Idamay, and married daughter Kristen.

Brother had short coaching stops in WVU, Kent State, Syracuse, Ohio State, Navy and Toledo. He also was with head coach Bill Belichick, now the New England Patriots coach, when fellow Croatian Belichick was guiding the Cleveland Browns. They have been friends ever since and share football information with each other and, at times, have run the same plays with their Alabama and Patriots teams.

Brother’s paternal grandfather, Croatian Stanko Saban, immigrated to Portland, Oregon in 1908 when he was 13 years old.

Brother and his roommate avoided the 1970 Kent State shootings when 4 died and 9 were wounded by Ohio National Guard gunfire because they decided to eat lunch before walking to the rally area. Brother played football for Kent State.