University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban shared his formula for developing players “personally, academically and athletically” at the fifth annual Roy L. White Legacy Golf and Gala May 6 at the Carl Perkins Civic Center.
The event served as a fundraiser for Union’s athletic programs and student athlete scholarships. Donations to these programs are particularly important during Union’s time of transition to Division II of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
The golf tournament portion of the fundraiser was April 22 at the Jackson Country Club.
Jerry Tidwell, senior vice president for university relations and athletics, began the evening’s program by commending Union’s student athletes for their hard work.
“Student athletes are really something to behold,” Tidwell said. “They are students first, and athletes second.”
Roy L. White, emeritus member of Union’s board of trustees and lead donor for the construction of the White Hall science building, was the event’s main sponsor.
White introduced Saban to the crowd that was filled with many Alabama faithful dressed in crimson and houndstooth.
As coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide, Saban has won three Bowl Championship Series National Championships in 2009, 2011 and 2012.
He has been named National Coach of the Year five times and has coached at several prominent universities across the nation, including Michigan State, University of Toledo, Ohio State and Louisiana State, where he won his first national title in 2003.
Saban is well known in the sports world for his systematic approach to coaching, but he said relationships and teamwork are the real keys to his successes.
“You’ve got to care about people,” Saban said. “I have not coached one player who really cared anything I knew as a coach until the player knew I cared about him.”
Saban said he encourages his players to focus on personal development off the field as much as they develop athletic skills on the field.
“I always ask (players), ‘How do you pray? Do you pray to be blessed, or do you pray to be a blessing?’” Saban said. “You can be a blessing every day to everybody you meet, everybody you see.”
Although one must have confidence in his or her ability to succeed, Saban said no great victory comes without tremendous adversity.
“And once you have that success, you’re now the tar- get,” Saban said. “You’re the target for everybody to play their best against you and to beat you, which, you know, I think (the Alabama football team is) a little bit like that right now.”
The evening ended with a question-and-answer session with university president David Dockery.
In his final remarks to Saban, Dockery, a lifetime Crimson Tide fan, said, “Coach, you have helped us to think more carefully and more strategically about how to be an excellence- driven institution… So thank you, and roll tide.”
Former speakers for the gala have included Terry Bradshaw, former National Football League quarterback and FOX sports analyst; Tim Tebow, professional football player, and Peyton Manning, the current quarterback for the Denver Broncos.
