Bob Stoops shares story of Nick Saban being in building during a restaurant robbery
Following Nick Saban’s retirement this past week, tributes and anecdotes about the renown coach have poured in from seemingly every important figure in college football, including a former competitor of Saban’s, Bob Stoops, who had a funny story to share about the retired legend.
He recalled a time long in the past, before Nick Saban built a dynasty in Tuscaloosa. Stoops went back to when Saban was just an assistant who frequented Youngstown, Ohio as part of his recruiting territory — back when Stoops’ father and uncle were still big players in the high school football coaching world.
Stoops explained that Saban and one of his uncles once visited a restaurant in Youngstown to sit down and talk some ball. However, while they drew up plays and broke down defensive principles, the two were so invested in their conversation that they didn’t even notice when the restaurant was robbed at gunpoint while they were inside.
So, pull up a chair, have a seat and listen to Bob Stoops retell one of his personal favorite stories about Nick Saban and his uncle. Everything below came from Stoops on an episode of his YouTube show, Sellout Crowd.
Bob Stoops’ crazy story about Nick Saban
“(Nick Saban) used to come through Youngstown recruiting. He had that area, he would come by see my father, see the head coach at south side of Youngstown at Cardinal Mooney High School and they’d always talk football. My dad being a defensive guy and so was Coach Saban, and they’d be talking all this strategy. My Uncle Bob was a head coach at South High School, inner city school there on the south side of Youngstown, and he would go through and see my Uncle Bob, recruit his guys, and they were always just talking ball, you know.
“One time, the two of them, my Uncle Bob and Coach Saban, they go to the Talk of the Town, right on the south side of Youngstown, right up on Market Street; I know right where it’s at. The two of them are in there having lunch, talking football, using salt shakers and pepper shakers and whatever they could get on to talk about different strategies and how something would work.
“In the meantime, somebody comes in the the joint with a shotgun and holds the place up, pulls the shotgun on the bartender and takes all the money from the cash register, whoever was right up there. Coach Saban and my uncle, they they don’t even know what’s happening, they’re still engrossed and talking all this football.
“Then the guy leaves and when the guy left, he didn’t know why, but a guy breaks a bottle that was also in the place, and I don’t know if he was an owner or what. And my uncle said that Coach Saban turns to the guy and said, ‘You okay, buddy, is there a problem?’ And the guy goes ‘Yeah you dumb SOB, we just got held up and just got robbed.’ And they’re like: ‘Get the hell out of here, that did that actually happen?’
“So, sure enough, about 30 minutes later, police show up and they’re interviewing everybody, what actually happened, and the bartender said, ‘Don’t even bother talking to those two, they had no idea anything happened, they were over there talking the whole time.’
“So, that’s a true story I’ve heard Coach Saban say, I’ve heard my uncle tell it. But that’s just a couple of ball coaches talking football.”