WATCH: Nick Saban, Miss Terry share special moment following Iron Bowl win
No one was as happy for Nick Saban on Saturday night than his wife Terry. Cameras captured the moment the couple reunited after the Tide escaped Auburn in the fourth OT period.
Saban and Miss Terry have been together for 50 years but still celebrate each others’ big moments like their wedding was yesterday. And Saban’s had a lot of big moments.
Saturday’s win was more important than most. Nick Saban’s squad came out sluggish and downright sloppy. They pulled it together to dominate the second half and tie the game up for overtime.
The 24-22 win in the Iron Bowl keeps Alabama’s college football playoff hopes alive with No. 1 Georgia coming up next week. The Crimson Tide is a 6-point underdog in the SEC title game. It’s the first time they’ve been underdogs since 2015 (also versus Georgia).
Nick Saban explains key to happy marriage
Nick Saban isn’t just an expert at football, he also knows a thing or two about what makes a successful marriage. In an appearance on his radio show a few weeks ago, the Alabama football coach offered some sound relationship advice to young couples out there.
“I think you have to work every day at relationships,” Saban said. “Regardless of who those relationships are with. When you’re married, you have to respect the other person. Respect their feelings and try to do things that they expect from you and in turn they do the same for you. You’re really kind of best friends. You do a lot of things together and talk about a lot of things. …We’re all a little self-absorbed and we always think about how things affect us, but sometimes you gotta think, ‘How is what I’m doing affecting somebody else?’ Especially when they’re that close to you. It hasn’t been work (for me), it’s been fun.”
The Sabans’ love story
As the story goes, Saban had a crush on Terry since the seventh grade, but it took some time for her to see him the same.
In a speech seven years ago at the American Football Coaches Association, Saban went into detail about the couple’s past. The coach hilariously called out his wife’s former boyfriend out by name as he remembered going back for a high school reunion long ago.
“When I was a kid growing up my dad owned a service station,” he said. “We lived in the country. My wife, who I tried to date from the time I was in the seventh grade, she would never, ever date me. She had this guy named Micky Schafer that she was always boyfriend with. She was from the city, the queen bee, the drum major and all that. I could not get a date.
“Here I am a country bumpkin pumping gas every day. It’s full service. You had to clean windows, check the oil, change tires, grease mufflers. I was filthy dirt. Black fingernails all the time. Finally, when I got into high school we were pretty good. She went to a big triple-A school. We always played them and beat them like a drum. She finally noticed me and I finally got a date. When we go back for this (high school) reunion, lo-and-behold, Micky Schafer owns a service station. I said, ‘I am not gonna miss the opportunity to do a drive by.’ Just to make sure she knows how she picked.
“We drive by the service station and I say, ‘See there, honey? There’s your boy Micky Schafer.’ I said, ‘If you’d have married him, that’s where you’d be now.’ She said, ‘Bullshit. If I’d have married him he’d be the head coach at Alabama now.’”