Former Alabama coach Nick Saban wins Icon Award at 2024 ESPYs

Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban won the Icon Award at the ESPYS on Thursday.

Presented the honor by former Crimson Tide players Mark Ingram and Bryce Young, Saban was recognized for his legendary career, which ended with his retirement in January.

The ESPYS celebrate the best players, moments, coaches and games in sports.

Saban compiled a 297-71-1 record as a college coach. He has claimed seven national championships – six at Alabama – 11 conference championships, and 23 of his teams will have played in bowl games, including a trip to the BCS National Championship Game following the 2003, 2009, 2011 and 2012 seasons and the College Football Playoff semifinals in seven of the last nine seasons, including six of the last eight national title games. 

Saban is the only coach to win four BCS national titles, the only coach to win back-to-back BCS national championships and the only coach to win three CFP national championships. He has won seven titles in his last 17 years of coaching, most recently capturing the CFP national title after the 2020 season. Saban is one of three college coaches in the poll era (since 1936) to win three championships in four years (2009, 2011-12). His title in 2020 moved him past Paul “Bear” Bryant for the most championships in the poll era with seven. 

Below is Saban’s full acceptance speech at the ESPYs in Hollywood on Thursday night.

“It’s an honor for me to have two of our former Heisman Trophy winners be here to present this award to me, and I’m very thankful for the other former players who played for us who are here tonight. We have a good group of guys here, enough that we could actually have practice after this show.

“We’ve always been blessed with having great individual athletes, but they’ve also been great people, and I think that’s what contributed to our success. And when you talk about iconic players, like Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant or Serena Williams, it was all because of what they did. It was their points. It was their wins. 

“But when you talk about iconic coaches, it’s all about how did you represent your team? How did your team represent you? You think about John Wooden and the success that he had, for years. Coach Bryant, the success that he had. Dawn Staley, who’s an icon coach in my mind for what she’s been able to accomplish at South Carolina. 

“So I can attest to you what it takes to build a team. You have to have great players and appreciate the way they compete. You have to have really good coaches who help develop the players. You have to have really good support personnel who set the table so that the players can compete. You have to have great mentors, which I’ve had great mentors who taught me how I could teach players and how I could inspire learning in players so that they could actually be all that they could be.

“And you know, you have to have great support from your family. Miss Terry’s been the love of my life for 52 years, and she has supported me in every way, as my family has, and I certainly appreciate that because there’s a lot of sacrifices families make in coaches. We actually moved 17 times before we got to Alabama – 17 times. So I can only accept this award on behalf of all the other folks that contributed to it, which there’s a thousand of them. 

“And every time I look at this, I’m gonna see the faces of all the people who worked so hard to help us be successful and the relationships that were able and forged in those teams that made it so special. And it will also be the thing I miss most about coaching.

“There’s a lot of athletes in this room, there’s a lot of coaches in this room. There’s nothing like being part of a team. That’s what I’m gonna miss. I’ve been part of a team since I was nine years old. So with all this help and success, all I ever was, aight, was the conductor of a process, and our process was to help every player be more successful in life because they were involved in the program.

“So No. 1, they had to respect the principles and values of the team, and they had to respect each other. And they had to be positive about how they went about their work and how they set a good example and could be somebody that their teammates could emulate and they could be responsible for their own self-determination, which is accountability to do their job and that they would work and persevere – which I’ve seen that word here – and have pride in performance to be the best that could be so they could dominate the competition.

“But in college, I think the No. 1 thing any player should do is make sure he develops a career for when he can’t play. We had 668 degrees in 17 years at Alabama because of what these guys did and their commitment to developing a career off the field, which I’m very proud of. And the one thing my dad told me when I was a young kid in West Virginia that was the most important part of your character is have compassion for other people. People aren’t gonna remember what you say, they’re gonna remember how you made them feel.

“And we have a Nick’s Kids Foundation, and it’s about helping kids. And all of these guys that play on our team, every one of them, build a house, did community service, did something to help somebody else. And one of the things that I’m most proud of is we have so many players now that have foundations of their own so they can help people in their community. 

“One thing that would help all of our spirt and all of our society is if we would just change one thing. Instead of coming up to somebody and saying, ‘How are you today?’ Why don’t you say, ‘Who did you help today?’ And if you can help someone every day – and that’s what we’ve been talking about with perseverance, aight, with the things that we’ve done for military folks – it’s very important to us.

“So I really would like to thank ESPN for this honor and accept it on behalf of a thousand people who contributed to the success that we’ve had. But I’d also like to say to everybody in this room, because there’s a lot of great athletes, we have a responsibility and obligation, because sports bring people together better than anything.

“When we won the national championship in 2003 at LSU, I had Jesse Jackson come in and speak to the team, and he said to me, he said, ‘Your team on a Saturday night in Tiger Stadium is closer to the kingdom of God than my church.’ I said, ‘Jesse, you ever been in LSU stadium on a Saturday night? You can smell the bourbon on the 50-yard line.’ And he said, ‘No, everybody has the same goal, the rules are clearly defined and everybody’s together in spirit.’

“So we all have a responsibility and obligation to bring people together because our platform in sports can do that for so many folks. So help someone, bring people together, God bless you and thank you very much.”

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