Nick Saban's full response to the field at Bryant-Denny Stadium being named after him

The University of Alabama Board of Trustees Honorary Degrees and Recognition Committee on Friday voted to approve the field at Bryant-Denny Stadium be named “Saban Field” after former Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban, who retired after 17 seasons earlier this year.

The dedication of Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium will take place on Saturday, Sept. 7 at halftime of Alabama’s Week 2 home game versus South Florida (6 p.m. CT on ESPN).

On Friday, Saban and his wife Terry reacted to the board’s decision in a virtual meeting. Below are Saban’s full remarks after the approval of Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

“First of all, this is a very special honor. I don’t think there could be anything that honors the hard work and the example that we tried to set for our community, our university and our program and all the players in it as to what you all have decided to do here today. Terry and I certainly have the utmost gratitude for this great legacy type of award that by naming the field for us. So I can’t tell you how honored and how much appreciation we have for that.

“But this honor, or naming, is representative of what a lot of people contributed to. We never really ever had any signs up that said win a championship, win the national championship, win the SEC. It was all about being a champion in everything that you do – in your personal development. Graduation, 668 degrees is something that I’m most proud of in the 17 years that we were the conductor of the program at the university. 

“And for what we were able to accomplish on the field. There was so many players, coaches. Our administration … who always set the table for everything we needed to help players create more value for their future in terms of how they develop personally, academically and athletically. 

“Our athletic administration, our president, Dr. Bell, Greg (Byrne), Mal Moore, who gave us the opportunity with Dr. Whitt, who had the vision of what he wanted to try to accomplish at the university in terms of allowing the athletic program – specifically in our case, the football program – being the window that could create a positive image for the University of Alabama, and a lot of people contributed to that. I think that this field being named is representative of all their efforts, thousands of people who contributed to that. 

“Miss Terry has been the head coach of this house, which certainly influenced a lot of things that we’ve done in the community, as well as we did on the field. But we have a great university at the University of Alabama, and I want to continue to try to contribute to that iconic brand that we have that contributed to our success, as well.

“There’s no place in the country that we ever went to recruit or we ever visited that anybody and everybody knew what Roll Tide stood for. And it’s a tradition that was an honor to be able to represent. Certainly, the most special place that you could ever want to be a coach, and I just can’t tell you how much we appreciate the support that we’ve had for the 17 years that we were the coach so that we could provide an opportunity for people to be more successful in life, for the image that we were able to create for the university, how it impacted the community, how it impacted the university to have a chance to influence people to come here, quality people to come here. 

“But this is just something that we never expected, and I can’t tell you how much we appreciate it. This is an honor. You talk about what did your life represent with that dash between when you were born and when you passed, and to have a legacy like this in your honor is… I can’t even put into words. We thank you so much, not just for this honor but for the support that you gave us for 17 years.”

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