Nick Saban's birthday
American football coach Nicholas Lou Saban Jr. —best known in the sports world as Nick Saban— was born on October 31st, 1951, in Fairmont, West Virginia. Saban played football as a quarterback during his high school education. He later went to Kent State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business and played defensive back for Kent State. After graduating in 1975, Nick enrolled in graduate school, earning a master’s degree in sports administration from Kent State.
Nick started off his coaching career when he was hired in 1977 as graduate assistant at Kent State by his former coach Don James. Afterwards, he also served as assistant coach in the NCAA Division I-A (highest level of college football) at various schools between 1977 and 1987: Syracuse, West Virginia, Ohio State, Navy, and Michigan State. In 1989, Saban was made head coach at the University of Toledo, Ohio, where he stayed on for just one season, before becoming defensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns under head coach Bill Belichick. After four years in this position, Nick took up the head coach job for Michigan State before the start of the 1995 season. He left the team in 1999, after having led the Spartans to have the highest number of victories in one season for the first time in thirty years.
In 1999, Saban was appointed as head coach at Louisiana State University (LSU.) Under his leadership, the team won the BCS National Championship in 2003. In 2004, he became head coach for the Miami Dolphins, and remained in this position until 2007, when he was hired by the University of Alabama to become their head coach—a position he holds to this day. During his time as coach of the Crimson Tide (as they refer to the Alabama State football team,) they’ve won the BCS and AP national championships in 2009, 2011, 2012, and have also won the College Football Playoff championships on three occasions: 2015, 2017 and 2020.
Nick Saban is regarded as the greatest coach in college football history, having won the most titles as head coach in the history of college football (seven titles.) He has received several awards, particularly Coach of the Year, and was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2013.
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