Nick Saban Named to 2013 Class of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame

The Alabama Sports Hall of Fame announced on Tuesday that University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban, who has led the Crimson Tide to a pair of national championships in the past three years, has been selected for induction into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2013. Joining Saban in the 2013 class is former Alabama player and defensive coordinator Bill Oliver, who was a member of head coach Paul Bryant’s first national championship team in 1961 and coordinated the 1992 Crimson Tide defense en route to the national title.

Saban, from Fairmont, W.Va., is in his sixth year as the head coach at Alabama and will lead his team in its third BCS National Championship Game on Jan. 7, 2013. He led the Crimson Tide to the 2009 and 2011 BCS national championships and the 2009 and 2012 SEC championships.

Saban has posted a 62-13 record (67-13 actual record) at Alabama and an astounding 60-7 mark over the past five years. His teams have featured 19 first-team All-Americans since 2008 and posted a 4-1 record in bowl games. He also guided LSU to the 2003 BCS national championship and won the SEC twice with the Tigers. Saban won the Associated Press National Coach of the Year on two occasions (2003 and 2008) and the Paul “Bear” Bryant Award in 2003. He has been named the SEC Coach of the Year three times (2003, 2008 and 2009). 

Oliver hails from Epes, Ala., and spent more than 30 years in the coaching profession as a renowned defensive coach. He was a member of Bryant’s staff that won three national championships (1973, 1978 and 1979) and one as a member of head coach Gene Stallings’ staff in 1992. Oliver was the head coach at Chattanooga from 1980-83 and was the interim head coach at Auburn in 1998. He also coordinated the defense for the Memphis Showboats (USFL) in 1983 and 1984.

Saban and Oliver will join Ronnie Baynes, Forrest Blue Jr., Eric Davis, Bill Jones, Vickie Orr and Dannette Young Stone in the Class of 2013. The 2013 Induction Banquet will take place in the Birmingham Ballroom at the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel, on Saturday, May 18, 2013. The eight inductees will bring the total of all inductees since 1969 to 313.