After Week 8 of ESPN’s College GameDay’s guest pickers, who would you expect to be leading in those standings? A pro-golfer, a country music star, a professional athlete, or the wife of the dark master?

A future column will discuss how spiritual formation is similar to loyalty and loathing stemming from football programs. Previously, however, Coach Nick Saban, of the dreaded Alabama dynasty, was sometimes confused with Beelzebub by mistyping one little letter in his surname. Now that he is retired, he does not seem as evil. Moreover, his wife could be a lasting role model.

On September 28, ESPN GameDay had “Miss Terry” Saban as its guest picker. One of the few females to make predictions, she more than held her own—besting her husband on two out of three differing picks. Terry Saban has been the great wife to the greatest college football coach of this generation. It would be wrong to minimize her contribution to the game.

Most coaches’ wives, like pastors’ wives, are essential. My wife is, as all our churches have reiterated, perhaps every bit as important as me. Having no preparation for our ministry life—goodness, she was raised Roman Catholic, so there were not even categories for being married to clergy—she superbly cares for people, prays, cooks like crazy, opens our home, and often gives an invaluable word of encouragement. She learned most of it on the job.

Before I return to Terry Saban, where did my wife learn how to be a superb pastor’s wife? Likely from her mother (now 92 and living close enough that we see her often; on Saturdays in the fall, she is watching ESPN), who was married to a high school coach. Roberta Fleming, herself a fourth grade teacher for decades in Memphis schools, was married to my father-in-law, who coached football, basketball, and track. At no point did it occur to my wife’s mother that she could opt out of team events. She worked concession stands, dragged the little Flemings to countless games, had players over for Sunday lunch, tolerated long hours, dealt with prima donna players and their narcissistic parents, and did this all on a shoestring budget. Sounds kind of like a pastor’s wife, does it not? I think that was my wife’s best preparation for our calling.

When Nick Saban retired from his Alabama dynasty, the program also lost an incredible asset. Terry Saban bought into his vocation as much as the coach did. She, too, would console players’ parents, host the squads, and give frequent counsel. She was a presence and support.

When Coach Saban made his debut as a GameDay analyst this fall, Miss Terry gave the stink eye to a sign from a young female fan who was looking for “a man in football, trust fund, 5-foot-6, brown eyes.” The embarrassed coach claimed that he was in trouble because he did not ask his wife to dance enough, but we saw her protecting her man. 

Saban’s wife of 52 years spoke truth to exhaustion when the great Alabama coach was considering retirement. She saw that the job had morphed into something very different. Rather than focusing on scouting, recruiting, mentoring, and cultivating players, as with many professions, this one had become different.

Miss Terry helped him to recognize that “all the things that [Saban] believed in for all these years—50 years of coaching—no longer exist in college athletics.”¹ For Saban, it was always about developing players, preparing them for life, emphasizing teamwork, and working at excellence. But that had changed. Coach Saban and Miss Terry were ultimately committed not only to winning but also to developing success stories. Miss Terry enjoyed having recruits and their families to their home on Sunday for breakfast. Saban bragged: “She would always meet with the mothers and talk about how she was going to help and impact their sons and how they would be well taken care of.”²

Nevertheless, it became clear that this game and the coach’s care for the players had been altered. Miss Terry queried why they should continue amidst the commercialization and entitlement narcissism that had infected the sport. She wondered why they would continue if the dominant theme was money, draft order, and NIL contracts. To Saban, that was a clear sign that it was more difficult to develop players as this couple had, which he said “is why I always did what I did. My dad did it. I did it. That is the reason that I always liked college athletics more than the NFL is because you had the opportunity to develop young people.”³

Miss Terry, like a fine pastor’s wife was an essential part of that culture and player development. Deion Sanders, another celebrity who makes AFLAC commercials with Saban, extolled the Saban’s marriage, adding that Miss Terry could teach a masterclass on being a supportive wife. The often over-confident Sanders admitted that the Sabans were such royalty that he did not even feel comfortable addressing her casually as “Terry.”

That kind of respect is due a good coach’s wife, as it is also due a good pastor’s wife.

Here is a great coach and an exemplary wife. And what will last is how they have poured themselves into their players. Most of those will confirm that those lasting impacts were more important than all the championships.

The Sabans are regular participants at St. Francis of Assisi in Tuscaloosa. His pastor believes that his faith inspires his legacy. Father Evans comments, “Seeing someone who is a celebrity that is consistent about practicing the Catholic faith is beautiful because it can be really easy for public figures to claim that they are Christian or Catholic and not care about it, so to have his witness to the faith is a powerful example for myself and other students.”⁴

What can a pastor’s wife learn from this? These things below to begin:

• While a wife may not be as visible as a pastor, she is hugely important. My veteran wife says that a pastor’s wife may not help her husband much, but she can certainly cripple him. It is a team effort.
• A pastor needs also to love and nourish his wife. Few pastors will be busier than Nick Saban in football season—and year around—but he found a way to keep his marriage healthy, even after Miss Terry made him wait for several years before she accepted a date.
• The Sabans made tons of money, but they also started a foundation and have been quite philanthropic. His Nick’s Kids Foundation (since 1998) has donated nearly $12 million to various organizations and causes. They are greatly loved in Tuscaloosa for a reason.
• She also gave him some tough-love counsel, urging Coach to be nicer to the media. Nick Saban said, “I got really mad that she said that, but then, like a lot of times when somebody says something to you, you go think about it, and I really changed. That changed my whole image as I coach, and it started with changing the image of the media and the people.”⁵ It might be a good time to pray for your pastor’s wife to be his best and most realistic counselor.

For her GameDay pick, Miss Terry picked their friend Deion and Colorado to defeat Central Florida, voting against her husband who should not have picked against “our good friend, Deion. I got your back, Deion. Colorado!”

So how did she do with her guest picker stint? Pretty good, only losing to her husband by predicting that Auburn would win over Oklahoma. Miss Terry remains the leading guest picker so far this season on the premier college football show.

She is also a fabulous wife, from whom many could learn. Who knows, had she and Coach Saban still been in the saddle, Alabama might be undefeated—or at least it is unlikely they would have watched the goalposts tumble from every SEC stadium in the state of Tennessee.

Notes

1. Brad Crawford, “Nick Saban’s wife displeased with College GameDay sign,” 247 Sports, August 27, 2024.
2. Crawford, “Nick Saban.”
3. Crawford.
4. Cf. Jack Figge, “Beyond The Gridiron: Nick Saban’s Enduring Influence At The Alabama Catholic Center,” EWTN.
5. Joyann Jeffry, “Nick Saban’s wife, Terry, joins him on ‘College GameDay.’ All about their love story,” Today, September 28, 2024.

©David Hall. All Rights Reserved.

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Post authored by:

• David Hall

  

  Reverend David W. Hall is married to Ann, and they are parents of three grown children and grandparents of eight grandchildren. He has served as the Senior Pastor of Midway Presbyterian Church (PCA) since 2003. Previously, he served as Pastor of the Covenant Presbyterian Church in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (1984–2003) and as Associate Pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Rome, Georgia (1980–1984). He was ordained to pastoral ministry in 1980. He was educated at Covenant Theological Seminary and is the editor and author of several volumes.

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