Retired Alabama coach Nick Saban has been called the GOAT — the greatest of all time — after winning seven college football national titles.
But the 72-year-old Crimson Tide icon measures success in more than wins and losses.
Saban told more than 2,500 gathered for Faulkner University’s annual benefit dinner, “No man stands as tall as when he stoops to help a child. And being an adoptive parent myself, I’m so proud of what you’ve been able to accomplish and what you’re able to do.”
His comments were directed at the adoptive and foster parents in the audience.
Saban adopted two children, Nicholas and Kristen, with his wife, Terry. He “adopted” hundreds more as a coach. And he drew a sellout crowd to the event, which celebrated heroes of adoption and foster care.
Faulkner President Mitch Henry said in his speech, “It’s time to turn the hearts of adults to the children. It’s time to change our culture by strengthening families. Those heroes that we celebrate tonight, they challenge us … to be the change.”
Henry announced a new “Christ-centered social work program to train the next generation of adoption and foster care agency workers” who will “assist the most vulnerable children … with the ethic of Christ.”
Meanwhile the Saban’s continue their work in adoption through the Nick’s Kids Foundation they started in the late 1990s