Kent State University alumnus Nick Saban, considered one of the greatest college football coaches of all time, has retired from the University of Alabama, where he coached the Crimson Tide for the past 17 seasons.
Saban, a native of Fairmont, West Virginia, graduated from Kent State with his bachelor’s degree in elementary education in 1973 and earned his master of education degree in health and physical education in 1975.
At Kent State, Saban was a safety on the Golden Flashes football team and was a member of the 1972 squad that won the university’s first conference championship. During his time at Kent State, Saban earned three letters in football and one in baseball from 1970 to 1972. In 1973, he was a graduate assistant coach and defensive assistant for the Flashes. He was inducted into the Kent State Varsity K Hall of Fame in 2015.
A student at Kent State during the May 4, 1970, shootings, Saban also met his wife, the former Terry Constable, at Kent State, where she also graduated.
Saban, 72, has won seven national championships over his career, which ended with Alabama’s appearance in this year’s Rose Bowl, where they lost to the University of Michigan.
Video courtesy of CBS 42, Birmingham, Alabama.