Nick Saban's mom once called into Alabama football practice to brag about hole-in-one
It's not any person who can call into a Nick Saban-led football practice and expect to get the Alabama coach on the phone. But Mary Saban, his mother, is not just any person.
According to a report from Brett McMurphy of the Action Network — citing a retelling directly from Saban during May's SEC spring meetings — his mother is the first person to ever cause him to take a phone call during practice. Then 81, she called into a 2013 spring practice, causing him to worry about the nature of the call.
Turns out, it was nothing more than a chance for her to brag:
"She says, 'Brother' — everyone from West Virginia calls each other 'brother' — 'Brother, I just wanted to let you know I just made a hole-in-one and you’ve never made one,'" Saban said. “Yes, she really called me during practice to tell me she made a hole-in-one."
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But Saban, who turns 72 in October, has since had a chance to one-up his mother, now 92 years old: Per McMurphy, he has since scored two holes-in-one while playing golf, one of the precious few activities he enjoys when he's not agonizing over the daily ins-and-outs of running one of the premier programs in all of college football.
His first, Saban told McMurphy, came in 2016. And it "was a total secret." It occurred on his birthday during the top-ranked Crimson Tide's bye ahead of their visit to No. 14 LSU. As Saban told McMurphy, he had several guests over for his birthday, and "some of the guys said they wanted to play golf."
He made the first hole-in-one of his life on a par-3, 230-yard hole with a 3-wood. Unfortunately, he couldn't share his breakthrough achievement with the world at large.
"It went in the hole, and there was eight of us playing," Saban said. "I said, '‘'Look guys — this is a secret. No pictures, no internet, no nothing. Because if we lose to LSU next week and people find out I was playing golf, they'll run me out of Alabama.' So, nobody ever knew."
(For those curious, Alabama went into Baton Rouge and upended the Tigers 10-0).
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The second time occurred in 2021, though Saban had already shared news of that during the 2021 SEC Media Days.
"It just went swish, went right in the hole (and) never hit the ground," Saban said at the time. "It was unbelievable. I have to admit, the next time I played, I made a double bogey. There’s no consistency in performance from me."
None, at least, on the golf course. Luckily for the seven-time college football national champion, he has already a pretty decent career for himself on the gridiron.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nick Saban's mom called Alabama practice to brag about hole-in-one
