What It's Like for a National Championship Coach to Retire After Storied Career
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — While both Bear Bryant and Nick Saban were building their dynasties at Alabama, there was someone else across campus building one of her own inside Coleman Coliseum.
Both Bryant and Saban won six national championships with the Crimson Tide, but there's one other head coach in Alabama athletic program history to accomplish the same feat: Sarah Patterson.
"That's how I started my career under Coach Bryant, and then I end my career under Coach Saban— the two best coaches of all time," Patterson told BamaCentral. "When I think back on it now, I was so blessed.”
After being hired by Bryant at age 22, Patterson spent 36 seasons as the Alabama gymnastics head coach from 1979 until her retirement in 2014. She won six national titles (1988, 1991, 1996, 2002, 2011, 2012) and eight SEC championships (1988, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2003, 2009, 2011, 2014), including a conference title in her final season like Saban.
While her's came in a different set of circumstances, Patterson is one of the few people can relate a little bit to what Saban was going through when he announced his retirement on Jan. 10 after 17 seasons as the Alabama football coach.
How did Patterson know when it was time to step away from the sport and program she loved when she was coming off an SEC championship and just two years removed from winning back-to-back national championships?
For the legendary gymnastics coach, it was all about leaving the program that she and her husband David had worked so hard to build, in the best spot possible. When her doctor told her she would need to have two knee replacement surgeries to continue her active lifestyle, she knew it was the best thing for the program to retire.
Bill Battle, the Alabama athletic director at the time, asked her if she would consider taking one year off for the surgeries and recovery, and then come back to coaching the team the next year.
"I would love to, but if I did that, my peers would have gone around to all the recruits and said, ‘She’s been there 36 years. She’s not coming back,’" Patterson said. "And they would’ve stolen our program.’”
During that time, the NCAA didn't have rules that limited when a player could commit in any sport, so in gymnastics, coaches often began receiving commitments from recruits as early as eighth or ninth grade. This meant Patterson and her staff had relationships with gymnasts all over the country four to five signing classes deep.
She knew that if she left for one year and tried to return, the recruits would be snatched up by other programs across the conference and country. To confirm that thought, one of her fellow head coaches in the SEC called to check on Patterson following her retirement announcement. Once the colleague confirmed that Patterson was OK health wise, they told her, "Oh hell yes, I would definitely steal your recruits."
It's a similar scenario to what the Alabama football program is facing now, except it isn't just with the recruits. With the transfer portal rules that didn't exist when Patterson retired in 2014, other coaches can now essentially poach players directly from that Crimson Tide football roster for 30 days following Saban's retirement.
But for Patterson, it was a priority to keep the program intact as much as possible. Like Saban, she wasn't leaving the program in disrepair, but was going out on a high note.
"In our program at that point, in our last year, we won the SEC championship," Patterson said. "I mean, our program was in such great shape. And we had great recruits. And back then, there wasn’t NIL and the transfer portal. I just feel like David and I walked away to A. To take care of me, and B. To leave the program in the best shape it could possibly be. I did not want my peers stealing everybody.”
True to her plan, Alabama won the SEC Championship the first year under new head coach Dana Duckworth in 2015.
Even though she retired from coaching, Patterson and her husband were still around and supportive of the Alabama gymnastics program and Alabama athletics as a whole, and still are to this day. Like the Pattersons, the Sabans also plan on sticking around Tuscaloosa. Saban has a new office inside Bryant-Denny Stadium, and new head coach Kalen DeBoer said he will give Saban 100% access to the program.
"Even now, if Ashley [Johnston] or one of the coaches calls and asks us a question, we’re there to support them," Patterson said. "We go to all the meets. If my husband hadn’t had back surgery a month ago, we would’ve been in Las Vegas for the Super 16 Meet… We would do anything we can to help the program be successful. Now, it’s up to the coaches to ask for help.
"I feel like the way Greg [Byrne] and Coach Saban and even Kalen, the way they have handled this has been excellent. And I know that Coach Saban will be there cheering.”
One of the perks of retirement has been getting to enjoy gymnastics meet as a fan alongside her husband. They get to sit back and watch the fruits of their labor, and the program they built.
David and Sarah Patterson cheering on the Crimson Tide at an Alabama gymnastics meet post-retirement
Courtesy of Sarah Patterson
However, Patterson said the biggest blessing about retirement is getting to spend more time with family, especially their grandson that lives in Tuscaloosa. Retirement allows her to do things she never would’ve had the opportunity to do with the grind of a head coach's schedule. She wishes the same thing for Saban, who was always supportive of her and her program. Saban was one of the first people to call her after she announced her own retirement back in 2014.
"And when they had my retirement reception, Coach Saban came off the practice field in his shorts, his shirt and his hat and came to the reception," Patterson said. "I have a football that has the number 36 on it for 36 years, and it says ‘Roll Retirement’ on it. If I could get a football and put ‘Roll Retirement,’ I’d give it to him. He always said to us, ‘The thing I’m so impressed with is you won six championships in four different decades.’ And I think he won his six in three decades. And that just means a lot.”
Saban would help Patterson when she had high-level recruits in town like West Virginia native and world champion Kayla Williams. And he would come speak to the team before they traveled for championship meets each season. She said she saw Saban looking happier on the sidelines and in his press conferences this season.
Nick Saban and Sarah Patterson inside Coleman Coliseum
Courtesy of Sarah Patterson
"To me, even though they didn’t win the national championship this year, this was one of the most remarkable coaching years— and that’s me looking at it as a coach," Patterson said. "And I know nothings about X’s and O’s in football, but I just know when you have problem and you lose and you’ve gotta be resilient, and what they did to get to the level they were this year, I think that was his best coaching year I’ve ever seen.
"Fans will always say it’s the championships that count. No, it’s not always the championship. Seeing what you did for those athletes to help elevate their career in a positive direction to put them in a position to be successful in their lives, that’s the biggest championship my husband and I won.”
