When Alabama football head coach Nick Saban leaves the school, it will only be a matter of time until things begin to bear his name. Maybe the football field will become Saban Field like Auburn’s Pat Dye Field, or maybe he’ll get a street named after him in Tuscaloosa. Alabama may even consider adding a third name to its stadium, making it Bryant-Denny-Saban Stadium.
While the University will hold off on naming things after him for now — he does already have his own statue — Saban’s home state of West Virginia is considering naming a highway after the title-winning coach. Saban is close friends with former West Virginia Governor and current U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, and still has strong ties to his home state, even though Alabama beat West Virginia 33-23 last August.
State senators from the Mountain State have proposed a resolution that would name a part of Route 19 in Marion County after Saban, which is nearby to the coach’s hometown of Fairmont. If approved, this stretch of highway would change into the “Nicholas Lou ‘Nick’ Saban, Jr. Expressway.”
Being the namesake for streets and roads isn’t for everybody, but it doesn’t sound like Saban will have much of a choice if the resolution passes. Longtime Los Angeles Dodgers’ announcer Vin Scully turned down the chance to have a street named after him in LA because he was being humble but also because he smartly never wanted anyone to say, “I’m stuck in this awful traffic on Vin Scully Street.”
There’s already a Paul Bryant Drive in Tuscaloosa and a Wallace Wade Avenue, but for a few more years you’ll have to travel to West Virginia to take the highway to the Saban Zone.
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