Nashville introduced Nick Saban as a minority owner in the NHL on Monday.
Former Tennessee governor and Predators chairman and majority owner Bill Haslam introduced the retired football coach to Nashville’s NHL organization.
“When we announced this a week ago, as you can imagine, my email got flooded,” Haslam said. “A lot of them saying, ‘Wow, what a great hire,’ and a lot of them being friends from Knoxville saying, ‘What in the world is going on here?’ I think coach has 297 victories. At least 16 of them I remember very well being on the wrong end of them as a Tennessee fan.
“This came about when we first started looking at the possibility of a WNBA team, and coach reached out and then he said, ‘Well, I might also be interested in hockey’. I thought, ‘Well, that’s the greatest no-brainer of all time’. You have somebody who understands building the championship culture, who understands, I think, better than almost anybody in sports, the process that’s needed to get to where you compete as a champion, and somebody who just, like I do, loves sports and loves the idea of being involved. He’s, obviously, a fan of Nashville as well, since he has some investment here in the car business. When he decided to add on to that and join the sports business, I thought, ‘That’s a great day for Nashville.’”
Saban served as Alabama’s head coach from 2007-23, compiling a 201-29 (117-18 SEC) record. He won six national championships and nine Southeastern Conference titles with the Crimson Tide.
Saban was also head coach at LSU from 2000-04 in the SEC. He won the 2003 BCS national championship and two SEC titles (2001, 2003). Saban defeated Tennessee in the 2001 SEC championship game.
He suffered two losses to Tennessee as Alabama and LSU’s head coach. The Vols were victorious, 26-18, against Saban and LSU during the 2001 regular season at Neyland Stadium. Tennessee defeated the Crimson Tide, 52-49, on Oct. 15, 2022 in Knoxville.
Saban compiled a 16-1 record versus the Vols in the Third Saturday in October rivalry.
“We may have beat Tennessee 16 times, which I’m really proud of, but the only game that I remember is the one we lost,” Saban said when being introduced with the Predators. “We’re happy to be here. We’re excited to be here.
“Dream Sports is something that we created because we wanted to get involved in sports organizations. My partner and I, Joe Agresti, decided that we would make this entity, and we’re absolutely excited about it because we are connected to this town with the businesses that we have. We think Nashville is a great, growing city in the right part of the country for us, and to be a part of the hockey team here is something special, and we’d love to build it into a championship. We’d love to partner with Mr. Haslam on anything that we can do to help this organization be successful.”
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