Coach Nick Saban’s Celebrated Leadership Includes Use of Chaplain

Paul Dykewicz

Fortune magazine named University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban as the world’s 11th best leader but little attention has been given to the value he finds in using a team chaplain who has been with him for each of the four national titles he has won at the university in the past seven years.

Advertisement.

Fr. Gerald Holloway, associate pastor of Prince of Peace Church in Hoover, Alabama, has served as the football chaplain at the University of Alabama for the past 13 years and quietly gained the distinction of tying the University of Notre Dame’s late sports chaplain, Fr. James Riehle, with four national football championships. But a chaplain’s contributions to an organization can go beyond what might appear on the surface, despite naysayers who claim such a spiritual presence has no place at a public institution, even if participation in religious services or prayers is strictly optional.

Fr. Holloway originally became the team’s spiritual leader in 2003 when former Alabama football coach Mike Shula attended Mass on campus each day upon taking the helm of the team and the sports-loving priest told his high-profile congregant that he needed a chaplain. Coach Shula responded that he’d get back to Fr. Holloway, who said he had doubts anything would come of the conversation until a day or so later when the priest said he received a phone call that his offer to fulfill that role had been accepted.

Even though Fr. Holloway stopped playing football in the ninth grade, he said he loves the game, enjoys serving as chaplain and performing the roles of leading the team’s weekly Mass and the pre-game and post-game prayers. Mass attendance is “voluntary” and the service is open to anyone involved with the team who wants to come, Fr. Holloway said. The Mass, which attracts “mostly Catholic players,” is held Friday night when a Saturday game starts at 11 a.m. or the service is celebrated the morning of the contest when it is scheduled for 2 p.m. or later, he added.

Advertisement.

The priest also has been able to receive and carry out requests for prayers and one-on-one counseling with some of the student-athletes. In one instance, a student attending morning Mass approached Fr. Holloway and asked him to pray for a “special intention.”

Only later did Fr. Holloway learn when the student’s father called to thank him that the intention was for his son to earn a spot on the Alabama football team as a walk-on player. Fr. Holloway did not recall the student playing in a game but the young man practiced with the team and never sustained an injury.

Fr. Holloway chuckled when remembering a telephone call he received from the student’s grandmother. She expressed concern about whether her grandson actually was “big enough” to play college football.

“Well, he made the team,” Fr. Holloway told her. The coach apparently answered the question for the grandmother with his decision to give her grandson a spot on the roster.

Advertisement.

Another aspiring Catholic football player arrived at Alabama without a scholarship and asked Fr. Holloway to pray for him. That student also made the team and eventually developed into a starting defensive lineman who led Alabama in quarterback sacks and tackles for loss three times during his four years of college football. The student, Wallace Gilberry, left Alabama second all-time in tackles behind the line of scrimmage with 60.5 and finished fifth on the Crimson Tide’s all-time quarterback sack list with 21.5.

Gilberry exhibited the same kind of determination in the National Football League, where he just finished his ninth season. He most recently played for the Cincinnati Bengals, after earlier stints with the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Fr. Holloway said some student-athletes have spent time talking to him as they try to adjust to the demands of school and playing on the football team. Those conversations are less likely to occur on a regular basis after Fr. Holloway’s transfer before last season to Prince of Peace parish more than an hour drive away in Hoover, Alabama, from St. Francis of Assisi, the parish on the Tuscaloosa campus that serves students and others affiliated with the university.

However, Fr. John Fallon, the pastor of Prince of Peace that counts 2,400 families among its parishioners, is an avid “Bama fan” who Fr. Holloway said helped make it possible for him to continue his role as the Alabama football team chaplain last season. The Crimson Tide won its fourth national title on January 11, 2016, in just nine seasons with Saban as its coach and Fr. Holloway as its team chaplain. Fr. Holloway expressed hope he can maintain his service to the team, if possible, despite the distance of his latest parish assignment.

Alabama’s football coach Nick Saban has been a consistent Sunday churchgoer at the campus parish since his 2007 arrival at Alabama, joining roughly 800 families and 800 to 900 students who regularly go to Mass there on Sunday, Fr. Holloway said. In fact, Coach Saban, who typically attends the 9 a.m. service that Alabama alumni began calling “Nick at Nine,” helped with fundraising efforts to build a new, larger campus church to accommodate a growing number of parishioners, Fr. Holloway said.

Advertisement.

“It has been a tremendous blessing for me to be a part of the football team,” said Fr. Holloway, who added he attempts to offer motivational words during his pre-game Mass homilies and prayers. He added that he tries to help the student-athletes grow personally and develop into productive citizens.

In an era when too many young people are misguided into engaging in terrorism, criminal activity or the abuse of drugs, the presence of a clergyman for student-athletes on the national title-winning football team at the University of Alabama seems to be producing victories on and off the playing field.

Paul Dykewicz is the editorial director of Eagle Financial Publications, editor of Eagle Daily Investor, a columnist for Townhall and Townhall Finance, and the author of an inspirational book,Holy Smokes! Golden Guidance from Notre Dame’s Championship Chaplain,” with a Foreword by legendary football coach Lou Holtz. Visit Paul’s website at www.holysmokesbook.com and follow him on Twitter @PaulDykewicz.

share on:

Like This Article?
Now Get a FREE Special Report:
3 Dividend Plays with Sky-High Returns

This newly-released report by a top-20 living economist details three investments that are your best bets for income and appreciation for the rest of the year and beyond.

Get Access to the Report, 100% FREE


img
share on:

PREMIUM SERVICES FOR INVESTORS

Dr. Mark Skousen

Named one of the "Top 20 Living Economists," Dr. Skousen is a professional economist, investment expert, university professor, and author of more than 25 books.

Product Details

  • Forecasts & Strategies
  • Home Run Trader
  • Fast Money Alert
  • Five Star Trader
  • TNT Trader
LEARN MORE HERE

Bryan Perry

A former Wall Street financial advisor with three decades' experience, Bryan Perry focuses his efforts on high-yield income investing and quick-hitting options plays.

Product Details

  • Cash Machine
  • Premium Income PRO (exclusively for subscribers of Cash Machine)
  • Quick Income Trader
  • Breakout Options Alert
  • Hi-Tech Trader
LEARN MORE HERE

Jim Woods

Jim Woods has over 20 years of experience in the markets from working as a stockbroker,
financial journalist, and money manager. As well as a book author and regular contributor to
numerous investment websites, Jim is the editor of:

Product Details

  • Successful Investing
  • High Velocity Options
  • Intelligence Report
  • Bullseye Stock Trader
  • Eagle Eye Opener
LEARN MORE HERE

Bob Carlson

Bob Carlson provides independent, objective research covering all the financial issues of retirement and retirement planning. In addition, Bob serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Fairfax County (VA) Employees’ Retirement System, which has over $2.8 billion in assets.

Product Details

  • Retirement Watch
  • Retirement Watch Spotlight Series
  • Lifetime Retirement Protection Program
LEARN MORE HERE

Jon Johnson

Jon Johnson's philosophy in investing and trading is to take what the market gives you regardless if that is to the upside or downside. For the past 21 years, Jon has helped thousands of clients gain success in the financial markets through his newsletters and education services:

Product Details

  • Investment House Daily
  • Stock of the Week
  • Technical Traders Alert
  • Rapid Profits Stock Trader
LEARN MORE HERE

DividendInvestor.com

Used by financial advisors and individual investors all over the world, DividendInvestor.com is the premier provider and one-stop shop for dividend information and research.

Product Details

Popular tools include our proprietary Dividend Calendar, Dividend Calculator, Dividend Score Card, and many more.

  • Dividend Investor
LEARN MORE HERE

George Gilder

George Gilder is the most knowledgeable man in America when it comes to the future of technology and its impact on our lives.  He’s an established investor, bestselling author, and economist with an uncanny ability to foresee how new breakthroughs will play out, years in advance.

Product Details

  • Technology Report
  • Technology Report PRO
  • Moonshots
  • Private Reserve
  • Millionaire Circle
LEARN MORE HERE

DayTradeSPY

DayTradeSPY was founded by head trader Hugh Grossman, a retired internal auditor for a Fortune 500 company. After years of first-hand experience trying out one trading strategy after another, Hugh instead developed his own trading system centered around day trading SPY options. That’s it... Nothing else.

Product Details

  • Trading Room
  • Pick of the Day
  • Inner Circle
  • Online Workshops
LEARN MORE HERE