Terry Saban & Alabama Coaches’ Wives Landscape Habitat Tuscaloosa’s ‘LANK’ House
Mrs. Terry Saban was back in Tuscaloosa Thursday, hard at work with a team of Crimson Tide coaches' wives landscaping the latest Habitat for Humanity house funded by the nonprofit she runs with her husband.
Nick and Terry Saban and their Nick's Kids organization became transformative supporters of Habitat Tuscaloosa after the EF-4 tornado of April 27th, 2011 damaged or destroyed more than 5,000 homes as it devastated the city.
Since then, the Sabans have funded the construction of 21 different Habitat homes across Tuscaloosa - one for each of the football program's 18 national championships plus homes for the Bama's 2021 SEC Championship over Georgia and their 2022 Sugar Bowl victory.
"The Sabans are an incredible gift to us. Before the tornado, our Habitat affiliate was a tiny thing that built one house, maybe two each year," said Habitat Tuscaloosa's executive director Ellen Potts. "Nick & Terry basically put us on the map with their patronage. They made other people take a closer look at us and want to partner with us, too. We've built 104 houses with two more nearly done since that tornado, and 21 of those are Nick's Kids houses."
Mrs. Terry and the coaches' wives were working Thursday at the LANK House, which is nicknamed in honor of the expectation-defying 2023 team's unofficial motto - Let All Naysayers Know.
As Tide fans know, the '23 team was widely written off after an ugly second-week loss to the Texas Longhorns only to pull off 11 wins in a row, including an SEC Championship victory over the otherwise undefeated Georgia Bulldogs, who were looking for their third consecutive national title.
For the Sabans, a season like that was more than enough to merit another Habitat house from Nick's Kids, which is made all the more special by Coach Nick Saban's January retirement.
Ellen Potts, the executive director of Habitat Tuscaloosa, said work on the LANK House is racing along - it was only framed in February and Mrs. Terry's landscaping work represents some of the finishing touches on the home.
"This is the 21st Habitat house sponsored by Nick's Kids and Mts. Terry and the coaches' wives have come to landscape every single one of those homes," Potts said. "This year is a little different given all of the changes in the football program, but we're excited that Mrs. Terry and coaches' wives past and present are here to help landscape this house. We have some who are coming back but also some of the new coaches' wives here with us, with all of this supplied by Tree House Nursery, a wonderful partner."
Potts said the impact of a Habitat home like the LANK House extends far beyond the obvious and tangible benefit of affordable home ownership.
One family in the Milestone neighborhood is raising a son with autism. Another moving in soon has a daughter with cerebral palsy, and another family has a quadriplegic daughter who was badly hurt in a 2022 car wreck.
Each of their homes will be built with accessibility features built-in specifically to accommodate those children and their individual needs, Potts said, allowing them to live more complete lives.
The LANK House will be bought and partially built by the Chambers family, who will move in after the house gets dedicated next month. Potts said for their 11-year-old boy, the benefits of this home are almost unquantifiable.
"This homeowner, she has a son in fifth grade who loves football, but look down the road," Potts said. "Does this house mean that her grandchildren or her great-grandchildren might go to college debt-free? Those kinds of things, even if they're 50 years away, are generational assets that home ownership can provide to and empower a family."
For more coverage of Habitat and other organizations working to make West Alabama a better place, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.
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Gallery Credit: (Stephen Dethrage | Tuscaloosa Thread)
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