Daily Dose of Crimson Tide: A Student Literally Makes History (Nick Saban's Statue)

Need your fix of Alabama sports? BamaCentral has you covered with the story about Nick Saban's statue

Joey Blackwell/BamaCentral

For months it wasn’t the biggest question on the Alabama campus, but probably the largest secret.

Although Crimson Tide fans had been aware since January 7, 2010, after Alabama defeated Texas at the Rose Bowl 37-21, that a statue of Nick Saban would eventually be unveiled along the Walk of Champions plaza, what nearly no one knew who was working on it. … or that he’s a student.

“It’s kind of crazy, something of this magnitude that will affect, not necessarily the art world but the public in general because a lot of people will see that,” Jeremy Davis said. “I come from a very small town. We don’t even have a red light.”

Davis was selected for the project after MTM Recognition, which did the other statues outside of Bryant-Denny Stadium, submitted designs that were lacking a number of fine details.

A consensus decision was made to get someone locally involved who could have access to the coach and devote the necessary time and energy. The list of candidates had only one name on it. Davis was asked to draw a couple of preliminary sketches, which he did at his mother’s house in nearby West Blocton the night before presenting them.

“(Terry) Saban came into the meeting room, looked at it and just went, ‘Oh, this is what we’re looking for,’” said Alabama art professor Craig Wedderspoon, who oversaw Davis along with instructor Daniel Livingston. “Jeremy was freaking out of course.”

That’s when the real work began. After studying Saban’s physical idiosyncrasies and nuances, he made a 3-foot maquette, which is essentially a model that would be enlarged into the 9-foot final version — a process that would normally take two or three years to complete while his first statue would be unveiled 15 months after the title game.

Meanwhile, everything was done behind closed doors and on a need-to-know basis, with only Terry Saban getting regular updates.

“It was small things that she wanted fixed,” Davis said. “I remember on one of the better drawings I didn’t have the shadow on his ear just right, it was off just a little bit. She said that he had very distinct earlobes. His nose didn’t round off enough. It’s amazing how much she knew about this man’s face. I guess if you’ve been married for 40 years you know.”

The statue was unveiled on 2011 A-Day (a couple of weeks before a tornado cut through Tuscaloosa) and has been the target of opposing fans ever since.