Patterson Named to Alabama Sports Hall of Fame
9/30/2002 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
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For most, it is an honor that if it comes at all, comes after they are done with their career, but as Sarah Patterson prepares for her 25th season coaching the University of Alabama gymnastics team, she is in.
Patterson, hired by legendary football coach and athletics director Paul “Bear” Bryant in 1978, found out last week that she would be a member of the 2003 class of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. It was an announcement that left her a little overwhelmed.
“I really didn’t expect this,” Patterson said. “And to be found worthy to join such a prestigious group, one that includes Coach Bryant... I think Ozzie Newsome said it best when he was inducted several years ago. He said there should be two halls of fame - one for Coach Bryant and one for everybody else. I now know how he felt.”
While the public announcement was made Sunday (Sept. 29), the actual induction ceremony comes March 8 at 7:30 p.m. in Birmingham. And just as Patterson will not make that trip to Birmingham alone, the four-time national coach of the year made it clear that this is not her honor alone. She is quick to credit her husband and assistant head coach David Patterson for the honor.
“While it’s my name that’s going into the sports hall of fame, I know and everyone else associated with the program knows that it is because of the work that David and I have accomplished together," she said. “I hope people realize that it’s the accomplishments of the two of us that are being recognized."
Over the years, the Pattersons have built a program that is second to none in terms of combining athletic and academic excellence with a strong sense of community involvement. The athletes that come out of the Alabama program are role models in the Tuscaloosa and University community.
“When I first came to the University I never envisioned or thought about a hall of fame career,” Patterson said. “I just knew that I wanted to have a program that did everything in a first class manner. I wanted Alabama to win championships, but I also wanted to be the best we could be in the classroom and to really make a positive impact in the community as well.”
Under the Patterson tutelage, Alabama has won four NCAA Championships, the first coming in 1988, followed by one in 1991, 1996 and the latest that came just last season when an upstart Tide team out-dueled one of strongest fields in recent memory to capture the national title.
In addition to its four NCAA titles, Alabama has collected 18 NCAA Regional titles and four Southeastern Conference crowns. The Pattersons have taken the Tide to 20 consecutive NCAA Championships and finished fifth or better nationally an astonishing 18 times. Individually Alabama gymnasts have earned 13 NCAA titles. Forty gymnasts have earned 174 All-American honors. Patterson gymnasts have earned SEC Athlete of the Year three times. In the 12 years the award has been in existence, six times a Tide gymnast has been NCAA Woman of the Year for the State of Alabama.
Academically Tide gymnasts lead the nation with eight NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships and the league with seven SEC Postgraduate Scholarships. Twice Alabama gymnasts have been named SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Since 1991, when the award was introduced, Tide gymnasts have earned Scholastic All-American honors 77 times, including 13 gymnasts last season alone. Alabama leads the conference in Academic All-SEC selections.
Patterson is the sixth woman to be inducted into the hall of fame and the first female coach. She joins such legendary mentors as Paul Bryant, Gene Stallings and CM Newton in the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. Patterson will be inducted with friend and former boss Steve Sloan, who in addition to an All-American football career at Alabama that included a national title in 1965, was athletics director in the late 1980s.
