If not for Mal Moore, the Alabama football dynasty under Nick Saban may have never occurred. Take it from Saban himself.

The Crimson Tide head football coach dedicated a portion of his spring practice media availability to talk about Moore’s impact on the program and honored Moore on the 10-year anniversary of his death.

“I wanted to mention something that probably doesn’t mean a lot to people but it means a lot to me that Mal Moore was really close, a good friend, a great supporter. Really loved the University of Alabama, was here for a long, long time as a coach, as an administrator, athletic director. he was probably the biggest reason that we came here because of the relationship he developed with Miss Terry and us. I think it’s been 10 years since he’s been gone and we certainly miss him,” Saban said. “Can’t tell you how many things that are great sort of lessons and how much gratitude we have for the lessons that I learned from him and the things he did to support to help the program and help us get it turned around. Just a thought that everybody might say a prayer for Mal.”

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Saban reflected on the Alabama native while standing in the Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility, which was dedicated in Moore’s honor in 2007. Moore spent 50-plus years working with UA athletics from player to administrator, including a stint as athletic director from 1999 to 2013. From the portrait in the facility lobby to the memories Saban and others share, Moore’s impact still lingers over Crimson Tide sports.

Moore, as Saban explained, was essential in Saban’s hire and the two developed a close relationship throughout the early stages of Alabama’s six national-championship seasons under Saban. When asked for his favorite Moore tale, Saban played one of the hits, referring to one of their Sunday conversations during a film review from the 2007 season.

“You know, Mal used to always come in on Sunday when I’d be in the back room by myself watching film,” Saban said. “And I usually go through the previous game with the coaches — which I’d watch it early in the morning, I go to church and then come in and watch it with the coaches then start on the other team. And at like every Sunday about 3:00 in the afternoon he’d come in and just sit down and I was complaining to him about — when Mark Ingram was here his sophomore year, he’d carry the ball in the wrong arm a lot. Well, he was having a really, really good year and we were having a good year and I said something to Mal. I said, ‘I don’t know how we’re going to get this guy to carry the ball in the right hand.’ And he said, ‘You know, when I was coaching the quarterbacks here’ — and I forget the quarterback’s name — he said, ‘I told Coach Bryant’ — and it was the starting quarterback and he was a good player — ‘that if he did something different with his throwing motion that it would really make him a better passer.’ And Coach Bryant looked at him and said, ‘Don’t mess with the guy.’

“So what Coach Moore was telling me is, ‘Don’t mess with Mark Ingram.’ But he used to tell me stories like that about players all the time, you know, from the past. I enjoyed it so much. I probably didn’t tell the story very well but it was a lesson learned because sometimes really good players, they might not do thing exactly like you want them to but if they’re productive, it’s not worth changing.”

Alabama athletic director also paid respect to Moore through Twitter, posting “Coach Moore was an incredible leader and an even better man. He had a huge influence on me as a young AD, and I have so much love and respect for him. They don’t come any better than Coach Moore.”

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].