How do you rank a coach’s place in a school’s history?

Is success measured in championships? Overall wins? Impact on the lives of young people?

Any way you look at it, many believe gymnastics head coach Sarah Patterson has to be near or at the top of that list for Alabama.

The numbers speak for themselves. Under Patterson, the Tide has won seven Southeastern Conference championships, 27 Regional Championships and 23 individual championships. Her team is currently riding a 104-meet winning streak against Auburn. And on Saturday, Alabama won its sixth NCAA championship — its second in two years.

Patterson’s sixth championship ties her with legendary football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant. The same Bryant who is immortalized in Alabama lore. The same Bryant who has streets, buildings and even a stadium named after him.

The same Bryant who hired Patterson in 1979.

“The winning speaks for itself,” said Don Kausler, Alabama beat writer for al.com. “But I think her legacy goes far beyond winning. She’s succeeded in making gymnastics a popular sport on that campus and in the state. It’s unbelievable that they pretty routinely outdraw even men’s basketball.”

This season, men’s basketball averaged 12,484 spectators, while gymnastics drew an average of 12,827, according to al.com — yet another indicator of just how far Alabama gymnastics has come in 34 years.

A CBS reporter first asked Patterson about her place in Alabama history in 1988 after she led the Tide to its first national championship.

“The comment I made to the CBS commentator was, ‘Truly, I am just proud to be a small part of the history and tradition of the University of Alabama,’” Patterson said. “And when we won that first championship, that gave us a small place at the University of Alabama.”

Since that day in 1988, Patterson’s “small place” at Alabama has grown exponentially. She turned the gymnastics team into a juggernaut, adding five more championships, with the most recent coming on Saturday.

But winning back-to-back titles might be the greatest accomplishment in her illustrious career.

“Everything’s relevant, and what she’s accomplishing on the level of her sport is every bit as impressive,” Kausler said. “The SEC is known well for how competitive it is in football — and there’s other sports, too — but I would suggest that gymnastics is on the same level [as football], if not higher.”

Chrish Walsh, senior reporter for BamaOnline.com, however, isn’t as quick to make the comparison.

“Gymnastics doesn’t have anywhere near the same amount of teams, and football in the South is on its own level,” Walsh said. “There have been only four teams and coaches who have won national titles in gymnastics, but that shouldn’t diminish what the Pattersons have done at all.”

If there’s one coach who knows just how difficult it is to repeat as national champions, it’s head football coach Nick Saban. Saban’s 2010 team failed to match the success of the 2009 team, and he is currently trying to get his 2012 team ready to duplicate 2011’s results.

Is it possible for a gymnastics coach to put pressure on the football coach to repeat?

“I don’t think there’s a coach in the country that has more pressure on him. But that’s why he is who he is — because he deflects it, he handles it,” Patterson said. “I have learned a tremendous amount from watching Coach Saban, from listening to Coach Saban, and the times I get to talk to him, I’ve learned a tremendous amount that has made me a better coach.”

And Patterson’s reach extends beyond the gym, as well. She helped kick-start the “Power of Pink” movement on campus, which has now extended into many professional sports, including the NFL.

After the states of Alabama and Missouri were devastated by tornadoes in April, she organized a Tornado Relief Meet for Alabama’s meet with Missouri, which helped raise money for victims, as well as remember all who were affected.

“She has made people sit up and take notice, and she has shown that you can indeed stay at one place and thrive in an ever-changing and what-have-you-done-for-me-lately society,” said Rachel Baribeau, co-host of the Baribeau & Scarbo show on 97.3 The Zone. “She makes me proud to be a woman.”

Her athletes also consistently talk about the influence she has had on them outside of gymnastics. In the 2002 and 2011 championship years, Alabama was in the top four nationally in team GPA.

“She helps us so much in the gym, but she also makes us strong women,” junior Marissa Gutierrez said. “She helps us in the future with our majors and anything she can do to help us after our career here. She’s much more than just a coach.”

Patterson’s place in Alabama history is certainly established, and she is quick to dissipate any talk of it ending soon.

“I’m not going any place. So don’t say that like I’m leaving,” she said when asked about her career at Alabama.

Regardless of when she decides her time is up, Patterson’s influence is everywhere in Tuscaloosa.

And she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I don’t think there’s anything that my husband and I wouldn’t do for the University of Alabama,” Patterson said.