Throwback Thursday: Gene Stallings

March, 20 2023

Regarded as the “Heir to Bear” by many in Alabama football, Gene Stallings returned the Crimson Tide to the top of the college football world during his seven-year run.

Stallings tallied a 70-16-1 record during his time with Alabama, leading the Crimson Tide to a 13-0 record and national championship in 1992. With Stallings at the helm, Alabama captured three SEC West divisional crowns and won five bowl games.

A graduate of Texas A&M, Stallings was a member of the famed “Junction Boys” under head coach Bear Bryant and helped the Aggies to a 9-0-1 mark in 1956 and the school’s first Southwest Conference title. Upon his graduation, he immediately joined Bryant’s staff at Alabama and was a part of two national title teams for the Crimson Tide in 1961 and 1964.

At the age of 29, he was named head coach of Texas A&M, guiding the Aggies to the 1967 Southwest Conference championship. He joined the coaching staff of the Dallas Cowboys under the guidance of legendary coach Tom Landry in 1972 and was a part of the franchise’s Super Bowl XII championship team.

After a stint in the 1980s serving as the head coach of the St. Louis/Arizona Cardinals, Stallings returned to the place where his coaching career began, tasked with resurrecting a stagnant Alabama program. It took him a mere three years to bring the program its first national title in more than a decade.