Throwback Thursday: Gene Stallings

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.