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Paris High School to honor Coach Gene Stallings

Head football coach Gene Stallings (left) looks on from the Alabama sidelines with assistant AD Gerald Jack, former PHS head football coach and class of '53 alum.
Head football coach Gene Stallings (left) looks on from the Alabama sidelines with assistant AD Gerald Jack, former PHS head football coach and class of '53 alum.

Paris High School will honor one of the legends of the game, Coach Gene Stallings, in the pre-game events slated for tonight's varsity football game against North Lamar.

Stallings is a 1953 graduate of Paris High School, where he served as a captain of the football, basketball, and golf teams, played football for Texas A&M University under head coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and was one of Coach Bryant's "Junction Boys." He was captain of the freshman and varsity football teams at A&M. He graduated from A&M and became an assistant coach to Bear Bryant and the Alabama Crimson Tide from 1958-1964.

Coach Stallings returned to his alma mater as the head football coach for Texas A&M University from 1965 to 1972 and led the Aggies to the 1967 SWC Championship.

He then left for the NFL and was assistant coach to Tom Landry and the Dallas Cowboys for 14 years. He coached the NFL Cardinals in the late 80's before returning to college coaching as head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide in 1990.

Stallings led the Tide to the 1992 national championship. He also directed Alabama to a Southeastern Conference title, four SEC West Division championships, five victories in postseason bowl games, and four final top-ten national rankings.

in 1992, Stallings was the National Coach of the Year, the American Football Coaches' Association Coach of the Year, the Paul Bryant Coach of the Year, and the Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year, an honor he earned twice at Alabama.

He has also received the Paul "Bear" Bryant Lifetime Achievement Award.

Coach Stallings has been inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, Texas Sports Hall of Fame, Texas A&M Hall of Fame, Gator Bowl Hall of Fame, and Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame. He also received an honorary doctorate degree from Harding University. For the last sic years, he served on the Board of Regents for the Texas A&M University System.

Coach Stallings took his spot among the game's elite in July as he was enshrined in the College Football Hall of FAme.

He and his wife Ruth Ann returned home in 1997 and reside on their beloved summer retreat since the 1960s, Hick-a-Way Ranch.

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