Stallings was a wide receiver for Bryant when the Bear was the head coach at Texas A&M, helping the Aggies win their Southwest Conference championship in 17 years when A&M went 9-0-1 during the 1956 season.
Following the 1957 season, Bryant left College Station to become the head coach at the University of Alabama, where Stallings joined him as a assistant coach for the defense.
With Stallings by his side, Bryant led the Tide to two national championships in 1961 and 1964, before Stallings returned to his alma mater to become the Aggies' head coach.
While Stallings and the Aggies struggled in his first two years in College Station, going a combined 7-12-1, Brynat led Bama to another national championship in 1965 and an undefeated season in 1966.
It appeared the 1967 season was going to be another long one for Stallings and the Aggies as they dropped their first four games to start the season 0-4.
But Stallings lead a dramatic turnaround as A&M won their last six games, including a 10-7 win over Texas to clinch the Southwest Conference title and earn a trip to the Cotton Bowl.
However, they went enter the game as heavy underdogs as they prepared to face the #8 ranked Crimson Tide, who coming off what was considered a down year as they finished the regular season 8-1-1.
With future NFL Hall-of-Famer Ken Stabler at quarterback and All-American Dennis Homan at wideout, the Tide were excepted to cruise over the Aggies.
But on a cold, muddy day in Dallas, the Crimson Tide would have to fight off a tough Texas A&M team.
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| Texas A&M quarterback Edd Hartnett(10) completed 11 of 21 passes for 143 yards with two touchdowns and zero interceptions. |
Alabama got the ball to start the game as they begin their first possession at their 35-yard-line.
But a miscommunication but Stabler and the backfield led to the quarterback pitching to no one, which was picked up A&M defensive tackle Ron Krueger at the Tide 28-yard-line.
Three plays netted eight yards for the Aggies leading to a 4th & 2 situation where Stallings decided to go for the 1st down.
The gamble did not pay off as Alabama linebacker Bob Childs knocked down A&M quarterback Edd Hartnett's pass forcing a turnover on downs and giving the ball back to the Crimson Tide at their 20-yard-line.
From there, the Alabama offense was able to put together the first good drive of the game, thanks to a 30-yard pass from Stabler to Homan and a 14-yard run by fullback David Chatwood, leading to a 4th & 2 at the Aggies' 10-yard-line.
That is when Bryant decided to gamble and go for the 1st down which he got when the Aggies jumped offsides, drawing a five-yard penalty and giving the Tide a 1st & goal at the five-yard-line.
One play after a two-yard run by Chatwood, Stabler would run around the left side for a three-yard touchdown to give Bama a 7-0 lead with 8:22 left in the first quarter.
After forcing the Aggies to punt on their next possession, the Crimson Tide got the ball at their 29-yard-line, only to give it right back to A&M on the first play of the drive when Stabler overthrew a pass intended for tight end Hunter Husband and landed in the hands of safety Tommy Maxwell for an interception, giving A&M the ball at the Tide 43-yard-line.
Perhaps discombobulated from the interception, the Tide defense lined up with only 10 men on the field on the first play of the drive as Hartnett fired a 28-yard pass to Barney Harris gave A&M a 1st down at the Bama 15-yard-line.
Then on 3rd & 8 from the 13, Hartnett threw a pass to running back to Larry Stegent, who made the catch at the five-yard-line, then broke the tackle of Alabama defensive back Bobby Johns to go run into the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown that tied the game with 5:22 remaining in the opening quarter.
The Tide came back with a 11-play, 56-yard drive that culminated with a 36-yard field goal by Steve Davis on the first play of the second quarter to give Alabama a 10-7 lead.
The game would turn into a defenisve stalemate for the majority of the second quarter as both teams combined for only 1st down until the Aggies defense forced their second turnover of the game when Jim Piper recovered a fumble following a hit on Bama wide receiver Perry Willis, giving A&M the ball at their 44-yard-line in the final minutes of the first half.
The Tide defense would poised to force a three-and-out but Hartnett hit Bob Long for a 17-yard gain on 3rd & 10 to give the Aggies a 1st down at the Bama 39-yard-line.
On the next play, Hartnett connected with tight end Tom Buckman for 21 yards, to put the Aggies in scoring position at the Tide 18-yard-line with 1:18 left before halftime.
Two plays later, the Aggies were faced with another 3rd down, this time 3rd & 13 from the 21-yard-line, when Hartnett threw a pass to Stegent in the right flat as the running back made a juggling catch for a 14-yard gain to set up 1st & goal with 21 seconds left.
That is when Hartnett hit Maxwell(that same Tommy Maxwell who made the game's first interception) for a seven-yard touchdown to give the Aggies their first lead of the game.
Though Charlie Riggs would miss the extra point, the Aggies went into the locker room with a 13-10 lead over the heavily-favored Crimson Tide.
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| While he ran for two touchdowns, Alabama quarterback Ken Stabler would threw three interceptions in the Tide's shocking loss to Texas A&M. |
After both teams punted on their opening possessions of the second half, the Aggies would drive 52 yards in six plays as Wendell Housely slipped by five Alabama defenders on his way to a 20-yard touchdown to push the A&M lead to 20-10 midway through the third quarter.
The Tide would toake over at their 17-yard-line but quickly drove down the field as Chatwood ran for 20 yards to start the drive, which was followed by a 19-yard pass to future Clemson and Arkansas head coach Danny Ford to the Aggies' 40-yard-line, and then a 22-yard pass from Stabler to Homan to give Bama a 1st-and-goal at the seven-yard-line.
Stabler would run in for the touchdown to bring the Tide to within four points when Bryant decided to go for the two-point conversion.
However, the two-point attempt would fail as Chatwood would be stopped at the line of scrimmage, keeping it a four-point game at 20-16 in Texas A&M's favor with 3:55 left in the third quarter.
The score remained that way going into the 4th quarter when the Aggies drove to the Tide 22-yard-line only to have Housely fumble a handoff from Hartnett, which landed in the hands of Childs.
Childs began to run with the football only to lose the football but get saved by teammate Alvin Samples who recovered the loose ball at the 27-yard-line, to end the Aggies' threat of increasing the lead.
After another exchange of punts, Bama got the ball at their 20-yard-line with 4:02 left in the game, needing to put together a drive for a possible game-winning touchdown.
The drive got off to an auspicious start was Stabler was sacked by A&M defensive back Ivan Jones, dropping the Snake for a seven-yard-loss.
A six-yard pass to Homan would step a do-or-die 4th & 11 from the 19-yard-line where Stabler hit fullback Ed Morgan for only one yard, only to have the Tide get a reprieve when an illegal use of hands penalty was called on A&M, giving the Tide a 1st down at their 44-yard-line.
Bama would pick up 21 more yards on the next two plays as Stabler connected with Willis for seven yards, then hit Homan for 14 yards to give the Tide a 1st down at the Aggies 35-yard-line.
But Stabler would threw three straight incomplete passes, the most agonizing one being a dropped pass by Homan that would given the Tide a 1st down at the 15-yard-line, to set up another 4th down situation.
Stabler threw to Husband for six yards, but he was tackled by Maxwell, giving the ball back to A&M, who took over at their 29-yard-line with 1:16 left and a chance to run out the clock.
However, the Aggies could not get a 1st down and were forced to punt the ball back to the Tide, who got the ball at their 36-yard-line with 22 seconds left to pull off a miracle.
Hopes of that miracle were quickly squashed when A&M defensive back Curly Hallman picked off a Stabler pass and returned it 14 yards to the Tide 44-yard-line, clinching the Aggies' first Cotton Bowl in 27 years as they pulled off the 20-16 upset.
As the two coaches met to shake hands following the game, Bryant picked up Stallings in a show of respect toward his former assistant.
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| Texas A&M head coach Gene Stallings is hoisted by Alabama head coach Bear Bryant following A&M's shocking 20-16 win over Bama in the 1968 Cotton Bowl. |
The loss in the Cotton Bowl is seen by some Alabama football historians as the start of a brief decline for the Crimson Tide as they would go 20-13-1 over the next three seasons before Bryant went to the wishbone formation for his offense and began recruiting black players to his program, which helped the Tide to nine SEC titles and three national titles over from 1971-82, the last 12 years of Bryant's tenure at Alabama.
Meanwhile, the win in the 1968 Cotton Bowl would be the highlight of Stallings' tenure as Texas A&M's head coach as he would be fired after the 1971 season compling a record of 27-45-1 in his seven seasons at College Station.
Stallings would join Dallas Cowboys head coach Tom Landry's staff in 1972 and would the team's defensive backs coach for 14 years until he became the head coach of the St. Louis Cardinals(before they moved to Arizona in 1988) for four seasons where he went 23-34-1 during that time before becoming the head coach at Alabama in 1990.
With one of the greatest defenses in college football history, Stallings would lead the Tide to their first national title in the post-Bryant era as Alabama would go 13-0 during the 1992 season, which ended with a 34-13 upset win over Miami in the Sugar Bowl.
Stallings remained as the Tide's head coach for four more years before retiring following the 1996 season.
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