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Screw The Hall
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Hostile said:
Of which you are personally responsible for half.
edit ... dang duane stole my thunder
BlueStar II
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This is the "best" site, by far...about our 'Boys on the net, IMO! Many thanks to those who did such a fine job putting it together and maintaining it. Again...many thanks!
dwmyers
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Hostile said:
Ya know, what I really want as an icon is Dickie Meagle running for a touchdown in the Sugar Bowl and getting tackled by the Alabama player off the bench. But I've never found a gif or jpeg that captures it well enough.
So I've been sticking with the Rice baseball cap, as their baseball teams have been excellent in recent years.
David.
locked&loaded
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do Nors posts count for this?
but seriously do they?
but seriously do they?
TheHustler
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That's pretty impressive. Go CowboysZone!
Hostile
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I found a great article that mentions a Dallas legend as well as the Lewis tackle on Maegle.
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,San Serif]September 2, 2006[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, San Serif]Stallings cherishes memories of Cotton
[/FONT]
By Matt Curry
The Associated Press
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, San Serif]PARIS, Texas -- He's the last Alabama coach to win a national championship. Yet on his northeast Texas ranch, Gene Stallings takes second billing to the current Crimson Tide coach, Mike Shula.
Stallings' 43-year-old son Johnny, born with Down syndrome and a heart defect, is such a fan of this year's team that for Christmas he asked for the kind of shirt Shula wears on the sideline.
"I tell him, 'Johnny, your old daddy coached there, too,'" drawled Stallings, flashing a fatherly grin. "He says, 'You're not Mike Shula.'"
Johnny loves watching videos of this year's team, especially its 31-3 win over Florida. He'll be in the stands, at his father's side, as usual, on Jan. 2 when the Tide faces Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl.
It'll be a special day for Stallings, seeing the school he loves play in the game he cherishes.
While Stallings' seven-year, 70-win coaching career at Alabama doesn't include any Cotton Bowl appearances, one of the signature moments of his coaching career happened in that game against the Crimson Tide.
It was 1968 and Stallings was coaching his alma mater, Texas A&M, against Alabama, then coached by his mentor, Paul "Bear" Bryant. Stallings, one of the "Junction Boys" who survived Bryant's grueling 1954 summer training camp, just hoped some of his former coach's greatness would rub off on his team.
"I wanted my players to see him, hear him, feel him if they could," Stallings said. "I wanted them to get that chance because, in my opinion, he was the greatest college coach ever, and I still feel that way."
The Aggies pulled off the upset, 20-16. When the coaches met for the postgame handshake, Bryant grabbed his pupil and lifted him high in the air. In a much-published photograph, Stallings is beaming and Bryant's trademark houndstooth hat is knocked askew.
"He felt like I was sort of on my way," said Stallings, leaning back in his chair and savoring the memory.
Stallings retired in 1997 to the working Texas cattle ranch he began acquiring in his A&M coaching days. On a recent afternoon at the large country home he designed, Stallings reflected on everything from being an assistant coach on the Dallas Cowboys when they beat the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XII to his 1992 Tide team knocking off top-ranked Miami in the Sugar Bowl to go 13-0 and take home the national championship.
Football doesn't dominate his conversations, though he acknowledges missing the big games.
He's just as likely to tell visitors about the excitement of unearthing arrowheads over hundreds of tree-studded acres or accommodating a large church group for lunch.
Though proud of his many football accomplishments, he glows over a newspaper once naming him Father of the Year.
Stallings and his wife, Ruth Ann, have five children, all daughters except for Johnny, whose life story is told in a book Stallings co-authored called "Another Season: A Coach's Story of Raising an Exceptional Son."
The book chronicles how the family resisted advice to institutionalize Johnny, who doctors predicted wouldn't live to see his first birthday.
Still a solid, physically imposing man at 70, Stallings reaches over and softly smoothes his son's hair and talks teasingly of a lack of respect.
"To Johnny, the most important person is the trainer," Stallings said. "Anybody can coach, but the trainer gets to take care of the players."
Asked his favorite teams, Johnny quickly rattles off every place his father coached. He is outfitted from head to toe in Alabama gear, and team's equipment room recently was named in his honor.
Alabama has the upper hand among prominent personal mementos in the family's home: wooden elephants, photographs, paintings of the coach being carried victoriously from the field on the shoulders of his players.
"We won the national championship when I coached at Alabama. I won 70 games in seven years, but at the same time, I'm on the board of regents at Texas A&M, and I coached there, went to school there, and played there," Stallings said. "You know, I really love both of them."
Current Aggies coach Dennis Franchione bolted Alabama for the A&M job three years ago. Stallings, who appears on the Paul Finebaum radio program each week during football season, is frequently asked to assess the state of both programs since the controversial move.
"Alabama is doing better than A&M. A&M has only gone to one bowl in three years. That's not the only judge of success, but when 56 teams go to bowls, you sort of want to go to one," Stallings said. "It takes a while to build a program."
When responding to questions about Franchione, who finished 5-6 this year and fielded one of the worst defenses in the country, Stallings chooses his words carefully.
"I'm answering as a former student and not as a regent. My job on the board of regents is to hire the president who hires the athletic director who hires the coach," he said. "It's not my responsibility to hire a coach.
"I would say that Texas A&M had a disappointing year. Speaking as a fan and a former player, I would say the season started with great expectations with what we thought was one of the top three quarterbacks in the country," he said. "Why didn't we get the results we wanted? Injuries had a lot to do with it. I don't think we beat anybody who's going to a bowl. But there's always next year.
"Do I think Dennis Franchione is a good football coach? The answer is yes. He's had success everywhere he's been," Stallings said.
He also said Shula is doing a fine job at Alabama, which fielded a stellar defense that drew comparisons to Stallings' national championship team.
"Before the season, nobody thought they'd win nine games and be in a major bowl game like the Cotton Bowl," Stallings said.
Bryant won five national titles, raising the bar of expectations. Stallings is the only Tide coach to win one since then.
"Coach Bryant set that thing real high. I personally think Stallings came closer to that than anyone we've had," said Clem Gryska, a longtime assistant under Bryant who calls Stallings a "clone" of his former boss.
Alabama appeared in the first Cotton Bowl that Stallings ever witnessed. It was 1954 and he was an A&M freshman. That game also featured the strangest moment in the history of the game: Tommy Lewis coming off the bench to tackle Dickie Maegle of Rice. The Owls were awarded a touchdown on the play and won 28-6.
Before the 1968 game, Gryska recalls Stallings wearing a suit to a post-practice news conference, while Bryant had on his practice hat and coaching gear.
The next day, Bryant showed up for the briefing in a tuxedo.
After Stallings won the game, Bryant surprised Stallings by walking into the Aggies locker room to congratulate the opposing players.
"Coach Bryant," Stallings says reverently, "had this class about him."
The thought is echoed by Gryska, who volunteers at the Paul W. Bryant Museum on the Alabama campus.
"Coach Bryant would say, 'Show your class. If you haven't got any, it doesn't matter,'" Gryska said. "I think with Stallings, that embedded in him personally. He shows it real well."
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,San Serif]September 2, 2006[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, San Serif]Stallings cherishes memories of Cotton
[/FONT]
By Matt Curry
The Associated Press
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, San Serif]PARIS, Texas -- He's the last Alabama coach to win a national championship. Yet on his northeast Texas ranch, Gene Stallings takes second billing to the current Crimson Tide coach, Mike Shula.
Stallings' 43-year-old son Johnny, born with Down syndrome and a heart defect, is such a fan of this year's team that for Christmas he asked for the kind of shirt Shula wears on the sideline.
"I tell him, 'Johnny, your old daddy coached there, too,'" drawled Stallings, flashing a fatherly grin. "He says, 'You're not Mike Shula.'"
Johnny loves watching videos of this year's team, especially its 31-3 win over Florida. He'll be in the stands, at his father's side, as usual, on Jan. 2 when the Tide faces Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl.
It'll be a special day for Stallings, seeing the school he loves play in the game he cherishes.
While Stallings' seven-year, 70-win coaching career at Alabama doesn't include any Cotton Bowl appearances, one of the signature moments of his coaching career happened in that game against the Crimson Tide.
It was 1968 and Stallings was coaching his alma mater, Texas A&M, against Alabama, then coached by his mentor, Paul "Bear" Bryant. Stallings, one of the "Junction Boys" who survived Bryant's grueling 1954 summer training camp, just hoped some of his former coach's greatness would rub off on his team.
"I wanted my players to see him, hear him, feel him if they could," Stallings said. "I wanted them to get that chance because, in my opinion, he was the greatest college coach ever, and I still feel that way."
The Aggies pulled off the upset, 20-16. When the coaches met for the postgame handshake, Bryant grabbed his pupil and lifted him high in the air. In a much-published photograph, Stallings is beaming and Bryant's trademark houndstooth hat is knocked askew.
"He felt like I was sort of on my way," said Stallings, leaning back in his chair and savoring the memory.
Stallings retired in 1997 to the working Texas cattle ranch he began acquiring in his A&M coaching days. On a recent afternoon at the large country home he designed, Stallings reflected on everything from being an assistant coach on the Dallas Cowboys when they beat the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XII to his 1992 Tide team knocking off top-ranked Miami in the Sugar Bowl to go 13-0 and take home the national championship.
Football doesn't dominate his conversations, though he acknowledges missing the big games.
He's just as likely to tell visitors about the excitement of unearthing arrowheads over hundreds of tree-studded acres or accommodating a large church group for lunch.
Though proud of his many football accomplishments, he glows over a newspaper once naming him Father of the Year.
Stallings and his wife, Ruth Ann, have five children, all daughters except for Johnny, whose life story is told in a book Stallings co-authored called "Another Season: A Coach's Story of Raising an Exceptional Son."
The book chronicles how the family resisted advice to institutionalize Johnny, who doctors predicted wouldn't live to see his first birthday.
Still a solid, physically imposing man at 70, Stallings reaches over and softly smoothes his son's hair and talks teasingly of a lack of respect.
"To Johnny, the most important person is the trainer," Stallings said. "Anybody can coach, but the trainer gets to take care of the players."
Asked his favorite teams, Johnny quickly rattles off every place his father coached. He is outfitted from head to toe in Alabama gear, and team's equipment room recently was named in his honor.
Alabama has the upper hand among prominent personal mementos in the family's home: wooden elephants, photographs, paintings of the coach being carried victoriously from the field on the shoulders of his players.
"We won the national championship when I coached at Alabama. I won 70 games in seven years, but at the same time, I'm on the board of regents at Texas A&M, and I coached there, went to school there, and played there," Stallings said. "You know, I really love both of them."
Current Aggies coach Dennis Franchione bolted Alabama for the A&M job three years ago. Stallings, who appears on the Paul Finebaum radio program each week during football season, is frequently asked to assess the state of both programs since the controversial move.
"Alabama is doing better than A&M. A&M has only gone to one bowl in three years. That's not the only judge of success, but when 56 teams go to bowls, you sort of want to go to one," Stallings said. "It takes a while to build a program."
When responding to questions about Franchione, who finished 5-6 this year and fielded one of the worst defenses in the country, Stallings chooses his words carefully.
"I'm answering as a former student and not as a regent. My job on the board of regents is to hire the president who hires the athletic director who hires the coach," he said. "It's not my responsibility to hire a coach.
"I would say that Texas A&M had a disappointing year. Speaking as a fan and a former player, I would say the season started with great expectations with what we thought was one of the top three quarterbacks in the country," he said. "Why didn't we get the results we wanted? Injuries had a lot to do with it. I don't think we beat anybody who's going to a bowl. But there's always next year.
"Do I think Dennis Franchione is a good football coach? The answer is yes. He's had success everywhere he's been," Stallings said.
He also said Shula is doing a fine job at Alabama, which fielded a stellar defense that drew comparisons to Stallings' national championship team.
"Before the season, nobody thought they'd win nine games and be in a major bowl game like the Cotton Bowl," Stallings said.
Bryant won five national titles, raising the bar of expectations. Stallings is the only Tide coach to win one since then.
"Coach Bryant set that thing real high. I personally think Stallings came closer to that than anyone we've had," said Clem Gryska, a longtime assistant under Bryant who calls Stallings a "clone" of his former boss.
Alabama appeared in the first Cotton Bowl that Stallings ever witnessed. It was 1954 and he was an A&M freshman. That game also featured the strangest moment in the history of the game: Tommy Lewis coming off the bench to tackle Dickie Maegle of Rice. The Owls were awarded a touchdown on the play and won 28-6.
Before the 1968 game, Gryska recalls Stallings wearing a suit to a post-practice news conference, while Bryant had on his practice hat and coaching gear.
The next day, Bryant showed up for the briefing in a tuxedo.
After Stallings won the game, Bryant surprised Stallings by walking into the Aggies locker room to congratulate the opposing players.
"Coach Bryant," Stallings says reverently, "had this class about him."
The thought is echoed by Gryska, who volunteers at the Paul W. Bryant Museum on the Alabama campus.
"Coach Bryant would say, 'Show your class. If you haven't got any, it doesn't matter,'" Gryska said. "I think with Stallings, that embedded in him personally. He shows it real well."
[/FONT]
dwmyers
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I actually met Dickie Meagle when I was at Rice. I was the first person ever to live in a converted hotel complex called the "Gradlands". Dickie had some function with the dormitory system and he dropped by one day. He was shorter than I was, but I'd bet a far better athlete than I'll ever be, even at his age then. It was about 1983 or so.
It was short sweet, how-are-you, but it's one of my more treasured memories of being there. The other, I guess, were the time we watched Rice basketball and saw Rickie Pierce play.
David.
It was short sweet, how-are-you, but it's one of my more treasured memories of being there. The other, I guess, were the time we watched Rice basketball and saw Rickie Pierce play.
David.