Former Alabama head football coach Gene Stallings is recovering after suffering a mild stroke while in Montgomery, Ala. on Thursday night. Despite feeling ill, the former coach says he attended a banquet. After the event, he decided to check himself into the hospital.
“I introduced Dabo (Swinney, the Clemson head coach and a former player for Stallings at Alabama) as the speaker, but I didn’t feel well at all,” Stallings told the Tuscaloosa News. “So I went to the hospital, and they determined that I’d had a stroke before the banquet.”
According to the report, Stallings flew back to his ranch in Paris, Texas, on Friday and had to cancel a scheduled appearance in Tuscaloosa this weekend.
Stallings was the head coach at Alabama from 1990 through 1996. While at Alabama, his teams compiled a record of 70 wins, only 16 losses, and one tie. In 1992, his Crimson Tide team went 13-0, won the SEC championship and the national title. He won the AFCA Coach of the Year Award, the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award, the Paul “Bear” Bryant Award, and the Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award. He was named SEC Coach of the Year twice. Prior to becoming head coach at Alabama, Stallings was the head coach at Texas A&M from 1965 through 1971. He joined “Bear” Bryant’s first coaching staff at Alabama in 1958 and was part of two of Bryant’s national championship teams in 1961 and 1964.
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