Tag Archives: Gene Stallings

Paul “Bear” Bryant coached the last Texas A&M team to be ranked No. 1 in The Associated Press rankings. The Aggies occupied the top spot for three weeks during the 1957 season before losing. (AP file photo by Joe Holloway Jr.)

Plenty of Alabama fans should have little problem naming three of the four men who served as head football coaches at both Alabama and Texas A&M.

There’s Bear Bryant (1954-57 at A&M, 1958-82 at Alabama), Gene Stallings (1965-71 at A&M, 1990-96 at Alabama) and Dennis Franchione (2001-02 at Alabama, 2003-07 at Texas A&M).

Bryant and Stallings each won a conference championship at A&M. Stallings’ 1967 team won the Cotton Bowl over Alabama. Only two Texas A&M teams have won the Cotton Bowl since then, and both were coached by a former Alabama player, Jackie Sherrill, whose 1985 and 1987 teams won that bowl game.

But Sherrill never was head coach at Alabama, so he’s not the fourth name on the list.

The fourth might require a little research, even for the biggest Alabama fan. It’s D.V. “Tubby” Graves (1911-14 at Alabama, 1918 at Texas A&M). He did a good job at both schools, posting a 21-12-3 mark at Alabama, where he never had a losing season. In his only football season at A&M, he went 6-1.

He also coached baseball and basketball at Alabama before leaving in 1915 for A&M. At first, he served as an assistant football coach and head coach in basketball and baseball. He lasted one season with basketball, posting an 11-2 mark.

He eventually landed at Montana State, coaching football and basketball for two years.

Then he moved to Washington and stayed from 1922-46, serving as the football team’s backfield coach, assistant basketball coach and head baseball coach. After he retired from coaching, he remained at the school as an administrator. The University of Washington named him to its Hall of Fame in 1980 as part of only the second induction class.

The Huskies’ unbeaten 1925 team faced Alabama’s unbeaten team in the Rose Bowl, losing 20-19 as Graves faced his old team.

Graves made his greatest mark at Washington as a baseball coach, winning seven conference championships and finishing second seven times. The school named its baseball stadium for Graves, playing there until moving into Husky Park in 1998.

Until then, Washington was one of two schools to play baseball in a stadium named for a former Alabama head football coach. The Crimson Tide has played in a baseball stadium named for former coach Frank Thomas since 1948. In 1978, former baseball coach Joe Sewell‘s name was added, and Alabama now plays in Sewell-Thomas Stadium.

Texas A&M plays baseball at C.E. “Pat” Olsen Field, which is named for a former Aggies baseball player who became a beloved booster of the program.

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