He played college football at Texas A&M University (1954–1956), where he was one of the "Junction Boys", and later served as the head coach at his alma mater from 1965 to 1971.
Stallings' 1992 Alabama team completed a 13–0 season with a win in the Sugar Bowl over Miami and was named the consensus national champion.
He attended Paris High School, where he played end as a sophomore alongside future National Football League (NFL) star, Raymond Berry.
Shortly after helping Alabama win the 1964 national title, Stallings was named the head coach of his alma mater, Texas A&M, at the age of 29.
[citation needed] With the university only recently going co-ed, its military focus and the ongoing war in Vietnam, A&M struggled to recruit against its Southwest Conference rivals.
[15] The Cardinals used the comeback to springboard themselves into position to clinch a playoff berth on the final Sunday of the season, but fell short with a 21–16 loss at Dallas.
[16] In 1988, the Cardinals pulled off another miracle comeback, rallying from a 23–0 deficit against the eventual Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers for a 24–23 victory.
[17] Phoenix was 7–4 and in first place in the NFC East but collapsed, losing their final five games, including two to the division champion Philadelphia Eagles.
Following Harold Drew, Stallings became only the second Alabama head coach since the renewal of the Iron Bowl in 1948 to defeat Auburn in his first attempt; Dennis Franchione became the third in 2001.
In 1992, Stallings' experienced defensive unit led the team to an undefeated regular season and a berth in the first SEC Championship Game where Alabama defeated Florida, 28–21, giving Alabama its 20th Southeastern Conference (SEC) title, and its first outright conference title since 1979.
[25] Stallings' 1993 Alabama squad won a second straight SEC West Division title, compiling a 9–3–1 record.
[22] After an investigation that ran from late 1993 to August 1995, the NCAA found Alabama guilty of four major rules violations during the 1993 season.
Stallings was implicated, along with athletic director Hootie Ingram, in falsifying the eligibility of Alabama cornerback Antonio Langham during that season.
Langham had signed with a sports agent and applied to enter the NFL Draft following the 1993 Sugar Bowl, but was not subsequently declared ineligible per NCAA rules.
Alabama was also forced to forfeit eight wins and one tie from its 9–3–1 1993 season in which Langham participated, resulting in an official record of 1–12.
[26] Alabama went 8–3 in 1995, the only season between 1992 and 1996 that Stallings didn't win the SEC West (Auburn finished first in the division in 1993 but was serving a post-season ban).
[28][29][30][31] As a result of John Mark being born with Down syndrome, and a congenital heart defect, Stallings became heavily involved in projects promoting better education and quality of life for the developmentally disabled;[32] the two appeared in a 1987 NFL public service announcement for the United Way.
[35] Most recently, Faulkner University in Montgomery, Alabama, named its new football and soccer field after John Mark Stallings on October 8, 2010,[37] an honor that had been planned prior to his death two years before: The sports world lost a legend on Aug. 2 in Paris, Texas.
... With help from four sisters, the Stallings family raised a man who has become a legend in Alabama for his smile and his positive outlook on life.
His son, John Mark was born with Trisomy 21, Down syndrome, and Gene Stallings has a school for children with disabilities named after him on the University of Alabama Campus, for which he hosts a charity golf tournament every year.