The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, August 03, 1967, Image 12
Welcome, Aggies! PHOTOGRAPHY BY UNIVERSITY STUDIO What’s in a picture? You, a new Texas Aggie! As official photographers for your ’68 AGGIELAND we are looking forward to making an excellent portrait of you for the yearbook. One you will also want to send home to your family. We welcome you to Texas A&M University for the ’67 - ’68 academic year and invite you to visit our studio at any time. 115 NORTH MAIN 846-8019 COLLEGE STATION TEXAS THE BATTALION Page 2 College Station, Texas Thursday, August 3, Stallings Enters Third A&M Year GENE STALLINGS Head Football Coach i Although he has only two seasons of head cc behind him, Texas A&M’s Gene Stallings already has es( lished himself as one of the top football coaches in nation. Summoned back to his alma mater to rejuvenate t! Aggies football program, Stallings’ first two editions di played continual improvement and the upcoming ’67 clt has its sight set on doing the same. His first A&M club in 1965 won only three game but that included one of the nation’s great upsets, a 14-i win over Georgia Tech in Atlanta. His second club i 1966 posted a 4-5-1 mark and finished fourth in the Souti west Conference. It still figured in the championsli race right down to the final weekend of play. The Aggies' head man knows from experience, bot | as a player and coach, what is required to produce a winne He was tri-captain of the undefeated Aggie team of 195 Jg and he helped build championship teams at Alabama whei he served seven seasons as an aide on Coach Paul Bryant’s staff. He was Bryant’s assistant head coat when he accepted the Aggieland post in December, 1961 Long hours of hard, dedicated work are what Stalling puts in as he continues to bring the Aggies up the footba comeback trail. Stallings, who was 32 last March 2, was born in 19J at Paris, Texas, where he grew up to become an all-aroun sports star at Paris High. A natural leader, he captaim football, basketball and golf teams in high school anj was tri-captain of the Aggie club in 1956. He was a three-year letterman end under Coach Bryar . at A&M and won all-Southwest Conference recognition hi P 1 . 0 , 1 Aggie from junior season. The h Following his final varsity game at A&M, he wfe r ^ 1 t> married to the former Ruth Ann Jack of Paris. They havi four children. | He coached the A&M freshmen in the fall of 1957 am then moved with Bryant to Alabama where he spent thi next seven seasons. Stallings grew up wanting to be a coach and he waj fortunate, indeed, in learning the game under two greai ones, Raymond Berry at Paris High and Bryant at A&!1 He evidently was an apt pupil and learned his gridirot lessons well because when he became A&M’s head coach Alabama’s Bryant said, “He’s the top young college coachf ing prospect in America.” Dedicated to Texas A&M, Stallings says, “It is easy for me to try to sell a boy on coming to A&M . . . for threi reasons: First, it is a school where you can get an ex cellent education . . . second, it is a place where you will learn what loyalty means and . . . third, it is a placf where a boy can play for a good football team. Determined to win, Stallings leaves little to chance it his planning. All facets of his job are throughly organized so as not to overlook the smallest detail. Last year Stallings lead the Aggies through the seasoi with the words, “Make something happend.” This year's battle cry from Stallings is “The Aggies are back!” /*/>•< (R< TI ■ J§ 14 ■ ■! i p Yc Or LAST MINUTE WORDS Coach Gene Stallings gives the Aggie football team a few last minute instructions before they take the field for one of last fall’s games.