ALABAMA FOOTBALL:
STALLINGS TO SABAN —
A Roller-Coaster Ride
by
DON F. STAFFO
1st
edition, 242 pages
$29.95
ISBN 978-0-89641-483-9
Alabama
Football opens with Stallings and a capsule of Alabama's
1992 national championship season, which for a short time reminded
people of what Alabama football is supposed to be. It is the only
book available covering the DuBose, Franchione, Price, Shula and
Saban eras and the wild roller-coaster ride that has been Crimson
Tide football from 1992-2008. A synopsis of the 2009 championship
season is described in Dr. Staffo's book Alabama
Football: Saban Leads Crimson Tide to the 2009 National Championship.
A two-book
special price
for both Alabama Football books by Donald Staffo can be ordered
from the Alabama
Football page on our web site.
PREFACE
When
Gene Stallings led the Crimson Tide to the 1992 national championship,
followers of Alabama football thought the Tide was on the verge
of another college football dynasty. Much has happened since that
1992 championship season. Unfortunately, not all of it has been
good.
In
this book, Donald Staffo recaps the good and the not so good of
Alabama football from Stallings to Saban, with interesting insight
and interviews from some of the key figures along the way. Don
brings out many of the facts as to what really went on during
this time period. From the '92 championship season to the NCAA
investigations to the coaching carousel of Mike DuBose, Dennis
Franchione, Mike Price and Mike Shula, this book will help enlighten
fans to what was transpiring behind the scenes in Tuscaloosa.
This
work provides an historical perspective, is interesting, informative
and easy to read. I think Alabama Football: Stallings to Saban
is a good book that captures many of the moments and events that
have surrounded Alabama football the past 18 years. I would recommend
it to all Alabama fans.
Rodney
Orr
TiderInsider.com/Tider Insider TV
INTRODUCTION
In
1992 Alabama celebrated its Football Centennial Celebration, “Century
of Champions,” an appropriate name for a program that had
won 11 national titles and led the nation with 23 bowl victories.
Nobody told me that in 1992 the Crimson Tide would win its 12th
national championship, or I would have waited another year before
completing my first book on Alabama football—Bama After
Bear. I wanted to get that book out in time for the 100-Year Celebration
of Alabama football. So this work picks up where that left off,
the 1992 season when Alabama won its first national championship
since 1978, when Paul “Bear” Bryant won his sixth
and last NCAA title, before retiring in 1982 and passing away
in 1983.
In
terms of stability, in the 25 years under Bryant, when championships
were routine and NCAA penalties unheard of, the Alabama football
program was the Rock of Gibraltar—as stable as it gets.
In the 27 years since Bryant’s retirement, the program has
been anything but. Beginning with Ray Perkins, the carousel of
coaches has included Bill Curry, Gene Stallings, Mike DuBose,
Dennis Franchione, Mike Price, Mike Shula and now Nick Saban.
And the program has been placed on NCAA probation three times
for several years for various rules violations.
“We
lost the perception of what Alabama football is really all about,”
stated Clem Gryska, 81, who began coaching with Bryant in 1961
and who is now administrative assistant at the Bryant Museum.
“And by perception I mean everything—on-the-field,
off-the-field, practice, academics, class—everything that
Alabama football stood for. Now with Coach Saban, I feel like
we’re on our way back up to the way Alabama football should
be perceived.”
This
book
is historical in nature, beginning with the exhilaration that
surrounded the program when Bama thrashed Miami in the 1993 Sugar
Bowl to culminate a magical season, and documents the varying
degrees of success and failure and the various football-related
problems that have plagued the program on and off for almost a
decade and a half prior to Saban’s arrived in Tuscaloosa.
Having
a few years earlier won a national championship at LSU, Saban’s
reputation preceded him to the Capstone. Saban was immediately
greeted akin to a rock star, his straw hat soon seen on people
of all ages, reminiscent of Bryant’s famed trademark hounds
tooth fedora. Saban brought hope to a proud, tradition-rich program
that desperately wanted stability and a return to the sustained
level of excellence that it once enjoyed almost continuously under
the legendary Bryant, college football’s all-time winningest
coach (323-85-17) at the time of his retirement. Under Saban,
Alabama football is considered by most to be back on track, with
many feeling the program is destined to reach the heights reminiscent
of its storied past.
There
have certainly been peaks and valleys since 1992, or as Tommy
Brooker, a member of Bryant’s national championship team
in 1961, put it: “Over that period of time we’ve had
a history that looks something like the stock market or an EKG
reading, with its ups and downs.”
There
can be no denying that following Bryant there has been considerable
chaos, and at times controversy, in the Alabama football program.
Steve Townsend, a former administrator in the athletic department,
said, “From 1992 until Coach Saban came, the thing that
stands out is the total lack of stability. We went through a bunch
of coaches. That period of time was the most unstable in my memory.”
What
follows is, based on extensive research and the information that
was shared, an attempt to describe in an objective and balanced
way some of the major events, circumstances and repercussions
that were part of the scenario that unfolded specifically between
the years 1992 and 2008. There were serious problems toward the
end of the Stallings’ era, turmoil for most of DuBose’s
tenure, embarrassment during Price’s short stay, frustration
and anger in the final weeks of Franchione’s two-year stopover,
and a program shackled by sanctions throughout Shula’s four-year
run. On the field, Saban so far has enjoyed tremendous success,
and off the field celebrity status unparalleled since Bryant.
“The
most amazing thing, despite all the turmoil, pitfalls and disadvantages
that Alabama has been through, is that Alabama is back in the
national championship picture,” stated Kirk McNair, former
sports information director at Alabama in the 1970s and long-time
editor of Bama Magazine.
But
what makes everything that happened—the good and the bad—particularly
noteworthy is that it happened and to date continues to happen
at an elite football school like Alabama. Said another way, if
some of the roller-coaster occurrences surrounding the football
program took place at a school with a nondescript football reputation,
they would barely be noticed, but when something goes wrong at
Alabama it’s national news.
And
despite all the havoc, Alabama for the most part kept winning.
Oh, not as much as during the glory years, but still considerably
more than most other programs do during their best of times. That
in itself is a tribute to Alabama football. Although former players,
people who work in the program and others who intensely follow
the program certainly do not agree on everything—in fact
frequently strongly disagree on issues—the common bond that
unites them come hell or high water is their undivided and unabated
love of Alabama football.
This
book is based on extensive research over an extended period of
time, information gained in many intensive interviews and numerous
conversations, and knowledge the writer gleamed from covering
University of Alabama football for going on 25 years—that’s
right, a quarter of a century. Regardless, there is no way its
contents, a critical chapter in the storied saga of Alabama football,
will please—or even satisfy—everybody directly or
indirectly associated with the program or those who follow it.
Furthermore, it must be realized that opinions vary and can be
biased, and memories can be faulty and selective. The result can
be people having different perceptions and recollections of events.
Those
directly or indirectly involved in the turmoil, as well as fans
with strong feelings on certain issues one way or the other, perhaps
leaves few unbiased observers. If in the view of some participants
certain topics or issues chronicled seem inaccurate from their
own perspective, it probably is because they or others withheld
information or chose not to express their feelings fully, while
others with a different view did so and did so more assertively.
The
intent of the book is not to provide answers, but to simply chronicle
the noteworthy events that took place during this period of time.
As between the Bryant and Stallings years, a lot has certainly
happened between the Stallings and Sabin years, and that’s
what this work documents and in some instances attempts to decipher
and analyze.
THE
CONTENTS
- The Gene Stallings Era
- The Mike DuBose Era
- The Dennis Franchione Era
- The Mike Price Era
- The Mike Shula Era Alabama and the NCAA
- The Nick Saban Era
Post-Script
About the Author
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
Dr.
Donald F. Staffo is a professor and chairman of the Dept. of Health
& Physical Education at Stillman College. He is in his 25th
year covering University of Alabama football, the last 22 for
the Associated Press and 8 for the Northport Gazette.
He was a writer for Bama Magazine for 17 years, correspondent
for The Tuscaloosa News for 15 years, Gannett News
Service for 3 years, and had articles on Alabama published in
USA Today, Alabama Alumni Magazine and numerous
other magazines.
Dr.
Staffo is the author of 7 books, chapters in graduate school textbooks,
127 scholarly publications, a newspaper column and more than 1900
articles in a variety of local through national publications.
He has made 73 professional presentations and has served on 34
state through International editorial/advisory boards, including
currently on boards of the International Journal of Sports Management,
International Journal of Research for HPERD-Sports, and Athletic
Management. He has been an athletic director at the college and
high school level. As a coach, his teams won 4 championships and
never had a losing season.
He
is the recipient of the American Alliance for Health, Physical
Education, Recreation and Dance Honor Award and the AAHPERD Henry
Award, the 2nd and 3rd highest national awards in his profession.
Other awards include the National Health & Fitness Association
Henderson Award, Ohio State University Distinguished Alumni Award,
first-ever Fulton-Montgomery Community College Distinguished Alumni
Award, Alabama Association for HPERD Honor Award, ASAHPERD Ethnic
Minority Leader Award, ASAHPERD Professional Responsibility for
Delivering Excellence Award, Southern District Sparkplug Award
and is the only person to receive all of Stillman’s top
awards: Teacher, Scholar (twice), Advisor and Humanitarian of
the Year. Also, the 2003 Alabama Press Association 1st Place Award
for Best Sports Feature.
In
addition to covering Alabama football and basketball for a quarter
of a century, Dr. Staffo is in his 42nd year as an educator and
his 30th year as a sports journalist. He earned his Ph.D. from
Ohio State University, M.A. from Western Kentucky University,
and B.S. from SUNY Brockport.