Take a look at this scene: I’m sitting under a tree on a ranch in northeast Texas talking to the guy sitting next to me, who just happens to be Gene Stallings. That’s Gene &uot;one of the Junction Boys, Bear Bryant disciple, won a national championship at Alabama&uot; Stallings, who’s wearing his national championship ring.

Wow.

Stallings, myself and Buddy, his Australian blue heeler, sat next to an archaeological excavation on land he owns just outside of Paris, Texas, and I can barely believe it.

One thing was made rapidly apparent &045; Stallings is a heck of a nice guy. Without my even asking, he offered to give me an interview. He invited the archaeologists working at the dig, a field school put on by the Texas Archaeological Society to investigate a site occupied by native peoples about 1500 years ago, to come to his house one day for drinks and cookies.

Stallings is retired from coaching now, and he doesn’t miss it. For one thing, he doesn’t have the time to.

&uot;I’m on the go all the time. I’m on the president’s commission and several boards,&uot; Stallings said. &uot;I don’t get to be here as much as I would like.&uot;

Much of his time now is spent at speaking engagements, some for pay, but many more for fundraising events.

&uot;I try to raise a lot of money for these causes. I have a son with Down’s Syndrome and granddaughter with juvenile diabetes. At the University of Alabama, we helped set up the Stallings Center, which is a school for children with mental and physical disabilities.&uot;

So Stallings isn’t laying around doing nothing. When he’s at home, he works at his cattle ranch, something that’s introduced him to a type of pressure different from that he faced while coaching.

&uot;The pressure now is whether or not it’s going to rain and if beef prices will stay up,&uot; Stallings said.

He keeps up with football in the pro and college ranks, but mostly just to follow his former players and coaches.

&uot;I usually watch games on Saturday and Sunday. I still have players in the NFL that I coached and some of my old coaching buddies,&uot; Stallings said. &uot;I’d rather watch one I have an interest in than just be watching football.&uot;

The Paris native spent 38 years coaching in the college and professional ranks, but he never really left this small Texas town. He bought the first piece of his ranch in 1969.

&uot;I know people here,&uot; Stallings said. &uot;As you get older, that becomes more important. Coaches move around, so at the end of your career, where do you go? If you were fired at the last place you coached, you don’t want to stay there.

&uot;If you had success there, you don’t want to be bothered by people asking what you think all the time. It doesn’t matter what you think. We bought some land so we’d have a place to go.&uot;

Stallings spent 38 years coaching in college and the pros, something that made him famous. But watching him on the ranch, I can’t help but think maybe this is what it’s all about &045; coming home.

Christian Schmidt is a sports writer for The Democrat. Reach him at

christian.schmidt-@natchezdemocrat.com

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