Documenting the Stallings Legacy
C&IS Professors Produce Documentary Showcasing UA Legend
In his time at The University of Alabama, former head football coach Gene Stallings made a lasting impact on his players, colleagues and the entire UA community. Motivated by his legacy, two C&IS professors set out to capture his story and his influence in a documentary.
“Do Right: The Stallings Standard” showcases the creative activity of Dr. Chandra Clark, assistant professor in journalism and creative media and Dr. Michael Bruce, associate professor. For several years, the pair followed the life of the former Alabama football coach and his impact on the UA campus. They put their talent to work to capture the stories of the people who have felt the impact of the coach.
Coach Gene Stallings with his '92 team after the Alabama vs. Miami National Championship game.
Coach Gene Stallings with his '92 team after the Alabama vs. Miami National Championship game.
Coach Gene Stallings at the RISE Center.
Coach Gene Stallings at the RISE Center.
Coach Gene Stallings with his son Johnny.
Coach Gene Stallings with his son Johnny.
The project was initially planned as a documentary of a 2016 reunion held for Stallings and his former team, but Clark saw an opportunity to develop the story into something greater. She first built a relationship with Stallings while she and her C&IS students conducted profile pieces at the RISE Center annual golf tournament, the Tournament of Champions. At the event, journalism and creative media students interviewed children and families from RISE, a program started in 1974 at UA to enrich the lives of infants and preschoolers with and without special needs. Stallings, whose son Johnny was born with Down syndrome, became an advocate for the RISE program upon his arrival as the head football coach in 1990.
Clark developed a relationship with Coach Stallings through the tournament, and quickly understood the community-wide impact the coach cultivated in Tuscaloosa. Later, Clark and Bruce – alongside Dwight Cammeron, former documentary film producer at UA’s Digital Media Center – were asked to interview Stallings and his former players at a weekend-long reunion event.
“We were the only ones they allowed to shoot video and record interviews with all these players, so we were there for every event,” Clark said. “We had a few students help as well and ended up with about 40 or 50 interviews and met tons of our former players.”
In hearing from so many former players, Clark and Bruce knew they had something special.
“As we reflected on our interviews from the 2016 reunion, we realized how much there was to Coach Stallings’ story,” Bruce said.
This was a story the nation needed to know, and so the documentary production began. The production details the involvement and impact Coach Stallings had on RISE and his legacy at The University of Alabama.
“Coach Stallings and his family never had anything like RISE for his son Johnny growing up with Down syndrome, so they got very involved, helped raise money for the program, and now families from around the country move here just so their children can be a part of RISE.” Clark said.
Coach Gene Stallings at The University of Alabama RISE center.
Coach Gene Stallings at The University of Alabama RISE center.
Through his involvement with the program, Stallings was able to make RISE a national name. According to Clark, the impact of the Stallings family on RISE led to the development of multiple RISE centers across the country. Clark and Bruce’s documentary showcases the Stallings family’s positive contributions to programs that support people with developmental disabilities and the lasting effects of the family’s actions on the progress of future programs.
The documentary features interviews with Stallings, his family and players from his 1992 national championship team, among others. While many may know Coach Stallings because of the relationship with his son, Bruce and Clark used their complementary skills as former broadcast journalists to illustrate the coach’s lifelong legacy in one package.
“Dr. Bruce and I are what you would call true partners. In the production world, he is the director and I'm the producer.”
As the producer, Clark developed the story content and ensured that she and Bruce had the interviews and voices that could best represent the story. Additionally, she built relationships with and coordinated the interviews of all 150 subjects.
As the director, Bruce brought the story to life. He used his skills to shoot footage in the field, shoot footage of the interviews and develop visual content to support the storyline.
Research took the pair and their production crew across the country, from the Stallings' ranch in Paris, Texas, to a former sports reporter’s home in Tucson, Arizona, to RISE schools in Dallas, Houston and Denver, to Texas A&M University and Clemson University, finding the people and places touched by Stallings’s coaching and ethic.
They have worked with the Stallings family and other coaches like Dabo Swinney to capture the full extent of how Stallings always tried to do the right thing and improve the life of anyone he met, but especially those with special needs.
When Clark and Bruce came together, they organized and edited their work to fit the narrative they had in mind. The pair noted that the skills they used throughout the production process are the same skills they teach their students in the classroom.
“We used every skill that is taught in C&IS and in our classes for journalism and creative media for the 150 interviews we conducted,” Clark said.
Clark and Bruce collaborated with C&IS students, faculty and the Center for Public Television throughout the process of creating the film. Together, they displayed valuable skills like conducting interviews, videography and photography, audio, lighting and post-production editing.
“We hope everyone will be able to see it on a regional or national stage and in theaters in Alabama and Paris, Texas, which is the hometown of Gene and Ruth Ann Stallings," Clark said.
In addition to showcasing the legacy of Stallings, Clark and Bruce hope the project will show people that everyone can make a difference and a positive impact on the lives of others.
“This is really more than a football story. It’s a story about impacting lives,” Bruce said.
“Everybody can make a difference in someone else’s life,” Clark said. “One Gene Stallings quote that I love from the documentary is ‘Do the best with what you have.’ We should always make the best out of whatever has been given to us, and that's what I want people to see.”
The powerful story captured by Clark and Bruce is not only a testament to Coach Stallings’ legacy at the University, but it is a source of motivation for C&IS faculty, staff and students to capture and create powerful legacies of their own.
On October 14, 2017, Coach Gene Stallings returned to the home of The Tide for the 25th anniversary of the 1992 team’s national championship. Dwight Cammeron, Michael Bruce, and Chandra Clark were on the field with him capturing footage for the documentary. Despite having recently suffered two heart attacks and a stroke, Coach Gene Stallings enjoyed seeing the players and honored his commitment by attending the celebration.
Dabo Swinney spent seven years with Coach Gene Stallings as a player and a graduate assistant. He was a wide receiver from 1990-1992 and a graduate assistant under Stallings from 1993-1996. Swinney and the football program at Clemson University, where he is now head coach, support the Clemson Life program, a collegiate experience preparing young men and women with intellectual disabilities for competitive employment and independent living.
On August 27, 2018 Dr. Clark and Dr. Bruce continued their research by visiting Mack Brown in Linville, North Carolina. Brown’s North Carolina Tarheels and Coach Gene Stallings’ Alabama team played against each other in the 1993 Gator Bowl. The Browns and Stallings developed a friendship, and advocate for families in need. At Coach Gene Stallings's encouragement, when the Browns moved to Austin, Texas, for Brown to be the head coach at the University of Texas, Brown and his wife Sally Brown also helped start and support the RISE School of Austin which opened in 2003. Brown also won the inaugural Gene Stallings Award in 2012 which honored him for his humanitarian work off the field.
Dr. Bruce and Dr. Clark worked with ESPN producers on a video where they provided creative content from their research which aired on SEC Nation on the SEC Network on New Year’s Day 2018 about the leadership and influence of Coach Gene Stallings on head coaches Dabo Swinney and Nick Saban. SEC Network Reporter Lauren Sisler anchored the report and met with Bruce and Clark afterward to discuss their work.
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