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Title: Another Season by Gene Stallings, Sally Cook ISBN: 0-7679-0255-6 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 18 May, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (15 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A VICTORY FOR ALL
Comment: He longed for a son. So much so that at times Coach Gene Stallings imagined he could see him. "He'd always be a big strapping boy," Stallings writes, "and I'd envision him intercepting a pass, tucking that football under his arm, and sprinting to make a touchdown."
When his wife, Ruth Ann, did give birth to a son on June 11, 1962, Stallings couldn't wait to call his mentor and friend, Paul "Bear" Bryant. "We've got the boy, Coach Bryant!" he exulted. Then he proudly handed out blue banded cigars.
His elation was short lived. The next day when Stallings was told that his son was a mongoloid, the strapping assistant coach at Alabama passed out cold. It would be years before "Down syndrome" replaced mongoloid as an accepted term for the chromosomal disorder that results in delayed physical and mental development. It was only a few months before the couple learned that their son, John Mark, called Johnny, also had a serious heart defect.
Doctors and friends urged them to institutionalize their baby. The Stallings refused. They would raise their third child at home despite predictions that Johnny would never sit, walk or talk and, in all probability, not live to see his first birthday.
More than an account of raising an exceptional child, Another Season is testimony to a father's love. It is the heartwarming story of a remarkable family., as well as a poignant reminder of how perseverance and courage can overcome daunting obstacles.
Johnny's four sisters were his staunchest allies. Eager for him to learn, they rigged shoelaces on bedposts to repeatedly show him how to make loops and tie a knot - a feat he accomplished at six. Later, his sisters measured prospective dates by how warmly the boys responded to Johnny.
The bond between father and son grew stronger each day. Whether Stallings was coaching at Texas A & M, with the Dallas Cowboys, with the St. Louis Cardinals or leading the Crimson Tide, a devoted happy Johnny accompanied him to practice.
Two good reasons prompted Stallings' move to Dallas in 1972: superior educational opportunities for Johnny, and he needed a job. However, his first days as defensive secondary coach for the Cowboys were rocky. Players and staff knew he'd never been to a pro camp, never played pro football, and didn't have an enviable record at Texas A & M. As he brought Johnny to Saturday practice for the first time, he wondered how the Cowboy players would react. He knew when he saw a grinning Johnny squeezed between Roger Staubach and Lee Roy Jordan on a locker room bench. His son would belong.
The boy became such an integral part of the team that when Tom Landry passed out 1977 Super Bowl rings, Johnny's name was called . After slowly making his way to the front of the room, Johnny found that the diamond studded ring fit perfectly on his clubbed finger.
In 1989 Stallings saw himself as "a fifty-four-year-old coach who had been fired twice" (by A& M and the Cardinals). Then came the call from the president of the University of Alabama.
On January 11, 1990, in Tuscaloosa, he was introduced as Alabama's 22nd head coach . There Johnny found work he enjoyed at the Paul Bryant Museum.
Stallings was happy to be where his career had begun. That was also where it would end. After six years with the Crimson Tide, most of his goals were accomplished. He had compiled an average of ten wins a season, they had a 70-15-1 record, and won a national championship. Believing Johnny was slowing down and needed him, Stallings resigned. Some 300 people attended the farewell reception hosted by the Museum staff in Johnny's honor. As Stallings stood in a corner, he watched his 34-year-old son smiling, hugging friends, and posing for photographers. His boy had beaten all the odds and grown to manhood.
In a television commercial filmed for the United Way, Stallings says of his son, "His progress is measured in little victories." For Johnny Stallings and his family those small victories added up to a major triumph.
Rating: 5
Summary: A real-life story about football
Comment: This is an autobiography by a person who has had a highly successful career in college and pro football but knows the world does not start and end with sports. The raising of the Stallings' son Johnny, who has Down syndrome, is the real focus here. The two stories, football and family, are intertwined, as the authors never lose sight of the family even while describing the high and low points of Gene Stallings' coaching career. Indeed, Johnny as he grows shares in his father's work. The book gives insight into both the game and the people in it and in the Coach's family. These people are brought alive for the reader. It is the best book 'about' football I have read.
Rating: 5
Summary: It made me laugh, it made me cry.
Comment: As a parent of a young boy with Down Syndrome I very much enjoyed this book and recomend it to any new parent. It made me laugh, it made me cry and it opened my eyes to see how far the world has come with accepting people with disabilities. And just to know that there are parents before me who struggled with their child just as I struggle with mine and they too learned to live in a whole new world. And celebrated every little accomplishment just as we do with our son.
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Title: Count Us In: Growing Up with Down Syndrome by Jason Kingsley, Mitchell Levitz ISBN: 015622660X Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 12 January, 1994 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Gift of Peace by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin ISBN: 0385494343 Publisher: IMAGE Pub. Date: 10 November, 1998 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Babies With Down Syndrome: A New Parent's Guide (The Special-Needs Collection) by Karen Stray-Gundersen ISBN: 0933149646 Publisher: Woodbine House Pub. Date: December, 1995 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Fine Motor Skills in Children With Down Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals (Topics in Down Syndrome) by Maryanne Bruni ISBN: 1890627038 Publisher: Woodbine House Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Gross Motor Skills in Children With Down Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals (Topics in Down Syndrome) by Patricia C. Winders ISBN: 0933149816 Publisher: Woodbine House Pub. Date: August, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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