November 10, 2012; Tuscaloosa, AL, USA; Alabama fans take photos by the statue of former Alabama coach Paul Bear Bryant before their football game against the Alabama Crimson Tide at Bryant Denny Stadium. John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

Alabama will pen a new chapter in its history with Texas A&M this Saturday. Despite only having met on the field five times over the years, the Crimson Tide shares a common bond with the Aggies; this mainly has to do with a coaching pipeline that benefit Alabama greatly over the years.

Paul “Bear” Bryant was named the coach and athletic director at A&M in 1954 after stints at Maryland and Kentucky. He quickly built the Aggies into a power, coaching their only Heisman winner not named Johnny Manziel in the person of John David Crow.

Bryant went 1-9 in his first season with the Aggies, which was the same year he conducted his infamous preseason camp in Junction, Texas. The players that survived the tortuous retreat are today known as the “Junction Boys” and among those 40 men was one Gene Stallings.

Stallings helped A&M compile a 9-0-1 record in 1956 en route to the Aggies’ first Southwest Conference title since 1939. The budding coach followed Bryant to Alabama when “mama called” and worked as a defensive assistant during the ’61 and ’64 national championship seasons. This caught the attention of A&M and they hired the then 29-year old as head coach in 1965.

Stallings only had one winning campaign at A&M, but he capped off that 1967 season in grand style with a Southwest Conference title and a Cotton Bowl victory over his former coach and boss, Coach Bryant. The Bear couldn’t have been more proud.

Stallings was fired from Texas A&M in 1971, and joined the Dallas Cowboys staff, where he worked as the defensive backs coach on the Super Bowl XII team. He returned to Alabama in 1990 and turned the Crimson Tide’s program around after a decade of mediocrity following Coach Bryant’s retirement and death. Stallings guided Alabama to an undefeated season in 1992, winning the inaugural SEC Championship Game and destroying Miami 34-13 in the Sugar Bowl to claim Alabama’s first national title in 13 years.

Coach Stallings is still active in the Texas A&M community, and served on the University’s Board of Regents from 2005 to 2011 as appointed by Governor Rick Perry.

Alabama did reciprocate, but not as successfully. After Dennis Franchione led Alabama to 17 wins over two seasons, he left abruptly to take over the Aggies football team. Scandal ended his time at A&M after a 19-21 record in Big 12 play.

Both Bryant and Gene Stallings led A&M to conference titles, and both similarly coached Alabama to national championships. But coaching at Texas A&M stands as more than just a prelude for future greatness for the two college football champions. It served to create a unique bond between schools for a half century that almost felt like family.