 He was the athletic director at Florida State University from 1971 to 1973 and at Vanderbilt University from 1973 to 1978.Stapleton played college football at the University of Tennessee for head coach Robert Neyland.On September 9, 2006, Stapleton was inducted into the Iowa State Athletics Hall of Fame with fellow alumni Beth Bader, Jon Brown, John Crawford, Barry Hill, Russ Hoffman, Jerry McNertney, Hugo Otopalik, Keith Sims, and Winnifred Tilden.