William Ford Munnerlyn, Sr.

William Ford Munnerlyn, Sr.
( 4 Feb 1904 - 9 Jun 1978)

    William Ford Munnerlyn was born February 4th 1904 to William Mouzon Munnerlyn and Maie James most likely in Waco, Texas. William went by his middle name Ford. He attended high school at Corsicana where he played basketball, football and ran track. He excelled at each of these sports. He was the Quarterback and captain of the football team, nicknamed "Willie". He was also Captain of the Basketball team for at least one basketball season. His junior year he was elected class favorite. He graduated from Corsicana High School 1922. Ford attended Texas A&M College where he graduated in 1926. Ford later became a professor in the Poultry department at A&M. Ford married his high school sweetheart Lillian Hamilton in Corsicana, Texas on July 7^th 1926. Ford later retired as an insurance executive after his time as a professor at Texas A&M. Both Lillian and Ford were of the most popular students at their high school. Lillian's senior year at Corsicana she was elected Class Favorite and Queen of the Carnival.

Ford's wife Lillian Hamilton wrote one of the songs that is heard at Texas A&M University Football games, "The Twelfth Man," which she wrote in 1941. She said she got the idea for the song from a newspaper column by Lloyd Gregory about King Gill, who was called out of the stands to suit up at a football game, which began the Twelfth Man tradition at Texas A&M. On Thanksgiving Day, 1941 the song was officially adopted by the Aggie cadet corps.

Several different versions of the stories about the first Aggie 12th man have been spoken. Ford recalls the story about the Twelfth Man in a news paper article some time after he was retired.

"IT WAS IN JANUARY of 1922, either Jan 1or Jan 2, I'm not sure. A&M played Centre College at Dallas. That game was a forerunner of the Cotton Bowl. I was still in high school then but I was at the Game, and I later became good friends with King Gill. The fact is that he was already a member of the football team, but he was a sophomore and he didn't make the traveling squad. They didn't take along but 15 or 16 men in those days. At the half, two or three of the Aggies had gotten hurt, and they called Gill out of the stands to suit up. He'd gone to Dallas as a member of the cadet corps." He suited up and sat on the bench the remainder of the game. The Aggies won 22-14, and didn't need him.

Ford and Lillian had daughter Mary Ann and one son, William Ford, Jr., who also attended Texas A&M. Ford died on 9 of June 1978 in Houston, Texas.

Descendant Relation:
James Sr.>Loftis Redlee>Thomas Mixon>George Ford Sr.>William Mouzon>William Ford MUNNERLYN, Sr.

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