An historic list of Texas football’s military veterans

Tomorrow is Veterans Day, which has been observed annually on November 11 in the United States since 1919, with the first such observance occurring on the first anniversary of the formal end of World War I. (Due to Veterans Day falling on a Saturday this year, it will be observed as a federal holiday today.) Originally known as “Armistice Day” in the U.S. and in several other countries prominently involved in the fighting of World War I, it officially became “Veterans Day” when an act of Congress so amended it in 1954, and it is a date intended to honor the military veterans of the many branches of the United States Armed Forces.

Many thousands of students, faculty, and staff members at the University of Texas from throughout the university’s 140-year history have served in the military, and hundreds of Longhorn student-athletes have done so. UT football players in particular have served in the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard, and in conflicts and wars ranging chronologically from the Spanish-American War to the 21st century wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some served primarily in training or teaching roles, and many who were in active duty never had to see combat before their discharge. But hundreds of Longhorns made the ultimate sacrifice while in uniform.

Seventy-five former UT students or staff members perished while serving in World War I, including four Texas football lettermen. At least 664 Longhorns died while serving in World War II, including 24 student-athletes, seven football lettermen, and one former head football coach.

The University of Texas at Austin was ranked among the top twenty “Best Colleges for Veterans” by U.S. News & World Report in September, and it was the highest-graded Texas college in those rankings. The Longhorn football program regularly recognizes veterans during pre-game ceremonies at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium, and that stadium itself was, upon its completion in 1924, dedicated to the many Texans who had fought and died in World War I.

There are many programs and benefits that UT and UT Athletics have which are designed for military vets, but one thing the UT Athletic Department evidently has not compiled is a list of student-athletes in general or Texas Longhorn football players in particular who have been military veterans. When I made an inquiry with the Media Relations office in 2021, I was specifically told that they did not have or maintain a list of Longhorn football veterans. So for Veterans Day 2021 I published a list of veterans among Longhorn football lettermen for this site. (A more full list deserves to be made for Longhorn athletes in other sports, but football is the only sport I’ve done such a deep dive on.) That list was far from exhaustive and was mostly based on notes I had compiled during research on many past Longhorns. Several names were added when that post was updated for Veterans Day 2022, and at that point the list contained 209 names of former players and head football coaches who had served in the military.

Since then I’ve been able to add 67 more names to the list, and it now includes 271 UT football lettermen (about 11.7% of the program’s all-time letter-winners) and six head coaches (Ed Price is the lone member of both categories among Longhorn veterans).

My list is expansive in its criteria for “veterans”. For instance, it includes Jerome Buxkemper, a 1945 letterman who was not a soldier but was for several years a teacher and coach at U.S. Department of Defense Dependents schools in Germany and Japan. There’s also Harlan Wetz, a big Longhorn tackle from the same time period who was a longtime officer in the National Guard and is included in a database of veterans maintained by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. I also included Jack Sachse, a three-year letterman and co-captain of the 1944 Longhorns, who enlisted in the Navy soon after the United States’ entry into World War II and was a trainee with the Marines while in college, but who ultimately received a medical discharge due to a shoulder injury that prevented him from being accepted for service in any branch of the military. At least two of those three don’t fit the official definition of “military veteran”, but Buxkemper spent many years teaching and coaching the children of American military personnel stationed overseas, and Sachse enlisted and was prepared to serve in the Marines during a world war before an injury prevented him from being called into active duty, so both of them make my list.

With my list of Texas Longhorn football military vets being expanded by 28% since last year, I thought it more appropriate to create a new post rather than simply add the new names to last year’s post and update the publication date.

The list below includes the names of recognized UT football lettermen and head football coaches who served the military in some capacity. The vast majority of them will be unfamiliar names to most readers, but there are many Longhorn greats among this group; by my count, it includes 48 UT Athletics Hall of Honor inductees and 34 Longhorn football team captains, plus at least three others — Ox Emerson, Red Goodwin, and Fred Moore — who were elected captain but were unable to serve in that role for one reason or another.

They are listed alphabetically by last name, and the year(s) in parentheses are those in which they won their football letters, or the years they held the position of head football coach. Listed after each name and their years with the UT football program is their hometown, or otherwise the city in which they attended high school (in Texas unless otherwise noted), as well as the branch of the armed services in which they served and the conflict or theater of war in which their service was rendered, if known. There are many compelling individual stories to be told about the men in this group, but that’s a subject for several other posts (or perhaps a book), and this one will stick to the most basic facts about each individual’s service.

I should also note for those who are sticklers for proper terminology that there are some anachronisms and inconsistencies of labeling with some of these veterans’ units, particularly as it regards the “Air Force”. Before the United States Air Force became its own branch of the military in 1947, many pilots served in the Army Air Corps (1926-1941) or Army Air Forces (1941-47), and many of the obituaries for these veterans said that they served in the “Air Force” even if the entirety of their service was prior to 1947. I’ve largely labeled their service according to how it was described in either their obituaries or in contemporary news reports, which were not always technically correct. If you know of a Longhorn football military veteran who should be on this list and isn’t, please let me know or mention them in the comments.

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University of Texas football lettermen and head football coaches who served in the U.S. military

Ben “Stookie” Allen (1924) — Corsicana — WWII, Army

Leroy Anderson (1944) — Wilmot, Wisconsin — Navy

Kenneth Anglin (1952) — Groom — Korean War, Marines

Judson Atchison (1935-37) — Baird — WWII, Army

Thomas Adam Austin, Jr. (1916) — Laredo — Army; retired as a colonel, and during his Army career he started the ROTC program at Lanier High School in Montgomery, Alabama. Col. Austin’s great-grandson Thomas Austin V is the current offensive line coach at Clemson.

Roy Baines (1937-38) — Odessa — WWII, Navy

Robert Baldridge (1931) — Clifton — WWII

William Barry (1920) — Dallas — WWI, Army

John Gaddis Bass (1913) — Houston — WWI, Army

Maurice Baumgarten (1929-31) — Schulenburg — WWII, Navy

James Henry “Jack” Beall, Jr. (1916) — Sweetwater — WWI, Army

Maxie Bell (1944-45) — Vernon — Navy

Kearie Lee “K.L.” Berry (1912, 14-15, 24) — Denton — Army; A career Army officer, he was captured in the Philippines by Japanese forces soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and he survived the infamous Bataan Death March at age 48 before spending over 3 years in a prisoner of war camp. He was liberated near the end of World War II and retired from active duty in 1947 as a Brigadier General, then spent another 14 years as the Adjutant General of Texas, holding the rank of Major General.

Cade Bethea (1897-99) — Seven Oaks — Spanish-American War, Army

Dause Bibby (1931-32) — Dublin — WWII, Navy

Dana X. Bible (head football coach 1937-46) — Jefferson City, Tennessee — WWI, Air Corps

Robert Blaine (1915-16, 19) — Houston — Army

William Bartlett Blocker (1904-05) — San Antonio — WWI

Ralph “Peppy” Blount (1945, 47-48) — Big Spring — WWII, Army Air Corps

Edwin Bluestein (1922-23) — Port Arthur — WWI, Navy

Daniel Philip “Phil” Bolin (1943-44) — Wichita Falls — WWII, Navy

Ray Borneman (1948-49) — Houston — WWII, Navy

Nate Boyer (2012-14) — El Cerrito, California — Army, Green Berets; Iraq, Afghanistan

Wesley Boyer (1937-38) — Fort Worth — WWII, Army

Edward Young “E.Y.” Boynton (1916) — Waco — WWI, Army

Dewey Bradford (1917) — Austin — WWI, Marines

Fred Brechtel (1945) — New Orleans, Louisiana — Navy

Wilson Brennan (1917-19) — Denison — WWI, Army

Clinton Giddings Brown (1901) — San Antonio — WWI

Shelby Buck (1938-39) — Crosbyton — WWII, Royal Canadian Air Force and U.S. Air Force; killed in a plane crash in England in May 1943

Max Bumgardner (1942, 46-47) — Wichita Falls — WWII, Army Corps of Engineers

Jimmie Burr (1931-32) — Austin — WWII, Army

Edmond Franklin Butler (1943) — Lubbock — Navy

Jerome Buxkemper (1945) — Ballinger — Teacher and coach at U.S. Department of Defense Dependents schools in Japan and Germany

James Ross Callahan (1943) — Wink — Navy

Dougal Cameron (1952-53) — San Saba — Vietnam, Marines; retired from active duty as a lieutenant colonel in 1972.

Paul Campbell (1948-49) — Breckenridge — WWII, Army Air Corps

James Maurice “Jim” Canady (1943, 46-47) — Austin — WWII, Navy

David Clinton “Bobby” Cannon (1919) — Crockett— Navy

Henry James Casey (1916) — Sherman — WWI artillery captain

Vance LaNoal Castleberry (1956) — Childress — Army Corps of Engineers

John Edward “Jack” Chevigny (head football coach, 1934-36) — Hammond, Indiana — WWII, Army and Marine Corps; killed at the Battle of Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945.

James Stewart Clarke (1896-97) — Boerne — Army

Randy Clay (1947-49) — Pampa — Army

Howard “Hank” Clewis (1930-32) — Austin — WWII, Army; attained the rank of colonel

Donald Cohenour (1940-41) — Orange — WWII, Navy

Joseph Russell “Joe” Coleman (1943) — Ballinger — Navy

Jack Allison Collins (1934-36) — Denton — WWII, Army Air Force

William Harold “Spot” Collins (1941-42, 46) — Breckenridge — WWII and Korean War, Marines

William Zuehl Conoly (1941-42) — Corpus Christi — WWII, Navy

Ted Constanzo (1975-77, 79) — San Antonio — Army

Jack Cowley (1926-28) — Paris — WWII, Army Corps of Engineers

Jack Crain (1939-41) — Nocona — WWII, Navy

Ed Crane (1903, 05) — Dallas — WWI, Army

Franklin “Sandy” Crow (1944) — Taft — WWII, Navy

Ward Dabney (1895) — Bonham — Army, Spanish-American War and WWI; an Army officer for 22 years who retired as a colonel.

Chal Newton Daniel, Jr. (1939-41) — Longview — WWII, Army Air Corps; killed in a plane crash northwest of New Braunfels on February 13, 1943.

Milton Enoch “M.E.” Daniel (1916) — Waco — WWI

Edward Gilmore “Gilly” Davis (1938-39) — San Benito — Army reserves, civilian pilot instructor

Doug Dawkins (1952) — Alexandria, Louisiana — Marines

Ted Dawson (1938-40) — Hondo — WWII

Gustav “Pig” Dittmar (1913-16) — Houston — Army

Walter Doell (1929-31) — Mason — Coast Guard

Harry Dolan (1916) — Taylor — WWI, Air Corps

Noble Doss (1939-41) — Temple — WWII, Navy

Addison Baker Duncan (1915) — Waco — Army

Glen Dyer (1954) — Sinton — Army

John Franklin Easter (1902) — Itasca — Spanish-American War

Robert Lee Edge (1944) — Dallas — WWII, Army

James Archibald “Pete” Edmond (1913-15) — Waco — WWI, Army; killed in action in October 1918

Joseph Ferguson Ellis (1920) — Lockhart — WWI

Joseph Henry Ellis (1918) — San Saba — Army

Gover “Ox” Emerson (1929-30) — Orange — WWII, Navy

Bernard Joseph “Bernie Esunas” (1936-38) — Washington, DC — WWII, Army Air Corps

Don Fambrough (1942) — Longview — WWII, Army Air Corps

Elmo Felfe (1945) — Thorndale — Navy

Jackie H. Field (1941-42) — Mission — WWII, Navy

Robert Franklin “Bob” Finn (1953-54) — Taft — Army

Harold Joe Fischer (1941-42, 44) — Austin — WWII, Marines

Preston Flanagan (1940-41) — Longview — WWII, Korea and Vietnam; Air Force, retired as a lieutenant colonel

Jack Freeman (1939, 41-42) — Mexia — WWII, Air Force

Floyd Garrett (1931) — China Spring — WWII, Marines

William Covington “W.C.” Gathings, Jr. (1901) — Covington — Spanish-American War

Frank Gerling (1944) — Austin — Navy

Audrey Lee Gill (1941-42, 46) — Sweetwater — WWII, Army Air Force

John Ellis Gill (1938-40) — Amarillo — WWII, Army Air Force

Byron Gillory (1945-48) — Marshall — Air Force; A career USAF officer who retired as a colonel. He was also a member of the first football coaching staff at the Air Force Academy.

William Gohmert (1919) — San Antonio — WWI

David Gonzalez (2016) — Chicago, Illinois — Marines

James William “Red” Goodwin (1939-40) — Amarillo — WWII, Army Air Corps; killed in action in April 1944.

Edwin Ghent Graves (1917-19) — Galveston — Navy

Archibald Duncan “Archie” Gray (1920-22) — Baileyville — WWI, Army signal corps

Jack Gray (1933-34) — Wills Point — WWII, Navy

Lewis Gray (1937-39) — Gorman — WWII, Air Force

Ralph Greear (1932-33) — Clovis, New Mexico — WWII, Army; killed in action in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest on November 29, 1944.

Charles Lawless Green (1917) — Cameron — WWI

George Maverick Green (1919-20) — San Antonio — WWI and WWII

John Bachman Greer (1917-19) — Waco — WWI and WWII, Navy; died in a Navy hospital in New York on June 10, 1944.

Marcel Gres (1943) — San Francisco, California — WWII, Navy

Harold Griffin (1934-35) — Breckenridge — Army

James Robert “Jimmie” Grubbs (1939-40) — Houston — WWII

Frank Guess (1946-48) — Wharton — WWII, Army

James Robert “Jimmy” Hadlock (1933-35) — Marshall — WWII, Army Air Force

Halkert Alford Halbert (1914) — Coleman — WWI

Ahmard Hall (2004-05) — Angleton — Marines; Kosovo, Afghanistan

Lawrence Hamilton (1917) — Dallas — WWI

Robert Kittrell Hanger (1916) — Fort Worth — WWI

William Penn Hargrove (1928-29) — Beaumont — WWII, Army Air Forces

Henry Harkins (1941) — Marshall — WWII, Navy

Rube Lee Harkins, Jr. (1939-41) — Marshall — WWII

Thomas Harrell (1945) — Norman, Oklahoma — WWII

Henry “Demp” Harris (1941-42, 46) — Camden, Alabama — WWII

Richard Coke Harris (1894) — Comanche — Spanish-American War

Thomas Maxey Hart (1916, 19-20) — Austin — WWI

Clyde Harville (1943) — Ballinger — WWII, Navy

Samuel Harwell (1916, 19) — Corsicana — Army

Charles Fred Hawn (1929, 31) — Athens — WWII, Naval Air Corps

Jesse Hawthorne (1940) — Port Arthur — WWII, Army Air Corps

Ed Heap (1945-46) — Temple — WWII

Walter Heap (1941, 46) — Taylor — WWII, Coast Guard

Bertram Hedick (1916, 19) — Mineral Wells — WWI

Hans Richard Frantz Helland (1910) — Waxahachie — WWI

James Higginbotham (1912) — Dublin — Naval reserve flying corps; died after a plane crash near Hicks Field in Fort Worth on February 23, 1918.

Lewis Holder (1946-48) — Dallas — WWII, Army Air Corps

Henry Lewis Hook (1944) — Houston — WWII, Navy; later a longtime civilian employee of the Department of Defense

Fred Walter Householder (1904-05) — Charlie — WWI

Kyle Hrncir (2018) — San Antonio — Army

Billy Hughes (1935-36) — Van Alstyne — WWII

Simeon Hardin Hulsey (1920) — Bonham — WWI and WWII; He was a doctor who held the rank of colonel and was commanding officer of the 36th Evacuation Hospital, which operated in the Pacific Theater of World War II.

Glenn Jackson (1937-38, 40) — Corpus Christi — WWII, Army Air Force

John Andrew Jackson, Jr. (1902) — Austin — Spanish-American War

Ransom Jackson (1945) — Little Rock, Arkansas — Navy

Gillis Johnson (1915-16) — Fort Worth — WWI

Woody Johnson (1941) — Tyler — WWII, Army

James Carroll “T” Jones (1950-52) — Childress — Army

James Slaughter “Snakey” Jones (1895-96) — Bastrop — WWI, Army captain; later a Judge Advocate in the National Guard who held the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Murray Brashear Jones (1908-09) — Houston — Army

Raymond Jones (1942, 46-47) — Austin — WWII, Navy

Louis Jordan (1911-14) — Fredericksburg — WWI, Army; killed in action in March 1918

Charles Herbert Jungmichel (1947) — Austin — WWII, Army Air Force

Harold “Buddy” Jungmichel (1940-41) — Thorndale — WWII, Navy

Hubert “Buster” Jurecka (1933-35) — Robstown — WWII, Army Air Corps

Bothwell Kane (1912) — Fort Worth — WWI, Army; killed in action in July 1918

Nathan Kaspar (2001) — Ganado — Navy

Ray Keck (1914) — Cotulla — Army

Raymond Keeling (1935-37) — Dallas — WWII, Army

Arthur Kelleher (1910) — Austin — WWI, Army

Raymond Keller (1899) — San Antonio — Spanish-American War

Winchester Kelso (1915) — San Antonio — WWI, Army

Thurman August “T.A.” Kinder (1900) — Marble Hill, Missouri — WWI, Army

George Cyrus Kindley (1904) — Graham — WWI, medical corps

Clarence Waldman King (1896) — San Antonio — Spanish-American War, Army

Arnold Kirkpatrick (1909-11) — Brownwood — WWI

James Shiro “Jim” Kishi (1943) — Houston — Army, WWII and Korean War; a very experienced pilot and engineer who spent a decade as director of research and development for the Army Aviation Test Board at Fort Rucker, Alabama

Ernest Koy (1930-32) — Sealy — WWII, Navy

Malcolm Kutner (1939-41) — Dallas — WWII, Navy

Thomas Wade “Tom” Landry (1947-48) — Mission — WWII, Army Air Corps

William Allyn “Rip” Lang (1916) — Corsicana — WWI, Navy

Wallace Lawson (1936-38) — Cleburne — WWII, Army

Pete Layden (1939-41) — Dallas — WWII, Army Air Corps

Bobby Layne (1944-47) — Dallas — WWII, Merchant Marines

Charles Holland Leavell (1896-98) — Georgetown — Spanish-American War

Bobby Coy Lee (1943, 48-49) — Austin — WWII, Army Air Corps

George Luhn (1923) — Taylor — WWI, Navy

Joe Magliolo (1942-43, 47) — Galveston — WWII, Navy

William Main (1943) — Danville, California — WWII, Navy

Keifer Marshall (1943) — Temple — WWII, Marines

Vernon Martin (1940-41) — Amarillo — WWII, Army Air Force

Martin Luther “Happy” Massingill (1909-10) — Midlothian — WWI, Air Corps

Julian Mastin (1919) — Fort Worth — WWI, Army

Kenneth Matthews (1941-42) — Corpus Christi — WWII, Marines

Stanley Mauldin (1940-42) — Amarillo — WWII, Army Air Corps

Frederick John Maurer (1943) — Eureka, California — WWII, Navy

Lewis Maverick (1896) — San Antonio — Army

Ray Mayfield (1944) — Galena Park — WWII, Army

Lewis “Mickey” Mayne (1941-42) — Cuero — WWII, Army

Jerry McCauley (1945-46) — Lubbock — WWII, Army

George Howard “Hook” McCullough (1920-21) — Fayette, Missouri — WWI

George Wendell McCullough (1919) — Waco — WWI and WWII, Navy and Army

Ned McDonald (1937-39) — Caldwell — WWII, Navy

William McGinnis (1943) — Wichita Falls — WWII, Navy

Roy Dale McKay (1941-42) — Junction — WWII, Navy Air Corps

Ray McLane (1893-95) — Laredo — Spanish-American War, Army

William Emmet McMahon (1900-01) — Savoy — WWI, Army; Judge Advocate General’s Office

Allen McMurrey (1915-16) — Cuero — WWI, hospital apprentice; WWII, Board of Examining Physicians

Claude Meadows (1928-29) — Waco — WWII, Navy

Kenneth Merritt (1944) — Dallas — WWII, Navy

Thomas Milik (1944) — Carteret, New Jersey — WWII, Navy

John Max Minor (1941-42) — Tahoka — Army and Air Force; West Point grad who retired as a colonel in 1975

Henry Mittermayer (1936-37) — South Bend, Indiana — WWII, Army Air Corps; later as a civilian he spent many years managing businesses on various U.S. military bases

Robert “Bobby” Moers (1938) — Houston — WWII, Army Air Corps

Fred West Moore (1916-17) — Austin — Navy

Murray Moore (1924-26) — Electra — WWII, Marines

Glen Morries (1942) — Temple — WWII, Army; killed in action on November 27, 1944

William Murray (1911-13) — Floresville — WWI

Park Myers (1937-39) — Caldwell, Kansas — WWII, Army

Horace Neilson (1914) — Ladonia — WWI

Grady Niblo (1911, 13) — Dallas — Army

Robert Read Nunn (1917) — Corsicana — WWI

Guy Nunnelly (1945) — Port Arthur — WWII

Richard Ochoa (1950-52) — Laredo — Air Force

Dan O’Connell (1917) — Palestine — WWI, Navy

Jimmy Dan Pace (1951-52) — Kenedy — Army

Jim Pakenham (1949) — Longview — Air Force

Joe Parker (1941-43) — Wichita Falls — WWII, Navy

Arlis Parkhurst (1956-58) — Colorado City — Marines

David Paul Parkinson (1952-54) — Baytown — Army

Rasmus Black “R.B.” Patrick, Jr. (1939) — Olney — WWII, Marines

Robert John Patterson (1942) — Texarkana, Arkansas — WWII, Army Air Force

Albert William Penn (1916-17, 19) — Austin — Navy

Marshall Pennington (1933-34) — Georgetown — WWII

Rufus Perry (1910-11) — Brownwood — Army

Derwood Pevetto (1939, 41) — Port Arthur — WWII, Army Air Corps

Henry Charles Pfannkuche (1924-25) — San Antonio — Army

Charles Phillips (1943) — Paducah — WWII, Navy

Bradley Poronsky (2005) — Air Force Academy, Colorado — Air Force, Judge Advocate General’s Corps

Billy Porter (1950) — Tyler — Marines

Melvin Preibisch (1933) — Sealy — WWII, Navy

Joseph Carlyle “Buck” Prejean (1931-33) — Orange — WWII, Army

Ed Price (football letterman, 1930-32; head football coach, 1951-56) — Corsicana — WWII, Navy

Ben Proctor (1948-50) — Austin — WWII, Navy

Leslie Proctor (1942) — Temple — WWI and Korean War, Marines

Nelson Puett Sr. (1911-12) — Temple — WWI, Army

Nelson Puett Jr. (1938-40) — Luling — WWII, Navy

William Jackson “Jack” Rhodes (1937-38) — Lexington — WWII, Navy

Walton Roberts (1941-42) — Tyler — WWII, Army

Darrell Royal (head football coach 1957-1976) — Hollis, Oklahoma — WWII, Army Air Corps

Bennie Rundell (1931-33) — Austin — WWII, Army Air Force

Clarence Rundell (1926) — Austin — Navy

Jack Sachse (1941-42, 44) — Electra — Marines

Perry Samuels (1948-49) — San Antonio — Army, Navy

Orban “Spec” Sanders (1940-41) — Temple, Oklahoma — WWII

Philip Sanger (1933-34) — Waco — WWII, Navy

Mack Saxon (1925-26) — Temple — WWII, Navy

Richard Schulte (1957-59) — Hondo — Air Force

Joe Schwarting (1941-42) — Waco — WWII, Navy

Dale Schwartzkopf (1945-48) — La Crosse, Kansas — Navy

Wallace Scott (1941-42) — Tyler — WWII, Navy

Charles Lee Sens (1916, 21) — Cameron — Army

Hilliard Judge “Bubba” Shands Jr. (1947-50) — Lufkin — WWII, Army

Robert Pendexter “Dexter” Shelley (1931-33) — San Antonio — WWII, Army

Ney “Red” Sheridan (1934-36) — Sweetwater — WWII, Army Air Corps

Sylvan Simpson (1915) — Llano — WWI and WWII; Army

Joe Brevard Smartt (1933-35) — Austin — WWII

Pete Smith (1917) — Austin — WWI, Army Air Force; WWII, Navy

Pablo David Soliz (1986) — Falfurrias — Marines

Charles “Sonny” Sowell (1951) — San Antonio — Army

Mortimer “Bud” Sprague (1923-24) — Dallas — WWII, Army; graduated as a cadet from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1929, but resigned his commission shortly afterward. Volunteered for service in the Army in May of 1941 and was a colonel by the end of WWII.

Franklin Stacy (1922) — Austin — WWI, Army

Tom Stolhandske (1950-52) — Baytown — Army

James Michael “Mike” Sweeney (1938, 40-41) — Amarillo — WWII, Army Air Force, killed in a plane crash in August 1944.

David Thayer (1939-40) — Houston — WWII, Army Air Corps; flew over 50 combat missions and attained the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Algernon Thweatt (1899) — Austin — Spanish-American War

Herbert Tigner (1926-28) — Houston — Army

James Wade “Jim” Tolbert (1933, 35) — Farmersville — WWII, Army Air Corps

Mike Trant (1954-56) — Tyler — Navy

Charles Edward Turner (1913-15) — Roswell, New Mexico — WWI

Conrad Eugene Van Ghent (head football coach 1916) — Ottumwa, Iowa — WWI, Army

Victor Fredrick “Vic” Vasicek (1946-48) — El Campo — Marines

Jake Verde (1934) — Beaumont — Army

Morgan Vining (1910) — Austin — WWI

Homer Waits (1916-17) — San Antonio — Marines

Frank Bert Walker (1914-15) — Azle — WWI

Jack Carpenter Wallace, Sr. (1945) — Edinburg — WWII, Navy

George Watkins (1941-42) — San Saba — WWII, Marines

Jimmie Watson (1944) — Midland — WWII, Army

Don Weedon (1939, 46) — Bryan — WWII, Army Air Corps

Woodrow Weir (1933-35) — Georgetown — WWII, Navy

Jack West (1941-42) — Waco — WWII, Navy

Harlan Wetz (1943-46) — New Braunfels — longtime National Guard officer, retired as a major

Tom Wetzel (1933) — Comanche — WWII, Navy

Berry Whitaker (head football coach 1920-22) — Anderson, Indiana — WWI, Army

Theron Wilbanks (1928) — Greenville — Army Air Corps

Don Williams (1938-40) — Amarillo — WWII, Korea; Air Force

Hugh Wolfe (1934, 36-37) — Stephenville — WWII, Army Air Force

Stuart Wright (1924-25) — Dallas — WWII, Korean War; Air Force, retired as a major general

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We owe all of these men above a debt of gratitude for their service. Here’s a “Thank you” to all of them, and Happy Veterans Day to any vets who happen read this post, regardless of your collegiate affiliation or fandom.