Page 17 - Layout 1

INSPIRATIONAL
MEDICINE

facts imprinted in my head was the story of E. King Gill, the stu-
dent who became the inspiration for Texas A&M’s famous 12th
Man tradition.

In 1922, Gill was a student attending a football game between
the Texas Aggies and Centre College. It was a hard fought game and
many players were getting injured and hobbling off the field until
there was almost no one left on the bench. That is when Coach
Dana X. Bible looked in the stands and saw Gill, who had played
football the year before but was now just on the basketball squad.
He waved Gill down and had him suit up in case he was needed in
the game. As it turned out, Gill was not needed and did not enter
the game. But the Aggies won and Gill’s willingness to come out of
the stands and suit up in case he was needed became the inspiration
for the 12th Man tradition.

That is the reason that A&M students stand up during football
games — to demonstrate their “readiness, desire and enthusiasm”
to come out of the stands and play if needed (the only time they sit
down is when the opposing team’s band plays during halftime.)
There are now two statues of Gill on the A&M campus, one that
was dedicated in 1980 and sat at the entrance to Kyle Field for many
years has recently been moved to an honored spot next to the Me-
morial Student Center and was replaced with an even larger statue
of Gill. And the tradition lives on in many other ways as well. In
1950, the 12th Man Foundation was formed to raise money for ath-
letic scholarships.

In the 1980s, Coach Jackie Sherrill expanded on the 12th Man
tradition by establishing a 12th Man Kickoff Team made up of non-
scholarship, walk-on players. That was later scaled back to just one
non-scholarship walk-on as the representative “12th Man” on the
kickoff team and continues to this day. Students were encouraged
to wave a white “12th Man Towel” during kickoffs. In 1988, huge
letters spelling out “Home of the 12th Man” were added to the foot-
ball stadium.

The 12th Man tradition has continued to grow in significance at
the school and has become a major part of the school’s image and
marketing program. The term was trademarked in 1990 and when
the Seattle Seahawks professional football team began calling its fans
the 12th man last year, they received a cease and desist order from
Texas A&M and ended up paying the school a licensing fee to use
the 12th Man name.

But one part of the story that had seemingly been missing all these
years is what happened to Gill after he left school. Now I know. He
attended Baylor School of Medicine and became a doctor in 1929
and joined the Bexar County Medical Society where he got his pic-
ture enshrined on our board in 1932. King Gill came from a family
of doctors and the same collage includes a picture of his brothers,
Dr. William D. Gill, and Dr. James P. Gill.

continued on page 18

visit us at www.bcms.org 17