Colt 45 Pistol Leadership Award

Beginning in 1982 (I think), an alumnus started donating a cased Colt 45 caliber  pistol to the graduating cadet who best exemplified leadership traits for both the university and the US Army. I remember that it was presented to Rick Gibbs one year and Dan Hughes the next. Since both made general officers, I guess that the committee knew what they were looking at.

An interesting note was that each year, I had to go to a downtown Dallas office building, in uniform and pick up the pistol. Although it was the mid-1980’s, I still got some interesting stares and a some comments, mostly positive, but not all.

Info from LTC (Ret) Ron Munden, Commandant of Cadets 1981-84.