MUNDAY — It has become an October tradition in Munday for attendees at a Mogul football game to sing happy birthday to one of MHS’ top fans: Gene Thompson.

This year, however, the brief ceremony carries a special significance — one that Thompson has literally waited 100 years for.

Yes, Thompson, a 99-year-old veteran of World War II, will officially become a centenarian on Oct. 23. He will be honored two nights later at Munday’s home game against Quanah, where everyone in attendance will recognize the longest-tenured Mogul fan in the program’s history. 

To put Thompson’s connection to Munday athletics into perspective, it began when he played football as a Mogul in 1936. That’s three years before the retirement of baseball great Lou Gehrig, before Gone with the Wind was in the box office and before the horrific war in which he took part had seen its first shot fired.