by Randy Gregory
Rockford football coach Ralph Munger has been honored by and inducted into so many associations and Halls of Fame it can be an overwhelming task to try and remember them all. Over the course of a career that has now reached 33 years on the gridiron the honors have included the Frankenmuth Hall of Fame, the Rockford Hall of Fame, the Concordia University Hall of Fame and the Duffy Daugherty award amongst many others. Now Munger will have to find a little more room on the mantle as the Michigan High School Coaches Association named him as the winner of the 2012 Coach of the Year for football. Each individual coaches association annually nominates one of their members and Munger was the recipient on this occasion.
“I am humbled by this selection,” said Munger. “When you are honored by awards like this it is just a reflection of all of the wonderful coaches I have had around me and the achievements of hundreds of athletes who I have had the honor to coach. If you add in the wonderful family and community support I have received in Rockford it is just the accumulation of a lot of external factors combining to honor me for just being the guy who steered the ship.”
Munger is closing in on his 300th win on the football field which would place him in rarefied air amongst coaches in general, and especially public school coaches. The 10-2 Rams will square off with Detroit Catholic Central on Saturday, November 17th in a Division 1 semifinal for the right to advance to Munger’s sixth appearance in a title tilt. The Rams have emerged victorious on three previous occasions.
Munger was presented with the award in front of friends and family at a banquet in Lansing on Sunday, November 11th.
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