The Knox Nunnally Endowed Scholarship was established by the Board of Regents of The University of Texas at Austin in 1997 to benefit intercollegiate athletics. Gift funds were contributed by Knox D. Nunnally, a 1968 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law.

In 1961, Knox Nunnally entered The University of Texas at Austin on a football scholarship,  recruited by longtime defensive coordinator “Iron Mike” Campbell. Under legendary head coach Darrell Royal, Nunnally played at two Cotton Bowls, an Orange Bowl, and in 1963 played on UT’s first national championship team. Asked to describe what kind of a motor Knox played with, Coach Campbell’s reply was “Knox dances every dance,” an attitude he applied to life.

Nunnally always took great pride in the fact that in his three varsity seasons as a Longhorn, the team never lost to the Sooners or the Aggies. They won 30 games, lost two, and tied one. He was a part of the great Texas defenses of the 1960s that won pivotal games in the Southwest Conference against some of the greatest quarterbacks in history – Don Trull of Baylor, Roger Staubach of Navy, and Joe Namath of Alabama – and he was a part of the goal-line stand that preserved the victory over No. 1-ranked Alabama in the first nighttime Orange Bowl  in 1964.

He was a unanimous selection as an All-Southwest Conference defensive end his senior year in 1964. He likewise was named to the Academic All-American Football Squad. In 2008, Nunnally was inducted into the 52nd Class of the University of Texas Longhorn Hall of Honor.

As a student, Nunnally was a member of the Texas Beta Chapter of Phi Delta Theta, the Silver Spurs, and Omicron Delta Kappa. He was honored as the Outstanding University of Texas Intercollegiate Letterman in 1965, his senior year. In the fall of that year he entered the UT School of Law, where he was a member of Phi Delta Phi and graduated with honors in 1968. As a law student, Nunnally played for the most successful intramural football team ever – the Legal Eagles, coached by the legendary constitutional law scholar and life mentor, Charles Alan Wright.

Update April, 2019: Knox Nunnally passed away in July, 2012