No one told Ford tamales need to be unwrapped Food faux pas occurred after his 1976 tour of Alamo

Jack Ford greets people paying their respects today as his father, former President Gerald Ford, lies in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. Jack Ford greets people paying their respects today as his father, former President Gerald Ford, lies in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. Photo: Brendan Smialowski, Getty Images Photo: Brendan Smialowski, Getty Images Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close No one told Ford tamales need to be unwrapped 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

SAN ANTONIO — It was called the "Great Tamales Incident" because President Gerald Ford committed a no-no by picking up a plate of tamales during an April 1976 visit to the Alamo and started to bite into one still shuck-wrapped.

Then-Mayor Lila Cockrell, who was at the brief tour of the Alamo, said most people gulped when they saw Ford eating one of the tamales with the husk.

"I think he just picked up the plate because if someone had given him the plate, the tamales would not have had the shucks," Cockrell said. "The president didn't know any better. It was obvious he didn't get a briefing on the eating of tamales."

News accounts of Ford's tour of the Alamo noted he signed the guest book after viewing a Davy Crockett exhibit and a model of the original Alamo.

Ford — who died Tuesday at 93 — then left the Alamo for an outdoor reception hosted by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, the organization in charge of the Alamo.

The former mayor said she thinks it was a member of the DRT, the group that put on the light buffet, who got to the president quickly and removed the corn wrapper before returning the plate to him.

Cockrell said the president smiled and finished eating.

"You don't remember all the details, but you remember the incident," said Cockrell, now the president of the San Antonio Parks Foundation. "That was the thing that got reported. What people forget is that President Ford was a big, lovable, kind of ordinary guy. Whatever he did was so human."

Ford, who traveled to San Antonio as the guest of the San Antonio Bicentennial Committee, gave a speech outside the Alamo to more than 18,000 people.

Many of them had waited several hours in Alamo Plaza to get a glimpse of the 38th president.

The April 10, 1976, visit was just weeks before the May 1 Republican primary in which Ford was battling Ronald Reagan for the presidential nomination.

Before departing for Dallas, Ford also met with Republican backers at a luncheon meeting at the Hilton Palacio del Rio and spoke with Republicans at the Convention Center.

cdanini@express-news.net