It was either there, or very near the front of the head like yours is.
An even better place is closer to the starter. Some just use a starter bolt, but if your engine block has the threaded hole just in front of the starter motor (just above the pan rail), you can clean up that surface and use that for a good solid ground that's also pretty out of the way of other things.
I even keep a supply of dual-threaded studs in my electrical tool box just for this. It's like a 3/8" coarse thread into the block, and a fine thread on the outside to run a nut up. But a bolt would work just fine.
The reason I like to keep the main battery ground closer to the starter motor is that is what uses the most juice on the engine. And since I always make sure to add additional grounding points from the engine to the body, and the engine to the frame anyway, I don't think that losing the big cable ground from next to the alternator is that big of a deal.
I'm thinking that not all Ford engines have that threaded hole, but it's worth a look. If you have one, it only takes a few more inches of cable, which is not a big expense as things go. A few more pennies spent up front can do good things.
The only thing to keep it out of the way of, would be the exhaust manifold. But that's easy to do if you just run it up the frame rail and straight over to the hole. Easy peasy.
Paul