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Just committed to us. Go Mean Green !!!

Actually it basically went this way. North Texas achieved "University" status in 1960 or 61. A name change was in order, but to do that a bill needed to be submitted to the Texas legislature. The sponsor for the bill was a representative from Mineral Wells (I can't remember his name). Our choice of name change in the 1961 legislative session was THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS. It made it through the house with no problem, but when it arrived in the Senate, it got real ugly. At least three Senators, (the most vocal of which, was an educator from El Paso), stood up and strongly objected to the proposed name change. They said that it was an affront to the great University of Texas and their great traditions. Many Senators (especially the UT grads) piled on with all of the negative perceptions/tropes that were typical of that era. "That little teachers school", "That Little commuter school", "Their credits won't even transfer to any of the REAL schools in Texas"..etc, etc. Bottom line was, if the bill continues as written, several of the Senators threatened to filibuster the bill. ALL of those negative comments are part of the official legislative record. It's not rumors leaking out of a committee meetings. Well, North Texas HAD to have a name change, so the Bill sponsor met with the......a-hole Senators and asked what they could live with. They said they could live with NTSU. So the Bill was changed and it went back through the house and senate and was finally approved. North Texas went after the preferred name change again in 1988 and were successful. But not after some UT graduates in the legislature tried some procedural shenanigans to screw with the process.

Here is a pretty good summary. While University Day 1988 was a festive event, it was intended “to be a joyous, but not frivolous, occasion,” as achieving the new name was much more difficult than anticipated. After having changed names several times throughout its history, in 1961 the institution first attempted to legally change its name from North Texas State College to the University of North Texas; however, while the bill, introduced by State Representative Joe Ratcliff, easily passed the Texas House, it met opposition in the Senate from Senator Charles Herring of Austin. Senator Herring feared the bill would harm the University of Texas and “said it was ridiculous to think there could be two universities ‘in a little town the size of Denton.’” He called North Texas State College’s attempt to become the University of North Texas a “fraud on the public,” and insisted that the institution “is nothing but a teachers college and that’s what it’s going to be for years to come.” Representative Ratcliff compromised, rather than let the bill die in the Senate, and the name was changed to North Texas State University. A second attempt to change the name to the University of North Texas was made during the 1969-1971 legislative session, however this move was once again challenged by the University of Texas at Austin, and their opposition prevented introduction of this into legislation at that time. Not willing to completely give up on the name change, university officials began discussing the potential change to the University of North Texas once again in the fall of 1986. This bid ultimately met with success, but not before nearly dying twice on the legislative floor. Neither near-failure had anything at all to do with the merits of the bill itself, but both were purely due to political games. The first near casualty came from Representative Wilhelmina Delco of Austin, who delayed passing the bill through the Higher Education Committee in favor of her own bill. The bill finally passed out of the House committee only three days before the end of the legislative session. The second challenge for the bill came from Representative Jim Rudd of Brownfield, who, in retaliation for an unrelated slight, placed objection to five of Senator Glasgow’s bills, including that of North Texas State University’s name change. Some quick work from members of the Calendars Committee got the bill moved to a higher priority, and the House approved the change from North Texas State University to the University of North Texas. Govenor Bill Clements signed the bill without any further drama, officially changing the school’s name to the University of North Texas, effective May 15, 1988.

There's room in your heart to hate both SMU and UT.

No!

I was wondering if anyone else had noticed the bolded sentence at the end. Most of you may or may not know that Bill Clements was an SMU graduate. and rather than screwing with us, (which he was certainly capable of doing), he signed the bill changing our name to UNT. So much for SMU conspiracies. Of course, maybe he wanted to screw with UT more than he wanted to screw with us. I still hate SMU however,

Nice late afternoon snack! Way to go good guys! Shorter was a monster!

The only problem is that nobody in Dallas watches smu. They can't deliver the viewers we can.

As much as we talk about where SMU might, maybe, possibly, could be, perhaps, hypothetically, conceivably, by chance be going in conference realignment....can we change the name of the board to GoSMUconjecture.com???

True, but our fans have proven they will show up for a winner. Win or lose, smu's fans don't show.

Further proof that journalism is dead.

UNT's alumni includes 434,000 members, with 294,000 alumni who live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. SMU has 126,695 alumni worldwide, with 57,049 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

I’m with you. I think this squad is going to be very good. I think we may win 8-9 games.

Wait I am confused, I see the feather logo inside the numbers but nothing inside the lettering. The first post is confusing

“…there are fracture lines already blooming on social media between what is called the “coastal elites” of the Pac-12 and the labeled “flyover states.” https://www.deseret.com/2022/7/21/23271470/big-12-pac-12-banter-growing-salty-as-realignment-uncertainty-hovers

Yeah I’m getting to the point where I am not crushed with a full collapse of the current system. There will be a reset. There will be college football. There will be tailgates and road games. There will be regional rivalries. The trying to keep up and daily changes are getting boring. beat utep GMG

Please just go ahead and split off at the high levels. This is ruining College football. These teams are no longer anything but professional squads. Time to reset and move on.

@Harryand Mods. Can we please start moving the SMU threads to another location? At first it was sort of funny but now it's getting ridiculous that almost everything on the North Texas football thread is about SMU. Some of you people need to get over it or just sign on to the SMU board.

Hey TCC Mean Green, have those schools actually gone on record saying they didn’t want to play SMU? Have a link? _______________ All should put themselves in the shoes of an SMU alum to understand their anguish in moving up. We would be if we were ready, but Smatresk & WBaker have a few more miracles to pull off, venue-wise. As far as SMU is concerned, this will probably be their last chance to make a dramatic conference move for awhile. Reading GMG, it’s easy to see all agree UNT needs to put itself in a better winning situation with better attendance. Many times in the past when serious re-alignment talk comes up we are deficient in some areas athletically & in venues. Not as much now in the latter. *NFL scouts are sure impressed with our Indoor Practice Facility, aren’t they? Back To the Beep! Beeps! Some I’ve spoken to have asked “is UTSA in the process of passing us by in football & football attendance?” Well…time will tell, but UTSA does have an impressive 2022 home football schedule to draw at home. Told some 3+ years ago: “Watch out for UTSA when they start winning.” Why? (1) They have a large stadium plus it’s covered & (2) they have a tourist destination city who shows big signs that they will support a winner. •••Their UAB win last year in the Alamodome is a big hint of that. •••They had 50K+ fans for their program opening game over 10 years ago. •••UTSA almost reminds me how Bill Yeoman’s UH football program really started taking off in 1965 when they first moved to a large domed stadium. UH also had a city who would support a winner. 🏳 Hardly waving a white flag here since UNT has 10X’s better venues for all its varsity sports than UTSA, but somehow we just have to get Mean Green football back up & running toward an annual Top 25 level. Others in the American have certainly done it. UNT has no choice now but to do it.

Pretty soon we will hear.." I'm here to play FB/BB or whatever.....not go to school.....just show me the MONEY"!!!

How about those jerseys ? Let’s start Flyers Uniform talk.

Looks like we play at 5. GMG!

For me it depends on QB play. Not ready to boldly go up to 8-9 wins until I see how QB plays out. But also not ready to roll over and predict losses to mediocre teams like UNLV or FAU.

Thank you @SilverEaglefor the education

Ralph Yarbrough ?

The Eagle logo is inside of the lettering.

Wasn't Darrell Royal in favor of adding NT to the SWC?

Would be very tasty if Purple & Black win later setting up a rematch of the 2010 NCAA tournament game between Shannon Shorter and Jacob Pullen. No doubt Shorter would love a chance for revenge.

If Gunnell is legit then have a passing game and running game that force the Defense to keep guessing could be impressive

@meangreenfaninno You and most of the UNT people all have the same problem with VASTLY overestimating SMU. SMU has ZERO leverage with The Big 12. Zilch. None. Nada. It's time to put the SMU boogeyman fairytale to rest. The SWC has been dead for 25 years. It's time to move on. SMU is desperate for a P5 invite and I can assure you that openly begging for one doesn't get you invited to the club. If you want to go P5, do what we did. Do what UCF, Cincy and BYU did. SMU can't sell out a 30k stadium or draw TV ratings. They believe in throwing money at everything but that doesn't work when your target has money too.

If SMU goes to ACC, teams like UNC, Clemson, Duke will not stay. Florida State doesn’t want to play SMU. Clemson doesn’t want to play SMU. They can get Texas or A&M to play and have 100,000 fans!

Frankly...I don't give a damn where Smut ends up! I'll trade Smut for CSU, AF, Army, LaTech any day just to shut them up!

Another left hander. It is uncanny.

Adding TV sets to the ACC’s footprint is a clear path to opening the possibility of “renegotiating” the current TV revenue deal with ESPN. There simply aren’t many schools that bring to the table what the ACC needs, including academic standing, market size, geographic fit. Southern Methodist University located in Dallas is perhaps the only fit. SMU is in Dallas, the nation’s fifth-largest TV market with nearly 3 million TV sets. That will get the folks in Bristol’s attention. And Dallas is in Texas, perhaps the most hallowed of all ground for football, from little league to the NFL. And SMU is a solid academic university, ranking #68 in the US News best national colleges and universities rankings. https://augustafreepress.com/acc-commissioner-jim-phillips-all-options-on-the-table-to-grow-the-acc/

I was one of those students who really wanted our name to change to TSU. In hindsight I am glad we kept North prominently stated as part of our name. We do not have an identity crisis like I thought we did. Second hindsight revelation. I couldn’t stand the SOW when it first launched. So happy I was proven wrong on both accounts. Love UNT Love our diving Eagle. beat utep GMG

They ain’t coming to games or watching, just like SMUt.

I would like to know this and also Jordan's status also. Also, isn't Shorter the oldest player on the court? What an incredible performance.

Shorter was so clutch in the second half!

4th quarter comeback?!

LSU tailgating is if you expanded the Boulevard over dozens of acres. The two aren't comparable. SMU has a very cool tailgating setup for a G5 program that struggles to get more than 23K in the stands. But its absurd to consider it one of the best tailgating scenes in the country.