FirefightnRick

There is still no Tarrant County Fort Worth Chapter either by the way. Rick

Meager's window of opportunity has been opened for several months now, I would say at least since the Spring. It's his time to now step up and Fly Like An Eagle. Rick

The only way this move becomes a "wise choice" is if TCU wins this conference. But you have to wonder how that could happen with their poor defense? It will take an amazing display of coaching for the frogs to make some waves in the MWC this season. Rick

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/tdf2005/news...tory?id=2106026 Armstrong destroyed his rivals today in the first day of the Alpine climbs and the Discovery Team returned to show their power. The times listed at the end of this article isn't correct because Ulhrich is now over 2 minutes behind Armstrong. The dude that burned up the flats on saturday to take the Yellow Jersey finished over 30 minutes behind and nearly got technically dropped from the race entirely. It's amazing to see the difference between the climbers and the flat sprinters. Good stuff, Rick

North Texas has had a long tradition of crapping on it's alumni and it's time for a change. But without a doubt this need for change should reach much further than just the Talons. MUCH FURTHER! Funny, but had it not been for Talon alumni, the current talons would be down to bonfire for existence. Talon alumni paid for, and restored the Model A back into existence two years ago(mostly by hand by the way), paid for and built the 1500lb Victory Bell(also mostly by hand), a tradition that had been missing for more than 22 years since the last one was retired, and paid for and re-rebuilt Boomer the Cannon(completely by hand). Needless to say, I was thrown back to hear that the Talon Alumni were written out from participating in how Talons chooses it's leadership for the future. But this seems to be how our entire school works when it comes to it's alumni so it shouldn't be such a shock to anyone. I'm getting used to the "Just leave your check, then go away" mentality. No one around here should ever question why we are so short on season ticket holders, active NT Exes members, donors for finishing tennis complexes, baseball stadiums, football stadiums etc....All you need to do is work a phone-a-thon to hear the stories, or better yet live them yourself by attending and trying to volunteer your time to help in some way to understand why so many people have turned their backs on NT over the years. As one alumnus jokingly yelled out during the Spring game in '03: "I'd be worried to give anyone around here a check for $1,000 for fear they'd wash it" Rick

Chris, Tell the mrs's to keep her spirits up. We are all praying for her full recovery. Rick

Come on Silver, surely you knew that North Texas(North Texas) baseball compression shirts are all the rave right now? Rick

By the way, even if you could get a designer started on this shirt right now, and it's going to be close to a 5 or 6 color shirt on white, your looking at at least a 4 to 6 week turnaround to get it out by a CLC licensed manufacturer(10 days for a local like Greenstock). Then you need someone with an online site to sell them, and have enough time to fill the orders. That is unless you want to sell them on campus and pay the 20% royalty fee. Talons could get that waved, but they will not be collectively back on campus to push this through until mid August. By then it's too late. Voertman's could have pulled this off had they been given enough heads up on it back in the spring? For anyone wanting to try and pull this off I wish you good luck. Rick

Check this T shirt out, which I think someone suggested something similar for NT in an earlier post. In fact, they are sold out for these shirts. This type of "thinking outside the box" marketing is nothing knew to such schools as LSU. They are not a household name for nothing. Both shirts were probably being worked on before their schedule was completed so that they could get them out ASAP. Rick http://tygergifts.com/5002.html

Just in case anyone missed the official notice <_<, I emailed the guy in charge of Athlete Tech out of Lenexa Kansas, the company that meangreensports.com is using for fan gear supply. I asked him if and when their stuff will be updated to the new color and logos and when their replica jersey's would be updated to the new look for the upcoming season. His reply: NT gear by Athlete Tech Rick

Nothing on Byerly's status but I would like to announce that Lee Jackson has FFR's full, unconditional support for his run at the U.S. House of Represenatives next go round. Rick

Serves them right for not inviting Troy. Rick

The family and I were at Uncle Julio's in Ft Worth three weeks ago and our waitress checked in with an older couple next to us who was wearing some TCU stuff. And since our waitress was wearing a very purple tie the guy asked her if she went to TCU because of the tie. She immediately told him "No, I went to North Texas". My wife noticed this first and brought it to my attention. So when the girl checked in with us to take our order she noticed my NT hat and shirt I had on, and the conversations flew. She hadn't been to a game in Denton in a while but was going to talk her husband into taking her this year because of all she has seen and heard about the Mean Green recently. She said that her husband was an Ohio State grad, that he was a huge college football fan, that they had been to some Buckeye games when they had visited family up north and all. I asked her if he was up on his trivia and she said he was. I told her to ask him this: Who is the only college team to feature two previous, separate national rushing leaders on the same team? She couldn't believe it was North Texas and she wrote the question down and said her husband was over at the bar visiting her while she was at work and went to ask him right then. She came back a few minutes later pretty proud that she had stumped him and that her school was the answer. I told her I didn't want to come back and ever see her wearing anything but a green tie until the season was over, she laughed and said OK. Everytime she came back to the table she brought the trivia question up. The TCU couple overheard this and thought that was an amazing trivia question as well. The gentleman said he played for TCU back in the 60's and that he knew all about Jamario and said this was going to be an exciting year for North Texas. Needless to say, I'm with Gray on this. It should be screamed from the rooftops considering how pathetic our recogonition has been in the past. Rick

So, taking into consideration from this photo that thousands of pounds of old, excess turf is allowed to be dumped ontop of the empty, southern half-moon open area, which is simply bare concrete I believe, then there isn't any excuse that can be thrown at us for not having our three historical spirit icons(Boomer the Cannon, Victory the NT Spirit Bell and the 1929 Model A Mean Green Machine) displayed in the OPEN there for all to see? Two years ago New Mexico State made Sports Illustrated simply for it's tradition for having a large bell at their games. Their Bell aint $#i+ compared to our 1500lb, fully self propelled spirit bell, Victory. But who in hell even knows about it or the Model A when our own folks force them over to the sides behind the stands during the games? The reasons for this have been because they don't want them over the track due to weight and/or oil leaks but 4 sheets of plywood can take care of that. And we wonder why people claim we have no traditions? God I'm tired of the excuses! Rick

I noticed that also. Funny stuff. Rick

........................................GAME TIME! Here's a close up of it: Scrappy Clock This is Zeke's clock he won for submitting the top logo design. The F5 will have one in his room hanging up too. I'm happy with how it came out as it goes well with the other NT memorabilia we have on the wall. Good job Zeke. By the way I need your address to send it to you. If anyone else would like one let me know, I'll see what I can do. I am currently looking at possibly making a lighted one as well if I can find the materials. One that was around 14 inches across and lighted would look good in a game room. Rick

SilverEagle Allow me to make it 158th. Rick

A win over LSU will take care of all concerns. Rick

http://oln.dayport.com/tdf/standings/stand...gs&t=ITG&e=0400 The greatest athlete of all time took over 1st place this morning in the team time trial. His Discovery Channel team won the trial, for the 3rd year in a row, almost 45 seconds ahead of the nearest team. Armstrongs' overall lead at this point is 55 seconds ahead of George Hincapie, one of his own teammates, and over a minute ahead of the German Urhlich. Seems like this is a fairly early lead for him at this point of the tour than in the past, not sure? Rick

Jim you must be getting rusty. That's the lousiest EXCUSE you've come up with to date. Keep trying though, I like the effort. Rick

60's era Scrappy Eagle bobble head, 80's era football helmet Kathy Irelands' Texas State University Armadillo helmet, etc....etc....etc.... Rick

Believe me when I say we have suffered through some of the worst losses imaginable so nothing would shock me anymore. I believe I told you a while back, the last time I watched us play in Death Valley in '95, our return year to 1-A , LSU averaged over 11 yards per rush against us. Rick

AAAAHHHHHHGGG!, pass the toilet paper. I'll never forget the poor couple that sat down below and in front of us last year at the Baylor game with a couple of those on. I felt like asking them how much they would charge me to take them off. Luckily the game got even uglier and I forgot all about them. Rick

This reminds me of last year when all the CU Buffalo people were touting their nationally 3rd ranked rushing defense going into our game, two weeks after our pasting by Texas. I wished I could have been there to see the jaws on the floor. ADLER said it was quite comical. Rick

Regardless, it's not going to happen this summer as promised back on April 27th. By the way, just got the new North Texan and they were sucked into believing the summer kickoff campaign was going to occur too with coverage of the new Branding within this issue throughout. Also, to those employees on campus who are working very hard for us trying their best. I didn't take the time to say back in April that we all understand your plight and realize the boundaries you have to work within. I can only imagine the frustrations you have gone through. Thank you for your efforts and don't pull all your hair out in one season. Rick