PlummMeanGreen

Have thought the same thing, NT80, except the SEC host a game in the Big Easy about 2 weeks later we know as the Sugar Bowl. I don't see the SEC working with the SBC or NO's Bowl because of that. CUSA wants BCS competition, too, because we all want to have a chance to play someone ranked as high as possible. In fact, how high was USM ranked when we played them in the NO's Bowl last year? I know after we saw them almost beat the #2 ranked Cal Bears that we would have our hands more than full (which we did). FWIW, would you want to be the member of a conference you can win OR one you might not win too often? CUSA is not through with their membership turnover yet, IMO, and then you have the danger the SWC had of having all schools in one state. TV folks don't get excited about that kind of thing, especially when most of the schools are private or have small constituencies.

And I should have closed my epistle with: Yes, I have confidence in Coach Dickey! Amen....

I like who Coach Dickey and staff have always re-loaded with, ie, some well-coached Texas HS football products (as well as those from the state of Oklahoma). The SBC talent evaluators seem to not have a clue as to who these players are when we recruit them and they almost annually rank us 3'rd or 4'th among SBC recruiting classes (but how could they possibly have a clue since we "only" have 160,000 who play HS football here in the Lone Star State)? On the other side of the coin, although DD''s reloads have been sufficient for SBC competition, I still would like to see him and his staff upgrade with more Rivals multi-star recruits to complement all the other good athletes Coach Dickey annually recruits. When this happens, then we start winning our bowl games, but this is where new football facilities will play a big part. Recruiting is all about (as TAMU Coach Fran calls them) "Wow" facilities; that is, the kind of facilities that really catches the eyes of our visiting HS recruits. Our new Athletic Center, Victory Hall Dorm and Super Cafeteria combo of faclities have proven to be 3 such "WOW" facilities the Aggie coach referred to in today's Dallas Morning News SportsPage. NT's FOOTBALL FACILITIES? We are in "catch up" mode with every new facility we build and have ribbon cutting ceremonies for at our Eagle Point Campus. We really should have had all these things in place post Hayden Fry era but we didn't and our football program took one helluva' roller coaster ride as a result. (Past NT administrator's lack of knowledge or appreciation of the percs of being in NCAA D1-A also kept us down for a generation and was one reason our football program spent 13 years in NCAA D1-AA). Now there are other SBC schools who are now planning on building indoor practice facilties so that will be the next big NCAA D1-A fad among its schools, especially non BCS schools who will see the need to have that kind of facility in order to keep up with the Joneses. So when we get around to building our indoor practice facility, I hope we are one of the first schools in the SBC who gets it done, because we cannot afford to be one of the last SBC schools who finishes such a facility.

Since I began this thread, I am not emailing anything to anyone but if I hadn't, I would probably make darn sure that NT President Dr. Norval Pohl and NT Board of Regent Chairman Bobby Ray received an email of this entire thread along with Rick V.

Thanks for the info, SUMG... But how strange that I thought our 1978 team also spent some time in the Top 20. Coach Hayden Fry's 1978 football team was better than our 1977 team IMHO. Oh well..............

Shoot for the moon on all this, GA Southern, because it wasn't that long ago we were talking about doing the same thing at North Texas. I've heard yall have a fine school. Do you have a Chamber of Commerce report on the city, its population, its industry, etc, etc, etc, that you could share? Good luck to your team this Fall.

It is my understanding from alumnus scuttle-butt that both would be very open to listening to whoever would talk to them about such a thing. They have both remained fans of our school and our Mean Green athletic teams even long after they were off the NT payroll. We don't always get that from our ex NT employees. As NT80 said in a prior post, NT Athletics is rumored to be trying to get Coach Fry in for the ESPN nationally televised Troy U game in Denton to have a reunion with his Mean Green teams of the 70's. That will be a real cool deal for those of us who were students in that era just to see those familiar old faces. BTW, didn't Coach Fry have teams ranked in the Top 20 twice while he was at NORTH TEXAS?

Can you really blame the Blue Raiders for their excitement in staying on campus en mass this summer, because Wright Waters and the Sun Belt office gave them the best 'Belt schedule possible. (Is Wright Waters related to Coach Andy Mac or something)?!?! LOL! Also, this is the most out of sync football schedule I can recall at North Texas in a long time with a league opener that is much too soon in any year, a week-night game at Fouts that is nice for TV but will sacrifice all out of town alums since it is on a Tuesday night and a "Saturday after Thanksgiving" football game on campus to boot. This schedule has "not very good average home football attendance" written all over it unless someone in Denton is going to do something different from what we've been doing in marketing, lately. Guess what--only 8 weeks left till football season, too. Hope our Mean Green football players also realize early on they will be entering hostile territory when they fly into Nashville then take the short trip to the 'Boro. If our team looks past LSU, all power to them because the Middle Tennessee game is much more important in terms of going back to a bowl game. Just my .02...

Today's Dallas Morning New's SportsPage had a blurb saying how Texas A&M head football coach Dennis Franchioine was donatating $1,000,000 of his own money toward the construction of a new indoor facility in Aggieland. The Aggie facility will cost about $9 million once completed. He said Baylor and TAMU were the only Big 12 schools without such a facility. Coach Fran continues in the article saying, "...an indoor building also adds to the "wow" factor that is important in recruiting." He also said, "In today's world, you know how important it is to remain ahead of the curve in facilities because recruits arre impressed by what you have compared to the Joneses." I know we are not going to keep up with our 2 Texas flagship schools, but we can do some things that keep us ahead of the curve of most schools in the non BCS. ............................................................................................................................................... <>*<> ON ANOTHER NOTE: Anyone else notice in the Dallas Morning News sports page today that the state top 100 list of 2006 Texas HS seniors was posted? Did anyone also notice how one particular DFW area school with a reasonably new football stadium had many of those state top 100 blue-chipper interested in their school and how another school in DFW with a stadium going on 6 decades old didn't have one of those Texas top 100's listed at all?

Dr. Pohl has hired athletic consultants before at NT (as you know, Bill) when he hired the great Gene Stallings to do some very important work for our alma mater at a very crucial time. (I think right now in MG Country the time has once again become crucial). Meeting Coach Stallings in the Super Pit at his forum was one of the highlights for many of our NT experiences I'm sure. Why was that? How about Coach Gene Stalling's celebrity having something to do with that? Anyone out there think we can use the word celebrity when talk about Hayden Fry (and to a certain extent, Coach Blakely in this part of Texas)? If NT can spend 6 figures(?) on branding, can we find some monies to put Coach Fry and Coach Blakely on a consultant basis for a year? As most of you older nestors would know, Coach Fry spent over a decade as SMU AD and head football coach and if anyone doesn't think he met a few rich Dallasites and executives during that time in Dallas (and then 6 years in Denton), those who he still counts as his friends, then lets talk about some swamp land for sale here. Coach Bill Blakely was the Dallas Chapparal's coach for awhile and was our Mean Green BB coach for years as most on this board would know. Let's turn this duo (who know many, many influential people in Dallas, Texas) loose on the rich and famous of Big D and beyond. Let Coach Fry and Blakely contact their friends in the Dallas and Texas business community who would want to be involved with NT athletics, specifically our new stadium project and not cross paths with others from NT who are raising monies to build another UNT campus in south Dallas county. IT'S JUST A WIN--WIN FOR NT ATHLETICS AND FOR ALL CONCERNED.................Honestly, what would NT have to lose in employing these 2 NT icons as consultants for a year or 2? Heck, they might find other Big Donors who could help NT Athletics start a significant endowment fund that would help us eventually increase "ALL' our NT coaches salaries as to keep them from checking every job opening out there, keep them on our NT payroll longer and merely be competitive with other schools our size with salaries--we are not doing that right now, fellow alums. Enough already.....

IT'S SUNDAY MORNING COMING DOWN--TIME TO DO SOME KEYBOARDING! {:>( Eagle1855, of course we are going to have different opinions or this board would not be as well visited as it is. Hang in there with your opinions because having opinions means you give a damn about NORTH TEXAS. (Emmitt01 did have a smilie at the end so he was not being mean-spirited by any means and he is not that way as it is). UNT officials read this board quite frequently (and they are always welcome), but funny enough, many will tell you they don't browse GMG.com (although some of the conversations some of us have had them would prove other-wise). IMO, the smarter NT employees realize they can get the true pulse of a very, very large segment of the NT constituency they serve by reading this GoMeanGreen.com---whether they like what they read or not. They are all welcome to register and voice their approval or displeasure with what is posted here, too. I feel the whole NT branding scenario proved that some from other parts of the NT community also read this board, hence, the email that showed up on FFR's computer by mistake? You can tell the the ones from athletics who read this board, too, by their attitude with you, the way they choose to greet you in public or the way they choose not greet you in public. Hopefully, maturity will prevail for all concerned. I always liked what the only President of the USA I've seen in person, one Lyndon Baines Johnson, said when he said: "Come let us reason together." (Of course, LBJ borrowed that phrase from a certain Book many of us Amercans are familiar). I admit that we (with me toward the top of this list with others) go on our little tangents from time to time, but I graduated from NORTH TEXAS and have followed this program almost since I first stepped onto the campus and that has been 33 years ago now so..............I believe I have earned the right to have an opinion or 2 (right or wrong) about our alma mater--just like anyone else does who just stepped onto the campus for the first time. Some of us were once in our 30's (believe it or not) fighting some of the same battles you who are in your 30's are fighting today--or should I say "we" are still dealing with today because "fighting" might be a bit too strong a word. I hope some of you in your 3'rd decade of life following NT don't suddenly wake up in your your fifth decade and discover that the lofty goals we have today have not been achieved. Now that would be a sad chapter for all concerned. It is my hope that we have those at our alma mater who really want to be employed @ North Texas and prove it with their actions. As much as I appreciate whats going on at our Eagle Point Campus, we really had no choice but to do all those things no matter who our NT chancellor, president or AD is, because the only alternative to not be doing what we're doing at our new Mean Green Athletic Village would be to drop to 1-AA or drop football periond (and that AIN'T going to happen in Denton, Texas, America)! <>*<> AT THE TOP OF MANY OF OUR WISHLIST? A new football stadium? Believe it or not-----for many of us it is not--that is probably #2 on the list for all of us, though. Yet many of us would be very pleased if our NT Administration, NT Athletic Department and campus groups would attack this football attendance dilemma as if there are no tomorrows. We seem to be hesitant to attack this problem in a big way and our recent averages at Fouts Field is the main barometer we have to go by. Solving the attendance deficiencies at NT starts with us on this very forum, ie, GoMeanGreen.com because if we are not buying football season tickets or even just buying them at the ticket office on Game Day, then who the hell out there is? So to quote greenjoe: Join the Mean Green Club & Buy Season Tickets. One can do this on weekdays by calling NT Athletics @ 1-800-UNT-2366

I'd like to see the NT Board of Regents approve that the NT athletic director, Coach Dickey and every NT assistant football coach gets a significant bonus when we average 30,000+ per home football game each season. Also, in descending bonus numbers all full time NT athletic department support staff would get a bonus as well with such attendance numbers. The North Texas Council of Goverments says there are now almost 6 million citizens in the North Texas Metroplex, so can we pull 30,000+ Mean Green fans out of that rather sizeable reservoir? Is there a solid plan in action to try for these kind of numbers at NT?

In his last few trips to our campus in recent years, Hayden Fry is more excited about NT now than he was when he left in, uh, 1978? He met with Coach Dickey and the team a few years ago and told them how unbelievably bright the future at NORTH TEXAS is because of growth and location. In a visit 2 years ago, Fry even said he wouldn't have left NORTH TEXAS for Iowa had his better teams been rewarded with bowl invites. Coach Fry has 3 sons and a daughter who are all NT Exes. I think he would have no problem being a consultant for such a lofty goal as a new football stadium. All NT president Norval Pohl has to do is just tell Coach Fry when he needs to start.

I know, this is not the type of thing we'd normally do at NT, a bit out of the ordinary, not our usual M.O. and just way, way, way outside the box BUT.........isn't this the type of thing we'll probably have to do to get a new major college football stadium in Denton? I don't see people standing in line now to "Build It" and I sense that a projected 2009 deadline to be in this stadium could very well go beyond that into the next decade if truth be told. >> And what the heck, fundraising can take many strange & unusual turns in our society today as even "W" has his dad and Bill Clinton out raising monies (together) for Tsunami victims. Who wouda' thunk' that would have ever happened? So..............ENTER THE 7'TH CALVARY (& not the one that was at the Little Big Horn, either): Still...........CAN YOU ONLY IMAGINE recent College Football Hall of Fame inductee and ex Mean Green football coach Hayden Fry, ex ABA Dallas Chapparals and NT Mean Green basketball coach Bill Blakely, North Texas President Dr. Norval Pohl, NT Board of Regent Chairman Bobby Ray, North Texas AD Rick Villarreal, Mean Green Coach Darrell Dickey as well as the chief NT Athletic Department fund-raiser; anyway, can you just see this consortium of present and ex NT high rolling officals all sitting in the conference room of a DFW Fortune 500 CEO (or just merely sitting in the home of a DFW philanthropist) because Coaches Fry and/or Blakely knew the right people in order to set up such a meeting? Such a conference room with all the aforementioned NT personalities would be one helluva' room full of Mean Green synergy I think we'd all agree. Some may ask: "Is Coach Fry too old for this venture?" The answer many of us might offer is that 2 years ago our ex football coach wanted the Baylor University head football coaches job (and many from Baylor wanted him to have that job for that matter) before it was handed over to Guy Morriss. IMO, this is how we get our new football stadium before the year 2010 (which is the number of years our last paid NT Athletic consultant, one Coach Gene Stallings said it would take for NORTH TEXAS to build a new football stadium--if even then). <>*<> IMO, many egos would have to be left at the door for something like this to take place at our alma mater. I fear if something like this or similar doesn't happen, we are going to be in Fouts Field much, much longer than any of us dreamed we'd be, much longer than our NT football personel would want it to be, too--hope I'm wrong about the time-line part, but a gut feeling tells me other-wise. **** NOW Mean Green Nation...........your sincere thoughts and opinions on this most important matter in the history of our alma mater?

And even funnier to me is that after a trip to Voertmans a couple weeks ago and with one of their fine, friendly staffers telling me that they are all having a difficult time finding the right shade of green for Mean Green wear I began to wonder..................... do any of these folks have PC's at their jobs or at home as to simply check out all NCAA Division 1, II or III schools that wear the our new shade of green that they cannot seem to find in Denton, focus on just one of these schools (insert sublimenal Marshall U) that does have the color green we will be using and just get on the phone and make the call to those folks up in Huntington to ask them who makes their football unis' AND who manufactures Marshall U Herd sports gear; and just who has been doing this for Marshall U for a year or 2 now? Jeez people, NT is an institution of higher learning where they just spent well over $100,000.oo to do all this new NT branding business so does it stand to reason a little that they should have been able to do some research as to find the ones who would be able to produce this new shade of green before we switched to it?

Inasmuch as I work at a DFW area college as a recruiter, I have heard "UNT" many times from those not affiliated with our school who slide that phrase off their tongues without the slightest hint of a laugh or giggle. I prefer NORTH TEXAS, too, but many times North Texas can mean so many other things such as we often hear on DFW area TV: "The "North Texas" weather is going to be hotter than hell today." Lets build a new football stadium and see if that helps with our name ID because of the level of school we will get to come play in that new stadium and see if the perceptions of our school will continue to improve (as we know it has dramatically in the last decade). What's funny about all this to me is since NT opened for business in 1890, you'd think we would (by now) have this name thing resoved! Now back to the" correct shade of green at NT" discussion! (just kiddin')

Good idea, SUMG.... Next full page ad NT football runs in the widely distributed NORTH TEXAN alumnus magazine should have such an advertisement telling our alums/fans/friends that they can access all football games on their PC's. The main advantage I see about a radio station in Houston and other key areas of the Lone Star State are all those "non-North Texans" who will be surfing their home or auto radios that accidentally land on a station that carries our football games on the Mean Green Radio Network. I remember as a teenage in the Houston area surfing the old transistor radio and many times landing on a SWC Game of the Week sponsored by Humble "Put a Tiger in Your Tank" Oil & Refinery (now Exxon) with the great, late SWC broadcast icon Kern Tips doing the play by play. First time I ever heard of some coach named Hayden Fry was on such a radio broadcast back in the mid 1960's. Most every Fall Saturday I washed the family car I would always have such an SWC college football game blaring so loud I'm sure the neighbors could hear. Many of you older nestors probably had the same experience here in Texas. ................................................................................................................................................................. If NT Exes, Mean Green Club members and/or alumnus groups in Houston and Austin/San Antonio want a very high profile and most worthy project, what better one than the local alums of these cities finding a radio station and then sponsors to add to the M.G.R.N.; at such a time that this may all materialize, then we would really have a M.G.R. "Network." I don't think NT Athletics would object to this project at all, but I would certainly run it by them first as they may even have just the right contacts in these large populated areas of Texas. .................................................................................................................................................................. It's just a stroke of luck that our Dallas affiliate (KWRD 100.7FM) just happens to have a sister station in Longview, Texas. In fact, I think we might have an All American running back on our football team because of it (plus Coach Dickey and his staff's fine recuiting efforts in east Texas, too, of course).

Charles, my place here in Parker County is in a slight valley with many trees and I have some problems with Dallas' KWRD to some extent, but after raising the antenna full staff and pointing the radio in the correct direction, I can finllly pick up the night football games. Still would love the M.G.R.N to add 2 or 3 smaller satellite AM radio stations (or FM) in the peripheal areas of the Metroplex to insure that most of the 6 million citizens in our 6 county area would have no problem picking up Mean Green football and basketball. Out here a radio station in Mineral Wells or Weatherford would really do wonders in picking up broadcasts from the MGRN for both football and basketball games. Of course our ultimate goal in Mean Green Country (IMHO) would be for the M.G.R.N to find a radio station in the most important Houston, Texas, media market. NT must find a way to get its foot in the door of that large population center that has some of the best athletes in the USA in abundance. I'm sure many of us have had the common thought of what influence did our Longview, Texas, radio affilliate, ie, KWRD' s sister station have in our recruiting some of our key players in that part of Texas. One could only imagine what a Houston radio affiliate could do for our Gulf Coast of Texas recruiting.

I don't know 90% of the posters on this board nor what era or experience they had at NT, but my biggest admiration of all NT loyalists goes to those NT Exes and GMG.com posters like Gray Eagle, George (Derr) MG61, Huff, Old Timer, ArlingtonMeanGreen, Dallas Green, Green Grenade II, greenjoe and countless others I've left off this list that have been fighting the good fight with all this NORTH TEXAS business since the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's. I find that to be a remarkable record of genuine loyalty. Oh, some of us bitch, moan and groan because we know what our (unfullfilled)potential is in Mean Green Country and keep hoping we'll live long enough to see some of it fulfilled, but I don't think hardly anything that comes from this forum could ever be called destructive yet (hopefully) of a constructive nature. Yet longtime alums and fans as the aforementioned deserve some NT version of a Purple Heart Award. I can only hope that when I've hit 40-50 years of following all this that I will still have a spring in my step and a gleam in my eye when I hear someone refer to: THE University of North Texas and, of course, THE MEAN GREEN! <>*<> On the cover of my black leather-bound 2005 appointment book given to me as a gift is this saying: "Success is a Journey--Not a Destination"............ and in many ways UT and TAMU have (somewhat) hit destination points and that with the strategic help of the Permanent University Fund which I seem to always mention ad nausem in these posts that refer to our 2 flagship schools----hellsbells, I confess that I envy those 2 systems for having had the PUF-advantage for well over a century AND often wondered where U of NT would be if we would have had the PUF. Anyway......someone needs to remind today's Texas HS seniors who go around "Hooking those Horns" and "Gigging those Aggies" about how that very significant oil-influenced cash cow Permanent University Fund played in those 2 schools early beginnings. Remind them that what UNT is builiding we are doing the old fashioned way AND without having had the silver spoon assistance of an 1870's Texas legislature who insured the 2 flagships would always financially have a headstart among all the other Texas public colleges such as UH, Texas Tech and North Texas among others. But its like you said in the last sentence of your post, illuvious32, "We'll get there, but it is going to be a heck of a journey; to be measured in years, not months." But like someone once told me, "take your time, but hurry!"

Of course, if the Big Donor came thru in the next few months (anything's possible, even at NT) you could probably move that date up to the 2008 football campaign. We older nestors are hoping sooner than later.

So we always know who is most always going to be the sexy one in these paper polls. Am I missing something on this one as to why we are still listed #1 with not as many comparative points against the entire board vs MT? Wonder if some of these national magazine prognosticators need to check out just what all is going on down here in our Texas High School football programs (and its products thereof)? Pre-season polls are fun for the alums and fans, but I don't think many college coaches and their players pay much attention to any of them. I don't think it takes a rocket scientis to figure out that MT Coach Mac needs to probably beat NORTH TEXAS in the Boro' this September 10'th to keep his job.

Great posts, Emmitt01 & Green Lantern...

Thanks for that GreenTiger.... Just today one of our fellow alums (an educator) told me the same thing you've just posted almost verbatum. I think the NT administration (or moreso the Chancellor's office that ram-rodded this whole branding thing) sorta' dropped the ball on this whole thing as they should have already done the research as to give NT Athletics & the NT COM ample time to make their orders with the appropriate shade of green. As far as color scemes? Marshall U seems to have someone they are working with to get their much lighter shade of green on their football uniforms. All one has to do is a little collegiate internet surfing to discover such things. The NT Green Brigade ordered their band uniforms many, many months ago because of the nature of a band uniform being of much more intricate detail than a football uniform; but still, the NT branding committee should have done a bit more planning with {maybe?} a conversation such as the following paragraph in one of their committee meetings: "What 2 highly visible campus groups will help us get our new NT branding and new color scheme out to the masses more than any? 'Could it be, perhaps, our annually multi-televised Mean Green football team and the Green Brigade marching band?" "Hmmm? I guess we as a committee need to make haste to get those 2 groups this most vital info in ample time since (after all) we are spending a few dollars in this whole branding project as it is; also, so NT athletics and the NT College of Music can make appropriate changes in plenty of time so we can make a big $pla$h with all our alums/fans and TV audience across Texas and the USA." It appears that the NT branding committee thought word of mouth was going to be sufficient for all? One other concern was I wondered why the NT College of Music didn't communicate with NT Athletics (or visa versa) when it was known they would be ordering about 300 new band unis' with whatever shade of green they are going to be wearing this Fall? Surely our NT COM officials would want to be on the same "green page" as our superb Mean Green football team? On a priority list of 100 things at UNT, all this new color scheme business might be #101 on such a list, but it just appears that there are too many departments on our campus that just seem to be islands unto themselves.

Profanity at baylorfans.com?!?!? Well, you know how it is with some of those Baptist preacher's kids. Sounds to me like we all need a Mean Green football game to go to.

Why the hell is everyone on this board getting so damn testy?