letsgiveacheer

Any chance we could renew the series with Dallas Baptist College?

Fry Street is "special" to all of us, especially those who did not commute. The buildings are all the same, the names have changed for the most past. Does anyone remember Ruby Begonia's Cosmic A-Go-Go? I recall an article in the New York Times many years ago about Fry Street and its role in cultivating new forms of music. It would be a shame if we lost this!

I am glad he is OK as this is a big deal. There is only one engine on the F-16, so if it goes, there is no recovery. Good for him for putting it down in a field. Any other Det 835 exes on this board?

Norview High, Norfolk, Va. 1971 Home of the Pilots (the pilots that bring ships in the harbor...not the flying variety) Fight, fight for Norview.. If you want to win. Never give in, just fight, fight fight just fight, fight, fight for dear old Norview High. We're ever loyal to the Blue and White, So fight, fight with all your might For Norview High.

I believe San Diego State was ranked 18 when we won in 74. That was the game where 300 fans showed up. The announced attendence was 1000.

Yes, those last few seasons with Rust were painfull. Getting beat by Weber State for example. Didn't we go 1-10 his last season? I recall the cheer: Give 'em hell Rod Rust, give 'em hell... Give 'em hell Rod Rust, give 'em hell.... Awh hell, give 'em Rod Rust

Am I the Jim that is supposed to put this together after a lapse of 30+ years? Sorry..I am running an opera company in the Raleigh-Durham area now! By the way, for those of you that remember Mr. McAdow, I still correspond with Mrs. Mc Adow and received a very nice letter from her last week. She is in her eighties, doing very well, and still living by herself at their home on Hickory. I agree that a Band Day would be a great thing. It would be harder to put together than in the old days as everything is more complex. But, it could be done and would be worthwhile. While we are at it, if a small school like William and Mary can have an alumni band, why can't we?

1971...North Texas vs BYU in the Cotton Bowl!! I think every Mormon in Texas was there which made for more fans for them than us! BYU won, but I don't recall it as a blow-out.

For whatever reason, schools on the East Coast tend to sponsor more sports than those in the other regions. Without looking at their website, I think Old Dominion sponsors sailing, lacrosse, field hockey, etc. etc. but no football. One of my first surprises in coming to North Texas from Virgina was this lack of sports..where was the wrestling team, gymnastics, etc. I suspect most of this comes down to distance and tradition. It is cheaper to put a women's volleyball team on a bus and send them 100 miles from Norfolk to Richmond than to put them on an airplane from Denton to Miami or Denver. I would guess that George Mason sponsors as many or more sports than North Texas.

Click on the expenses to see that information. According to this report, we lost 3+ million last year.

Dizzy Dean and PeeWee Reese

George Mason is an interesting school. We think of them as small, but their student body is around 30,000. For a long time, the Virginia state government did not really support this type of college. In other words, admission to any state school was tough. In fact, UVA did not admit women until the 70s if I recall. Then, it was decided to grow three schools for the large metro areas in Va: Old Dominion for the Norfolk/Va Beach area, Va Commonwealth for Richmond and GMU for metro Washington. All three have done very well in both academics and athletics although none play football. The Virginians are in a basketball frenzy: as I posted earlier, Va Wesleyan won the Div III tourney, Va Union placed second in the Div II playoffs and now there is GMU coming out of nowhere. Who would have thungt it!!

This reminds me of the old Marx Brothers movie, "Duck Soup". Groucho proposes to tear down a student dorm to build a new football stadium. One of the trustees asks him, "where will the students sleep?' Groucho replies, "where they have always slept...in the classroom"!

My nephew was a member of the Virginia Wesleyan College team that won the Division III national BB championship this weekend. DIII fans can be just as passionate about their schools as any and it is great fun to watch these games without all the hype of the big programs. www.d3hoops.com

People forget that at one time, the MVC was as good as any conference in the country. With schools like Cinn., Louisville, and Memphis, to play against, it is little wonder that our Pit was filled to capacity every home game. It's a shame that our newer fans did not have the opportunity to watch North Texas compete in the Valley. You would never forget those games.

That's correct and was one of the issues that made Robinson's deal so suspect.

Well yes, he did complete his "obligation". He served on active duty for two years and then entered the Naval Reserve for the remainder of his committment. The service committment of an academy grad is five years of active duty upon graduation, then three years in the inactive reserve. Robinson's "negotiated" obligation was a big deal within the officer corps, most of whom thought it was a scandal. Plus. his two years of active duty was primarily spent on the national basketball team plus recruiting appearances. Even at good old North Texas State as a non-scholarship AFROTC cadet, I had a four year active duty committment upon graduation (stayed for twenty). Having said all that, Robinson is a good man and has done much good with his foundations. I suspect if I had his talent for basketball, I may want to get out of my comittment also!

The service academies all realized long ago that to compete at the Division 1 level, they could not just depend on a local congressman or senator nominating a good football player. They recruit just as hard as anyone but, of course, do face certain issues that other colleges do not, such as a four year active duty commitment upon commissioning and graduation, high academic standards, and a demanding lifestyle at the academy. Of course, the committment obligation has been waived for certain "star" athletes such as Robinson at San Antionio. Early on in the recruiting process, potential athletes are "sports -coded" which makes them eligible for admission which would be denied to other students. In other words, they get some special consideration. The Prep Schools were originally intended for enlisted personnel as a means for them to get the academic training necessary for academy admission. Now they have become the place where athletes are sent to improve their grades, discipline, and personal habits in order to gain admission. The academies always hold open slots for Prep School grads, so in esssence, they are getting in the academy through the back door. And the Prep Schools do indeed play a full schedule of intercollegiate athletics against other prep schools, Jr Colleges, etc. I recall being docked a dollar or two out of each paycheck to support Air Force Academy athletics! There were no options here. Every officer in the Air Force was docked. No wonder they have such nice facilities!

"I have a "W" on each butt cheek so when I bend over my wife says "WOW!" ..and then when you do a sommersault (sp?), you will say.."WOW, MOM, WOW"!! Sorry, this is an old Air Force joke. Regarding tattoos, I tell my business students that if they get a visable tattoo, unless they get it erased later, they can forget getting any type of good job with a large compnay. You will probably not see a CEO with a tattoo around their neck.

US News ranks the grad programs only and I don't think that has been done for music for at least three of four years. UNT's school of music was 15 and 17 for the two years I recall. Berklee was unranked. The UNT jazz program was #1. At any rate, UNT is among the top twenty and is by far the least expensive of any of the top schools, which is important. I know some folks who teach at Berklee and can say it costs big bucks to study there. They do some very nice things at Berklee, especially in the area of music technology and it is a very "hands-on" type of school. Again, back to Band Day. Here is what we did in those simpler times. Mr. McAdow whould assign a responsible band member to each visiting school. As the school's busses would arrive at the Fouts parking lot, the UNT band member would hop on, introduce themselves and direct the bus to the parking area for the homecoming parade. The band would get in order, the UNT band member would rejoin our band and the parade started. In the meantime, the busses would meet their bands in what is now the parking lot near the City Council, ( I think..it has been some time since I have been back to Denton). The busses and bands would proceed back to Fouts where they would eat lunch. After lunch, the bands would practice with the UNT band for halftime, then march around the track as I mentioned earlier. The point here is that it was not that hard. It didn't take any money, just time. Finally, let me say that one reason that we had such a nice turnout is that most of the HS directors owed their jobs to Mr. McAdow! Rarely a day went by that some supt would call him and ask for a band director. I'm not sure that exists today!

"Well", as President Reagan would say, "here we go again." To respond to Plumm's comment, I don't know why in the world a few people on this board continue to take swipes at the College of Music. Please let me know about the ranking system to which you refer. I would like to see a reference. I will say the College of Music works very hard to achieve the success it does. There are no other public universities in the country, other than a few flagship schools such as U of Michigan and Illinois that achieve the reputation of our music program. In fact, the current Dean was the Dean of the School of Music at Univ of Illinois before he assumed the same postion at North Texas. I am the director of the opera company serving the Durham and Chapel Hill area. Any artist with whom I work beams when I tell them my undergrad degree is from UNT...regardless if they are from Julliard, Manhattan, whatever. The College of Music is a fine school among 20 or so others. Back to Band Day. In 1973, Maurice McAdow (Mr. not Dr.) fired his grad assistant and asked me to help. Organizing the Band Day was a big deal. I recall the bands would arrive on Homecoming Day and march in the parade in the morning, have lunch and then practice with the NTSU band. (It wasn't the Green Brigade then, it was called the Marching Band) Before the game began, the bands would march around the track and have a chance to show their stuff in front of their parents, which was a good thing as there certainly wern't many fans there. At half time, the bands would join the North Texas band for the finale, which was quite a sight. The bands came from all over the state and a few from out of state. There were also a few service bands and Mr. McAdow would always invite them to march with the NT band at pre-game and play the National Anthem with us. All in all, it was quite a bit of work. But, it was done for many, many, years. There is no reason for this tradition not to be reinstated.

Regarding the walking out while the alma mater is being played..that is just plain bad manners and a lack of respect for the institution that is paying for your education/ salary. However, why the band would play the alma mater after the game is beyond me. I know many schools do this, but it makes little sense. People are ready to go after the game and are heading out of the stadium. Play the alma mater before the national anthem at pregame. Then, the fans only have to stand once and are already in 'singing voice'.

Nice pictures. From the ESPN broadcast, it was difficult to make out the new band uniforms, but now after seeing them up close need to ask what is up with all the black? Last I checked it is not a school color. I guess someone thought they looked good. At least the uniforms are not blue and copper.

It was really great to see Fry again (on TV for me). I recall how he walked over to the band practice field on the first day of marching practice and introduced himself to Maurice McAdow. He always had some nice words for the band and also presented "flying worm" beer mugs painted with our name on it (I still have mine) for the paid band staff. It was hard to miss him drive around Denton in his lime green Chevy. His speech was great as well. I assume that was taken from the documentary made of the game with SMU. I wonder if it is possible to get a copy? As a bystander for most of this debate, there are positives from both the current time and Fry's time. It is easy to forget that there was absolutely no fan support for Fry's first several years. That did not come until later. I recall an attendence of 300 (that is not a misprint) at the San Diego St game where it was the first time in North Texas history that we beat a ranked team. Fry even had his team standing on each corner on the square trying to sell tickets to the Denton natives! Of course, we all want this team to improve, but I predict that 30 years from now someone on this board (or its successor) will refer to the Dickey era with pride.

You have every right to be proud! Congratulations.