Search the Community

The Mean Green Game Day goals are important to reiterate because they demonstrate how Hank Dickenson thinks and works. This campaign thrives, as do many other civic projects he leads, because of Hank’s relationships in Denton. Mean Green Game Day is one of many ventures on which Hank and I have collaborated over the years. He has chaired the Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and currently sits on the CVB’s Advisory Board, both roles where he’s been intricately involved in our initiatives. He has invested in Denton for more than 20 years, and not just to tout the Mean Green (though he never misses that opportunity). The fact is he loves this city and UNT. Recent changes in the North Texas athletics landscape have altered Hank’s title from deputy athletic director to acting athletic director. It’s my understanding that a nationwide search is underway for the new one. I just wonder, though, why everyone doesn’t see what I see. We’ve got our guy! Of course, this is only my opinion and should not be taken as the opinion of the Denton Record-Chronicle just because you are reading it in this newspaper. Like hundreds of you, I’m a Hank fan. He’s in the trenches with us, giving more than his 100 percent to uphold our Denton way of life. I don’t pretend to know what the experts look for when seeking the next Athletic Director, but I do know Hank Dickenson. He knows sports and bleeds them all. He’s been wrangling UNT athletics for more than two decades, through ups and downs, wins and losses. And he’s still here. As the team readies and Mean Green Game Day ramps up for year five, let’s do it with the best man on top. Go. Mean. Green. read more: http://www.dentonrc.com/business-tech/denton-business-headlines/20160618-kim-phillips-dickenson-the-right-person-for-unts-athletic-director.ece

Link: http://www.dentonrc.com/business-tech/denton-business-headlines/20151024-kim-phillips-gamedays-at-unt-becoming-big-draw.ece Everyone is talking about it. Not enough touchdowns. A head coach change midseason. It has looked to laymen like an unusual flurry of activity in what is obviously not the University of North Texas Mean Green’s most stellar season. I’ll be honest: I don’t know the whys about all that. I can talk with authority about how things appear to laymen because I am the ultimate when it comes to football. I don’t really even qualify as an armchair fan, much less quarterback. I understand the game; I just don’t relish watching the details unfold. What I do love, though, is gameday. Regardless of the season’s scores, winning or not, I’m at the games wearing my green and having a blast. Our youngest son, Chris, graduated from Texas A&M University in August. When his (and our) Aggie journey began in 2011, we were unprepared for the vortex that swallowed us whole. Aggie football was at the heart of the giant sucking sound. From our first gameday experience, we were hooked. I was envious of our College Station Convention and Visitors Bureau colleagues. Every home game, hotels are full and restaurants are packed. Gameday pumps millions into their economy. Because Chris was a member of the Corps of Cadets, Tim and I were among the thousands who traveled to every home game during his college career, sometimes without a ticket to the game. We went for the Aggie Game Day experience, something that, over time, spawned the concept for Denton’s Mean Green Game Day. Mean Green athletics and the Denton CVB joined forces to merge the Apogee Stadium and downtown experiences into one major event during home games. Our goal is building Mean Green football attendance while teaching the art of Dentoning at the same time. And even in an off year football-wise, this is winning. read more:

Tradition. I love this word. Even the sound of it is solid. One of Broadway’s most famous musicals is also one of my favorites, Fiddler on the Roof. It is the story of people in a time of upheaval. Tevye is the main character, through whom we experience the drama. Change is rocking his world, and he would be completely undone were it not for tradition. “Because of our traditions, we’ve kept our balance for many, many years,” he says. Tradition is a binding force that holds together. It works even when we who keep it have forgotten why. Cumulatively, we have thousands of them, some shared, others personal. Some are weighty with meaning, and many we keep for the sheer joy of doing so. Football and holidays are two in the latter category that immediately come to mind. I am a University of North Texas alumna. Over the years I’ve heard murmurs, even among fellow students and alumni, that unlike other universities, UNT lacks tradition. Not so! UNT’s culture is steeped in original, independent tradition. It may not always be obvious, because it looks a little different from every angle and on every individual. But that is the manifestation of original, is it not? And the fact that thousands have pursued their passions their own way in the campus’s classrooms and corridors over the years is the tradition for which UNT is perhaps most known. But there are many others. This week is Mean Green’s 2014-themed “Greatest Homecoming on Earth.” Many traditions combine under the homecoming banner: homecoming court, bonfire, parade, Yell Like Hell pep rally, Spirit March, tailgating, all crowned by the game itself. I wondered if these traditions were really ours. So I did a bit of digging to see if Denton stories were behind these traditions or we decided somewhere down the line to mimic those of others. Read more: http://www.dentonrc.com/business-tech/denton-business-headlines/20141102-kim-phillips-tradition-surrounds-unt-next-weekend.ece

This fall, the Denton County Transportation Authority (DCTA), North Texas Athletics (UNT) and Denton Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) have partnered together to launch the 2014 Mean Green Game Day promotion, an all-new experience that seamlessly connects the DCTA A-train, merchants in downtown Denton, the Mean Green Tailgating Village and Apogee Stadium via complimentary Mean Green Game Day Shuttle transportation. The 2014 Mean Green Game Day Shuttle will launch Sept. 6, during the first North Texas football game versus Southern Methodist University. The free shuttle will operate during all North Texas football home games during the 2014-15 season, providing easy travel to and from North Texas football games with no worries about traffic and parking hassles. Mean Green Game Day shuttles will run every 15 minutes and are complimentary for the general public; however, passengers must pay regular fare for DCTA Connect bus and A-train service. Read more: http://starlocalmedia.com/carrolltonleader/mean-green-game-day-shuttle-to-launch-on-team-s/article_5aea49ba-218c-11e4-874b-0019bb2963f4.html?mode=jqm

The University of North Texas Mean Green is headed to its first bowl game in nine years! I am excited as both a Dentonite and an alum. The Mean Green will face the University of Nevada at Las Vegas in the Heart of Dallas Bowl on New Years Day at the Cotton Bowl stadium. Back in the Sunbelt Conference days, UNT went to the New Orleans bowl four years in a row, from 2001-04. Since then, our football luck hasnt been so great. For head coach Dan McCarney and his team, this ball game has been their goal since he arrived on the scene three seasons ago to put Mean Green football back on the map. Rick Villarreal, director of UNT athletics, is charged up about the bowl game but not surprised. This is an exciting time, he said. A lot of people thought with this being our first year in Conference USA, that wed have to grow into it. But weve been getting ready for this for a long time. Read more: http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20131221-kim-phillips-unt-bowl-game-puts-spotlight-on-denton.ece