North Texas State....

rcade · October 24, 2015

The wider college football world will stop calling us North Texas State when we put a winning team on the field that makes a strong impression on them.

GM1998 · October 24, 2015

We should be Texas State but the state of Texas would not let us use that name. It was set aside for A&M.

I have heard that argument in the past. Is there any truth behind it? If so, how did Southwest get to become Texas State. I don't think Texas State is part of the Texas A&M system. I know there is a "directional" university stigma. I don't know if that was the catalyst in changing the name of a few Louisiana state universities, but we still kept a directional distinction in our name. Whatever the reason, we aren't referred to as North Texas State as a "nickname", we are called that because we haven't given anyone a reason to learn our real name.

It not that we don't win it because we virtually never win. When was the last time the Mean Green won a regular season game against a well known successful program on national TV? Answer: NEVER. We have never even made a game like that competitive in the 4th quarter. Let's look at our record against FBS schools in our region that started playing FBS level before 1990
UTEP: 14-6, Texas Tech: 4-4, Houston: 7-7, Rice: 2-4, Tulsa 7-17, SMU: 5-29, Baylor: 1-12, TCU: 1-17, Oklahoma State: 1-10, Oklahoma: 0-7, Texas: 0-7 and Texas A&M: 0-7
Therefore college football fans in this region outside of fans of UTEP, Texas Tech, and Houston have not reason to respect our program or get the name right.
All the more reason the athletic department has to hire a big name coach with national prominence. They need to set aside 2.5 million dollars to hire a head coach and hot up and coming OC. The money is here in the 150k plus local alumni pockets. Why this AD has not made a huge push to get small donations from the average alumni and not just business owners. If the AD could get $3,000 donations from 10,000 local alumni UNT could hire anyone they wanted. A thirty million dollar boost in the revenue could pay for improvements to Apogee, hire a coach with national prominence, and hot young coordinators with strong regional ties to work under that coach. The AD should be bold and come out a say, "I want go out an hire a coach that would command 2 million dollars plus on the open market. And for a truly special coach I would be million to pay 3 million. I can't name individuals with jobs right now because that would not be classy. But you can go down the list of coaches by their salaries look at the coordinators and head coach making around 1 million or more; those are the ones I am interested. Telling you local frustrated alumni who doesn't understand why we are on par with Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Baylor and TCU, that we need a commitment from you to step up to the big boys. And my pledge to you is to be transparent about how much we have raise and how much further we have to go to reach our financial goals to go and get the coaches a lot of P5 conference programs would want" With his track record RV can't do that now because he has no credibility.
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Well said. I believe many on here, including myself have called for a donation system which leverages small donations from many versus going after deep pocket donors.

rcade · October 24, 2015

I have heard that argument in the past. Is there any truth behind it? If so, how did Southwest get to become Texas State. I don't think Texas State is part of the Texas A&M system. I know there is a "directional" university stigma. I don't know if that was the catalyst in changing the name of a few Louisiana state universities, but we still kept a directional distinction in our name. Whatever the reason, we aren't referred to as North Texas State as a "nickname", we are called that because we haven't given anyone a reason to learn our real name.

Our efforts to become Texas State occurred long before our name change to UNT in 1988.

Texas State pulled it off by first becoming Texas State-San Marcos in 2003. They had to know a lot of people would just call them Texas State, and in 2013 this helped them persuade the state lege to let them drop the "San Marcos." It's a brilliant bit of marketing that will pay dividends for them for many decades.

In the 1970s and earlier, several Texas schools wanted to become Texas State, according to this story by historian Michael Phillips (a friend of mine, coincidentally). He mentions the desire to become "Texas State" in an article about how the Texas A&M University name change in 1963 was received on that campus:

http://jmichaelphillips.blogspot.com/2012/01/earl-rudder-and-era-of-radical-change.html

As early as 1961, some faculty members, including the Chemistry Department's A.F. Isbell, lobbied strongly for changing the name to Texas State University. Isbell believed that the new name not only advertised the school's emerging status as a university, but as a top-notch state supported institution. To Isbell, acquiring this name represented a matter of urgency.
"It is no secret that Texas Tech would like to have its name changed to Texas State University, North Texas State would also like to adopt this name, and when the University of Houston becomes a state-supported school, it would be no surprise if this school also asks for this name," Isbell wrote in a letter to Name-Change Committee Chair Lee Duewall. "If one of these schools is successful in getting its name changed to Texas State University, its gain in prestige in comparison to the loss to A&M would be disastrous. Regardless of our name, we would be regarded generally by those outside this immediate locality as no higher than the third ranking school of this state."

At this point, the North Texas region is more populous than 33 states and DFW is the largest metropolitan area in the South (fourth largest in the U.S.). Being the largest public school in an area this big and economically powerful, and having the name University of North Texas, is an enormous asset.

greenjoe · October 24, 2015

It took most about 15 minutes to adjust from Southwest Texas State University to Texas State. Perhaps 16 minutes to refer to Memphis State as Memphis. Same with Troy State/Troy.

When I talk with students that I doubt are football followers, I intentionally ask if they attend "North Texas." They get a quizzical look on their face and then reply, "Yes. UNT."

We've had too many names and most people are lazy and don't make any effort to be current. However, after almost 30 years I would hk even the most lazy would get it right. Perhaps they could google us. Just look up, "greatest margin of defeat by a FCS of FBS."

By the way, I wrote a letter to Chip Kelly c/o the Philadelphia Eagles. I'll let you know if he ever answers.

GO MEAN GREEN