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Odus Mitchell's Legacy Overlooked?


Mike Jackson

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 With the new regime on board I hope do more celebrate the athletic history of UNT.   After the Joe Green statue, I think next person that should be honored in a bigger way is Coach Mitchell.  If Joe is our "Willie Mayes" who came after our Jackie Robinsons :(King & Hayes) would it be wrong to call Odus Mithell our Branch Rickey?  Even when I do a Google search on this coach it seems like his legacy is deliberately diminished.   He led North Texas to the most conference titles as head coach also.  The total is mentioned but the fact that is the most in the history of the school's football program isn't.   And  the fact is that there are probably no "Mean" Joe Greens on campus for Hayden Frye to coach to greatness without Odus Mitchell making the decision to integrate his team.  Or at very the least his decision not to stand in the way of the person who made call paved the way.  How instrumental was Odus Mitchell to the integration of UNT Football? I can only theorize because I wasn't there and my internet research has revealed little.  Even the DRC article honoring 100 years of UNT football (circa 2013) doesn't even mention Mitchell while documenting the story of Abner and King.  It does however mention the JV coach?  

http://www.dentonrc.com/sports/colleges/north-texas-headlines/20130728-football-eras-of-success.ece?ssimg=1121938

No offense to the JV coach but I bet his head wasn't going to be the biggest head to roll if integration was a failure for UNT Football.

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There is no doubt that Odus Mitchell had a major role in NT football success...also, he was a true gentleman and good mentor for his players. He gets overlooked due to his place in history. Most of the current fan base begin their recollections of NT football with Hayden Fry.  Perhaps some accolades will come to Odus with the new regime.

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Joe Greene was NT's greatest player and has always been a major asset of the program.   However, I think the big story and the one that should be honored above all else is the the early integration of NT.   Leon King, Abner Haynes, team mates, Odus Mitchell and the administration that backed the move to allow Afro-Americans to play at North Texas, all deserve a lot more recognition.    

How many current high school players and others realize that NT integrated  athletics in 1956, nine years before the much more lauded SMU recruitment of Jerry LeVias.

Edited by GrandGreen
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Wholeheartedly agree. I only had the pleasure of meeting him once as he had long retired when I arrived on campus.

Just look at his list of conference championships, plus there was the integration milestone and also the fact he won the MVC championship in 1958, the very first year we started playing in the University Division as the top affiliation was called at that time.

To put this in perspective, he won a conference championship ten of his twenty years as head coach. 

 

1946 Lone Star; Odus Mitchell;
1947 Lone Star; Odus Mitchell;
1950 Gulf Coast; Odus Mitchell;
1951 Gulf Coast; Odus Mitchell; 
1952 Gulf Coast; Odus Mitchell;'
1955 Gulf Coast; Odus Mitchell;
1956 Gulf Coast; Odus Mitchell;
1958 Missouri Valley; Odus Mitchell;
1959 Missouri Valley; Odus Mitchell;
1966 Missouri Valley; Odus Mitchell; 

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50 minutes ago, Mean Green 93-98 said:

I'd be all for giving him more recognition, but he was recently named the coach of the all-time North Texas team over such coaches as Fry, Rust, and Dickey.  So "overlooked" is not really accurate.

Dickey, overall losing record.

Rust, overall losing record.

Fry had success and a winning record here and his name is brought up by many when discussing the success we have had at North Texas, but Mitchell was here longer, had greater success and was named the National Coach of the Year in 1966.  Add in the integration of the team long before any other school even consider it, record of consecutive conference titles in a row(7), and the only 3 bowl appearances we had ever had until the NOLA Bowl was created and I don't think an argument can be made for another coach to be recognized by naming the field after him.

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16 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

Dickey, overall losing record.

Rust, overall losing record.

Fry had success and a winning record here and his name is brought up by many when discussing the success we have had at North Texas, but Mitchell was here longer, had greater success and was named the National Coach of the Year in 1966.  Add in the integration of the team long before any other school even consider it, record of consecutive conference titles in a row(7), and the only 3 bowl appearances we had ever had until the NOLA Bowl was created and I don't think an argument can be made for another coach to be recognized by naming the field after him.

Mmm . . . I think you completely missed my point.

Odus Mitchell deserved the honor.

But he received the honor . . . thus "overlooked" is inaccurate.

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16 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

Joe Greene was NT's greatest player and has always been a major asset of the program.   However, I think the big story and the one that should be honored above all else is the the early integration of NT.   Leon King, Abner Haynes, team mates, Odus Mitchell and the administration that backed the move to allow Afro-Americans to play at North Texas, all deserve a lot more recognition.    

How many current high school players and others realize that NT integrated  athletics in 1956, nine years before the much more lauded SMU recruitment of Jerry LeVias.

Also I don't think it would be a wild conspiracy theory to propose that UNT's early integration of its program hurt factored into the program never being seriously considered for an invitation join the SWC.  I read story stating definitively that it cost the program its OOC series with Ole Miss.  And remember if you are under 45 you we are talking about our grandparents or great grandparents generation.  A generation that could be quite petty when came to issues of race and not conforming with the status quo.

 

16 hours ago, LETitFLYguy said:

Just a side note. Mean Joe was gone 5 or so years before Hayden Fry

Did not mean to suggest that Fry coached Mean Joe.  However with the amount of reverence that Fry, I think that even most casual Mean Green Fans would wrongly assume that he did if you asked them who coached Joe Green.

2 hours ago, Mean Green 93-98 said:

Mmm . . . I think you completely missed my point.

Odus Mitchell deserved the honor.

But he received the honor . . . thus "overlooked" is inaccurate.

The documentation on the internet and the DRC retelling UNT"s integration of top level College Football in Texas is evidence to the contrary in my opinion.  As a native of Denton, MGC member for years, I never heard of Odus until I dug into UNT History about 3 years ago.   I am 2008 graduate by the way to give you a time perspective.  If you readily find something on the internet properly acknowledging his entire legacy please share.

Edited by Mike Jackson
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This is the 60th anniversary of when UNT's football team was integrated under Odus Mitchell, so this is an obvious moment to honor his legacy and that of Abner Haynes and Leon King.

Mitchell comes across pretty well in this 1987 article on the event: 

http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH1987/JSH1403/jsh1403c.pdf

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On 10/1/2016 at 11:33 AM, Mean Green 93-98 said:

Mmm . . . I think you completely missed my point.

Odus Mitchell deserved the honor.

But he received the honor . . . thus "overlooked" is inaccurate.

I understood and appreciate your point, but I think his success is overlooked by the general public and the current student body probably has no idea who he is or that he coached at North Texas.  I just think his accomplishments should be brought to the forefront and shared with all considering the era in which he coach, taking us to our only bowl games until the NOLA Bowl was created, his overall record, integration of the program long before other D1 universities in Texas and his "every man persona" where he was humble, approachable and just a great person.  True, I had the honor of knowing him and his family, but I would love to see the field named after him.  

I also think it would be a great addition to Apogee to have a "Walk of Fame" that highlights the players that have had their number retired, Gill, Greene, Haynes and Renfro  along with Coach Mitchell, Coach Fry and maybe even Coach Nelson.  They could post something like this:

Image result for yankee stadium bronze relief

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