North Texas Football Color Barrier Legacy

[UNTLifer]

20 hours ago, wardly said:

Young people don't really care what happened 50 years ago. When I have conversations with them about our past they ask "who is Joe Greene"?

Don't care.  They should be taught about those that have made it easier for those that follow.

[SilverEagle]

1 hour ago, Cerebus said:

I believe at the time the NCAA divisions were named College and University.  We where in the top division, Angelo State was not. 

 

We were not officially a "University" until 1961. When we joined the MVC, we were NTSC.  

[Mike Jackson]

On 1/15/2017 at 9:26 PM, Cerebus said:

 

It's not even like McVea has no other claim to fame, he was the first black player to play on an SEC field.  Abner Haynes would have had that honor, but both Ole Miss and Miss St cancelled their series with NT they found out about Haynes and King playing on NT's freshman team.

Cerebus just listed some those consequences UNT suffered.  I knew about the Ole Miss cancellation, I didn't know about Miss State cancellation. 

[TreeFiddy]

 

[Cerebus]

12 hours ago, TreeFiddy said:

 

Read the comments on that tweet, UH fan again claiming that Haynes and King were not the first to break the color line.  

[Cerebus]

On 1/17/2017 at 9:26 AM, SilverEagle said:

We were not officially a "University" until 1961. When we joined the MVC, we were NTSC.  

The NCAA classification had nothing to do with our name.  From 1937 to 1972 the classification system the NCAA used was:

• University Division (aka Major College)
• College Division (aka Small College)

Starting in '73, this was changed to:

• Division I
• Division II
• Division III

In 1978 Division I was split into Division 1-A (now renamed FBS) and Division 1-AA (now FCS).  

 

North Texas (NTSC at the time) was a member of the Gulf Coast Conference when Abner Haynes was on the freshman team.   The GCC was a College Division level conference.  However by the team Haynes played on the varsity team, NTSC was a member of the Missouri Valley Conference.  

The MVC was a member of the University Division (Major College), the top conference classification in the NCAA at the time.  So Abner Haynes and Leon King where the first black athletes to play on a Major College football team in the State of Texas.

Some UH fans are confused about what "Major College" means.  They do not know it is a classification, not a judgement of quality.  They argue that UH was a "major college" and that McVea was the first to play in texas at a major college.  

Not only does it show ignorance of the fact, it's insulting to consider NT any less of a college than UH was at the time.  Both were in the top division, UH wasn't even in a conference at the time, and the NT football team was ranked #19 in the AP poll for a few weeks while Abner Haynes was on the team.  

UH itself plays this up, they honor McVea as the first black athlete at the major college level in Texas.  It's untrue.  What is crazy to me is he already has a great claim to fame.  He was the first black athlete to play on a SEC field.

[KRAM1]

On ‎1‎/‎15‎/‎2017 at 2:54 PM, @UNTSportsFan said:

Author Jeff Miller will be signing copies of his book on Saturday at the golden triangle mall : http://www.dentonrc.com/opinion/columns-headlines/20170114-jeff-miller-football-played-key-role-in-unts-integration.ece

 

 

Got a signed copy.  Good read.  Every UNT fan ... and really anyone... should pick up a copy and read this book.  It should make you pretty proud of your University, and will, hopefully, stop the misrepresentation of which school actually broke the color barrier.  This is a sports book for sure, but it is so much more than a sports book.  I have met, know or have heard about the vast majority of the people mentioned from UNT in this book which also makes for an interesting read for me.  I recommend that folks pick up a copy.