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Have we reached the golden age of North Texas athletics?


Dannymacfan

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It just seems like everything is going so well for us right now.  Basketball is killing it and is the best it has ever been.  Football is inching towards a conference championship and Littrell is really starting to glow up and receive a lot of praise for his coaching.  Softball, soccer, women's basketball and many of the other sports are doing well.

The only thing I could compare this to is when we won the  Heart of Dallas Bowl in 2013 under Mac.  And at that time the other sports were struggling but Mac did a great job.  DT was our QB that year. 

All of this is occurring because of the great AD Wren Baker and Dr. Smatresk's unyielding support.  I used to be worried about us moving into the American conference, out of the warmth inside of the Conference of USA Judy-womb.  I no longer have those fears.  I think we are headed into the right direction and we will be very competitive in the American next season.

Anyway, as we head into a big homecoming weekend I just wanted to share some of my enthusiasm over the direction we appear to be headed. Go Mean Green.

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The Southwest Conference was segregated until the mid to late 70's, and African American athletics from Texas had very little options. I don't remember when the U of H integrated , but the Big 10 and Big 8 were their landing places as well as UNT. I was at North Texas from 1961 to 1966 while we were in the Missouri Valley Conference and saw some great basketball teams come thru the Men's Gym. However , our football team was a combined 19-28-2- my first 4 years but went 8 & 2 in 1966 and won the MVC Championship. Rod Rust won the MVC Championship in 1967 an had 2 more  winning seasons until crashing his final 3 with a combined record of 7 & 26. The best team we had, in my opinion, was in 1968. We were 8 &2 , getting hosed by officials in Little Rock losing to # 16 Arkansas 15-17. I moved out of state and missed first two seasons, where he won the MVC Championship in 1973 with a 5-5-1 record followed by a 2-7-2 season. However he got things humming in 1975. It was a different world in the 60's and mid 70's. We only had a dozed or so bowls, the USA population was 2/3 rds or less than it is now, and Viet Nam was ever present.  I guess I would say that my golden age for athletes was 60's and 70's, but facilities beginning with our new football stadium.

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I am not convinced that we have ever had a "Golden Age", especially now. As Wardly stated, we enjoyed some football success during the Mitchell and Fry tenures and in 1976 (I think) our basketball team was nationally ranked for the only time ever.  The Sun Belt run is diminished by the blow-outs we suffered by non-conference opponents.

There have been a few other flashes of brilliance, notably our four NCAA golf championships. 

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