Darrell R. Dickey Football Practice Facility

[Daddy Dumpsalot]

And who has been in charge of the UNT Board of Regents of late? Was it the same one who "un-fired" DD at ULM back in 2001?

Hmmm? Well, lets see.............was it the short feller who used his state-appointed title and influence to get his grandson a seat on the UNT varsity baskeball team's beach? Did any of you with grandsons get the same opportunity? Even you who have given some Big Bucks?

Hmmm? What else may he have abused (all above board, of course) with his title of Chairman of the UNT Board of Regents?

Hmmm? We all know the UNT financial endowment coffers grew very little under his watch; but, of course, instead of leading our school in making sure all our campus fund-raisers were in place, Bobby Ray was a litte too busy going on family vacations with the Dickey family and being our Co-Athletic Director and still.............was the very one who veto'd Rick Villarreal's original firing of DD after that ULM loss in 2001.

Hmmm? Did our real AD, ie, one Mr. Rick Villarreal foresee something many of our elect probably didn't with Darrell Dickey? Like maybe this coach's MG football teams would compete "only" with SBC schools and that was about it? Significant OOC wins? That would merely become a Mean Green pipe dream for the last 8 years.

Hmmm? Did Rick V back in 2001 fire the HFC (even further under .500 back then); but did AD Villarreal foresee for UNT a coach that would not only take the Mean Green football team to some bowl games, but would also have some of those teams ranked in the Top 25? Maybe Rick V back in 2001 saw a coach like we have now who would galvanize most of our UNT community? As I recall back in 2001, DD was no more popular then than he became to most his last 2 years on the UNT payroll.

Hmmm? If DD's successor would have created Top 25 football, a la Boise State, might our stumbling/bumbling alma mater have had a dramatically more marketable product to (proudly) present to CUSA commish Brit Banwosky and then with our (subsequently) being voted in because of a CUSA press release from Banowsky's offices that might have said something like this: The University of North Texas brings to our league a Top 25 football program and we look forward to all other schools setting their own bars as high as the Mean Green have?

Hmmm? But we don't make decisions at UNT to get us out of our previous last 25 years quagmire of an excuse of an upwardly bound D1-A athletic program, now do we? Yet we do persevere the careers of those who have kept us there and that's for damn sure.

UPON FURTHER REVIEW & THOUGHT, I CAN NEVER, EVER BLAME AD RICK VILLARREAL FOR ALL THIS MESS (most of which he inherited): Actually, I think RV is one of a few in our athletic department with the talents to move upward in D1-A; in fact, I even thought that when I was disgusted with some of his moves the last few years at UNT.

WE CANNOT BLAME RICK VILLARREAL--REALLY WE CAN'T..................UNT AD Rick V had the gonads to do the right thing in 2001 with his post-game firing of Darrell Dickey, but then in true UNT fashion, we have riding in on his white horse self-appointed co-AD Bobby Ray's who came up with his idea to "un-fire" Darrell Dickey. Now an "un-firing" which now has our school in a very awkward position of having to name anything after a coach that is 18 games under .500; with that same ex UNT head football coach whose next job after his 8 years at UNT would be as an assistant coach at a lower level non-BCS school. And with this ex UNT head football coach who basically shot to each and every one of you the finger as he dropped his drawers for all to see his moon-light over Miami, or at least I should say moon-light over Fouts Field during his last month on payroll.

Some of you Young Gun Alums may not realize this, but we actually did have a school and athletic program before you were all born, even while you were merely gleams in your respective father's eyes, and for the love al all things good, we older nestor alums can only hope yall don't have to spend the next 25 years banging your heads against a wall of non-stop poor hirings that no one else will hire away from us so (therefore) we get stuck with non-producers (turnstile counts, folks, turnstile counts AND...........MG Club fund-raising totals of the last 10 or so years might give some of you more astute alums the ones who have been in charge of that for many years; anyway, we only hope your next 25 years includes better hirings rather than some of what one Texas Ex once laughingly told me were some of the worst consortium of hirings in all of NCAA Division One.

IMHO.........RICK V IS REALLY THE MAN FOR OUR MOST UNIQUE AD JOB AT UNT: That is, if our chairman of the BOR's will just leave him alone and let RV do his job): I think now more than ever that once UNT AD Rick V rids himself of the deadwood he inherited upon his hiring AND............. if the UNT Board of Regents don't hamstring RV, that he now knows what he needs to have on his ancillery staff (across the board) to make our school's athletic program a non-Bottom 25 success; you know, like he really wanted to get started with that goal when he fired Darrell Dickey after the ULM loss in 2001?

Plumm,

This was the most entertaining and educational post I have read yet. I'm a recent alumnus but I commend you on your faithfulness as a MG fan throughout all those years. I'm glad you have not made excuses for the lack of direction our Athletic Dept. has taken, let alone our University...yet you have continued to support it. I see that you have educated yourself and sought out some of the major players in our lack of being able to capitalize on our accomplishments over the past years. I agree that with where NT has been, we should be so much further along as far as Athletics and Natl Recognition. There IS no excuse for us not having a nationally ranked football program, being in a better conference, and having a sold out stadium, other than apathy in a few people that have the power to make changes for the University. I for one do not want to have to go through 10 years of seeing nothing progress in our athletics, or the University as a whole. That is the very reason we don't have sold out venues because people have given up after waiting around all those years. Thanks for your post, passion, and faithfulness.

[PlummMeanGreen]

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE CLOSE OR PUT THIS THREAD TO REST ?

Come on MG61, I know some of this being posted concerns a couple of your athletic dept. buds that are probably some of your hot MG insider sources, but do even you want another 25 years of what non-productive talents has given us with those very ones who (also) seem to be quagmired in Denton & UNT at the entire Mean Green Nation'$ expen$e?

Oh, I suppose we could sweep all of this under the rug and say all going on at UNT is a complete Utopian/Nirvana existance and that NT Exes are estatic from coast to coast, but if we did that we would (each and every one) be guilty of persevering even more mediocrity--you know, the kind of mediocrity that even has a hardy handful on this fourm fully content going to bowl games with teams ranked in the Bottom 25? Well, all that may play well to many of that group on this board, but we had 15,000 empty seats during DD's 4 year bowl run which clearly proved that most NT Exes (from coast to coast) were all duly & totally unimpressed with the lower profile production of Darrell R. Dickey Practice Field.

Edited June 21, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

[MeanGreen61]

Come on MG61, I know some of this being posted concerns a couple of your athletic dept. buds that are probably some of your hot MG insider sources, but do even you want another 25 years of what non-productive talents has given us with those very ones who (also) seem to be quagmired in Denton & UNT at the entire Mean Green Nation'$ expen$e?

Plumm, please drop your ridiculous comments about me being concerned because of buddies, sources, another 25 years etc. You turned a simple thread on a donation that helped the athletic department and a name being used that you don't like for the practice fields into the History of the World III.

Show this footer on all your post to TD and he'd probably laugh & tell ya to grow up !

"Why would UNT officials subject Todd Dodge to what they have now (apparently) decided to subject him to with all his future practices at the MG Village's practice fields which will now be named after the very one who gave us DD Ball, numerous condescending radio comments aimed at his very employer & then the final icing on the cake--the black jerseys."

Edited June 21, 2007 by MeanGreen61

[Quoner]

Come on MG61, I know some of this being posted concerns a couple of your athletic dept. buds that are probably some of your hot MG insider sources, but do even you want another 25 years of what non-productive talents has given us with those very ones who (also) seem to be quagmired in Denton & UNT at the entire Mean Green Nation'$ expen$e?

Oh, I suppose we could sweep all of this under the rug and say all going on at UNT is a complete Utopian/Nirvana existance and that NT Exes are estatic from coast to coast, but if we did that we would (each and every one) be guilty of persevering even more mediocrity--you know, the kind of mediocrity that even has a hardy handful on this fourm fully content going to bowl games with teams ranked in the Bottom 25? Well, all that may play well to many of that group on this board, but we had 15,000 empty seats during DD's 4 year bowl run which clearly proved that most NT Exes (from coast to coast) were all duly & totally unimpressed with the lower profile production of Darrell R. Dickey Practice Field.

I bet Plumm hasn't slept in 3 days. I imagine him sipping coffee, covered in an old blanket, thinking any of his posts have the potential to change anything. I also imagine this post will make me a bad person or a bad poster or a young gun or a terrorist or whatever the generalization du jour is today.

The program has had limited success and to call people to the carpet about what they don't like is fine. But if you want to call the administration under fire while giving RV an exception, you are using flawed logic. He runs the show and is not handicapped on everything, regardless of the rumors. If he is so upwardly mobile and marketable, why is he still here (and getting turned down for the jobs he doesn't - wink - apply for?) Regardless, bashing the people at this point means nothing. If TD and the group in place now continues our momentum and the building that has gone on from an administrative standpoint keeps going forward, we'll move up slowly. You want a quick fix to be done your way. If this ship gets turned around by this group of people you won't even enjoy it. Regardless of my feelings anyone else, I see no reason to rant and rave about a DD practice field and who needs to be fired. My personal opinions are meaningless until I throw a few thousand dollars behind them.

[UNTSIG]

naming the practice fields after DD definitely continues to make us look second class. he was not beloved and he was not successful at this university. winning the belt and beating Tech doesn't mean you should get anything named after you. HOWEVER, it's impossible to be critical of the decision because it really wasn't anyones decision but Mattress Mac. we just have to live with it. i think that it is laughable if you try and make a case for DD though. 18 games below .500 and now coaching as an assitant at a "lesser" school pretty much sums up what everyone else in the football world thinks about his coaching

[PlummMeanGreen]

I bet Plumm hasn't slept in 3 days. I imagine him sipping coffee, covered in an old blanket, thinking any of his posts have the potential to change anything. I also imagine this post will make me a bad person or a bad poster or a young gun or a terrorist or whatever the generalization du jour is today.

The program has had limited success and to call people to the carpet about what they don't like is fine. But if you want to call the administration under fire while giving RV an exception, you are using flawed logic. He runs the show and is not handicapped on everything, regardless of the rumors. If he is so upwardly mobile and marketable, why is he still here (and getting turned down for the jobs he doesn't - wink - apply for?) Regardless, bashing the people at this point means nothing. If TD and the group in place now continues our momentum and the building that has gone on from an administrative standpoint keeps going forward, we'll move up slowly. You want a quick fix to be done your way. If this ship gets turned around by this group of people you won't even enjoy it. Regardless of my feelings anyone else, I see no reason to rant and rave about a DD practice field and who needs to be fired. My personal opinions are meaningless until I throw a few thousand dollars behind them.

Killing 2 Birds With 1 Stone...

"Q", I sense the frustration, but most likely the main thing that needs to change most on this forum is your continued flaunting of your sexual preference from many of your past posts.

As far as Rick V goes, he has been under Bobby Ray's thumb almost from the git-go and Mr. Ray truly flubbed-the-dub when he over-ruled RV's 2001 firing of a MG head football coach who would stay 8 years, have disguised and veiled successes in the ghetto part of NCAA D1-A; and that, that still has some on this board all "goo-goo' eyed over Darrell Dickey. BTW, one of the strangest D1-A head football coaching gigs I've observed in 40 plus years of following college football.

As far as the other poster's comments, he (and a handful of others) just cannot (and seems to have never) been able to handle the truth about MG athletics (whose results are clear for all to see in most any UNT varsity sports media guides of the last "way too many" years to even list). He then talks about some putting their money where their mouths are? Well, is that so UNT officials can build and then name facilities after loser coaches. Hell, why don't we just submit our next naming in honor of all those 15,000 regularly did not show up for DD Ball on Game Day at Fouts Field--makes about as much sense to honor them as the one we have just honored.

And on Todd Dodge: If I were in Todd Dodge's shoes, I would probably be silently thinking: "What the hell will this group dish out next whlle I'm here? (And what is "that"? Well, "that" is being such things that you would never see happen at such schools as his own alma mater down in Austin--you know, the one his son gave an early committment?

[Quoner]

Killing 2 Birds With 1 Stone...

"Q", I sense the frustration, but most likely the main thing that needs to change most on this forum is your continued flaunting of your sexual preference from many of your past posts.

So does this mean you don't want to grab a bite and go dancing sometime? My treat.

[UNTLifer]

Killing 2 Birds With 1 Stone...

As far as Rick V goes, he has been under Bobby Ray's thumb almost from the git-go and Mr. Ray truly flubbed-the-dub when he over-ruled RV's 2001 firing of a MG head football coach who would stay 8 years, have disguised and veiled successes in the ghetto part of NCAA D1-A; and that, that still has some on this board all "goo-goo' eyed over Darrell Dickey. BTW, one of the strangest D1-A head football coaching gigs I've observed in 40 plus years of following college football.

PMG, you can have your opinions and claim we all have buried our collective heads in the sand, but this is where you lose all credibility with me. The above quote made me laugh. You are critical of DD's success in the Sun Belt, yet when this period of UNT athletics was taking place, you were shouting from the mountain tops about the greatness of the NMSU game, the greatness of the winning streak, the greatness of going to 4 bowls in a row, the pending contstruction on Eagle Point of a new Taj Mahal football stadium, the awesomeness of the new A/C, etc, etc, etc.....

[SilverEagle]

So does this mean you don't want to grab a bite and go dancing sometime? My treat.

It's about time! I was expecting an exchange like this somewhere around the second or third page.

[Daddy Dumpsalot]

PMG, you can have your opinions and claim we all have buried our collective heads in the sand, but this is where you lose all credibility with me. The above quote made me laugh. You are critical of DD's success in the Sun Belt, yet when this period of UNT athletics was taking place, you were shouting from the mountain tops about the greatness of the NMSU game, the greatness of the winning streak, the greatness of going to 4 bowls in a row, the pending contstruction on Eagle Point of a new Taj Mahal football stadium, the awesomeness of the new A/C, etc, etc, etc.....

All the more reason to be disgusted with where we were last year and the year before.

I will still support the MG through it all.

[Green Lantern]

PMG, you can have your opinions and claim we all have buried our collective heads in the sand, but this is where you lose all credibility with me. The above quote made me laugh. You are critical of DD's success in the Sun Belt, yet when this period of UNT athletics was taking place, you were shouting from the mountain tops about the greatness of the NMSU game, the greatness of the winning streak, the greatness of going to 4 bowls in a row, the pending contstruction on Eagle Point of a new Taj Mahal football stadium, the awesomeness of the new A/C, etc, etc, etc.....

This is the same issue that I have with all this. I seem to recall reading posts from Plumm on opponents message boards (i.e. La Tech, MTSU, SMU among others) as well as diatribe after diatribe here on GMG about the win streak, the NO Bowl appearances w/1 win, the new AC, and the new Daktronics scoreboard. It just seems a bit hypocritical to come back now after a couple of tough years and bash eveyone who had anything to do with these successes/improvements (ie.DD, Bobby Ray, BOR, and everyone in the AD besides RV). For the record, I was never a huge DD fan/supporter but I can't deny that the successes that we had under his regime. The wheels were set in motion during those years to move this athletic department forward and there is no sane NT fan that would say that we haven't made SIGNIFICANT improvements since the late 90's.

[Daddy Dumpsalot]

Speaking of Bobby Ray:

John Robert "Bobby" Ray

Mr. Ray is Chairman of the Board of Regents. Mr. Ray has served on the board since 1995. His term expires May 22, 2007. He received a bachelor's degree in business administration from UNT. He is group president of K. Hovnanian Homes. Mr. Ray lives in Plano.

Whose taking his place now? And what does this do for UNT athletics?

UNT BOR

[greenminer]

Doing this isn't saying Hayden Fry shouldn't be honored, or that Dickey is more deserving. I think we should accept this as a token of appreciation for the bowl years, and nothing more. Certainly not an acceptance of mediocrity. UNT is better than that. Would all this have been okay if we had waited a few years and had already honored Fry? Fry will get his day. It is sad that money accelerated Dickey ahead of him and whomever else you had in mind, but that's our reality. If I had money to donate and they put a locker in my name, is it so different that I'd be ahead of Fry? I've got an idea: use this thread, put our money together, and ask for Hayden Fry's name instead of our's. or something like "GMG.com in honor of Hayden Fry"

The black jersey act was pitiful, but it's over. We have pride for good and bad, and this is the bad. Get over yourselves. Dickey is an Aggie now. Thanks for the bowl years, DD! Have fun and be in good health in Utah.

Can we please get over the fucking black jerseys? It's over, it's done...jeez...

[NT1978]

If we were naming the practice field after the person most instrumental in getting us to four bowl games, it would be named the Wright Waters practice field. However as many pointed out it is not being named for someone, but rather named by someone. Someone who paid for that right.

[PlummMeanGreen]

This is the same issue that I have with all this. I seem to recall reading posts from Plumm on opponents message boards (i.e. La Tech, MTSU, SMU among others) as well as diatribe after diatribe here on GMG about the win streak, the NO Bowl appearances w/1 win, the new AC, and the new Daktronics scoreboard. It just seems a bit hypocritical to come back now after a couple of tough years and bash eveyone who had anything to do with these successes/improvements (ie.DD, Bobby Ray, BOR, and everyone in the AD besides RV). For the record, I was never a huge DD fan/supporter but I can't deny that the successes that we had under his regime. The wheels were set in motion during those years to move this athletic department forward and there is no sane NT fan that would say that we haven't made SIGNIFICANT improvements since the late 90's.

Before all this heads towards "the Pope, all his Cardinals and PMG cannonize DD into full sainthood" let me say this:

Never...............Never.............Never did I (like many of you) ever fully embrace Darrell Dickey as our HFC and there are those who post on this board who know me well enough to substantiate that fact. Also, I took the 4 bowl games for what they were really worth--a reason for us to brag to our fellow SBC bottom-feeders that we were a tad better than they were in a particular year. We all closed our eyes & ears back then to ignore that we weren't anywhere close to pulling what Boise State had been for a few years running and that was Top 25 ranked MG football teams.

When ex UNT AD Helwig pulled his famous "Quicks Draw McGraw" routine and hired assistant coach DD from SMU before any of us could say "conduct a national search for our HFC", there stood none other than Darrell Dickey in front of the DFW sports media cameras being annnounced as our new HFC." I know some of you who were livid about Helwig's "QB sneak up the middle" with his decision to basically go with his Kansas (St.) connections to hire DD. Didn't DD's dad also coach at Kansas State?

The 4 bowl games (basically) pulled our heads out of the water so that Mean Green football would not totally drown (which was where this program was headed) with DD's first few years. Also FWIW, UNT had been back in NCAA D1-A years before most of our fellow SBC members, so I guess that sorta' said that UNT had a head start on our fellow SBC confeerence-mates in other words?

DARRELL DICKEY LOSES SAINTHOOD--GETS EX-COMMUNICATED! ..................DD lost many of us (mostly & amazingly) not so much for his coaching and (mostly) un-entertaining form of football for a school like UNT that really needed an entertaining form of football to sell tickets to many, many new fans of which there were almost always 15,000 empty seats for them to sit in...............

................but DD lost many of us due to his numerous negative broadcasted comments which he made on the Mean Green Radio Network. It seemed no upper echelon UNT officials (Bobby Ray for starters) saw no need to correct those, either, and I suppose some of them thought they were cute and funny; yet many of you on this board who would admit it now (including myself) did not. In fact, I brought an alum from my era to a Game Day in Denton and he was duly un-impressed with what he saw, yet when I had him tune into DD's post game radio show on this way home, that NT Ex later told me how he was blown away with what any UNT employee, namely one Darrell R. Dickey in this case, was saying about the very ones who wrote him some pretty nice checks and then what he was saying about our fans/alums.

IF YOU EVER CHANGED YOUR MIND ABOUT SOMEBODY & THE JOB THEY WERE DOING, THEN YOU'D KNOW HOW I FELT BACK THEN..............Another bone-head scenario that all but clinched my own non-support for DD was a particular national ESPN radio broadcast--you all remember that one, right? Folks, this was a "national" ESPN interview and a................. golden opportunity for DD to brag to the entire U.S. sports nation about what was going on at UNT and, specifically, the Mean Green Village with all its future plans; instead, DD chose to go into yet another of one of his "woe is me" diatribes we heard on many post-game radio shows of how really tough it is to be at North Texas. FWIW, if he were trying for the sympathy vote from many of the other (then) approx. 114 or so NCAA D1-A school administrators (hiring authories, if you will) it seems what DD was saying on ESPN fell on deaf ears.

If UNT alum and Hayden Fry ex football player Jim McIngvale really had to have Kansas State alum Darrell Dickey to convince him to support his own freakin' alma mater, then I still have to wonder about all this even now. BTW, Mattress Mac is a known sports enthusiast down in Greater Houston who has even created some controversy down there with his style down in the Bayour City.

HELLSBELSS FOLKS, TEXAS STATE HAD AN AC BEFORE WE DID: UNT needed an Athletic Center just to keep our hands in play even at the Sun Belt Conference level no matter how it got funded it; although we know the UNT BOR's had to pull some magic rabbits out of UNT's coffers to insure it got completely funded AND....................my gut feeling even now is Jim "Mattress Mac" McIngvale will give UNT, specifically, Mean Green athletics some more big money soon, but this time it would be nice if he would just be a good steward with what riches he has been ble$$ed and just not hold our/his school hostage with any demands for his gift; that is, unless he wants something name after himself which (believe this or not) most of us would have no problem with whatsoever.

Some other suggestions made by a few of you that UNT should really wait 5 years before they name any facility after an individual is really a good idea; in fact, its a shame UNT did not already have that in its by-laws like I'd bet most other schools would.

Edited June 22, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

[FirefightnRick]

A few things to think about.

1. Bobby Ray has probably given (just a guess here) 3 times more money to this university as well as this ahtletic program than Jim McInvale has ever given. Even recently when we start the next phase for our Hall of Fame it will have BR's handprints all over it, and thankfully so or it would possibly never get done.

2. The practice field was to be named after McIngvale orignally long before DD got the boot. This wasn't JM's idea, it was the universities idea. He only made the demand that it be named after DD after it was announced DD was being fired. Why? Spite, that's why.

3. Why would someone who played for North Texas, more importantly, played for legendary coach Hayden Fry(one season in 1973), be spiteful to his university in the first place? I dont know why other than possibly it shows what sort of man JM truly is? I had heard, and maybe someone here can substantiate the story, that McInvale got cross with Fry early on and was dismissed from the team. This may explain why he maintained a distance from NT all these years since until his son recently attended here.

4. Why the tight connection between JM and DD to the point that once the relationship between DD and the university turned sour that JM would be so spitefull as to blatently go out of his way to embarrass his and his son's alma mater on a national level? Again, the story is that JM's son had fallen on a "difficult" time while attending NT and that because of family connections down in Houston DD saw his way to take junior under his arm and mentor him during this time. I know he was on the sidelines at times so this could be the tie in to their relationship. I certainly would be very thankful to someone who helped my boy during such a situation away from home.

Anyhow, just thought I would throw in some things to think about. I too wish DD all the best and feel he deserves recognition in some way. I'm just not sure it should have been this soon and in this way.

Rick

Edited June 22, 2007 by FirefightnRick

[PlummMeanGreen]

A few things to think about.

1. Bobby Ray has probably given (just a guess here) 3 times more money to this university as well as this ahtletic program than Jim McInvale has ever given. Even recently when we start the next phase for our Hall of Fame it will have BR's handprints all over it, and thankfully so or it would possibly never get done.

2. The practice field was to be named after McIngvale orignally long before DD got the boot. This wasn't JM's idea, it was the universities idea. He only made the demand that it be named after DD after it was announced DD was being fired. Why? Spite, that's why.

3. Why would someone who played for North Texas, more importantly, played for legendary coach Hayden Fry(one season in 1973), be spiteful to his university in the first place? I dont know why other than possibly it shows what sort of man JM truly is? I had heard, and maybe someone here can substantiate the story, that McInvale got cross with Fry early on and was dismissed from the team. This may explain why he maintained a distance from NT all these years since until his son recently attended here.

4. Why the tight connection between JM and DD to the point that once the relationship between DD and the university turned sour that JM would be so spitefull as to blatently go out of his way to embarrass his and his son's alma mater on a national level? Again, the story is that JM's son had fallen on a "difficult" time while attending NT and that because of family connections down in Houston DD saw his way to take junior under his arm and mentor him during this time. I know he was on the sidelines at times so this could be the tie in to their relationship. I certainly would be very thankful to someone who helped my boy during such a situation away from home.

Anyhow, just thought I would throw in some things to think about. I too wish DD all the best and feel he deserves recognition in some way. I'm just not sure it should have been this soon and in this way.

Rick

Good post, FFR, very thought-provoking and a new twist on things that many of us who can still be open-minded to anything concerning our alma mater.

Like ol' Monday Night Football alumnus/color commentator Dandy Don Meredith once said (probably only just to piss off Howard Cosell who hated Danderoo's Texas'isms, yet one of Meredith's more famous quotes from a MNF broadcast in the 70's was:[ "If if's and but's were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas."

OK, so I'm going to post one of those big "What if's...." now.

"What if".............. Bobby Ray had allowed UNT AD Rick V to have fired Dickey post-ULM loss in 2001 and merely allowed our UNT AD to do what he was hired to do and Rick V then hired one to take DD's place somewhat equivalent to Todd Dodge; of which Todd Dodge's hiring has (remarkably) gotten most all of our lambs and lions to be in the same room together which most of us haven't seen such as that since the hiring of...................Hayden Fry?

What if................instead of our being ranked in this summer's pre-season football magazines anywhere from 100 to 119 among all D1-A schools, "what if" (there I go again) we had had a coach that had methodically progressed Mean Green football from the year 2002 to Top 25 rankings up to the Fall of 2007 (instead of our having been nowhere close to Top 25 rankings--bowl years or no bowl years?

If all those "what if's" had materialized, might Bobby Ray even today have had many others new donors giving (maybe not what he has to date) but in a similar $tratisphere as far as athletic fund-raising may have gone?

FFR, you are one of our best of the best.............and thru the years you and I have agreed on most things. I confess I've been as critical of Bobby Ray as probably anyone on GMG.com and that a fact I'm not always proud of; but (just like you would, Rick) if I see or detect what I perceive to be something that is not advancing our alma mater (but maybe, moreso setting it back a few giant steps), I am just not going to sit idle and say................oh well. I don't agree with many on this board on a variety of subjects, but I still respect the fact that they are still NT Exes and deserve their own hot sports opinions just like any NT Ex would.

Fact still remains................although we may all be sitting in different sections of Fouts Field come this Fall.......................when the Green Brigade strikes up "Glory to the Green" we each & everyone will stand up tall & proud, many of us will even sing every word to our alma mater AND...............many of us will even raise those eagle claws high in the air much like the way you, FFR, as a former Talon taught us the way that should be done.

Hope you and family are doing well...

GMG!

Edited June 22, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

[Talon90]

I don't see what the big deal is...it's just the practice field.

I was just as frustrated with Dickey the last few years as everyone else but he will be inducted into the UNT Sports Hall of Fame....here is his record against all other UNT coaches:

ALL TIME UNT FOOTBALL COACHING RECORDS

After looking at these records I still wonder why Odus Mitchell doesn't get more recognition.

I THINK THE MORE IMPORTANT QUESTION IS WHEN IS THE ATHLETIC FACILITY PARKING LOT GOING TO BE NAMED AFTER MATT SIMON?!

[NT80]

I was just as frustrated with Dickey the last few years as everyone else but he will be inducted into the UNT Sports Hall of Fame....here is his record against all other UNT coaches:

ALL TIME UNT FOOTBALL COACHING RECORDS

In the modern era of NT football (1960 to present) only ONE coach had a winning record....

That's who should have an NT athletic building named after them!

[MeanGreen61]

In the modern era of NT football (1960 to present) only ONE coach had a winning record....

That's who should have an NT athletic building named after them!

My man for the all time coach is Odus Mitchell. He dedicated 21 years to North Texas, is the all-time winning coach, sheparded the program thru important changes and was a true credit to his profession. If I had the bucks to fund the stadium, I'd name it Mitchell Memorial without hesitation !

Edited June 22, 2007 by MeanGreen61

[NT80]

My man for the all time coach is Odus Mitchell. He dedicated 21 years to North Texas, is the all-time winning coach, sheparded the program thru important changes and was a true credit to his profession. If I had the bucks to fund the stadium, I'd name it Mitchell Memorial without hesitation !

The great Green Grenade, in all his stadium renderings, always named it "Fry-Mitchell Stadium" in honor of both legends.

[Harry]

Speaking of Green Grenade anyone know his status. He sure is missed on here!

[NT80]

Speaking of Green Grenade anyone know his status. He sure is missed on here!

I visited him a couple weeks ago. On his computer he can read the board fine but when he goes to post it gives the ole "you have performed an illegal operation..." and closes his computer down. I couldn't fix it but maybe someone here can give him some computer suggestions?

[UNTLifer]

My man for the all time coach is Odus Mitchell. He dedicated 21 years to North Texas, is the all-time winning coach, sheparded the program thru important changes and was a true credit to his profession. If I had the bucks to fund the stadium, I'd name it Mitchell Memorial without hesitation !

Amen. I had the pleasure of knowing Coach Mitchell and going to school with his grandchildren. He was an outstanding man and coach.

[emmitt01]

Plumm,

You know I love and respect you for your fire for this university and I even read about 70% of your posts (by the way my sergeant says if I continue to do this I need to start burning vacation or sick time because the extended absences aren't free...yeah, it takes that long to read them). I'm just a little, no make that a lot, worn out by the repetitive and counterproductive sermons that get neither you nor any of us anywhere even if you type them in color. So, here's what I suggest and I'll throw in a pledge of my own. From now on if you will start all of your filibusters with the phrase "I'm so tired of x problem/administrator/coach/gmg poster that I am gonna donate x number of dollars to fix the problem and the check is imminently forthcoming" then I promise to read 100% of your posts and will even lend them some credence. Deal?