The sound of Apogee on the last Cardinal possession...

[Eastwood Eagle]

while getting better, I fear our school will never be a great football scene. Too many liberal type people, who would rather be smoking hookahs and drinking coffee than watching sports. It's just my opinion. I know, I know, there are lots of artsy people who like to watch unt football games and some are our best fans, but the other 80% of them don't and could care less.

I'm beginning to think that marketing our games to our students would be a waste of the school's money, if they ever did it.

This post is all kinds of wrong. I was that crowd, and so were my friends, and we had just as much school pride as the next guy. Yeah, a lot of these "liberals" may not go watch football but a lot of these football fans would rather be at home watching Bama - A&M.

Tried to avoid using generalizations.

[EagleD]

Don't feed the trolls.

Waste of a post. Of course it can. I was an Art and Design major. We ALL don't think alike and there are more like me who come to the games. Seriously. If you haven't seen progress, your green crazy.

[TheFranchise]

I should first state that I'm a current RTVF major and love football (actually, sports in general) and there were some pretty pumped up students around me yesterday throughout the game.

Having said that, after Jimmerson's fumble (Emmitt was right, he never saw the field again afterwards) there was a gaggle of students around me that took off. One dude even said, "This sucks! Hey guys, wanna go crush some beers!?" A herd of students then left with him.

It's ok though because the loud, rowdy and supportive students stuck around and were rewarded for their efforts. And yes, we did get pretty dang loud towards the end of the third quarter and it stayed that way til the end.

[SilverEagle]

I think you're right. Anyway, there was some kind of culture change back, maybe in the 80's, where that (just what I heard) liberals started smoking hookahs while watching football on tv. Whether that has yet to translate into butts in the seats at Apogee in 2013 is certainly another question.

When I was attending NT (early-to-mid-70's) liberals had been "smoking hookahs" for several years. But instead of drinking coffee, they drank cheap wine. AND you almost never saw any of those people at football games...or watching it on tv.

[SilverEagle]

while getting better, I fear our school will never be a great football scene. Too many liberal type people, who would rather be smoking hookahs and drinking coffee than watching sports. It's just my opinion. I know, I know, there are lots of artsy people who like to watch unt football games and some are our best fans, but the other 80% of them don't and could care less.

I'm beginning to think that marketing our games to our students would be a waste of the school's money, if they ever did it.

I've told this story many times in the past, so keep the eye rolling to a minimum. When Hayden Fry arrived and started going about changing things (aka our culture of apathy) one group that he reached out to was the small towns in the area. The Athletic department put together a traveling NT spirit show that went around to the various small towns in the area. They took cheerleaders, and a pep band with them, and held impromptu pep rallys in the town squares. After doing their "thing" the cheer staff went around to the various businesses and handed out schedules and applications for the mean green club. The consistent message at these "spontaneous" events was that North Texas wanted to be YOUR University and wanted LOCAL SUPPORT.

Fast forward to yesterday. Whilst tailgating with Emmitt's group, I noticed a group setting up next to us. After FFR went over to do his usual "meet and greet" he found out that the group was the family of a small town walk-on on the team The mother of the walk-on happened to have played basketball for Judy Nelson in the late 80's. They were there with all their North Texas gear on, cooking (great brisket btw) and having a great time. Well, this is not too unusual, except that here comes their friends from the same small town in their MEGA BUS RV. And every one of the very well off friends stepped off their bus in full North Texas gear. They all had a great time, and they very much appreciated the "welcome" they were extended by FFR...and others.

My point? Yes, these were people who were here because of their walk-on son, but they brought friends (and it looked like well off friends at that) and they all SHOWED UP LOOKING LIKE LONG TIME NORTH TEXAS FANS. This is the culture they come from, and it's the kind of culture that our athletic department should be reaching out to every chance they get.

Edited September 15, 2013 by SilverEagle

[meangreener]

I've told this story many times in the past, so keep the eye rolling to a minimum. When Hayden Fry arrived and started going about changing things (aka our culture of apathy) one group that he reached out to was the small towns in the area. The Athletic department put together a traveling NT spirit show that went around to the various small towns in the area. They took cheerleaders, and a pep band with them, and held impromptu pep rallys in the town squares. After doing their "thing" the cheer staff went around to the various businesses and handed out schedules and applications for the mean green club. The consistent message at these "spontaneous" events was that North Texas wanted to be YOUR University and wanted LOCAL SUPPORT.

Fast forward to yesterday. Whilst tailgating with Emmitt's group, I noticed a group setting up next to us. After FFR went over to do his usual "meet and greet" he found out that the group was the family of a small town walk-on on the team The mother of the walk-on happened to have played basketball for Judy Nelson in the late 80's. They were there with all their North Texas gear on, cooking (great brisket btw) and having a great time. Well, this is not too unusual, except that here comes their friends from the same small town in their MEGA BUS RV. And every one of the very well off friends stepped off their bus in full North Texas gear. They all had a great time, and they very much appreciated the "welcome" they were extended by FFR...and others.

My point? Yes, these were people who were here because of their walk-on son, but they brought friends (and it looked like well off friends at that) and they all SHOWED UP LOOKING LIKE LONG TIME NORTH TEXAS FANS. This is the culture they come from, and it's the kind of culture that our athletic department should be reaching out to every chance they get.

Agreed. I'm tired of us trying to focus on DFW. We need to be going to the local small towns and presenting ourselves as their North Texas team. We will start to get the casual fans. We need to take advantage.

[UNT90]

Winning this year is VERY important going forward. I am starting to see attendance wane. Yes, the scheduling times and heat may have affected this a bit, but we still seem to be losing some momentum. I think some people are just starting to give up.

That is why a bowl season this year is so important. Without it, we may see our average attendance this year drop to 14 or 15k. That's a big hit. Home games against MTSU on Texas/OU Saturday and Rice on a Thursday night won't help the cause.

We need to beat both Tulane and MTSU to avert a pretty dramatic drop in attendance for the year. Oh, and beating Georgia would REALLY, REALLY help, also.

[Christopher Walker]

My kids were sun burning so we moved to Alumni side. That last part of the game was electric crazy loud. Yelling my lungs out. Some cool TCU fan turned to me and said...man....you are a great fan. Lol. I was hoping I wasn't scaring the senior couple in front of me. Fun day. Glad we stuck around. My friends were texting me that left when their kids got too hot and had to leave. "WHAT??!!! 34-27??!!!"

Dude, I think we we're right in front of that TCU family because I remember him turning to you afterwards.

-----

Also, liberal hippy music composition grad checking in here as well.

[bstnsportsfan3]

RTVF GRAD AND MAJOR FAN....not all off us are that way

[laxtonto]

I think there is a severe misconception on what our student base really is..

I would recommend that many of you go and look at the UNT fact book and reacquaint yourself with what our student body is now and let go of the stereotypes of your past.

Yes, like most schools we have more people in the college arts and sciences than most areas, but that is because it covers the largest sets of subject matter. That being said the composition of that college has radically changed. Combine that is a major growth in the business program and a static view of the Music program and the subculture of the campus is not what it used to be.

[Green Mean]

RTVF GRAD AND MAJOR FAN....not all off us are that way

The whole idea about that thought is absolutely ridiculous to begin with. When I was at school I took some business classes and most of my friends were business majors or non-artsy majors and the majority of them didn't care one iota about NT athletics. It's North Texas and it's apathy. It takes some time to crack that and get out of that mode.

[dmaxel]

No kidding. I loved that as soon as Ball State got the ball the noise started on third down and got progressively louder with their false starts...I am curious what that sounds like down on the field. When the stadium is full (and it will be against SMU next year if not before) it will be absolutely deafening.

Student here. Word is that EVERYONE will be going to the Rice game this year. No need to wait for SMU next year.

[SSP]

We need to get everyone's butts over to Tulane!!! But I always thought it would be really cool if peewee and Pop Warner players and little cheerleaders (& even MS) had a home game where they could get in free if they wore green and brought a canned food item or something. By going to these associations and proposing this; we would be packing the stands, inspiring our younger local athletes and promoting the program. I know that a lot of the North Texas administrators, split time working on school boards in some of our local ISDs.

[meangreener]

Student here. Word is that EVERYONE will be going to the Rice game this year. No need to wait for SMU next year.

Everyone I've talked to has said the Rice game was the one they were looking forward to.

[Green Crazy]

Wow! I couldn't remember where I put this and didn't think it would turn into this. Sorry for hijacking the thread. I'm obviously painting a&s majors with a very broad brush here and for that I apologize. But all I have to go by are the people/students I know and a high majority of them might wish well for the teams, but aren't willing to go to the games to support the teams. Just my observation. Now, that sample size is only about 8-9 people, so as my stats prof would say that's not large enough to be statistically significant.

I was also writing this in a somber mood after seeing yesterday's turnout. Fwiw, I consider rtvf majors their own breed and don't lump them in with the others.

[meangreener]

Wow! I couldn't remember where I put this and didn't think it would turn into this. Sorry for hijacking the thread. I'm obviously painting a&s majors with a very broad brush here and for that I apologize. But all I have to go by are the people/students I know and a high majority of them might wish well for the teams, but aren't willing to go to the games to support the teams. Just my observation. Now, that sample size is only about 8-9 people, so as my stats prof would say that's not large enough to be statistically significant.

I was also writing this in a somber mood after seeing yesterday's turnout. Fwiw, I consider rtvf majors their own breed and don't lump them in with the others.

I'm an English major. So is my girlfriend. We attend all games.