ADLER

He played at North Texas, but only for one year. He then transferred to a school in Louisiana and played there for three years. He played in the NFL and had a extended career as both an assistant and head coach.

OK, I'll toss you an oldies hint...He's from the same small town as Peggy Sue..

Rule #1 - Do NOT post the answer if you know it. Just say IF you knew it. Rule #2 - In case of doubt, please refer back to rule #1. Seriously, let some folks wonder for a while. What former North Texas football player has three times coached teams to the NFL Championship and won it twice. .

Thanks for the kind words about Seth. I don't know him well, but he seems like a very good person. Over the preceding six seasons he succeeded in raising raising our expectations. Who would ever thought North Texas fans would be complaining while making a bowl game five out of six years? The problem is that our team has failed to meet those new expectations: getting dominated in our most visual rivalry and annually destroyed in those bowl games during Seth's tenure. If Seth leaves he leaves as an already very successful and wealthy young man with an additional four million dollar golden parachute coming to him. He raised our program from the ashes that Dan McCarney had left and made it into one that has the ability to be a contender in any given year. There have been great moments; '16 Army, '17 UTSA, '17 Army, '18 SMU, '18 Arkansas, and '21 UTSA, and for those I am thankful as we hadn't had too many of those over the preceding dozen years. Seth has always represented our university well and has been very good to his players. Like I have stated before, I have my opinions, but I ultimately support whatever decisions Wren Baker, President Smatresk, and our Board of Regents make. I will be a North Texas fan forever regardless.

Wren has always said that he doesn't evaluate coaches until after their season has been completed. It's his decision. Wren knows more about the costs of firing and retaining a coach than anybody on this board. Here's how Seth has compared to his G5 peers: 30 - 34 against G5 opponents during the six year run. Half of those wins (14) came against perpetual cellar dwellers Rice, UTSA, and UTEP. 1 - 5 against our biggest regional rival (Safeway Bowl) - none of the losses competitive. SMU had never once won in Denton prior to Seth being hired. 0 - 5 in bowl games - with four double digit losses being noncompetitive. Seth's body of work against his peers is less than mediocre. His record in higher profile games is worse than abysmal. We can all approximate the costs of firing a coach, but what are the real costs of keeping one we shouldn't have? .

So true. SMU wants to exploit Dallas, but the parasitic Park Cities residents use all the infrastructure and amenities of Dallas without contributing to the city's tax base. The cursive DALLAS across their chests should be written with a tape worm.

One of the main points of the 1946 season is that it was the birth of North Texas as a scholarship granting football program. SMU immediately stopped playing North Texas for the next 28 years. North Texas had previously, as a non-scholarship football program gone 1-18-1 against fully scholarshipped SWC member SMU. Other than a miraculous win and tie by North Texas, these scores are irrelevant except to a certain DRC sportswriter. SMU also had a 3-1 record while North Texas was in 1AA with less scholarships and a 6-1 advantage in the 70's and early 80's when they were openly paying players. SMU holds a significantly more modest 7-3 edge against North Texas when scholarship limits are equal and neither team is paying players.

Bingo and a Ray! Our Frosty Whites look outstanding, and yes, nameplates would be even better. It's obvious why so many schools are copying them.

I did too. Unfortunately we'll have to rely on walk-up sales since many Miami seats and Corporate Sponsor area seats were not released until yesterday afternoon. Still I think we're doing pretty damn well for a football team that was listless and dead in the water seven games into this season. There might not be great excitement for a six win season, but there is a strong loyal following for this school.

The Grinch that Stole Attendance? .

Can you imagine how Coach Mitchell felt in that picture. Four months earlier he has been called from a rural high school for the incredible task of instantly whipping together a Division 1 football team, then three months later he's having to compete in a bowl game against The Grand Old Man Of Football, the most famous coach in the country, in what Coach Amos Alonzo Stagg has proclaimed will be the final game of his legendary career?

Thanks. He and his wife wanted to be buried as close as possible to their football program. They are in Roselawn, just south of Apogee off Bonnie Brae. He literally loved this school to the grave.

I'll take that as a compliment. Although slightly homespun, Plumm is pretty observant and has been following this program for even longer than I have.

Not all exactly true. What RV didn't know was that Mattress Mac's people had made arrangements with one of RV's people to have a limo pick this very important donor up at the airport. RV's person failed in her responsibility. Mac was left standing waiting outside the airport and eventually took a cab from the airport to the reception hall downtown, getting there very late and very upset. RV never claimed to be a genius but he was one hard working son-of-a-gun. We are much better off for having had him at North Texas. We probably wouldn't have football today if we'd hired somebody like his three predecessors; Sloan, McDuffy, or Helwig.

I don't know his former high school, but Paul Kerestine lettered on Hayden Fry's 1978 team.

That's pretty cool. Jackie was an outstanding soccer goalie for North Texas (2012-2015) and now she's the head soccer coach at Plano West.

Burn those bad luck trash costumes! Our colors are GREEN and WHITE. Never wear purple, orange, yellow, black, brown, gray, red, or any other "off" color again. .

Funny Steeler stories I grew up in Houston and was a die-hard Luv Ya Blue Oilers fan, and like all rational people I HATED respectfully disliked anything about the damned Pittsburgh Steelers. In 1983 I was driving west on Eagle Drive towards Fouts Field where the school was staging the start of the Homecoming Parade. I stopped at the Avenue C stop sign, then started to proceed through the intersection. Suddenly, this small dark green Mercedes 450SLC which was bolting away from the freeway runs through the stop sign, cuts right in front of me and zips down the road towards the stadium. I utilized the car horn, some muttered vulgarity, and probably a little gesticulation as the sportscar sped away. I park at Fouts and my girlfriend says "here comes that car behind us, watch out, he may be looking for trouble" The car pulls up and parks directly next to me as I am getting out of my car. I try to look cool and tough (it doesn't work for me) and the driver of the car opens his door and starts getting out. It's not just any huge human, it's Mean Joe Greene and my life starts flashing before my eyes. Joe walks strait at me and says "I am so sorry I cut you off back there, I got stuck in traffic and am running late. I'm the MC today and I have some some speeches to make before the Parade starts. I just wanted to stop and apologize." He flashed that huge Mean Joe smile, extended his hand for a handshake and then gave me a big shoulder hug with his left arm. "You were going to beat up Mean Joe Greene" my girlfriend giggled. "No, he just became my favorite pro football player ever" I replied. And nearly 40 years later he still is. As you get to know him better you realize what a wonderful person he is. Part two, and this is summer 1998 My Bride and I bought tickets to see Jim Carey's new movie The Truman Show. We sit in our seats and the theater is pretty full. The lights go off as the previews start. Two loud guys enter in the dark and sit in the empty seats next to mine. The guy next to me keeps laughing aloud during the film, bumping my shoulder, nudging me with his elbow, and several times smacked the armrest. I avoid eye contact with the intruder. It goes on for a while. Finally, at one point where the theater is filled with raucous laughter, the guy smacks me on the knee and grabs my arm, I turn to face him and he says "now that's some funny shit!" My Bride quickly asks me "is that guy drunk?" I reply, "No, that guy is Terry Bradshaw". Bradshaw is not professional when he goes on television, he's himself. .

It was December 21, 1946 I stopped by Coach Mitchell's grave in Denton this week It was beyond comical how the 1946 football season started for North Texas. The football program had been cancelled at North Texas State during World War II. The was no equipment and there were no facilities. North Texas had hired a new coach to rebuild the program but he never reported to campus and he called to say that he had taken another job just two weeks before the fall semester started. Former Athletic Director Theron Fouts had been instrumental in the creation of the new Lone Star Conference and now his own school was not even going to be fielding a team. A call went out to Odus Mitchell, football coach at Marshall High School in the tiny east piney woods town of Marshall, Texas. Mitchell had studied the game and it's great innovators, and was having a very successful career coaching at Marshall. His 1944 team, with a side throwing kid at quarterback named Y.A. Tittle, had just made the Texas football quarterfinals. Coach Mitchell must have been crazy because he boldly jumped at the opportunity. He was then told "you have no team, you have no equipment or facilities, you have no time to recruit players so you'll have to draw from current students on campus, and, you play at Texas A&M in College Station in 11 days." Nothing daunted Coach Mitchell and he enthusiastically accepted the challenge. In a 1982 interview, Mitchell recalled the whirlwind start to the 1946 season. "It was nearly time for the season to start," he said. "I hadn't done any recruiting or anything, and I hadn't had an experience with recruiting. I got initiated like heck the first game." Texas A&M trounced North Texas in Mitchell's first game at the helm, 47-0. But things turned around quickly. Mitchell got his first collegiate victory the next game with a 14-0 win over Austin College. Two weeks later, the squad beat Fort Sam Houston. Three wins later, North Texas was geared up for a showdown for the Lone Star Conference Championship with rival East Texas State, now known as Texas A&M-Commerce. North Texas exploded for a 47-7 victory and was headed to its first bowl game in program history. Mitchell was set to square off with legendary coach Amos Alonzo Stagg's College of the Pacific Tigers in the 1946 Optimist Bowl. First year North Texas coach Odus Mitchell with Pacific coach Amos Alonzo Stagg the night preceding the bowl game 1946 Optimist Bowl Public School Stadium, site of the 1946 Optimist Bowl, later to be renamed Robertson Stadium The game was scoreless through the first quarter, but NT got on the board in the second when Ned McNeil intercepted a Pacific pass and ran it 58 yards back for a touchdown. Pacific tied the game in the third on a five-yard touchdown pass following a fumble recovery deep in North Texas territory. The Tiger broke the tie late in the fourth quarter on a 22-yard touchdown pass, but a key miss on the extra point gave North Texas some life. NT then drove down the field to give the school its first ever bowl victory. The drive began with a long kickoff return, a 20-yard gain through the air, a lengthy quarterback run and a couple Tigers penalties, making it first-and-goal from the Pacific nine-yard line. After three failed pass attempts, North Texas was down to its last chance. NT hall of fame running back Billy Dinkle, who frequently took snaps at quarterback for the 1946 squad, stayed back and threw a pass to wide receiver Louis Rienzi in the end zone to tie the game. Dinkle, also the kicker, then won the game himself by putting the extra point through the uprights with only seconds left, giving North Texas the 14-13 lead and victory. Legendary Coach Stagg prepares to shake hands with victorious North Texas Coach Odus Mitchell as he watches the final seconds tick on the game clock Mitchell went on to win an incredible 122 games at North Texas, took the team to 14 winning seasons and led the school's efforts in integrating the team in 1956, making it the first team in Texas to allow African-American students to play college football as he instituted a policy allowing "any African American students who showed interest in the football team to be given a fair chance" while he was the head coach at North Texas. He extended a scholarship offer to incoming African-American freshmen Abner Haynes and Leon King in 1956, promoting them to the varsity squad in 1957. Haynes and King both made their varsity debuts on September 21, 1957, becoming the first African-Americans to play major college football in Texas. In the summer of 1965, he also recruited future National Football League Hall of Famer Mean Joe Greene from Temple, Texas. The ferocious Greene-led defense allowed an average of less than two yards per carry in 1966, Mitchell's final season at North Texas, earning the team the nickname "Mean Green," which stuck and is now the official mascot of the university to this day. In that 1966 season, North Texas went 8–2, which helped earn him National Coach of the Year honors. In 1986, he was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. Mitchell retired in 1966 and was selected for the North Texas Hall of Fame's inaugural class in 1981 and the Optimist Bowl-winning team boasted several other hall of famers as well including Dinkle, tackles Felton Whitlow and Dick Lindsay, defensive linemen Jim Cooper and Jim Eagle and starting quarterback Fred McCain. North Texas HOF Center Jim Eagle's varsity blanket. Mitchell, now a member of the Texas Hall of Fame, took North Texas to the Salad Bowl the very next season, but nothing could compare to the scrappy 1946 team that rallied around him and won the Optimist Bowl in his first season. We are now heading into our 13th Bowl Game this Thursday in the Frisco Classic *** and in an odd side note*** ... that high school quarterback that he started despite the sidearm-throwing-hitch went on to play at LSU. He got moved to running back because of his throwing style, but was then pulled back to QB due to personnel shortage. Tittle then played 17 years in the NFL, and still holds the NY Giants record for most touchdowns in a season, and only retired when he said "I think it's a hint to retire when your backup quarterback is dating your daughter." (That's a hint to Aune, keep playing) Almost all of the notes in this post are compiled from other people's notes and stories. If you feel like thanking somebody, please thank Randy Cummings, for he compiled all of Coach Odus Mitchell's recorded memoirs into a compilation for the Willis Library back in the 1980's. For those of you that don't know him, Randy is the tall white haired guy wearing a referee jersey at the sidecourt table at every North Texas men's basketball game. He's had a lifetime of selfless devotion to our sports programs, please stop by and tell him "thank you". .

We were the undercard of a two game event in OKC. The feature event, USC vs OSU was cancelled when USC announced they would not be able to travel due to California Covid. Then the whole event was cancelled so refunds could be issued. Tulsa didn't duck us, they just got lucky.

Frisco Bowl Classic seats getting scare To whomever is doing it, please stop scaring the seats.

Thursday Mostly Sunny High: 74 °F Mostly sunny, with a high near 74. South wind 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Get your GREEN GEAR ready! .

These are on sale for the ladies: $39 at Hot Topic https://www.hottopic.com/product/neon-green-combat-boots/12599346.html?_br_psugg_q=green+boots ★★★★★5 out of 5 stars. DeepGreen-Beaumont Tx · 5 days ago So awesome, these are identical to the pair that I wore when I was in the Army. I love them. .

Thanks for listing the itinerary. I'm also working on the kitchen pass for this trip.

Tom, I loved this line from the story: "WSU entered the game having lost just three non-conference home games in the last 10 years."