FirefightnRick

Tony is on his way back from Austin right now to ride out with us the remainder of our shift tonight. Should be interesting to see if he can keep getting up out of bed as the calls come in? Rick

We will be on the sidelines. SLC's pep rally starts at 9 a.m. saturday morning by the way. That should be interesting to see as well. Rick

I know how you feel. Silver and I tried, sorry we couldn't go on. By the way, I will NEVER, EVER, .......EVER buy a hat with UNT on it. I just c...UNT do it. Rick.

You let me know if you can get us a ticket for $40. Last year's ticket was $65, in the north endzone about 5 rows from the back wall. Felt like I was back in Fouts again I was sitting so far from the field.. Rick

Way to go Debbie! Congratulations! Rick

Here's a few photos of Tony's visit to Station 14. http://incipientstage.20megsfree.com/images/rickntony1.jpg Tony's great "MEAN" green face. Tony shows his map of his travels to the four corners of the U.S. We had a great visit with Tony Milano of Americasgreatestfan.com. What he is filming is a 3 year project doing a documentary of college football. He's completely funding it himself and has over $24,000 invested in it so far including 18,000 miles traveled since August of this year. After the film is finished he will be competing in all of the film festivals and go from there. He had supper with us and spent the night with us at the station. The next day he got his paperwork finished to comeback and do a full ride out with us on the truck on friday if his schedule works out. He was scheduled to get an interview with TCU's Gary Patterson but the schedule didn't work out. However Texas Tech's Mike Leach has already invited him to attend their practice next Sunday after he finishes up here in the Metroplex. He had a good interview with Dave Campbell's Texas Football in Dallas yesterday afternoon before he drove down to Austin. He had been in contact with Mack Brown's SID for a while and got an interesting response back from him through email Tuesday night that said basically, "We like what your doing, everything looks great on your site and all, but we will have to decline an interview with Mack Brown due to the fact that if we give you an interview, we would have to give our other 22 Million fans an interview as well". I told him that kind of pompous response didn't surprise me given the source, even if some of the biggest programs in the nation, including Tennessee, Georgia, Florida St. etc not only gave him access to on camera interviews but allowed him on the sidelines for their games. Since football is so huge in Texas he is taking the time to also cover Texas High School football. He is going to attempt to attend SLC's championship pep rally on friday and then he and I are going to attend the game on Saturday. He visited the Texas Sports Hall of Fame yesterday in Waco and said it was something special to see. I'm glad Tony has taken the time to cover football here in Texas. He is a great guy and truly loves the game of football and more importantly, it's fans. I filled in everything I could about the Mean Green. On his truck, Tony has stickers of all the schools he has visited, but the biggest one he has on his rightside door say's MEAN GREEN with the Son of Worm logo above it, so we will be represented well once he gets back to California. Rick

I too questioned the call to kneel on it like everyone else. But to fill you in, TxSt's coach, David Bailiff was the defensive coordinator for TCU when they had their near BCS crash party 3 years ago and the horned frogs defense was the #2 defense in the land statistically and very stingy. What Bailiff has done in San Marcos after only one recruiting season is simply amazing. Rick

That's how it seemed to me too, until I looked at the replay earlier in the season and realized we were only down by 9 with around 7 minutes to go. Nothing else to say but: GO stAte! Rick

I now like GreenTiger as one of my fav's, because evidently after this post I know he shares my world. Rick

Brett, I haven't contacted anyone other than our own department and they are excited about it as well. Rick

I just spoke to Tony again. He will be in Fort Worth Tuesday afternoon and said for me to expect him at the station after 12 p.m. He's wanting to shoot some footage of us on the truck. I'm trying to get him written permission so he can do just that. He will be staying the night with us and hopeing to make the calls with us during the night. We are going to barbecue some ribs for the evening meal as well. Amazingly, in the 17,000 miles and throughout his travels on this project he's only had to stay in a hotel for 2 nights because the fans have put him up, so I'm glad we can help him out on that too. If anyone wants to come and share some Mean Green memories and show off some memorabilia with the guy please come on. Just P.M. for directions. Rick

LOL, that would get someone escorted out for sure. Rick

That's not photoshop, it's an actual add for the Ford Fusion inside the first page of this weeks S.I. The wedding photo actually is simply labeled "LIFE". Then on the opposite page it's a picture of the new Ford Fusion and it's labeled "LIFE IN "D". I suppose "D" stands for DRIVE. I laughed for 5 minutes when I first saw it. Funny analogy. Of course there is something very wrong comparing the 1-A babe with a Ford Fusion. I'm thinking more along the lines of the new '06 Ford Shelby GT Mustang there? Rick

How can you agree with this. How many people who were there when we changed from 1-A to 1-AA and back, who have stated it sucked, how many will it take to convince you of that? When did you start to follow NT?, last year? Rick

You mean your niece "chose" to be a cheerleader, knowing ahead of time about all the multiple uniforms your sister would have to buy every year and that when Judson usually went deep into the playoffs they knew they would have to get a santa version, and that it usually changed from year to year? Rick

Sorry, I couldn't help it. But I opened my newest issue of S.I. this morning when I got home and turned the front cover and saw this and spit up my coffee in laughter. Of course I doctored it up a bit. And you couldn't find a better illustration to make my point in the other thread about some fans of TxSt criticising NT's move up to 1-A and saying that it's been a poor decision for NT. They would "rather" stay in 1-AA with a chance to shoot for a real national title over being in a low 1-A conference with a chance to play in a low 1-A bowl game. Of course they would say this, NOW after this season, just as the Groom in the photo is OF COURSE going to say "I DO". But given a different scenario or option......? Just a year ago most fans were not so critical of the idea. Rick

I haven't read bobcatfans.com in quite some time, so I stopped by to congratulate them on their season and all. After reading up on some of the threads in the past leading up to this week, several have questioned about their possible move up to 1-A down the road. Evidently, they have all of course, NOW convinced themselves that after getting in on some 1-AA playoff life that it is definately much better than going to a lowly 1-A conference and a chance of playing in a lowly bowl game. And of course, a couple of posters used NT as an example as to how poor it would be for a move up for TxSt. To not want to be like NT, stating examples of we couldn't get anyone to our games this year after winning our conference 4 straight years and going to a bowl game. I corrected that. Also, I reminded them that 3 years ago no one was criticising NT for our move up when they saw us beat the co champions of C-USA on national TV. At that time, many of their posters were congratulatory towards NT and questioning the possibility of a move up for the bobcats. I have been to both, the 1-AA playoffs and to bowl games. The playoffs are great, but they are not anywhere close to the event of a bowl game in N.O. much less several of the other bowl games I have attended in the past. When we were ranked nationally in 1-AA many of us were going to the 1-A bowl games, Cotton, Liberty, Sun, Orange, Bluebonnet with family and friends and the thought of someday seeing NT playing on a national spotlight bowl game was on everyone's minds. But the timetable of ever seeing us return back to 1-A, much less getting to a bowl game was so far off the radar that it seemed nearly impossible which has made the past 4 years incredible for me. As for TxSt for now and their new love, I understand where they are coming from and don't blame them one bit for the criticism. This is new to them and for most, the first time they have seen good crowds and TV exposure. Of course the playoffs are "better", right now? It's sort of like when a younger, more tightly built example of the opposite sex walks by you and the wife/girlfriend at the mall. Your gonna look, but you aint gonna let the wife/girlfriend catch you looking cause you gotta ride back home with her in the car. Rick

Nah, we never come close to "that". Rick

Our playoff games aginst ULM in '87, Marshall in '88 and Boise in '94 were NOTHING like a bowl game. Not even close. Rick

Can't believe I just got off the phone with Tony Malano of the AGCFF project. Here's our chance to get a little positive nortoriety for the Mean Green Nation. http://americasgreatestfan.com/ He's on the east coast right now, headed to Memphis and then is coming to Texas to see interview TCU's Gary Patterson, me and then hopes to get to see Carrol play in the state title next weekend. He stated that if it goes as planned with the interview with Patterson that he wants to come and hang out at my station on Tuesday. I'm trying to get my department's ok to get him a ride out and invited him to stay the night with us as well. He's logged 17,000 miles this football season visiting with the country's best fans and football programs. He went to the Army/Navy game this past week?. I sent him a video of myself and of the Mean Green last spring and the guys at my station helped me put it together. But since the deadline was in June and hadn't heard back I figured my video ended up in the trash. He didn't forget it and is just now getting around to coming back this way to Texas. It would be pretty cool if anyone that lives in the FW area could come by and meet him. He wants to hear peoples stories and hear why you love the Mean Green. Check out his website. He's got a lot of great pictures on there. Hopefully after next week we can get some Mean Green love on it as well. If anyone is interested in meeting the guy send me a P.M. and we'll go from there. Not sure what actually will be the schedule as of now, but I'll post an update. Rick

From my perspective I too cannot understand the poor student turnout. Ther are 10 to 15,000 students in and around the university. There are over 5,000 living on campus. Why dont' they show up? Is promotions still that poor on campus for BB games? I don't know? I never missed a home game in the 4 years I was at NT. Of course, back then, you felt you were missing out on something special if you didn't go. Our team was fun to watch and scored a lot of points. The promotions were good, half time shows were good and the Pit band was fantastic then. But for an alumn who has to drive an hour and a half to get there it's tough to stay 2 hours then turn around and go back an hour and a half to go home. I come when I can. The Super Pit has some special memories for me. It's fun to go to the games and see other members of the Mean Green family. Rick

I think ArkStfan gave some very good examples a couple of years ago as to how this could be done. He also gave examples of why, in the current system, it will never be allowed because of the massive amount of money it would generate. Seems like the amount was so high that it would ultimately give the AD's at the universities too much power, which was why the university presidents would never go for it because they don't want to hand the schools over to the AD's. Not exactly sure of all the facts used to explain it, but it made perfect sense, and explained some things as to how and why we see what we currently see. Rick

True. And just to clear up any confusion there may be out there(I doubt it though) on where I stand: I wish failure on every school simply because, they are not North Texas. It's that simple to me. Rick

I laughed at this one: Rick

The wife got 3 miles north of Weatherford on Hwy 51 trying to get to Springtown, then turned around to pick up the kids to go home. Said the two bridges are already freezing, no sand, emergency vehicles traveling north and southbound and several cars pulled over trying to avoid the slick spots. I suspect it will get worse for this afternoons commute home. If you can, stay home. Of course, if your reading this now, it's too late other than ready yourself for the "Pucker Factor" going home. Rick