FirefightnRick

Burleson's Steve Warren was also his district offensive MVP last season. A district that includes Mansfield Summit and Duncanville. He ran an offense very similer to NT's. They ran, ran, ran....then ran some more, then WHAMMO...a 40 yard strike behind the defense for a TD. Everyone I have talked to who watched him play last year said the guy was very entertaining to watch. Evidently he has a good arm but has some serious wheels on the ground as well. Rick

I'll never forget the night that NT was down by 1 and Deon Hunter took the inbounds pass with less than 10 seconds to go at ULM, drove the length of the court and laid it up at the buzzer to win Conference. Mr. Mercer went bananas and the team nearly tackled him at his table. He was doing the game alone that night and witnessed the end of what would turn out to be our most memorable basketball season ever. We hosted the post season tourney and won the championship on ESPN enroute to our only ever trip to the dance. Rick

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/tdf2005/news...tory?id=2109457 Armstrong may have put the nail in the coffin today. If not today he may just well do it tomorrow. T Mobile's entire team had him isolated today and he dropped them like a bad transmission at the end. Rick

Not football related, but darn near as inspirational....at least for me. Yesterday at 4 p.m. our hot water heater elements went out, no hot water. Our water is abundant and very cold and tastes great but we live in B.F.D. western Parker County and have a 375 foot deep well and even though I installed a commercial softener system 4 years ago the elements in the heater can still corrode due to the amount of calcium that builds up around it from the sediment in the water, and this happens every 3 to 5 years or so depending on how your system is set up. We have a Reliance 808 dual element waterheater that uses a very rare element thread size(Amory 1 3/8th inch thread). NO ONE who was open last night had this element. Not Lowes, Not Home Depot, Not Handy Man, and not our local Ace. Finally after 8 hours and without half the skin on both hands I gave up at midnight figuring I would have to take up the fight Sunday morning when I got home from the firehall. Not a chance! The wife calls me at 9 a.m. this morning, refusing to take a freezing cold, well-water shower and asked how to take the elements out? I told her and she did. Then while dragging two small children around with her(4 and 15 months old) she drives across two counties, visits three hardware stores(because you cannot describe this element over the phone to people because they are trained to say their "Universal element fits all heaters"...which took me 6 hours to find out this is not so), goes back home, installs the elements, fills the tank, checked for leaks, rewires the elements, flipped the breaker and five minutes later: PRESTO......HOT WATER! She's my wife, the mother of my two beautiful kids and my best friend. She raises them by herself 120 days out of the year when I'm on duty and still gives me up to the Mean Green every weekend in the fall with no complaints. She holds a masters in counciling and even though she works in a public I.S.D. and has a shorter summer than teachers she never complains. Last month she walked 60 miles in the heat in Dallas to raise $2700 for Breast Cancer research........ and now she's the family plumber! No doubt, God helped me choose wisely. I love you Darla Jo. Rick

bison Would something like the MEAN GREEN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION interest you? Rick

I think this game is going to be tough for us, considering now how our current QB situation seems to be getting worse each week. LTU has 11 starters back. They have a returning experienced line that blocked for Moats into the NFL third round this past draft, including their right tackle, a junior that weighs 375 lbs. Mark Dilliard will be the guy who will replace Moats. He's unproven, but we all know what an experienced line means. They also have their QB back as well. And like us, they feature three returning starting LB's on defense. But unlike us, they have 3 seniors returning on their D line and 3 seniors returning in their D backfield including Tramon Williams who had 4 picks last year. This game will be a good matchup for us but we'll see. As far as the games against ULL and ULM go. ULM to me is the team to beat this season. 19 starters returning plus one hell of a natural talent at QB has to give them an edge? We have owned them for 3 straight years now but it can't last forever. We have truly owned ULL for 5 seasons straight but can we make it 6? NT has a big target on it's chest and with so many questions to ask for this season you wonder how long the ride will last? Rick

Stan, Directly after my interveiw with the Exes in April, I asked David and Sarah if they had someone in mind to RESTART the Tarrant County Chapter and they both said "No, but we'll let you know". There is no one listed on the site and the contact email goes nowhere as of right now. I have yet to hear from anyone so to me, that means there still is not a chapter and they have not found a chapter president yet. The flyer your talking about may be something completely separate, who knows. I know nothing about it. Can you scan it and send it to me please? If I can be there for it I will. I'm with you, I want to be part of the answer, but the problems can't get fixed until they are identified first. I'm tire of identifying, time to fix. Rick

I'm getting a late re-report also now that Byerly will not be playing this fall. I had to correct my previous post on this. If it's true what a shame. Rick

I suspect the walkon many have talked about here is Matt Phillips from Lakeview HS. I'm trying to find out more. If it's not him then I would guess it's Wissle. Rick

Purple Kats, what year did you graduate and with what major? Rick

The Belt was just what the doctor ordered for us. Now if all members including us mostly, could just help the Belt take the next step. Rick

Done. I got my season tickets, Mean Green Club membership, away tickets to LSU and MTSU and the F5's Junior Mean Green Club membership ordered. Are there any bus trips planned? Rick

I've recieved nothing either, nor is there anything listed on the Exes website under Tarrant County chapter. Rick

There is still no Tarrant County Fort Worth Chapter either by the way. Rick

Meager's window of opportunity has been opened for several months now, I would say at least since the Spring. It's his time to now step up and Fly Like An Eagle. Rick

The only way this move becomes a "wise choice" is if TCU wins this conference. But you have to wonder how that could happen with their poor defense? It will take an amazing display of coaching for the frogs to make some waves in the MWC this season. Rick

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/tdf2005/news...tory?id=2106026 Armstrong destroyed his rivals today in the first day of the Alpine climbs and the Discovery Team returned to show their power. The times listed at the end of this article isn't correct because Ulhrich is now over 2 minutes behind Armstrong. The dude that burned up the flats on saturday to take the Yellow Jersey finished over 30 minutes behind and nearly got technically dropped from the race entirely. It's amazing to see the difference between the climbers and the flat sprinters. Good stuff, Rick

North Texas has had a long tradition of crapping on it's alumni and it's time for a change. But without a doubt this need for change should reach much further than just the Talons. MUCH FURTHER! Funny, but had it not been for Talon alumni, the current talons would be down to bonfire for existence. Talon alumni paid for, and restored the Model A back into existence two years ago(mostly by hand by the way), paid for and built the 1500lb Victory Bell(also mostly by hand), a tradition that had been missing for more than 22 years since the last one was retired, and paid for and re-rebuilt Boomer the Cannon(completely by hand). Needless to say, I was thrown back to hear that the Talon Alumni were written out from participating in how Talons chooses it's leadership for the future. But this seems to be how our entire school works when it comes to it's alumni so it shouldn't be such a shock to anyone. I'm getting used to the "Just leave your check, then go away" mentality. No one around here should ever question why we are so short on season ticket holders, active NT Exes members, donors for finishing tennis complexes, baseball stadiums, football stadiums etc....All you need to do is work a phone-a-thon to hear the stories, or better yet live them yourself by attending and trying to volunteer your time to help in some way to understand why so many people have turned their backs on NT over the years. As one alumnus jokingly yelled out during the Spring game in '03: "I'd be worried to give anyone around here a check for $1,000 for fear they'd wash it" Rick

Chris, Tell the mrs's to keep her spirits up. We are all praying for her full recovery. Rick

Come on Silver, surely you knew that North Texas(North Texas) baseball compression shirts are all the rave right now? Rick

By the way, even if you could get a designer started on this shirt right now, and it's going to be close to a 5 or 6 color shirt on white, your looking at at least a 4 to 6 week turnaround to get it out by a CLC licensed manufacturer(10 days for a local like Greenstock). Then you need someone with an online site to sell them, and have enough time to fill the orders. That is unless you want to sell them on campus and pay the 20% royalty fee. Talons could get that waved, but they will not be collectively back on campus to push this through until mid August. By then it's too late. Voertman's could have pulled this off had they been given enough heads up on it back in the spring? For anyone wanting to try and pull this off I wish you good luck. Rick

Check this T shirt out, which I think someone suggested something similar for NT in an earlier post. In fact, they are sold out for these shirts. This type of "thinking outside the box" marketing is nothing knew to such schools as LSU. They are not a household name for nothing. Both shirts were probably being worked on before their schedule was completed so that they could get them out ASAP. Rick http://tygergifts.com/5002.html

Just in case anyone missed the official notice <_<, I emailed the guy in charge of Athlete Tech out of Lenexa Kansas, the company that meangreensports.com is using for fan gear supply. I asked him if and when their stuff will be updated to the new color and logos and when their replica jersey's would be updated to the new look for the upcoming season. His reply: NT gear by Athlete Tech Rick

Nothing on Byerly's status but I would like to announce that Lee Jackson has FFR's full, unconditional support for his run at the U.S. House of Represenatives next go round. Rick

Serves them right for not inviting Troy. Rick