FirefightnRick

TALONS EXCLUSIVE? Never thought of a spirit group that consists mainly women and open to all as EXCLUSIVE. That's a new one. Talons has always and will always uphold this university's traditions and along with doing that for Talons and more so for this university it takes a little bit of work. Working for free isn't for everyone but it sure makes you feel a bigger part of the ownership of it. With that said, every season is different as the kids come and graduate. The leadership changes every season. When Emmitt was president was one of the more recent productive times. When I was there during the Keith Swartz era we had over 120 actives on campus and NO ONE I knew of felt excluded or felt like they were being required to do too much. It was an honor to uphold the traditions and an even more honor to help the Athletic Department out with everything they asked us too. Many from this group in the late 80's are some of our bigger donors and participants and I sit next to many of them in the stands. It's great to see this same group of people after 15 years rooting for their team. I agree that some more motiviation from their leadership might help, but consider they still are one of the biggest student groups that you will see traveling to the far away games many of the times. I remember about 40 at Tech in Lubbock in '00, at least that many in Las Cruces in '01, an entire bus load at N.O. last year and at OU this year. They do more than their part so if another group on campus is trying to rise up to their level of participation then I say the Talons have succeeded in leading by example. Ricky McKinney Talon '88 PROUD TO BE A TALON!

Hey, I'm not going to argue with you on that. With more people like you on the road that just means more JOB SECURITY for folks like me. Rick

You have got to be @#$#ing kidding me? Just proof that we still have some folks on campus that need to move on to graduation or retirement. I can only guess as to who it was that called and cried like a Blue Raider that they weren't getting their way. Good Grief! Rick

My Enigma machine isn't picking up the code? Rick

Well, you know. It was just one of those rare times where you have nine incredibly talented musicians(the type that actually plays an instrument) who can harmonize together as good as it's going to ever be heard and sound as good, if not better than the studio recorded version. It lasted two non stop hours of hit after hit. My wife and I were seeing them for the first time and were both blown away at how entertaining the show was. Burns, the lead guitarist, when allowed to let loose on many of the tunes showed a side you won't hear on their recordings, almost a Stevie Ray Vaughn...esk style that I love. Everyone played long leads including Huey himself doing three minute lead riffs on harmonica. The four peice horn section was the icing on the cake and reminded me of that group that played for our party in N.O. Their 6 minute plus version of Jacob's Ladder was just unreal. They could re release that now and I would bet it would do very well. My favorite part was when they brought out those old 50 styled steel microphones and Huey and the original four others did three doo wop songs acapella. Makes the hair on the back of your neck stand they were so good. Unbelievable harmony and timing. We were also seeing a performance inside Bass Hall for the first time. We were dead center about 35 feet in front of the stage. That place is something to see for sure. It's so tight but you get a large sound feel and the seats are comfortable and have plenty of room too. You get the feeling your in your living room almost because someone would yell from the third upper balcony and you could hear perfectly what was said, great accoustics. The concert looked to be sold out, not sure how many that place holds but the atmosphere was great. We loved it and will go see him again when they come back because you can't go down to just anywhere and see true musicians perform together in that way. Rick

..........DO YOU BELIEVE IN LOVE?.....er I mean THE MEAN GREEN? Rick

Anyone else in the nation going to Bass Hall tonight? Rick

Fantastic! Way to go ladies. Rick

GOOD LORD WE DON'T NEED THIS, NOT NOW, NOT EVER!. Ask Emmitt, both Drew, the passenger and the "unkown" are lucky to be alive today to even talk about it? Self destruction! Rick

I have been impressed with the defense so far as well. They were after all the only highlight of last years miserable season. Rick

Wow John that's biting your tongue on the issue? I can't wait till you toke up and sing us another Rocky Mountain solo! Don't forget to fuel all the way till it reads "FULL" before you take off, ya hear? Rick

F16Jock, you don't have to explain it to us, we understand and deep down all of us are proud of you guys and what you stand for. We know who's on the front line giving us the freedom to have what we have today. Coach Dickey said during his show tonight how much of an uphill climb we have this saturday because Coach Deberry already has a very disciplined group to work with and takes that to another level with his difficult system he runs. You would have to have lived under a rock to not realize the extreme high standards our cadets are held to. Thanks for coming onto the board and sharing your thoughts with us. Rick

He thinks he got hit hard against Northwestern, wait till the Mean Green lays the wood on him. Rick

Since the DRC doesn't print responses to non resdents I thought someone in Denton should respond to this letter this in this way. If what this professor says in the above paragraph is true then why is the University of North Texas WASTING precious time, money and resources offering degrees in fields that do not help it's graduates earn even a meager, much less a comfortable living in which they can't even afford an $8 dollar football ticket, EVEN IF THEY WANTED TO? Rick

There you are! Remember though that 64 faculty prof's at Tt signed a letter stating they did not want the Bobster on campus. It's at a&m, it's at tU and everywhere in between. Rick

Get your GoMeanGreen.com shirt now while supplies last. The shirts are $10.00, add $2.00 for shipping. They come in Large, X Large and we have a few XXLarge. The easiest way to get one right now is to find the GMG.com guys(Harry or Cerebus) at one of the practices. Or just send a check or money order along with your size to: Greenstock 5024 Prairie Creek Trail Ft Worth TX, 76179 Also include a phone number and/or email so that we can contact you for varification on availability. Rick

I would vote for the '83 Daingerfield Tigers 16-0 run. They were 3A and gave up a 2 point conversion in the first game of the season to a 4A team that made it deep into the 4A playoffs that same year. So they went 15-0 without being scored on. If I remember correctly nearly 6 players off that same Tiger team made it into the NFL. To this day they are THE BEST highschool team that I have personally seen play. They were the dominant force in Texas in 3A in the 80's until they handed it off to Southlake Carrol. Before that year, the town of Daingerfield had just started to come out of and put behind them one of the worse tragedy's in Texas in which some nut case college professor walked into one of the towns' most popular churches during a Sunday service with an automatic rifle and killed/wounded several. Plus the area was in hard times due to layoffs and poor economy. Dale Hansen did a special about the team and town during they're '83 run that year and it was an emotional experience to see how the town looked to their team for support, and gave back all they could as well. Rick

Hickmon had a rough start because he was asked to do something he had no intentions on doing. He left the team for a short time, but instead of feeling sorry for himself and quitting like so many do these days he checked his pride in at the door and came back to get the job done. I'm very proud of Mike myself. How much more reward/respect/confidence could coach DD show in the man when he placed last season upon his shoulders when so much was riding on it during the NMSU game? I spoke to Mike after the N.O. Bowl game down on Bourbon and asked if he was going to try to pursue ball after college. He said "nah, I'm graduating now and I'm planning on going out and getting a steady job!". Rick

Doesn't this mean that he probably didn't qualify? Or am I to believe he just wanted to go to PV instead....just because? Rick

People donate beer for tailgating because me and about 20 other Mean Green Nation members ASK them too. It's not the Mean Green Nations' responsibility to ASK for donations for this athletic department. But if you feel so compelled then lets have a fundraiser. I'm game for it. Put it together, organize a meeting(on a night I'm off duty hopefully) and get going. Rick

Thanks, I'll check it out. By the way, for you older Rocker fans, Three Dog Night is on PBS right now. Unbelievable, those guys still got it after 40 years. I went to a Beach Boys concert in which Three Dog Night and America opened up for. The Beach Boys came on stage to introduce Three Dog Night and led with the question: "Can you believe we used to open up for these guys in 196?". Rick

It's funny, I had not heard of some of the groups ya'll listed, or rather, most of those under ground bands. But it's funny to go to a site like ColumbiaHouse.com and pull up one of these newer bands such as Fuel or Incubus and over to the right it will have a sidebar that say's, "If you like Fuel, you may like:" and then there will be listings of other groups with similar sounds. Such as if you put in Incubus then you will get Red Hot Chili Peppers or one of their sound a like groups from the past. If you keep going you eventually get to what ever generation of music you may have grown up with say back to the 80's or 70's. Just keep clicking on a band and you will eventually end up with say Ratt, Motely Crux, ACDC and even Black Sabbath, which started in 1970. You think Small Brown Bike will still be recording and selling in 2036? But I guess my main question is, are we then to believe that groups from Sabbaths era led to what we have today? If I am to assume this trend will continue in teh direction it's headed then I'm going to get my big horse shoeing file and an old brake drum out of the shed and hit the nearest studio because there's some money to be made out there. On a more serious note, are the days of the great rock guitarists gone? You just don't hear much llead quitar music anymore. What happen to the sounds and styles of Hendrix, Schone of Journey(1971 at the age of 14 performed in a studio in front of Santana and Eric Clapton and both attempted to hire the young man on the spot),Van Halen, Rhodes, Tipton/Downing, Carlisi, Hagar, Santana, Mars, Clapton, Bettencourt, Satriani, Ray Vaughn, all with their own types of lead style licks and riffs in Rock? I don't hear anyone talking about it on the radio who's the best, or DJ's playing licks in certain songs over and over just for fun like they used to. From the 60's through the early 90's there were different styles of lead Rock guitar. Each new generation adding to what the past had taught them but it seems to have died sometime after Stevie Ray left us. Now the guitar seems to be only used for rhythm. Any thoughts? Rick

My favorite music is: Cummings series 660 diesel's screamin', Whale, Chirp, Siren, Engine #? on, smoke showing!, and of course who can resist to move the hell out of the way to: THE AIR HORNS!. Hell, this music is so popular even the goofy suckers listening to their personal auto racket too loud with their windows rolled up can't resist even the slightest move to the right Rick

Happy B Day! Rick

$50 million? Your $10 million short and don't forget their AD and or football coach say's it's not enough. Here's to the horns living up to expectations. Win the Championship! Then win it in baseball again and then finally bring home a national title in football. You should, you've paid for it! Rick