PlummMeanGreen

Interesting fan comments 8 years before construction of Apogee actually began.

An 8-12 team play-off would be a new game for many of us. Not sure the NCAA money-changers will ever do it, though.

I know it's now ancient history, but I remember reading as a student an NT Daily article reporting how UNT was the talk of the Winter NCAA Convention after the 1975 season. Seems at that convention Fry even received an invite by Rice AD Dickey Moagle to interview for their job. Forever the salesman, Fry came back from the interview & told the Dallas Morning News SportsPage he had a better job in Denton. Also, it was at that Winter Convention that Fry got with his buddy UT HFC Darrell K. Royal who had an opening in their 1976 Longhorn schedule which they filled with the Mean Green. It was a first ever game with UT which we "almost" won.😩 Earl Campbell won it for the Horns with a late 4'th quarter TD. I think we'd all hope that at this convention UNT AD Wren Baker gets a few more P5 schools into Apogee Stadium for our future schedule. Beating Top 50 ranked P5's is a quicker route to the Top 25 for our favorite school's team. GMG!

Beggin' a few pardons, but how many NFL draft choices has Vandy' had lately?🤔 If you measure a college program's success by how much overall NFL talent it produced then Darrell Royal's years at UT-Austin would have been considered a failure. The NFL talent that came out of Austin during most of the DKR years was amazingly very small in numbers considering their successes. Think about the UT QB James Street national championship teams of the late 60's/early 70's? I can think of one drafted & that would be Palestine's Super Bill Bradley who came to UT as a highly touted HS QB phenom who ended up as a Longhorn defensive back & later was a Philly Eagle low draft choice (as a DB). GMG!

Drew Brees has size? What if Mason has a growth spurt like 5'10" Cedrick Hardeman did who filled out to 6'5" 240 lbs. before he graduated from UNT & theN got drafted #1 by the 49'ers? Like many of you, I never say never or no can do with Mason Fine anymore. Last time I did that I almost missed seeing the greatest & most exciting finish to a Mean Green football game in our history. * If Ron Shanklin's TD catch against Frank Broyle's Arkansas Razorbacks had been allowed that would be #1 in our history IMHO. Hellsbells! Those same UA Hogs played UT for a NCAA National Championship the next season. See how close we got to becoming football 👑 royalty, Greenbackers? Yet (again) 3 giant steps forward & ...you know the rest. GMG!

😳First...how many times thru the decades were we as fans & alums made aware that NFL scouts were at our Mean Green football practice sessions or at Fouts Field (& now fabulous Apogee Stadium) for Game Days? THIS: ➡️ From DFW Airport it's only a 30 minute drive for any NFL Scout to make up to our Denton campus. At some NCAA D1 locales (even P5's) the plane would have to circle the town & then said NFL scout yell "GERONIMO!" jumping out of the plane hoping said parachute unfurls! OK, so Mr. Tyree changed his mind---so what? Maybe someone (another recruiter?) got to him & possibly even gave him a script to use for his excuse or.....maybe not. They are kids, folks. We all been there done that kid thing ourselves. (Still...make one more pitch to him, UNT coaches). 🏉❇️❓BUT......A FUTURE NFL 'er LOST IN OBLIVION IN THE USA's 4'th LARGEST TV MEDIA MARKET, i.e., the NORTH TEXAS METROPLEX? (I don't think so). 🏉❇️Former Dallas Cowboys Super Scout Gil Brandt was the first to use a computer for the NFL draft in the 60's. If Billy Bob Jumpback at Sippery Rock U was a potential NFL #1 or #2 draft choice, his computer would reveal it. Today the NFL draft is much more sophisticated. 🏉❇️No NFL talent will get left behind even in some backwater (Sippery Rock U?) college locale. UNT "IS NOT" located in some forgotten location & gets coverage from every DFW area TV station along with the Denton Record-Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News & the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. UNT is almost "media top heavy!" (Considering.....we've gotten our share & methinks based on all happening now that is only going to get better in the next 10 years). 🏉 ❇️Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine periodical ranked our school higher than most of us can remember toward the end of the regular season. THEN THERE WERE THESE 3 ❇️❇️❇️: University of North Texas Mean Green greats Mean Joe Greene , Cedrick Hardman & Leonard Dunlap were all 3 NFL #1 draft choices after they finished their eligibility in Denton, Texas. All played in the shadows of the SWC, but how many Southwest Conference schools during the same time produced 3 #1 NFL draft choices? Answer: None HIgh Schoolers & JUCO's change their minds. If he changed it again back to UNT I'd bet our coaches would still welcome him back with open arms. 17 & 18 yo kids just do things like change their minds. Didn't we all do that at some point & at the same age?

Some things are just set in concrete, SE, but we have to keep our chipping 🔨 hammers out & just hope more tactful chipping can eliminate what we perceive to be UNTCOM sludge. ON ANOTHER FRONT: The pic of Fry you use as your icon with the generic green & white cap he had on has always been a matter of interest to me. Why a cap with no letters or an Eagle mascot? I've never seen a D1 HFC wear such a generic cap. Wonder what the storyline is on that cap? GMG!

I feed all strays, but in this case...

...or get Ramon Flanagan unless Silver Eagle has completely intimidated him & driven him bat crazy.😎 (just kiddin' y'all)!

Responding to your last sentence: Methinks we all are, greenminer.😚

"Coach Bill Petersen made FSU a national name from 1960-1970 until he accepted the HFC's job at Rice University. " "From 1972-1974 FSU had a 20 game losing streak & university officials publicly discussed dropping Seminole football." (from an article in Isportsweb.com)

Did we do for FSU's Bowden same we did for KSU's Bill Snyder? 🙄 Made the very slow drive from Walnut Hill Drive in Irving for this game. Several of us sat on plastic. Our hardy handful included GrayEagle, SUMG, Jim & Wanda Parks (who we lost as fans to 1-AA re-classification) & others. As posted, UNT Ticket Mgr. Wayne Ray said pre-game sales would have made this Homecoming a sellout. (Ex SMU letterman Wayne Ray was conservative & would not have made such a prediction had it not been true). Still...half a foot of wet snow changed that. It was still fun to watch & even more fun to watch the Seminoles post-game snowball fight. The game made one of the 3 major network's news that evening as they highlighted in their news the orange highway cones used each 10 yards.

Guess you can never sign enough QB's. Now if we could just get more DT's and DE's as future stars. GMG!

A hot Texas September day might determine the start time more than anything. Remember the year we played (& beat) Baylor in early September how it was well over 100 degrees on the Fouts Field parking lot at 5:30 pm.?

Another older alum who I was talking to recently suggested that media marketing should begin on the uniqueness of Mason Fine. Sports is show business so why not? Any other school would already be on top of this; who knows, maybe ours is. Anyone who attended a smaller HS appreciates what he is & will be doing even more. GMG!

👍👍 Have always liked the last sentence of GrayEagle's comment as well. 🦅GrayEagle Speak Truth & Is Wise Chief. 🦅 GMG!

My old college roommate & I were almost out of Apogee when we heard the crowd noise on the play right before Lawrence's clutch catch. We quickly came back inside near the Wing Zone & were not believing what we were seeing & fixin' to see. Not sure any offensive drive I saw for any UNT football game since 1973 was as exciting. I mean you had to be near the Wing Zone to see grown men from all decades on the Apogee mezzanine acting like school girls at a Taylor Swift concert after that game winning catch. (I'm still not sure how Mason Fine ever got rid of that ball looking at how UTSA blitzed). GMG!

I think Fry was moreso looking at the UH model of going Independent rather than copycatting anything happening with the outgoing members of the Missouri Valley Conference. That group from the Mo' Valley had good basketball, but would not come close to anything the Coogs did in football & basketball after they left the MVC in 1960. The 60's & 70's were 2 good decades for Cougar football & basketball & as a kid in that part of Texas UH was the college athletic program I followed in the 60's. Still I think Fry had in mind building something similar to the Cougars which had DKR & UT making noises about sponsoring UH for SWC membership as early as 1968. *Fry's 1'st season coaching the Mean Green was in 1973. Although UH had been voted into the SWC in 1970 the Coogs would not be eligible to play for a football championship until 1976. Many frustrated UH fans could not believe why such a long wait. Indy was a tough route alright but was never mean't to be a permanent home for UH athletics as I don't think it would have been a permanent athletic home for NTSU had Fry stayed. Back in the 60's UH AD Harry Fouke had a plan & he worked his plan all the way to SWC membership (albeit the SWC would implode in due time). UNT's plan was interrupted by Fry leaving for the Big 10 & then UNT waving the white flag in 1982 & going down a level to NCAA 1-AA (which for all practical purposes was our only choice if we were to keep football). Some of you will remember the hastily called meeting that Bill Vogel called many of us at out offices to attend; that is the meeting he put together for Dr. Hurley & his staff. It was an unusual meeting to say the least. Yes, Fry could exaggerate & spin a tall Texas tale with the best of them alright. You kind of knew when to laugh when he spat those off knowing full well they were quite fictional. The most amazing thing Fry did in Denton IMHO was recruit some pretty good D1 talent with the worse on-campus athletic facilities in the state of Texas. He knew how to close the deal much like many of us are seeing glimpses that our present staff has begun to do the same. GMG!

Was wondering how it would affect private donations. 😕

Wholeheartedly concur. GMG!

Agree! Apogee Stadium & the entertainment we saw inside this season re-invigorated my old UNT roommate who absolutely loves the place!

Again, we have more 3 star recruits than we've had in awhile. I wonder how many 'ships left now? GMG!

More 3 star recruits than we've seen in awhile with room for even more in February? GMG!

Our 1'st team All CUSA QB will be a good teacher for whoever succeeds him in 2 years.

Sad news for a great alum's family. Thoughts & prayers for this young man.