PlummMeanGreen

Only wish Phil Bennett would have said such things about SMU's best case scenario schedule formula at the front end of his career on the Hilltop. I hope SMU's Bennett is able to keep his job (in more ways than one). He's had a tough row to hoe in University Park. He's had to endure the tragic loss of a wife (who was killed by a lightning strike). He's had his share of critics at SMU (as DD had here and with this particular poster the last 2 years), but Phil Bennett seems to have most always kept all his broadcasted comments on the high road every time I've heard him which I believe actually played a part in his getting another year on his contract (truth be known). UNT? We're something else, now aren't we? Almost to the person, we are each & every one visionaries concerning our Mean Green athletic program. We all many times project ourselves as the UNT we all good & well know that we just aren't at this point in time (especially when it comes to our having a true D1-A football facility coupled with what most upper echelon D1-A schools have for attendance figures. IMHO, we just have yet to become what we all project us to be as far as a school that would make schools such as most of the ex-SWC schools want to schedule us (instead of "our" most always saying how that group who should always want to schedule us). SOME SUBJECTS STAY THE SAME--ONLY THE YEARS CHANGE: All these "wish all 3 Metroplex schools would play each other every year" have been cussed & discussed for most every decade I've been an NT Ex. (Not that we should ever give up on such an idea). UNT playing in the Cotton Bowl? Many of us on this boardwould tell you: Been there--Done that. The Cotton Bowl was our home for 2 games in the 1981 season and many of us back then swore off having to have that experience again...........ever. (Now if Mayor Miller hadn't blocked Jerry World & the Arlington Cowboys out of Fair Park, there might be some changes of heart out here). Nothing new with this. either, but we simply just need to take care of business at UNT right now (& not next year or next decade) as far as the fundraising aspects of our new stadium is concerned. UNT leaders hopefully are sensitive to the largest constituency that will sit inside this new stadium & build it with that group (and those who will sit in this stadium 25 years from now) in mind. As always & at most NCAA D1-A outposts, some egos may have to be left at the front door for our UNT constituency to eventually get what their grandsons and grand-daughters who attend UNT will (for darn sure) need for their stadium needs. We cannot build this stadium based on our experiences of the last 10 years or probably even the next 5. For now, we just need to put more butts in seats than that that has been our usual average at Fouts and then when Denton County hits 1 million populaton (in the next 8-10 years) that UNT powers(whoever they will be at that time) wlll inherit the fruits of some UNT powers today who made decisons that would make our future leaders jobs easier. Quite honestly, the future couldn't be brighter at UNT than it is now, but many of us said the same thing back in 1978, too. Yet.............now is the time for UNT to act on all this population boom we've had going for awhile now and do something about it for a change. I sill defer to the 100'th editing of the signature below:

These Mean Green unis' simply look..................mavawous! (Billy Crystal) Now if we could "THAT" green as a choice of greens on GoMeanGreen.com's choice of colors ledger. (Harry, is that do-able). PS: They exceed my expectations by far! IMHO.........we've not had a uni' that looked as striking since the "you now who" era back in the day. Great start for Dodge Ball, fellers!

Bill, Denton County also grew from about 99,000 during the mid-70's to almost 600,000 today, and for whatever the reason(s), we still have yet to capture the imagination of all the newcomers that created a boom population explosion in our alma mater's home county. We need to all hope that these 2 words, ie, "Dodge Ball" will not be our sole promotions efforts for this and future football seasons in Mean Green Country. Nothing earth-shattering with this revelation, but UNT is located in a metropolitan area (6'th largest in the USA?) and we (still) need to craft our athletic promotions program with that cold, stark & harsh reality. TCU has done a decent job in promotions, but the best thing they've done (unlike their own past football history in the NCAA's modern times) is aim their football program toward annual Top 25 rankings and have had some success by doing that. GMG!

OUCH! But so true....

Fair enough, TTG... BUT..................no matter how you mean't it, MF'er is pretty personal to most. I guess we all use tongue-in-cheek with our posts more than we can count and I've had to (as Ricky Ricardo would say) "esplain" at times that some of mine were even tonuge-in-cheek (whether in a sardonic, sarcastic or futile attempt at comedy sort of way). Sorry about the DD comparison, but the "MF"er" part of your post did remind me of the story several of you on this board have told me about that MF'er verbal attack by DD aimed at our fan base after one of his practices last year. That is the only reason I brought up DD as I am (like all of you) trying to just move on and do my best to think of some of the more posiitve things Dickey left behind. Yet we can all learn from our past, can't we; that is, as far as hoping that some of its more negative aspects don't surely don't get repeated. What I am saying about Todd Dodge is probably more hopeful/wishful thinking than anything since he hasn't even coached a game yet. Hopefully, I'm sure most (if not all) of us would (actually) like him to take us to the next 2 or 3 levels since the next level right now is what DD did for 4 years beating a bunch of schools very few of us knew about 25 years ago (at least the majority of them) and without one Top 25 ranked team. Even the MAC & WAC have taken ranked teams to bowls. I realize we are in the Sun Belt Conference for a definite reason and that mostly because many of our past UNT leaders have given our athletic program minimum$ to work with thus giving us the appearance of a program that has been fiddle-fartin' around with athletics for most of our adult lives. I feel we can all agree that we are ready to see UNT take all this to the limit and give ourselves yet another chance to have a first class program. In Texas, many just happen to use stadium size as the barometer to what level of class a school really (and sincerely) wants for its football program. The Grand Opening of a 30,000 seat stadium would be fun for all of us leading up to Grand Opening Day, but the very next day we all might wonder if we just built the thing too darn small as far as what Todd Dodge wants to do with Mean Green football, specifically recruiting. (Won't what we build with our new stadium even need to compete with UTEP's Sun Bowl Stadium to some extent)? STADIUMS! STADIUMS! STADIUMS! BUT................what better statement could UNT make louder than any (probably in our history) by building our future new stadium which will have every possible ammenity any new NCAA D1-A football stadium built in this new millineum should or would have? As most know by now, many of us just happen to think seating capacity should be toward the top of the list of all those ammenities & priorities with this new stadium. With 10 D1-A football schools in Texas, isn't UNT really going to need to do some things in an "outside our usual box" & more grandiose way, especially moreso than most of the schools that used to be in the Southwest Conference? TTG, we need many more fans who get stark raving mad about poor to mediocre expectation and performance in every area of our school and UNT Athletics, specifically. You are certainly one of those and I appreciate that about you as a fellow NT Ex. Sometimes, though, realism can get confused with negativism, yet I hope all eras will soon have reason to celebrate as far as our Mean Green football is concenred and that alums from every era of our school's history will see things that have never been witnessed during any of those eras. GMG!

All the white paint makes Fouts Field look a helluva' lot larger (and for certain much brighter). Now about that damn track?!?!? GMG!

Now TheTastyGreek, have we gotten bit by the DD "MF'er" Bug or something? I think you are taking this board much too serious now aren't you? I think what most of (who you are calling MF'ers--I know, parentheses not required but I put em' in anyway ) want with OUR MESSIAH (sorry if your Greek Jewish) but is to land somewhere in the Top 25 rather than the other "25" too many of the other MF'ers (you describe our fellow alums for heaven's jehosophats sake?) seemed to have become too cluckin' content with for most of the last decade. Let's call an ace and ace and a spade a spade, THE TASTY GREEK, some of us want a helluva' lot better than winning any D1-A football championship but being a Bottom 25 ranked football program while doing it. And for those on campus who think thats going to GIT ER' DONE (Luv' Ya Blue) , then they may need to take their travelin' show to some other SBC-esque type school where low set goals & expectations make way too many of their futher-muckin' fan's pants go crazy. YET..................MF'er's to describe your own fellow alums, The Tasty Greek? Perhaps it really is time to take a break from this board if you can't handle a few variances of opinions or [u]posting-styles that even sometimes has you making silly attempts to poke fun (which I guess relieves some semblance of stress, I suppose). Yet I'm sure Emmitt01, you know, our own Mean Green version of Bryant Gumble, could find you a much better and more articulate vocabulary to chose (choose) from than, uh, MF'ers; but I'm sure E01 would be more than glad to help you with that project and would do it with much more humility than ol [b]Bryant "Have Your Read My Book on Humility & How I Attained It" Gumble (more futher'muckin' underlines for you, TTG) would ever be able to. BUT......................all this MF'er part is probably a bit too DD'esqe even for the most ardent DD-Baller out there including those on this forum who thought that a hardy handful of us on GoMeanGreen.com as far back as 2 plus years ago were out of our futher-muckin' upwardly bound college football minds suggesting that there was no such thing as success at the NCAA D1-A level with annual performances in the SBC/Bottom 25--bowl game or no bowl game. Whoops! Probably just pissed off a few more with that statement. When UNT gets back to Top 25 (since we've actually have been there before in a much tougher Denton-based environment and far worse football facilities) then some on this board will wonder why we didn't hire those who could "Git Er' Done" much quicker than we have of late, ya' think? Now.............Have A Nice Day!

I think most of us will keep this 1'st season of Todd Dodge's in total perspective. What I believe T'odge wants to build at UNT will transcend toward much higher national rankings, ie, more than what we've been doing even during above .500 seasons in recent years in fact. Most D1-A true freshmen should probably most always redshirt their first year on campus (or that is what most D1-A coaches I've heard say is a best case scenario for their respective programs). Todd Dodge's most important role in 2007 may very well be with a consortium of other NT staffers and what may take place in some conference meeting area of some major Texas corporation(s). In more ways than one, UNT really needs to strike while the iron's hot during Todd Dodge's initial honeymoon period in Mean Green Country. We may very well be 0 & 2 coming into our home season opener at Fouts Field versus FIU. Certainly, we all hope that isn't the case but anyone should mentally prepare themselves for that possibility. GMG!

Demographics When Hayden Fry Was In Denton, Texas, America: Denton population: 35,000 (compared to approx. 110,000 now) Denton County population: 99,000 (compared to almost 600,000 now) UNT Enrollment: 17,000 (compared to approx. 34,000 now) DFW NT Exes/Alumnus Assoc: Believe it or not, there wasn't a functioning one when Hayden Fry arrived in Denton in December, 1972 (probably the prime reason our school's financial coffer, ie, endowment is hardly one that will advance us to another tier in U.S. News & World Reports annual rankings (if anyone subscribes to those rankings). NOTE: Actually, in or around 1971, I believe there was some kind of a half-arsed attempt to get something started with some kind of alumnus association for NT, but I think it was a futile effort from all that I've heard. When Hayden Fry started scheduling the Big Boys (as well as UT-Austin for the first time in our school's history), our alma mater's movers & shakers just started looking around at all the things they (the Big Boys) were doing and what we had not been doing concerning alumnus relations for almost 100 years. I know, many of us have made a demi-god out of Hayden Fry on this forum, but the man truly brought a Big Time presence and feeling to our campus--problem was, we (the NT community) just didn't return the favor. When Fry signed on with NT after a 11 year stint as SMU's AD/Head Football Coach, he still probably had as much influence with our dropping the "teacher's college modus operendi & intellect" as much as anyone had up to that time (because in the early 1970's--that M.O. was still much too prevalent at NT). And with Fry having played a significant role in doing all that, probably still a reason some in Denton still don't like that man to this day. Bluntly speaking (or posting)--Hayden Fry raised the bar at NTSU in more ways than one and is the same bar (not the watering hole variety, of course) that many still use today for us to get back to (impressive OOC wins over name schools for starters?) yet a bar we can now exceed with Todd Dodge at the helm in Mean Green Country. NOTE: Shame on all of us, but our Fouts attendance during a 4 year bowl run was about the same we had over 30 years ago & during the Fry era. Maybe a reason some of us old f@rt NT alums get a bit testy and impatient in some of our posts at times? FWIW................we are just ready for something much bigger to happen for all of us especially in light of the population explosion that has taken place on and around our main campus.

Flood control issue, what else?

Have read that very few of their classes (even with LOI's signed) have ever really been among Rivals high-rankers. Seems at BSU they get a healthy mix of JUCO's and HS recruits and.................good coaching. Hmmm? Might be a good combination and formula for other schools, eh?

YMBAMGFI: (1) For almost a decade you all but became convinced that the forward pass was a trick play. (2) You are up at "5 somthing'" this AM posting on GMG.com while watching UNT grad Larry McMurtry's book turned movie Texasville. (Cybill Sheppard aka Jacie still lookin' pretty damn fine) (3) You go to the grocery store looking for some cleanser called "mean green" and cuss the manager if he doesn't have it in stock (least of all ever heard of it). (4) ...let me finish this 1'st cup of java and other YMBAMGFIf's will come.

You Might Be A Mean Green Fan if... You had a whole shock of hair when you first started being a Mean Greener, and then 30 plus years later (with a dozen logo changes and another dozen shades of green changes) your thinking about joining the Hair Club For Men (except for the fact that I'm really not a joiner).

All most interesting Todd Dodge quotes from DRC article: “We are in an age right now where the people we are competing against are building nice, state-of-the-art stadiums,” Dodge said. “You have to keep up with them. The second part of it is the facility level at the high schools in the recruiting base that we are going after is off the charts. … There is a start-of-the-art high school stadium with between 10,000 and 15,000 seats with a JumboTron and all the other amenities seemingly on every corner in the Dallas area.” “A stadium is very important to the future of the program,” Dodge said. “We are not lacking in anything in comparison to the people we are going against head-to-head in recruiting except for a stadium.” Dodge is aiming to help change that by being the face of the program and the frontman for a fundraising campaign that is still in its early stages. After seeing what UNT has accomplished in the last few years, especially with the opening of the Mean Green Athletic Center, he has high hopes that a new stadium will be on the way soon. “It’s not my job to say what the timeframe is,” Dodge said. “But when I see the building that I am in now and the facility that our kids enjoy, I do not doubt one bit that a stadium will be built.” ...........................................

Thanks for that info, island eagle. Many of us will now watch all 3 future Mean Greeners.

Will be interesting to watch our future college football stars from the Lone Star State? Now who is it that committed to UNT will be in this game? GMG!

I would hope that when UTA wants a game with us any year that we will not act like others in Texas have and get all condescending ie, high & mighty, etc, etc, etc... UTA has started building more dorms to make it more of a residential campus and that is a good thing for them. I don't know what the progress of a possible new baskeball arena is for UTA, maybe someone from UTA can get back with us on that? FWIW, UNT's timing when it built the Super Pit could not have been better. In the late Dr. James Rogers book "The Story of North Texas" he writes about how so many on our campus pre-Super Pit completion thought 10,000 would be too many seats. Many of that group wanted about 6,000 seats. (Wonder if they changed their minds when UNT hosted 3 (or 4?) NCAA Regional Basketall Tourney's because the Super Pit (in deed) had 10,000 seats and.......................many of us will never forget that magical night when UNT hosted SMU before a SRO crowd of 10,700 fans and...................WON THE GOL' DARNED BASKETBALL GAME TO BOOT! Of course, many of us had our graduation ceremonies inside the Super Pit so I guess that's why campus publications call it a multi-purpose facility?

I believe most who know me, quoner, know that after my 40 plus years of following NCAA D1 football, first as a UH Coog' fan in the 1960's, coupled with being a DKR-led UT football program enthusiast, too, and then a Mean Green fan as an NT student (of course) and then as an NT Ex post graduation, circa 1976. Yet with my being a pretty big follower of NCAA D1 football all those years, that even I would realize the difference between what big monies could do for a Sun Belt school as compared to a school in the Big 12--sorta' apples & oranges, wouldn't you say? My having been to a few football games in Stillwater, OK, beginning in the mid-1970's, you'd only have had to seen OSU's football facilities (many aluminun stands so full of rust you'd thought that was their new school color); yet to see what most would call poor football facilities (at best) for a Big 8 (future Big 12) school would make most realize that T. Boone Pickens could not have come at a better time for OSU than the present. Yet all we need at UNT to get started in building our stadium is what some "a bit better than aveage" pro athletes are signing multi-year contracts for these days. I really don't understand all the reasons as to why we are not better positioned at UNT to be getting similar monies that professional sports owners throw around like candy, but for whatever the reason(s), we just aren't there quite yet; but we all know how quickly such things can change in our society and for UNT, that will be a big positive when it does.

You are all corrrect, I've surfed the web probably as much as most of you and on similar boards such as GoMeanGreen.com and I have yet to see any AD show the 'nads that Rick Villarreal has in visiting and posting on this forum. Granted, we are a difficult, stubborn and most peculiar group at times, Rick, but some of us are (like yourself) just simply ready to see this Mean Green Rocket Ship take off before some of us get shipped off to Laurel Land. You have shown a steadfast level headed-ness from things posted on this board (a few being mine, quite frankly) when many of us of Irish descent may have darn well busted a gasket and lost our tempers. Thank you for not losing yours. Keep on being Glad To Be Green, RV, in spite of some of us who are not quite as patient; but some of us will blame our advancing years for that shortfall. GMG! PS: I defer to the signature statement below:

Highlighted from your list are 2 of my favorites, too. Jack, what year (and which of our on-campus stadia) was the 1'st North Texas game you witnessed; and who was our opponent? I'm going to take a wild guess that the stadium you saw your first NT game was where Willis Library is now located, right? GMG! Edited Signature Below

Flood control issue...

And Slim Pickens was sorta' famous for his Blazing Saddles "f@rting around the campfire" line when he said: "What in the Wide World of Sports is-a goin' on here." Knew a lady over here in Fort Worth (namely, Cowgirl singer Annie Golightly) who personally knew Slim. Annie told me Slim was one of the best trainers of horses around Hollywood (or anywhere else for that matter). She also told me he died very painfully with brain cancer. ............................................................... Back on subject: Can you imagine where Big 12 OSU's program would be if T. Boone Pickens had not rode in on his white horse into Stillwater? Moreso, can you imagine where UNT would be now (or soon) with someone like him riding his white horse into the Mean Green Village with a saddle bag full of tens of millions of dollars? All this money flying all around us in the Metroplex makes one get a bit depressed at times, but our day in the $un will come and I think many others on GoMeanGreen.com believe that it will, too.

Vito missed the actual "first scare" Fry's Mean Green gave Texas which was our 1'st game ever with the Longhorns AD Fry had scheduled with UT AD Darrell Royal and that game which ended with a score of 17-14. Most of you GMG.com veterans know this already, but UT's Earl Campbell (bad hamstring & all) had to run for a long TD run in the 4'th quarter which would win the game for Texas. Often wondered why UNT could never get Lady Luck to smile on us even once for such games (including the most exciting 1988 game most of us attended when we could actually get tickets and sit anywhere from the goal line all the way to the 35 yard line at DKR Memorial. Also, sorta' funny how Texas fans during the 1976 game couldn't get over how so many fans (Dallas Green once told me the Austin American-Statesman actually reported around 18-19,000 NT fans in Austin that evening) could have found all the apple green MG gear to wear that evening at (DKR) Memorial Stadium. (Back in the mid 1970's, apple green was actually a fashionable color and was easy to find in stores). Off Subject Question: Isn't kelly green the same green you mostly see on Notre Dame caps at Lids?

Poor research on my part. I forgot about UH's Robertson Stadium being very close to SMU's in capacity. So Jack, who do we have to beat to become # 7? I do think Rick V needs to hire a small army of fundraisers (or consultants) to research every philanthropist in the entire USA or maybe even checking out foundations (such as Moody Foundation, Galveston, Texas) to see where we could possibly get the necessary start-up monies for our new stadium. Who knows, 1 or 2 we have all put on our "could do thi$ new $tadium thing" lists would then step forward when they see this thing is really going to become a reality. This is a unique time in our school's history which may mean different measures will be needed at this time for this most unique (and enormous) fundraising project? GMG!

Right now, a 33,000 seater would make me plum dog'gone happy since that would make us have the 9'th largest D1-A stadium in Texas. Don't ask me why about this, but I just don't want us to be #10, that's all. Do any of you?