PlummMeanGreen

It really should do just that, H-towngreen. I think we have a Big Donor on the near horizon--just a gut feeling. Newly revised signature below.

Absolutely... I loved the first part of the week waiting to see if ABC-TV was going to put us on their following Saturday telecasts (which didn't happen enough at NT back in the day). I think the Mean Joe Greene era got us a couple of those ABC TV games post-Greene graduation, but our team had lost all its talent by then. Tulsa vs NT was one of those broadcasts that I watched down in the Houston area while still in high school. I guess that would have been ABC TV affiliate channel 13? I'm not sure about the long term ramifciations of a play-off as I smell the Big Boys using it to serve their needs while leaving out way too many non-BCS schools, but that is why I guess we all need to grow our programs (and fill as large a stadiums as we can build)? I defer to the below "new" signature... GMG!

Why not, many of us know UNT's history moreso than many of those getting paid nice salaries to have already learned it in order for them to promote it successfully but even moreso............not repeat the negative aspects of our history. This board is (most times) always a good source of the last 60 plus years of Mean Green athletics. Last time I got interviewed by a newspaper, though, (& not the DRC, either, although they got a few quotes from yours truly in the past); anyway, a football coach got fired (and a few of you know about that particular article, too). Last time I wrote a very pointed letter to a UNT president with cc's to each and every member of the UNT Board of Regents, another football coach got fired. No, I don't take full credit for either firings (who would ever want full credit for that kind of thing, anyway) and don't do that kind of thing for sport, I did my part of it (since others were writing letters, also) because I thought UNT could do better than what most of us have seen post-Hayden Fry's dramatic raising of the bar in Denton. When any of us stop caring enough to to see our school improve and advance itself with what we feel would be the right personnel (and their actions over a period of time shows us if they're the right personnel), then thats when the UNT BOR's will start closing down a few programs (of which most of would probably like to hang on to some of them). FWIW, it really doesn't matter to me who gets the job done at our alma mater just so it gets done &..............at a higher profile (especially for a school our size and, uh, potential). This 30,000 seat stadium idea rankles me almost as much as Lee Jackson's inability to secure for our school a, uh.......UNT Law School; BTW, the very thing that was supposed to have been what Bobby Ray hired him to do as chancellor of the UNT System.

And so many have judged our entire school in past decades based on Fouts when they commuted past our venerable ol' stadium. I worked in Dallas years ago and all I ever got from many co-workers when the subject of NT came up was: "That HS stadium of yalls off the interstate."

Good post with some points I agree and a couple I disagree with so............let me chase a few green rabbits of my own. First of all, with our present 30,500 seat Fouts Field, we seem to (of late) have gone into some kind of a dormant stage as far as scheduling Southwest regional schools such as TCU and Baylor (yet we think building a new stadium with 500 less seats than Fouts Field is going to be some kind of panacea to our future needs)? I'd say a 30,000 seat stadium at the Mean Green Village will guarantee that Todd Dodge is a short-termer in Denton (he will need a larger stadium to recruit against those he'd really like to recruit against); and I also feel it will secure our SBC'esque reputation of being a perennial Bottom 25'er of a football program for another half-century (minimum). Has really that much good happen for us the last 25 years in Denton that was anywhere near the Top 25? Another question: Is it time that UNT athletics put in its mission statement for our football program (if it hasn't already) that Top 25 rankings are really what we are aiming for in Denton? If that is not our goals for this football program, then what are we aiming for in Denton? Perhaps, paying out to a hardy handful some decent salaries while a handful of that group keep jukin' and jivin' those who will believe just about anything they tell many of our elect? Moving on.............. Other SBC schools have even scheduled Top 20 (#19 Missouri at Troy U on ESPN1) and MTSU seems to be making some positive inroads with upgrading their own home schedule with known opponents. We have Navy this year because of some scheduling quirk in someone elses schedule as I heard it--was it Akron U we worked with on this for us to get Navy? Seems like a 1 game deal like our Army game has turned out to be. University of Central Florida has Texas in their stadium opener but now some are saying we can't do the same? UT has (of most all the ex SWC/Big 12 schools have been most accomodating with North Texas and I think an aggressive AD like we have with Rick Villarreal could pull off a home & home with the Horns but..................in a larger stadium; that is, much larger than 30,000 seats. TCU hosted OU a few years ago at Amon Carter Stadium over here in Fort Worth (when many of us said the Sooners would never come to the Metroplex except for the Texas/OU weekend. Many of us were wrong about that, too. Quite frankly, many of us with UNT ties are wrong about a lot of things when it comes to Big Time NCAA D1-A athletics and what road map we need to use to get there. I do know if we don't use a different road map than we've been using the last 25 years, we are going to keep getting the same results. Anyone out there really want this football program to be ranked nationally where it was ranked even during 4 bowl years? UNT is no Boise State and we have a different set of problems than Boise State will never relate to of which a major one is our being in a state that has 9 other NCAA D1-A schools located in it and with UNT even having 2 of those schools within 50 miles of Denton (which sorta' compounds our uniqueness as compared to Boise State). With North Texas being 1 of 10 NCAA D1-A schools in the state of Texas, aren't we really going to have to do something a bit more (hellsbells, a whole bunch more) grandiose with our on-campus football stadium to try to distinguish ourselves (in some way or another) from the other 9 Texas-based NCAA D1-A schools? And what giant statement (or edifice) could do this better than anything else for UNT that 4 bowl games didn't? GrandGreen, there were better crowds in the Super Pit not long after its opening. I was an NT student living in Denton and made most every game (if not all). I (as many on this forum) saw those better crowds. We were part of them. One such crowd was 10,700 in the Super Pit for a home game against SMU. The Super Pit with Bill Blakely as our 2'nd coach after its grand opening in 1972 were actually heading in the right direction until another AD came in post-Fry and then promptly fired Bill Blakely. Some of you in years past have constantly reminded me of the days when we were NT students and how we had to get to the Super Pit pretty early to get a good seat. No, we rarely sold out the Super Pit, but we had better overall crowds back then than we have had in a a very long time. We all hope Johnny Jones is bringing Mean Green basketball alive again as a money-maker; but football is still King with me (and always will be). I know we will ultimately end up building capacity-wise what our fund-raisers are able to raise, but if Mean Joe Greene walked into a conference room with a group of NT fund-rasier to ask for Big Money compared to John Q. UNT Employee" don't you think we have a better chance to really stimulate much more interest with all this new stadium business? Instead of Mean Joe Greene, you can also insert names like Hayden Fry, Bill Blakely, Tim Fitzpatrick (a talent we let get away from us) and others with name ID and UNT ties. And no, I'm not ready to say NT Ex Don Henley would be one of this group, either.

UNTflyer, but what UCF does not have are almost 6 million citizens within 1 hour (give or take) of their new (aluminum) football palace such as UNT has with Fouts (and our future new stadium). IMHO, Waco is a far enough distance from the DFW Metroplex that I don't see them as competition for us at all; that is, as far as the entertaiment dollar is concerned. I think "ANY" major metropolitan NCAA D1-A football school should accept the reality of their situation as to what they are up against (although we never seem to address this at UNT) with all the entertaiment options and merely budget to overcome as much of that entertaiment dollar competition that they can (and for UNT, that would mean more in the promotions staff and a larger promotions budget). In fact, if said metropolitan school does not budget to fight for the entertaiment dollar, they may be setting themselves up to average only about 15,000 per home game most any football season, even when they go to bowl games. We all hope Dodge Ball has caught the attention of more than those registered on GoMeanGreen.com, but UNT athletic officials should not base their promotions for the 2007 Mean Green football season based on one new, bright energetic hire. SMU and TCU have almost 100 years of an SWC membership to have built their fan base. UNT has had a hodge-podge of whatever you want to call it to build ours. Another reason we need a sizable football stadium to bring in the kind of OOC schools that will help us have the kind of turnstile count to increasae future athletic budgets in Denton, too, and I just don't think a 30K-seater at the Mean Green Village would begin to serve that purpose. Granted, we ain't going to need a 40,000 seat stadium for SBC competition, but we will not increase our future athletic budget based on SBC home games in Denton, either. A newly completed 30K-seater in Mean Green Country would for sure look good on numerous resume's for several on our present payroll, but it will keep those who remain for the next decade or 2 or 3 from scheduling the caliber of schools in Denton that would eventually help us become a Top 25 school (and I do hope that is our objective in Denton although I've yet to see that in any mission statement). We are not going to impress many Top 25 pollsters by merely beating perennially lower ranked BCS schools (Baylor, Air Force, Rice, etc, etc, etc) in Denton, Texas, America, and I think most of you would agree for those who care (and dare) to look down the road with all this. For certain any sized new stadium would look good in Denton, but such as most having an excitement after the purchase of a new car, you better have a vehicle that functions to fit your immediate and longterm needs after all the excitement (and new'ness) has worn off. With no intent of being melo-dramatic here, but if UNT builds a 30,000 seat (only) stadium, we will be making a very large statement that we really don't have much higher aspirations for a future in an ever-changing NCAA D1-A that will help us stay out of the Bottom 25 most years along with the other schools with 30-32K sized stadiums who will (themselves) be a part of or near Bottom 25 for the next 25 years. Yes, there will be exceptions to the rule here, but the very few of that group will not be in a state such as Texas that has 9 other NCAA D1-A football schools or...............................2 other D1-A schools within a 40 mile radius of their own backyards. TO UNT OFFICIALS: Build it as though we are going to one day be the 2'nd largest university in the sovereign state of Texas............ ................understanding the ramifications of building it too small which would (undoubtedly) produce for our school state-wide horse laughs among Texas D1-A schools concerning any Texas university that would build a new football stadium (in this new millenium) smaller than its enrollment and much, much smaller than its 50 mile radius population base.

UNTflyer, I hear what you are saying with this but..................at some point in time, we are going to have to start taking advangtage of the fact that unlike when I was an NT student when we had 17,000 (compareed to 35,000 this Fall?); compared to when I was an NT student when Denton has 39,000 population (compared to about 110,000 now); and compared to when I was an NT student when Denton County had 99,000 citizens (compared to almost 600,000 today)................... But to reiterate where I was going with this...............at some point UNT is going to have to get creative with its marketing and act like that we don't have to sit on 15,000 per home football turnstile averages. ANYONE HEARD THE STORY OF THE FLEAS? (OK, then hear it just one more time). There was this empty coffee can with a plastic lid cover sealing the can of coffee. Odly enough, this particular coffee can was full of fleas and fleas that kept trying to hop high enough to reach the sealed lid area with would be the top of the coffee can. Well..............all this jumping continued until each of the fleas reached the top level part of the can where the plastic lid was..................THEN................one day someone took the plastic lid off the can giving all the fleas a way out; all they had to do was jump just a tad higher to jump out of the coffee can, but instead..................they just kept on jumping at the same height where the lid had been never making that extra effort to go any higher so they could get out of the coffee can--a golden opportunity lost for the fleas who all felt that the height they were jumping would be suffice (although sadly enough, they would eventually all succumb because they kept themselves stuck in a coffee can jumping at the same height over and over and over again. SO THAT WAS, MY FELLOW ALUMS...............THE STORY OF THE FLEAS.

Any possible way S(on) O(f) W(orm) could have been sewed onto that green shirt? Who knows, maybe in its 2'nd edition someone in Denton will get creative? Anyone else glad we made a coaching change at a very crucial time? GMG!

This is why UNT doesn't want to paint itself into a never-ending corner with a 30,000 seat stadium. Sure we could expand it, but in what century would that be? You build a 40,000 seater at the Mean Green Village and then you can get the University of Texas Longhorns (a la UCF) into Denton for more than just one Grand Opening game for a new stadium. You build a stadium smaller than the one you have now and we might well become a laughing-stock; and do we really need that at North Texas anymore than we have in the past in some areas we are known to be not so adept? The UNT Law School failure created a few grins around the Lone Star State and please don't be naive' and believe other-wise. We are in the competition business folks whether some of those old guard teacher's college left-overs in Denton want to admit this or not. Many of that group have done their job well, but they've also been part of our problem of keeping things small time in Denton. For certain they helped train some of the best public school administrators and teachers in the USA, but they don't know a damn thing about American business and how it works in a non-academic setting (for the most part) because they don't have to know a damn thing about it since they work in the safe confines of a large public university in the state of Texas. Too many time, they do know about the business of tenureship, though. I know I sound like ol' Green Neck/narrow-minded PMG here, but it just pisses me off how we will have a bunch of non-Texans come into Denton, tell "US" Texans what we need in Denton at "OUR" school, then screw it up for a few years on our payroll until some newly hired Einstein figures out they can't do the job and then we will let these same employees deliver to us what the rest of us will have to live with for the next 50 years as far as whatever the hell size stadium we finally end up with at the Mean Green Village. I realzie Rick V is from Mississippi, not too well known among the other 49 to be one of the most progressive U.S. states on the block (especially in the area of race relations albeit they've come a long ways in the last 2 decades); yet much of Rick V's heart is still (understandably) with U of Southern Mississippi and he would 99.9% for sure leave UNT in a New York minute if he were offered something that paid close to what he made at UNT and FWIW.................none of that makes him a bad guy at all. I honestly feel Rick V wants to do the right thing with this on all this new stadium business, but (irony of ironies) it may very well be a bunch of native Texans (BOR's for starters?) who are (quite frankly) slowing him down in some areas (a la Bobby Ray did with Rick V concerning Dickey), so then at UNT we have a continuation of the old Abbott & Costello comedic monolugue of "Who's on 1'st, What's on 2'nd, etc, etc, etc" still playing in Denton? This seems to be a recurring theme at UNT and has in past years, too, for those who've stuck around to see it. If we don't build this new stadium with the idea that UNT will one day be the 2'nd largest university in the Lone Star State, then I say don't build it at all at this moment in time, especially if its going to cause our alma mater to continue to be a laughing-stock in the very state many of us reside, and specifically where many of us live & work, ie, the North Texas Metroplex. We (still) and always have needed a Big Donor with all this and that part still has not changed and will not change. What talents do we have on our campus at present who have the moxy and savvy to get such monies from a potential Big Donor? That may be the source of our main problem at UNT, folks, but I know we all hope it's not since our next 50 years will be decided by those who do or who don't have the talents to raise the Big Money to build the right-sized/seating capacity stadium that will befit the future "2'nd Largest University in the Lone Star State." Hey, folks, what better time for us to start acting like that bright future for our alma mater than now?

First of all, baseball utility players are getting contracts with what we have been saying we need to build a new football stadium; which seems to have been that magic number of $40 million, right? With Jerry Jones building a billion dollar stadium over in Arlington, it might be an easy bet now that UNT might need to even spend $75-$100 million to get something similar to the stadium that most of us have seen in that virtual tour video made from the company up in Tulsa. So with all the aforementioned in mind, see how $40 million should not be so much the mountain we seem to have made it in Denton? YET..............Are some saying if this present staff at UNT cannot raise the monies for a 35-40,000 seat football stadium that it can never be done period? I would hardly think not. We stand to lose too much (like in losing face for starters) by not building a true NCAA D1-A football stadium at UNT now. UNT's top brass may even need to spend more time researching all the ramification of not building such a stadium at this juncture. Not sure that would be the kind of legacy any of them would want to leave UNT while under their watch. Wouldn't we all love to see this headline? UNT ANNOUNCES DONOR WHO WILL UNDER-WRITE MEAN GREEN'S NEW FOOTBALL STADIUM. (HE NEVER EVEN TOOK ONE CREDIT HOUR AT UNT) (Never say never, because stranger things such as this have happened at the intercollegiate level).

Good Reverend grad88, I guess it will just come to a scenario such as this: Can UNT's fund-raisers truly capture the imagination of just one of these heavy-hitters as to just how important their large donation could mean to the entire UNT community (and beyond); even how historic a donation it would be providing monies to build such an edifice where UNT's alums/MG fans will gather to gather in its largest numbers. What monies we need to spend on our new stadium (with cost unfortunately rising each day we delay our dirt-turning ceremony) will be larger than our school's modest financial endowment (which is something that I'd bet Prez' B and other university academians have thought of that wrinkle at one time or another). Yet................why not a modern new football stadium that will be an exciting, new gathering place for many future Big Donors? A place where UNT's development for such future Big Donors will even begin? It happens this way at other Texas NCAA D1-A schools so why not UNT?

When UNT students show up in full force it is an impressive sight to see. I sat by a UH alum & administrator of CoogFans.com at one of our games at Fouts and he was duly impressed with our UNT student support. YET................any NCAA D1-A school located in a metropolitan area should triple their promotions staff and quadruple their promotions budget because (as you said GreenEddieNT) there are just a few other things out there in the North Texas Metroplex our alums can do on Game Day other than attend a Mean Green football game. If you don't have a promotions staff large enough to get the job done, then hire one large enough to get the job done even if you have to reduce other areas to get the monies for a larger promotions staff and budget because without a sizeable show of NT Exes and Mean Green fans, just who is this program for anyhow?

When I first enrolled at North Texas as a transfer student in January of 1972 I immediately started going to on-campus events and activities (since I lived off Fry Street--316 Fry Street to be exact), I can still recall constantly seeing the same familiar face at most any of these gatherings I would attend, and I would many years later realize that that man I'd seen all those years as an NT student was that of George Derr. The man seemed to be involved with anything & everything that had to do with "North Texas." Happy Birthday, George, you have set the supreme example of "UNT alumnus-hood" that the rest of us should only try emulate.

Yet it is my understanding that at least 2 (maybe 3) of the men in my posts could probably build UNT 2 or 3 football stadiums if they saw the need. Of course, I'm being facetious since we only need one stadium, but what I'm saying and what many of you already know are that some of these heavy-hitters are loaded financial-wise. I just hope we have the right ones (from campus) saying all the right words when they are doing all the asking, that's all.

You are probably right, "the real grad 88" for some cases, but how many years (decades) had UNT spent developing Onstead, Warranch, McIngvale, Goldfield and any of this group? I rest my case. If we go by the "such Big Donors" need to be developed for years, then I fear we are going to soon be out of the new stadium business for sure but FWIW..............I'm with GrayEagleOne inasmuch as we will be getting Good News on a new stadium much sooner than later and it will come from one (or more than one) who UNT probably hasn't even spent 1-2 years developing. Fellas, doing anything with Fouts Field had been ruled out long ago (just like Deep Green said in his post). I recall that a friend of many of ours, ie, the late Robert Wade Brown (NT Ex & late owner of Brown Foundation & Repair) ran a foundations study on Fouts Field several years ago and his report was what you would hardly call promising as far as digging out Fouts or adding anything to any of its present concrete structure. I wish it was other-wise, fellow alums, but it just flat out ain't on that particular subject. UNT's upper echelon has way too much to lose as far as face with this new stadium business. Folks, we are going to get a new stadium--lock, stock & barrell and you can put that in 3 inch headlines. Later....Gotta' go to Dallas for a meeting, dammit!

Very true... You know, I think Rick Villarreal is a good AD for UNT for most of the slices for what makes up the entire UNT Athletic Department pie, but it might just be that he just merely needs to hire another proven fund-raiser that has Texas ties and knows where the old (and new) Texas monies are. Most out-of-staters on our campus would not know such potential donors in most cases. It seems that many D1-A school's AD's are not the prime fund-raiser from what I've observed anyway. Granted, they are there to put the icing on the cake of a big donation and it might appear that they pulled in the Big Tater', but its the fund-raising grunts who are out there doing all the leg-work and creating all the ties for said university that come up with the gems. Anyone out there don't think there are other UNT-graduated Matress Macs out there that need to be reeled in for dear ol' alma mater? I think most Old Gun Alums who I know would tell you that they are out there; hellsbells, probably more than half of them who haven't heard from UNT since they left campus truth be told. Ad Nausem Time But.............UNT officials really, really, really...............ought to consider hiring Hayden Fry (a la Gene Stallings) on a fund-raiser/consultant basis. FWIW..............I think we have wasted much precious time (along with rising construction costs) by not having done this already. Hellsbells! The man has a passion for UNT and its athletic program because you (still) cannot keep him away from Mean Green Country when he has an excuse for coming up to Denton so why the heck not? In fact, hire both Coach Fry & Bill Blakely on a consultant basis because there is a part of UNT that is still deeply imbedded in both. They want our program to be successful as much as any of us do. BTW, how many "EX" UNT employees still give a damn about our school as it is, anyway? And what 2 "EX" UNT employees could still be as valuable as these 2 could if given the responsbility for such a magnificent challlenge? PS: Didn't "W" even have George Herbert Walker Bush and Bill Clinton working together post Tsunami tragedy?

OK, my blood pressue points are back to the "no stroke" range so I can now post again. In all actuality, has anything really changed with any of this even with RV's latest quotes in the StartleGram? We still need a Big Donor (and we've always have needed a Big Donor--& FWIW...........what school out there doesn't)? Seems UNT is last in line in the "Big Donor Hand Out" department, though; hellsbells, WKU has even beat us to the punch with that, but perhaps our Big Donor will shock the entire Mean Green Nation with the mother-lode of all donations of which none the like have ever been given to our alma mater, right? NOTE: If fellow Texas system school, ie, U of Houston, can get a "biggie" donation (approx. $40 million) given to their athletic department, who is to say we cannot come up with something close--heck, wouldn't even $20 million get all this jump-started for us? I do think Rick V could hire one (whether it would be Hayden Fry or not and for the life of me, I still would not rule him out as a fund-raising consultant if I were top UNT officials); but quite frankly, all this latest bit of negativity could change very quickly--you know, like in the space of 24 hours with one special called press conference that UNT Prez' "B", the entire Board of Regents and many of our own rich & famous would not want to miss?

I interpret our AD's quote that we are close to making a big announcement for a Big Donor. Why? Because why would any NCAA D1-A AD ever want to say such things for public consumption ? ANOTHER TERRIFICALLY BAD IDEA FROM AN NT EX WHO POSTS ON GOMEANGREEN.COM: You know, fellow NT Exes/MG fans, for what dear ol' alma mater paid Gene Stallings to come in and tell us how pathetic the Mean Green Club had been in raising monies, we could have added a bit more to whatever they paid Stallings, then hired a consultant who had only been a NCAA Division 1-A Athletic Director and Head Football Coach in the North Texas Metroplex for almost 20 years (with that same person having an impressive reputation as a fundraiser AND...................his knowing many, many, many of DFW's rich & famous and then........................ ...............UNT could have turned him loose to find a consortium of Big Donors; you know, like his former employer, ie, SMU had done to build their Ford? In fact, we could have done this several years ago when Hayden Fry was younger. A few older alums on GoMeanGreen.com even made the aforementioned suggestion in a few posts but might that have been the problem in the first place? You know, that such an idea sprang from GoMeanGreen.com? Because.............what the hell do North Texas Exes know about their own alma mater and its history anyway? And............might it possibly be that a few egos may have been bruised had they hired a senior citizen to come in and do a job that could have already all but have us in a new stadium? All this going on BTW...............at our expense, fellow NT Exes. And a 30,000 seat stadium? Uh, isn't that smaller than the one we have now? Go "freakin" figure.................... If Rick Villarreal actually said those exact words to the Fort Worth Star Telegram sportswriter (and who knows, he may have been misquoted), I think he probably wishes he could take those words back and then just merely think such thoughts privately.

So then all of this probably at some point during DD's 9 year tenureship at UNT should have translated to at least one Top 25 ranking for (maybe) even just one week out of 9 years? DD was hardly the choice of anyone I know who has been connected to UNT in whatever capacity, but he was the choice of one (and one is all it takes with some jobs now isn't it?). Yet he was the choice of one of his fellow Kansas State alums in what (basically) turned out to be a crony hire that (ONLY) kept UNT barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen area (so to speak) of the NCAA Bottom 25 for most all of DD's 9 years. So some of you who were calling that a successful NCAA D1-A football program changed your minds about all that yet? Granted, DD developed a Big Donor who should have actually been discovered & developed by UNT athletic fund-raisers long before DD ever met any of McIngvale's kids (who attended UNT) when he (admirably) played the role of counselor for one of Mat Mac's kids who had been having some problems. YET...............DIDN'T UNT A.D. RICK V SENSE SOMETHING ABOUT A MEAN GREEN FB PROGRAM LED BY DD POST-ULM LOSS & AS FAR BACK AS THE 2001 SEASON?........................FWIW, there were others posting on GoMeanGreen.com and even on Scottie's board that had concerns about where DD would ultimately be able to take all this well over 2 years ago when I (myself) was still trying to convince myself into thinking this football program under Darrell Dickey would rise above itself; we'd have a Mean Green HFC who would mature with his job; that previously low set SBC goals would eventually be set much higher (a la Boise State & the WAC) and (at least) we'd get one ouf our future bowl teams inside (or at least near) the Top 25. Then as DD public relation skills started getting even worse with what seemed to have become non-stop radio sarcams about our alma mater and its alums, many of us just threw up our hands and came to the conclusion that if all this Top 25 (or even Top 50) business were not going to happen during a 4 year bowl run then it just wasn't likely to happen at all with DD at the helm. BUT THAT WAS YESTERDAY...& YESTERDAY'S GONE! BRING OUT THE DODGE BALL! WE OF UNT ARE LONG OVER-DUE FOR THIS STYLE OF FOOTBALL! IN FACT, RUMOR HAS IT THAT SUCH A WIDE OPEN STYLE OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL EVEN SELLS FOOTBALL TICKETS--GO FIGURE?!?!?!

Uh, senior moment?

It's already begun, greenminer! In fact, Harry & Company have a bit of "fuzzy math" a-goin' on here as my official #9,000'th post now reads as # 9,010. So with the new math going on at GMG.com, I will get the second 9,000 posts much quicker than the first! Plus, I am doubling up on my Post Toasties to hasten all this! GMG!

Loved the part when Jamario Thomas talking about the upcoming season: "It should be fun." (I think it might be safe to say that our veteran Mean Greeners had stopped having fun their last couple or so years). Great article! GMG!

Duly impressed... Another urban tale that some of the old-theimer Southwest Conference traditionalists are going to have to "get over it" is that UNT has no money people out there. FWIW..............we have still only touched the tip of the ice berg from what reliable sources have told several of us. GMG!

Still a funny movie that has passed the proverbial test of time. Sam Cooke (hit-maker of "What A Wonderful World..." and his death still has mysterious over-tones. Sadly, just another gospel singer who (apparently) chose the low road, albeit many think Cooke's death was a set-up. \ So many of our best American singers started in gospel, including one who was born in Tupelo, Mississippi.

The only video footage I've ever seen of Mean Joe Greene when he was at UNT he is actually wearing that white helmet. Quite a legacy with his teams from the 1960's that I'm sure we'd all like for history to repeat in Denton, Texas, America.