PlummMeanGreen

BTW, welcome back to this forum, Arkstfan, where the heck you been? Always love to read your insight of college football from an attorney's perspective & point of view. Hope your school and ours will survive whatever the Big Boys dish out to all of us in the future (no matter their time-table). Yet a question for you: Wasn't there a flirtation and even some semblance of action by the NCAA to separate the "haves" & "have nots" back around 1978 or 1979? Maybe fellow alum SUMG can help with this one because I think he along with many on this board were more than concerned with what seemed to be a developing trend for doing such things (re-alignments); all in the name of TV revenue and greed, of course.

One has to wonder what playing an NCAA D1-A game in our DFW neighborhood actually does save schools like SMU, TCU and UNT when they play each other as compared to expenses each school incurs when they tee it up with an out-of-state opponent? With non-BCS schools getting all the TV revenue table scraps and left-overs, any non BCS school (no matter who it is) has to be attracted to local games when they have the luxury of scheduling such, right? You figure out-of-state games will have its usual air fare for almost 100 (which includes players, coaches, some ancillary athletic staff members, Big Donor supporters, some UNT administrators, selected BOR's and so forth. Then for all of that group you would have hotel expenses, meals for all, chartered buses from hotel to stadium, etc, etc, etc while on such an out-of-state road trip. Wish we had someone in the know of such things on GMG.com who could put the pencil to all this and give us some healthy e$timates.

Was it Silver Eagle who coined this phrase: "We didn't come here to lose!" (?) Whoever it was, it's got a good ring to it. GMG! PS: The pond in front of my house used to be 45 feet from my wooden deck; it's now 25 feet from my front door and now the Brazos River is rising again.................Is it time we pray for sunshine?

Sorta' apples and oranges, but (basically) what sealed the deal for Baylor to get into the Big 12 (over TCU) is that (then) AD Grant Teaff had methodically been impoving BU's athletic facilities for several years preceeding the SWC implosion (which included BU's own version of the Super Pit, ie, Ferrell Center). So FWIW, many times it really is all about what kind of facilities you have and if they fit in the foot-print or mold of what the Big Boys really prefer a school to have in place so said school(s) can be a part of their very elite fraternity. BAD TIMING, TCU ..........TCU AD Frank Windegger and his President Tucker sat on their hands and all their most impressive half billion endowment and did little for athletic facility improvement for the Horned Frogs. TCU did turn their lemons into lemonade post SWC split, but they, too, (like the rest of us) now find themselves on the outside looking in with a whole bunch of their alums saying a lot of "what if's" concerning if they had only taken care of their facility business. Sadly, I speak to some TCU'ers who somehow think Baylor will be kicked out of the Big 12 and they will conveniently take the Bear's place. As former President George H. W. Bush would say to TCU'ers: Wouldn't be prudent--not gonna' happen. We all need to have hope above all hope that UNT at this time in our history has true visionaries starting at the very top of our administration (and BOR's) who are looking ahead as to what can happen almost over-night with the power-brokers of NCAA D1-A.......... .................... and will not allow a shortage of large-enough facilities (specifically, as in our future new football stadium) be the very thing (as Fouts Field & its smallish capacity has done to us in the past) that cuts us off at the pass before we have a chance to make our case to those power-brokers (if & when it comes to that). NCAA Re-alignment------The first time all this happened with NCAA D1 in the late 1970's AD Fry was in his last days at UNT. I can't remember exactly what UNT did back then, but I do know we were able to buy some time to stay a bit longer with the Big Boys. After Fry left Denton, I believe the story goes that a UNT AD did not (in a timely manner) send in some required paperwork and a fee to the NCAA offices at Shawnee Mission, Kansas, as to keep us in what was the NCAA version of their newly-named NCAA D1-A back in the day. There were other things (politically) going on at NT back then as well (which I beleive dropping football was even a consideration) Anyway, UNT (obviously) kept football on campus and would shortly be forced to go with our only other option, ie, the new NCAA D1-AA division and spend the next 12 or so years in what was a very frustrating time for many of our alums. Just like when the SWC imploded those SWC schools that didn't make the Big 12 cut from what I recall reading back then supposedly lost some of their key donors who threw their hands up on the matter. When UNT was forced to leave the "Big Time" for NCAA D1-AA and that largely because our stadium wasn't large enough and turnstile counts were low.[/b] Many of our elect also believe we lost fans from the beginning of our purgatorial co-existance in NCAA 1-AA because being at that level (especially in the Lone Star State) gave UNT the appearance of being a 2'nd rate school and athletic operation (as compared to the rest of the other D1-A schools in Texas). We probably lost very much momentum during those 12 years in NCAA D1-AA with what could have been a most strategic time of fan-base building; therefore, some of those giant steps made during the Fry years were all but wiped out as UNT did its version of the Cotton-Eye joe and started back-peddling--a practice many of us now hope is part of our storied past.

eulesseagle, your thread title has all the marking and too familiar sounds of the past of the Big Boys wanting to tweak their numbers if this "expansion" is the case. By adding 12, they would still be leaving out many schools who still have the "D1-A" classification. You know, such as a large number of that group that have stadiums just barely meeting the present NCAA D1-A criteria seating capacities of 30,000 (and a few barely above that)? Any one who doesn't think the Big Boys don't have the power to change NCAA D1-A criteria again (as past tradition suggests they will) please stand up. Even more reason I hope whatever Big Donor UNT comes up with for our new stadium will also be a visionary as to what has gone one, what is going on and what could go on (once again) when the Big Boys use stadium capacity (again) as one of their main criterias to be in their elite group. NOTE: At the present time, though, I think we are all considerred "BCS" schools. I think many of us use "non-BCS" to describe the "have nots" of D1-A and the schools who are not in the Big 6 conferences that get the bulk of all TV revenues.

If Navy brought 7,000, wouldn't that be a "visitors" attendance record for Fout Field? I don't think neither TCU or Baylor actually brought those kind of numbers, did they? I'm sure the NAFB (formerly Carswell AFB) out here in the West O' Plex will be very involved with this game in Denton. Many DFW veterans use the BX for their discount shopping. And doesn't Grand Prairie also have a military installation? When UNT hosted Army @ Texas Stadium back in 199?, I was impressed with (whatever) numbers they had in the stadium for that game. Of course, for the many of us who've seen more than a few games at Fouts Field, over the course of all those decades we've rarely seen impressive visitor numbers in the stands on Game Day. And for all those ex SWC schools that didn't make the Big 12 cut, that is probably one of their prime reasons they miss all those Longhorns, Aggies, Red Raiders and yes, even Baylor bringing all their traveling fans to their respective venues on Game Day.

I heard former UNT AD Andy Everest once say: "If North Texas were only located another 30 miles north we would not have competition from all the various things DFW'ers can do on a Game Day." IMHO.............I think too much will be put on Todd Dodges shoulders to get all the extra new fans/old fans that when all the turnstile counts are in we may still be disappointed with the totals. How soon can we jump to 25-30,000 per home game in Denton? We have the constituency to have already done that. I think most any of the 3 Metroplex NCAA D1-A schools should promote their college football product as if there were no tomorrrows, specificaly UNT (of course) since that is our school. The subject of Game Week/Game Day promotions starts warming up about this time every year, especially on the forum. Maybe it will be this year we see more promotions at UNT since we do have a new era, a new coach, new unis, new ___?___ and new attitudes to boot. Of course, promotions has to be budgetted and the only 2 schools most of us have ever seen do that the last umpteen years has been SMU and TCU. Maybe our time to do such has now come? We can only hope...

If UNT beats SMU, I think there will be such a public outcry from SMU alums for Phil Bennett to be fired that SMU officials might even consider it (although I think they would decide to let him finish the balance of the 2007 season). If SMU finds themselves looking for a coach and if they tried to hire Todd Dodge away from us, I think UNT will not want to lose this battle to SMU and we will somehow/someway come up with the funds to match whatever SMU says they would offer Todd Dodge (even if one of our fat cat alums would have supplement his salary); but I don't think there will be such a need on our part. UNT's Ace in the Hole? And might one former SMU coach who (along with his sons who played for their dad at UNT) and this former UNT coach who simply loves to come back to UNT when he can, ie, for golf tourneys, Homecomings, NT Athletic Hall of Fame breakfast events, etc, etc, etc; nevertheless, might this former SMU/UNT head football coach want to volunteer to Todd Dodge some free advice on what may be the better coaching job for him short-term & long-term)? Who knows who will win the game at Gerald J. Ford Stadium, but UNT losing Todd Dodge to SMU if Coach Bennett does not return to the Hilltop should probably not be reason to worry for any of us in Mean Green Country. Just a gut feeling on this subject along with the fact that we would have some things that would work in our favor if such a tug-a-war with SMU were to take place for the services of Todd Dodge. Our future new stadium at the Mean Green Village will so very much galvanize many things for our entire UNT community, our athletic program and for certain...........Mean Green football. None of our Metroplex inter-collegiate foes will no longer have the Fouts Field card to flash in front of our faces any longer; or recruits that we are competing with said same DFW D1-A schools.

If UNT bea

IT'S A WRAP! Damn, that felt good! REDRUM, REDRUM, REDRUM, REDRUM, REDRUM, REDRUM REDRUM, REDRUM, REDRUM...

Emm'......................you are making me blush a bit with some of your kind remarks, but time has passed by so quickly for many of us who (25 or so years ago) were dreaming some of the same dreams that many of you Young Gun Alums are now dreaming &..................some of us are just flat out running out of rant & rage time so I guess I'm just trying to get in as much as I can before...................I hear that final fightin' eagles screech in the sky. Stay safe out there, Emmitt...

Good post, FFR, very thought-provoking and a new twist on things that many of us who can still be open-minded to anything concerning our alma mater. Like ol' Monday Night Football alumnus/color commentator Dandy Don Meredith once said (probably only just to piss off Howard Cosell who hated Danderoo's Texas'isms, yet one of Meredith's more famous quotes from a MNF broadcast in the 70's was:[ "If if's and but's were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas." OK, so I'm going to post one of those big "What if's...." now. "What if".............. Bobby Ray had allowed UNT AD Rick V to have fired Dickey post-ULM loss in 2001 and merely allowed our UNT AD to do what he was hired to do and Rick V then hired one to take DD's place somewhat equivalent to Todd Dodge; of which Todd Dodge's hiring has (remarkably) gotten most all of our lambs and lions to be in the same room together which most of us haven't seen such as that since the hiring of...................Hayden Fry? What if................instead of our being ranked in this summer's pre-season football magazines anywhere from 100 to 119 among all D1-A schools, "what if" (there I go again) we had had a coach that had methodically progressed Mean Green football from the year 2002 to Top 25 rankings up to the Fall of 2007 (instead of our having been nowhere close to Top 25 rankings--bowl years or no bowl years? If all those "what if's" had materialized, might Bobby Ray even today have had many others new donors giving (maybe not what he has to date) but in a similar $tratisphere as far as athletic fund-raising may have gone? FFR, you are one of our best of the best.............and thru the years you and I have agreed on most things. I confess I've been as critical of Bobby Ray as probably anyone on GMG.com and that a fact I'm not always proud of; but (just like you would, Rick) if I see or detect what I perceive to be something that is not advancing our alma mater (but maybe, moreso setting it back a few giant steps), I am just not going to sit idle and say................oh well. I don't agree with many on this board on a variety of subjects, but I still respect the fact that they are still NT Exes and deserve their own hot sports opinions just like any NT Ex would. Fact still remains................although we may all be sitting in different sections of Fouts Field come this Fall.......................when the Green Brigade strikes up "Glory to the Green" we each & everyone will stand up tall & proud, many of us will even sing every word to our alma mater AND...............many of us will even raise those eagle claws high in the air much like the way you, FFR, as a former Talon taught us the way that should be done. Hope you and family are doing well... GMG!

Before all this heads towards "the Pope, all his Cardinals and PMG cannonize DD into full sainthood" let me say this: Never...............Never.............Never did I (like many of you) ever fully embrace Darrell Dickey as our HFC and there are those who post on this board who know me well enough to substantiate that fact. Also, I took the 4 bowl games for what they were really worth--a reason for us to brag to our fellow SBC bottom-feeders that we were a tad better than they were in a particular year. We all closed our eyes & ears back then to ignore that we weren't anywhere close to pulling what Boise State had been for a few years running and that was Top 25 ranked MG football teams. When ex UNT AD Helwig pulled his famous "Quicks Draw McGraw" routine and hired assistant coach DD from SMU before any of us could say "conduct a national search for our HFC", there stood none other than Darrell Dickey in front of the DFW sports media cameras being annnounced as our new HFC." I know some of you who were livid about Helwig's "QB sneak up the middle" with his decision to basically go with his Kansas (St.) connections to hire DD. Didn't DD's dad also coach at Kansas State? The 4 bowl games (basically) pulled our heads out of the water so that Mean Green football would not totally drown (which was where this program was headed) with DD's first few years. Also FWIW, UNT had been back in NCAA D1-A years before most of our fellow SBC members, so I guess that sorta' said that UNT had a head start on our fellow SBC confeerence-mates in other words? DARRELL DICKEY LOSES SAINTHOOD--GETS EX-COMMUNICATED! ..................DD lost many of us (mostly & amazingly) not so much for his coaching and (mostly) un-entertaining form of football for a school like UNT that really needed an entertaining form of football to sell tickets to many, many new fans of which there were almost always 15,000 empty seats for them to sit in............... ................but DD lost many of us due to his numerous negative broadcasted comments which he made on the Mean Green Radio Network. It seemed no upper echelon UNT officials (Bobby Ray for starters) saw no need to correct those, either, and I suppose some of them thought they were cute and funny; yet many of you on this board who would admit it now (including myself) did not. In fact, I brought an alum from my era to a Game Day in Denton and he was duly un-impressed with what he saw, yet when I had him tune into DD's post game radio show on this way home, that NT Ex later told me how he was blown away with what any UNT employee, namely one Darrell R. Dickey in this case, was saying about the very ones who wrote him some pretty nice checks and then what he was saying about our fans/alums. IF YOU EVER CHANGED YOUR MIND ABOUT SOMEBODY & THE JOB THEY WERE DOING, THEN YOU'D KNOW HOW I FELT BACK THEN..............Another bone-head scenario that all but clinched my own non-support for DD was a particular national ESPN radio broadcast--you all remember that one, right? Folks, this was a "national" ESPN interview and a................. golden opportunity for DD to brag to the entire U.S. sports nation about what was going on at UNT and, specifically, the Mean Green Village with all its future plans; instead, DD chose to go into yet another of one of his "woe is me" diatribes we heard on many post-game radio shows of how really tough it is to be at North Texas. FWIW, if he were trying for the sympathy vote from many of the other (then) approx. 114 or so NCAA D1-A school administrators (hiring authories, if you will) it seems what DD was saying on ESPN fell on deaf ears. If UNT alum and Hayden Fry ex football player Jim McIngvale really had to have Kansas State alum Darrell Dickey to convince him to support his own freakin' alma mater, then I still have to wonder about all this even now. BTW, Mattress Mac is a known sports enthusiast down in Greater Houston who has even created some controversy down there with his style down in the Bayour City. HELLSBELSS FOLKS, TEXAS STATE HAD AN AC BEFORE WE DID: UNT needed an Athletic Center just to keep our hands in play even at the Sun Belt Conference level no matter how it got funded it; although we know the UNT BOR's had to pull some magic rabbits out of UNT's coffers to insure it got completely funded AND....................my gut feeling even now is Jim "Mattress Mac" McIngvale will give UNT, specifically, Mean Green athletics some more big money soon, but this time it would be nice if he would just be a good steward with what riches he has been ble$$ed and just not hold our/his school hostage with any demands for his gift; that is, unless he wants something name after himself which (believe this or not) most of us would have no problem with whatsoever. Some other suggestions made by a few of you that UNT should really wait 5 years before they name any facility after an individual is really a good idea; in fact, its a shame UNT did not already have that in its by-laws like I'd bet most other schools would.

Killing 2 Birds With 1 Stone... "Q", I sense the frustration, but most likely the main thing that needs to change most on this forum is your continued flaunting of your sexual preference from many of your past posts. As far as Rick V goes, he has been under Bobby Ray's thumb almost from the git-go and Mr. Ray truly flubbed-the-dub when he over-ruled RV's 2001 firing of a MG head football coach who would stay 8 years, have disguised and veiled successes in the ghetto part of NCAA D1-A; and that, that still has some on this board all "goo-goo' eyed over Darrell Dickey. BTW, one of the strangest D1-A head football coaching gigs I've observed in 40 plus years of following college football. As far as the other poster's comments, he (and a handful of others) just cannot (and seems to have never) been able to handle the truth about MG athletics (whose results are clear for all to see in most any UNT varsity sports media guides of the last "way too many" years to even list). He then talks about some putting their money where their mouths are? Well, is that so UNT officials can build and then name facilities after loser coaches. Hell, why don't we just submit our next naming in honor of all those 15,000 regularly did not show up for DD Ball on Game Day at Fouts Field--makes about as much sense to honor them as the one we have just honored. And on Todd Dodge: If I were in Todd Dodge's shoes, I would probably be silently thinking: "What the hell will this group dish out next whlle I'm here? (And what is "that"? Well, "that" is being such things that you would never see happen at such schools as his own alma mater down in Austin--you know, the one his son gave an early committment?

Come on MG61, I know some of this being posted concerns a couple of your athletic dept. buds that are probably some of your hot MG insider sources, but do even you want another 25 years of what non-productive talents has given us with those very ones who (also) seem to be quagmired in Denton & UNT at the entire Mean Green Nation'$ expen$e? Oh, I suppose we could sweep all of this under the rug and say all going on at UNT is a complete Utopian/Nirvana existance and that NT Exes are estatic from coast to coast, but if we did that we would (each and every one) be guilty of persevering even more mediocrity--you know, the kind of mediocrity that even has a hardy handful on this fourm fully content going to bowl games with teams ranked in the Bottom 25? Well, all that may play well to many of that group on this board, but we had 15,000 empty seats during DD's 4 year bowl run which clearly proved that most NT Exes (from coast to coast) were all duly & totally unimpressed with the lower profile production of Darrell R. Dickey Practice Field.

And who has been in charge of the UNT Board of Regents of late? Was it the same one who "un-fired" DD at ULM back in 2001? Hmmm? Well, lets see.............was it the short feller who used his state-appointed title and influence to get his grandson a seat on the UNT varsity baskeball team's beach? Did any of you with grandsons get the same opportunity? Even you who have given some Big Bucks? Hmmm? What else may he have abused (all above board, of course) with his title of Chairman of the UNT Board of Regents? Hmmm? We all know the UNT financial endowment coffers grew very little under his watch; but, of course, instead of leading our school in making sure all our campus fund-raisers were in place, Bobby Ray was a litte too busy going on family vacations with the Dickey family and being our Co-Athletic Director and still.............was the very one who veto'd Rick Villarreal's original firing of DD after that ULM loss in 2001. Hmmm? Did our real AD, ie, one Mr. Rick Villarreal foresee something many of our elect probably didn't with Darrell Dickey? Like maybe this coach's MG football teams would compete "only" with SBC schools and that was about it? Significant OOC wins? That would merely become a Mean Green pipe dream for the last 8 years. Hmmm? Did Rick V back in 2001 fire the HFC (even further under .500 back then); but did AD Villarreal foresee for UNT a coach that would not only take the Mean Green football team to some bowl games, but would also have some of those teams ranked in the Top 25? Maybe Rick V back in 2001 saw a coach like we have now who would galvanize most of our UNT community? As I recall back in 2001, DD was no more popular then than he became to most his last 2 years on the UNT payroll. Hmmm? If DD's successor would have created Top 25 football, a la Boise State, might our stumbling/bumbling alma mater have had a dramatically more marketable product to (proudly) present to CUSA commish Brit Banwosky and then with our (subsequently) being voted in because of a CUSA press release from Banowsky's offices that might have said something like this: The University of North Texas brings to our league a Top 25 football program and we look forward to all other schools setting their own bars as high as the Mean Green have? Hmmm? But we don't make decisions at UNT to get us out of our previous last 25 years quagmire of an excuse of an upwardly bound D1-A athletic program, now do we? Yet we do persevere the careers of those who have kept us there and that's for damn sure. UPON FURTHER REVIEW & THOUGHT, I CAN NEVER, EVER BLAME AD RICK VILLARREAL FOR ALL THIS MESS (most of which he inherited): Actually, I think RV is one of a few in our athletic department with the talents to move upward in D1-A; in fact, I even thought that when I was disgusted with some of his moves the last few years at UNT. WE CANNOT BLAME RICK VILLARREAL--REALLY WE CAN'T..................UNT AD Rick V had the gonads to do the right thing in 2001 with his post-game firing of Darrell Dickey, but then in true UNT fashion, we have riding in on his white horse self-appointed co-AD Bobby Ray's who came up with his idea to "un-fire" Darrell Dickey. Now an "un-firing" which now has our school in a very awkward position of having to name anything after a coach that is 18 games under .500; with that same ex UNT head football coach whose next job after his 8 years at UNT would be as an assistant coach at a lower level non-BCS school. And with this ex UNT head football coach who basically shot to each and every one of you the finger as he dropped his drawers for all to see his moon-light over Miami, or at least I should say moon-light over Fouts Field during his last month on payroll. Some of you Young Gun Alums may not realize this, but we actually did have a school and athletic program before you were all born, even while you were merely gleams in your respective father's eyes, and for the love al all things good, we older nestor alums can only hope yall don't have to spend the next 25 years banging your heads against a wall of non-stop poor hirings that no one else will hire away from us so (therefore) we get stuck with non-producers (turnstile counts, folks, turnstile counts AND...........MG Club fund-raising totals of the last 10 or so years might give some of you more astute alums the ones who have been in charge of that for many years; anyway, we only hope your next 25 years includes better hirings rather than some of what one Texas Ex once laughingly told me were some of the worst consortium of hirings in all of NCAA Division One. IMHO.........RICK V IS REALLY THE MAN FOR OUR MOST UNIQUE AD JOB AT UNT: That is, if our chairman of the BOR's will just leave him alone and let RV do his job): I think now more than ever that once UNT AD Rick V rids himself of the deadwood he inherited upon his hiring AND............. if the UNT Board of Regents don't hamstring RV, that he now knows what he needs to have on his ancillery staff (across the board) to make our school's athletic program a non-Bottom 25 success; you know, like he really wanted to get started with that goal when he fired Darrell Dickey after the ULM loss in 2001?

First of all, I don't have to answer to anyone about my loyalty to UNT--I've never questioned any of your about yours, even if I don't agree with you on some things that we see as crucial about our alma mater's future welfare. I supported DD for all but his last 2 years when even a Neanderthall or Crogmagnon (sp?) Man could have figured out that that man was not going to take us not much past SBC/Bottom 10 success; BTW, a "so called" success that did not capture the imagination of most of our NT constituency--least of all the local, regional and national media. Now some of you on this forum seem to have to resort to name-calling and personal snips and the sort because some of you can't quite come up with the gonads to admit that I'm (like many of you) actually right about a helluva' lot of things when it comes to the University of North Texas--quite frankly, some might say it sounds like some kind of personality deficiency on a few of your part who have to resort to such things. Call Dr. Phil..............I'm sure he could help some of you who have to act and post like any 8'th grader would with the way some of you post your responses. NOTE: When you have no real loyalties (and don't really want any) to anyone on the UNT campus, you really do have the pure-D freedom to express yourself on how you feel about what you see and hear about our school. Quite frankly, still way too many empty seats at our varsity sports venues should tell us much, but it never seems to, that is, to see all those empty seats of the last several years as a most crucial problem which at most upper echelon D1-A schools creates a need for a change for those responsible. Second of all, we have way too many alums/fans who don't know their caca from their oatmeal when it comes to what kind of people you hire (across the board, you know, as in ancillery athletic personnel?") in order to have a higher profile college football program; or (again) what kind of ancillery personnel (Todd Dodge cannot & will not be able to do all this by himself, folks) that its eventually going to take for UNT to rise above such non-D1-A talent, rise above our norm, what UNT has traditionally been satisfied to live with and even now with the many of you who think those 4 bowl games at the SBC/Bottom 25 level were more than just OK for your own NCAA D1-A college football taste. Most would have to admit, though, that (of late--like maybe a quarter of a century) our athletic goals have most always been set low and sometimes we've even actually reached them. Some of you even think as long as UNT basketball makes it to the 1'st round of the Big Dance that that is really all that we need to do at North Texas--never mind the fact that we've never won a 1'st round game. (So just ask yourself why all the sellouts at the Super Pit the last 25 years--hellsbells, driving over 1 hour to watch most of what we've had up there those last 25 years has even made what used to be a passion of mine become a thing of my past-----sue me). Most of us know the difference between a Jaguar and a Buick, BA, and I also know which one of the two most of us would prefer to invest our monies. Too many of our (obvious) differences of eras when we all attended North Texas will never allow us to really effectively and sensibly communicate on most any subject that compares any eras. Fry and Dickey are about as apples and oranges as they come. I will say this.............DD had much more in the area of facilities than Hayden Fry, Corky Nelson, Dennis Parker, Elmer Phud-Pucker or any other coach we've seen come and go thru Denton (and BTW, only one had the right stuff to make it to the next next level); but once again, we are talking different eras; you know, apples & oranges? I'm out on this subject because its really going nowhere--sorta' like our, uh, UNT Law School? I am just not very proud of our alma mater these days if you haven't picked up on that theme and the main reasons for that being because of who we just keep on hiring (and who we seem to keep on the payroll eternally no matter the lack of production); and when it should be obvious to UNT hiring authorities that just too many of them seem to cannot do their job even after having plenty of time to produce. Have A Nice Day--Have A Nice Life!

Put Darrell Dickey and Hayden Fry in the same room with 100 people and see where most of those 100 will gravitate and which coach will impress the most the large majority of those 100. Sorry, but comparing DD with Hayden Fry borders on the ludicrous and I cannot believe anyone who should know any part UNT athletic history of the last 40 years would even begin to think other-wise. PLAINLY................... Baby Arm, Darrell Dickey could not carry Hayden Fry's jock strap and most of the UNT community who've seen both in action know this. Yet you really don't think Hayden Fry could have as least equalled what DD did in the SBC? How about the fact that Fry probably would have done more as a HFC in the SBC with even some high profile OOC wins and a Top 25 ranked team or 2 or 3 to boot? You know, somewhat like Boise State U has been doing of late? To put it as nicely and tactful as I can: Hayden Fry never had a "wussy" of a rag-tag conference of schools of which we all know "one" of which has (basically) fiddle-farted most of our last previous 25 years away athletically. And during our last 25 years what do we have to show as our main prizes at a higher profile? Well, I guess we can start with "near win" over UT in 1988 and an un-ranked UNT football team bowl win over a un-ranked Cincinnatti football team, right? Does that pretty well size it all up for our last quarter of a century in Denton, Texas, America? Well.............. hardly the kind of success story that mobilizes the masses to show up in record numbers at the turnstiles nor.................the kind that gets a "much needed" new football stadium built. One day in the future, TxDOT is going to ask us if we have our new stadium ready--how are UNT officials going to be able to answer their question? Yet your boy Darrell Dickey, Baby Arm, showed the whole MG world what he was made of his last month on the UNT payroll. Many of us finally woke up, smelled the coffee and figured it out about him about 2 years prior to DD's last month at UNT (while we continued to have to listen to his non-stop sarcastic post-game show radio comments which, FWIW, finally caught up with him when he found out that he longer had any capital left among UNT leaders toward the end of his career in Denton. Even worse are that there are still those on the UNT athletic payroll who are doing even less (at a Bottom 25 performance level they've been as much a part as DD himself). But I guess some of that group for some of you keeps those hot MG news nuggets coming at you regularly and with others of a hardy handful of you have some good drinking buddies. Some of us just believe that the future 2'nd largest university in the entire state of Texas deserves a helluva' lot more than what we've been getting of late, and specifically, what we've been getting the last 2 1/2 decades--that's all. Some of us find it funny that a few of you DD butt-lickers didn't just go ahead and help him find his way out of Denton for a high profile NCAA D1-A head football coaching gig since to some of you he (obviously) represented what big time college football was all about. Some of us are still trying to count all the significant OOC wins his 8 years produced. Anyone who wants to spend the next few hours listing all of those? In fact, you who volunteer all your time to do this may just want to go ahead and list all those wins in alphabetical order. As far as the UNT Athletic Center is concerned? What were we going to do with what has now become minimal facility expecations at most all NCAA D1-A outposts--go out to the late Rex Cauble's ranch and use his equine show barn? To quote one I've spoken to on this subject: "UNT's only hope with this dumb-ass naming thing is that that Houston mattress man better have some more big bucks (as he promised there would be in a newspaper article last year); but one has to wonder what demands he would put on UNT officials to do with another big finanical gift? (BTW, the mattress man of H-Town is even a controversial figure among those in the Houston sports world and its local sports media--of which not all of that is of a positive variety, either). Until more of his monies are forthcoming, all he has done with his venue naming demands is hold our school hostage by slinging around his pocket book and telling UNT officials what they have to do with it because he said so (and with the kind of monies that would be mere pocket change at most other of the 119-member NCAA D1-A group. And speaking of of the upper echelon grouping of NCAA D1-A schools? With our past athletic history of 1 big step forward--3 big steps backwards, will UNT really ever be a part of that group that does not annually hang out in the Bottom 25? Yet for some of our elect who even still go a bit over-board even over a freakin' jumbo-tron scoreboard, will it really matter as long as we they can see a few un-ranked SBC football championships while playing un-ranked teams in a bowl game that will probably (in due time) be snatched away by other non-BCS leagues that will be able to do much more with it? I defer to the signature statement below:

Sorry, KRAM1, but I agree to disagree................ there will be daily reminders of DD Ball & Black Jerseys at every practice session.

Revised The Actual Address of Darrell R. Dickey Practice Fields: 18 Under 500 Bonnie Brae... Subtopic: So we should never question what a whole bunch of non-UNT graduated employees at our alma mater ever do with their decision-making process? We should just give them a blank check to do as they please (and then leave us with whatever good or bad results their decisions have created for us to live with long after they have gone)? Sounds like a true formula for even more problems for UNT if this were the case You know, it really is a Catch 22 talking about DD "Bottom 25" Ball. We did have some success if that is what you would call it (which I bet Boise State would not); but only about 8 other SBC football schools in the entire 119 member NCAA D1-A would half-heartedly concur. Folks, we had freakin' "non ranked" success at the NCAA D1-A level which most across the college football world would call no success at all. Why would we begin to? We could call it a degree of progress, but success? Come on now.................. The question one NT Ex asked me was: "Why are so many of our alums & fans so accepting of all these low goals and subsequent low performances?" Now some of you have (apparently) resolved in your minds to settle with the premise that we will never have any semblance of a "true" national recognition that began with some of Hayden Fry's wins (and you can start with the U of Tennessee win). A win over U of Houston the year before they won the Cotton Bowl wasn't too bad a win, either. A win over 19'th ranked San Diego State was one for the books, too There were others... To some of you, DD Ball "IS" your golden era of Mean Green football--to many of us, it cannot touch what Fry Ball did for NTSU; but DD Ball to many is (more or less) a large degree of merely disguised & veiled success that did not (listen to me)----it did not give Darrell Dickey "ONE", count em', folks) not ONE.................... high profile D1-A job interview; in fact, with all our, uh, "success," we should have had an army of high profile D1-A school hiring authorities blitzing Denton, Texas, America making offer$ to hire many of our ancillary athletic staff away from UNT (instead we have some of that group planning retirements in Denton while silently laughing under their breath as to how so little they really have to do at UNT to make a (too) large number of you happy & content). The joke is on us, folks! Do Yall Like That? The fact that anything is named after Darrell Dickey, now an "assistant coach" (HELLO!?!) and a former UNT HFC not even close to .500 in career W/L's) over College Football Hall of Famer and ex NT Coach Hayden Fry is a total abomination and attrocity. Hellsbells! Jim McIngvale played football for Hayden Fry for crissakes! Is our alma mater chock full of alums who had been residents just out of Terrell? But sadly, all this only makes many of us think there are just many more such such decisions as this DD Boneheader of the Year on the way from dear ol' alma mater. (I'm beginning to truly understand how all the foot soldiers who were under General George Armstrong Custer were all probably silently cussing the good (yet a bit "touched") General while marching them to their impending demise at the Little Big Horn. Whoops! I guess I just pissed off some group in the good ol' USA with that statement! So just proceed with all the mediocrity, UNT leaders, temporarily forget the shame of our (now non-existant) Lee Jackson Memorial/UNT Law School and while forgetting that enormous state-supported blooper & blunder, then wonder why we still cannot average more than 19-20,000 (I'll give em' that with Dodge Ball & with all the new SLC fans) and that (still small'ish) number expecially in light of our an enormous UNT constituency and population center location (6 million Metroplex citizens) within 1 hour of Fouts Field). The best thing of all this is, life does goes on, but at UNT what the hell can we expect next? Name one of our Politcal Science classrooms after NT EX and former Charlie Manson disciple, Tex Watson? For Todd Dodge, I just feel sorry as hell for the guy (although he'll have to say in public how all this with the DD Practice Fields doesn't bother him at all). Well, it bothers a whole bunch of us for him. Proceed....

And who did he beat to win those 4 straight conference championships? DD's good buddy Wright Waters league, ie, the "TTC?" (the Throw-Together Conference) consortium of schools? What will keep North Texas small time are those that just don't expect much and really don't have a problem when a coach 20 plus games under .500 after more than enough years to reach .500 has had something named after him. I guess some of us just need to learn how to be kids all over again; you know, just "play-like" we really have it going on in Denton, eh?

So all Todd Dodge really has to do in Denton is keep MG football in the Bottom 25, not even be close to .500 in career wins/losses as HFC, stay here about a decade with not one ranked football team, have un-ranked teams while going to a few bowl games playing against un-ranked teams, genuflect every time Bobby Ray swaggers into the post-game locker room with cigar in hand, bad mouth his employer and NT Exes everywhere on the Mean Green Radio Network and then all but drop his drawers at Fouts Field to moon the entire UNT community in his last few games as Mean Green head football coach and then..................... UNT WILL REWARD ALL THIS KIND OF TOMMYROT & MEDIOCRITY WITH ANYTHING NAMED AFTER HIM? Sorry to say it, but its just more of the same from our almer mater's leadership that sets low goals, sometimes reaches some of them and then names things after some of those who helped us stay mediocre. And name something after College Football Hall of Famer & ex UNT Coach Hayden Fry? Are you kiddin'.............this is North Texas we are talking about, folks. PS: What happened to Jim "Bullies His Alma Mater" McIngvale and DD's suggestion to name all this after Andrew Smith? I think many would really like to know.

I really have no idea what a redneck is. Can someone please explain it to me? I do know that most from the Northeastearn seaboard and many from the Western part of the USA think anyone south of the Mason Dixon that doesn't quite enunciate as they do seems to fit one of their criteria for this term redneck. But someone, please, what the hell does the term redneck mean. I know some sumbich's out there who I really think are true, unadulterated blue-necks, though. So what's a blue-neck, right? But redneck you say? I cut myself shaving my neck this AM and it did turn a bit red I will confess. The only thing worse than a biggot is one who replaces what they perceive as someone being bigotted with their own form of biggotry. PS: Sorry, Harry, I didn't mean to do continue in any of this, but it does relieve some semblance of the stress of a post-9/11 America. I think we can all agree that we live in a different country than the one we lived in before someone decided to fly 2 of our own planes into the WTC and in the name of Allah to boot. I vote we hunt them all down till there are none of them left and there are no longer any virgins left for them to enjoy in their Mohommed-invented fantasy heaven. More Redneck'ism with such a statement? BECAUSE I'M AN AMERICAN---I CAN SAY THIS>>>> Would Nancy Pe-"loser" and Harry "We've Lost The War In Iraq" Weenie (Senate Majority Leader) suggest to the many of us Americans who feel this way toward a religion that promotes killing; nevertheless, would they call us "narrow-minded" rednecks, too? Do those 2 "politicians" need a dirty A-bomb mushroom cloud hanging over each of their home city's (and their constituencies) till they cease what seems to be their own continuous denial of what is really going on in in the Middle East and (subsequently) our world today? A world where many radical Moslems (with even moral support from non-radical Moslems based out of some of our American city's mosque) want our American parents, our American kids, our American grandchildren and all our American friends dead? Do we need to have the same exact personal tragedies that many family members of the 9/11 tragedy all experienced? Would Nancy and Harry then become believers if Moslem car bomb created a tragedy for any of their respective families? Or are they going to polticize all this and gamble our national security based on things that will get their own personal agenda thru or even many of their party members some votes come next national election? This is America and redneck or not, we can still express our opinions (in spite of how the ACLU would prefer we really express those opinions; you know, sorta' how they express their own)? End of sermon..................turn to your hymnals to page ______

Wait till many of those U.S citizens who are Moslems & whose sentiments naturally favor their own start getting in on all this "Made in America" P.C. business. Of course, Harry, Nancy and the Amercian Civil Liberties Union crowd up in Washington D.C. will take care of all of them (until one of their elect's dirty A-Bombs kills about a million of our U.S. citizens). Sorry, Harry, I know I'm not supposed to go there. BACK TO TOPIC................Wonder if the good ol' NCAA with all their gold & riches will help all these schools who now have to make changes pay for all their (now) needed new brandings, stationary, scoreboard logos, center-of-football field logo markings, etc, etc, etc,; that is, for all those schools who will now have to spend a Fort Knox-style fortune to make all these changes?

Dodge Ball 1 year away from a trip to the New Orleans Bowl (or a BCS Championship Bowl a la Boise State) ; unless........................? Seriously, we probably need about 3 more years of Todd Dodge Football Camps @ the Mean Green Village and TD recruiting classes before we pull a Boise State type of deal; but we all do have our dreams, don't we?