PlummMeanGreen

700 HS players (and younger) on our campus? There is no other word for all this but................... Phenomenal!

Great article... Todd Dodge and Rick Neuheisel were my 2 top choices for our HFC's job and I am very glad it was TD who got the job. None of us in our wildest dreams could have ever imagined all the great local, regional and national ink he and UNT would receive since his hiring. ASAP, we must get him a "you know what" at the MG Village to show off for his future recruits and to turn Rick V loose on future scheduling for Game Days in Denton with such schools as UT, TAMU, TTech, OU, OSU and Nebraska. I still defer to my "edited" signature below:

Agree 100 %... U of Hawaii was involved in that very well coverered bru-ha-ha a couple years ago against (wasn't it the Houston Coogs)? Lived in Honolulu back in the early 70's and it is about 8 hours in the air (for me in a rainbow-colored 747 Braniff Jumbo Jet back in that day when they flew out of of Love Field). Also wish we could schedule it in 2008 or 2009 so we can use it as a recruiting tool with a game versus UH being such a nice trip on our schedule. Only thing is once there, some of our players may get hooked on body-surfing out at Nanakulie Beach and not want to come back to their hotel (or Denton, Texas, America, for that matter).

Muchos gracias, senor gangrene... Two questions: (1) Do we get some good color photos coverage? (2) Which Mean Green player gets feature coverage or might it be another feature on Todd Dodge instead?

How much did it cost them? How many seats? I remember when we played Florida State in Tallahassee (Fry Era) when the Voice of the Mean Green, ie, Bill Mercer described the Seminoles stadium as mostly aluminum.

New stadium or La Tech? (I think I can guess which one). Do I win the horse if I do? GMG!

My bad... Have a British lady friend who went to work for UP in Las Vegas, stebo. Her name is Deborah Malone. I recently stayed at the Dallas Westin Hotel for a 2 day seminar and saw your Dallas campus. Very impressive... Later, stebo...& GMG!

This thread brings us all great news for the inaugural game of Mean Green football Dodgeball Style! You know, though, I'm almost quite sure I read recently where OU officials (after their getting their butts kicked by Boise State) said "no more TV games" against schools from any of the non-BCS conferences or schools that are not in one of the BCS Big 6 conferences. Guess FSN and/or the Big 12 changed their minds, eh? GMG!

Can anyone say... NFL Hall of Famer Mike Singletary (Maybe 6' tall with medieval leg stretchers) and Nick Buonnicotti (sp?) 5'10" (ex Miami Dolphin/NFL Hall of Famer)? (Some kids even grow an inch or 2 or 3 while in college, too). How many of us thought UNT would ever have this kind of early committments program to be honest about it)?

Of course, DD (I just can't get myself to spell out your name as I just had a late lunch); anyway, uh, DD , we have to assume (and yes, I know about that word "assume" too); yet we just have to assume that with almost 5-6 million DFW'ers living within 1 hour (+/-) of where our new stadium will be located, that Mean Green/Dodgeball Style football will grow right along with our "forecasted" & continued enrollment growth as well as all the continued growth expected in Denton & Denton County. Sorry, stebo, I do apologize, and yes, I know, I do have my continued SOTB problem ("Stadium on the Brain"); but we can all only hope that we will have the kind of visionaries on our campus who will know how large it (it? what else, new stadium) really needs to be and why it needs to be as large from the git-go since at UNT........ ..........we already know we are going to have to do much, much more than what all the present Texas-based CUSA schools are doing for us to advance past them so that UNT can make significant inroads in our own state of Texas and then (ultimately) into the Top 25 national spotlight. We cannot just merely equal what that grouping of Texas-based CUSA schools are doing and expect much to happen because how many of them are knocking on the Top 25 door's rankings (such as Boise State has been doing for years)? .............IMHO, we just cannot afford to build a new stadium that seats only 500 more than our present stadium and expect much more than what we've all mostly experienced the last 25 years with Mean Green football (which the sum total of those years IMHO just does not add up to much as far as the higher NCAA 1-A profile our school deserves). FWIW, what has a stadium the size of Fouts Field done for us lately as far as at a NCAA D1-A higher profile is concerned and its size creating for us an inability to schedule Top 40 NCAA D1-A schools in Denton as well? I realize this has turned into a "gig" La Tech thread which was not even the theme of this threads original title, but (FWIW) I'd trade in a New York minute all the significant OOC wins the Bulldogs have had the last 25 years compared to the ones we've had at UNT in that same period of time. (After all and as I recollect, some of La Tech's Big OOC Wins includes 2 over the Crimson Tide of the University of Alabama among several other similar schools); also, one very impressive La Tech national TV win a couple years ago over a high ranked Fresno State team). Someone name all of ours since we had a U of Tennessee win, a near win over UT and a bowl win over non-ranked Cincinatti? Sorry, but the next 25 years of Mean Green football must be more successful than that (and I believe it will only if our present UNT leaders play their cards right). OK all...............proceed with the procedure of the proceedings! PS: And stebo, hope all is going well for you & your career in the tech school recruiting business. My 25 years in it did have some high points, and who knows, I might even step back in that sector of education before its all over with.

Would be a nice conference alright, DG. When I mentioned Troy U as a possible CUSA member I had schools like East Caroline, Memphis, etc, etc, etc, in mind because do those schools really want another Texas school in CUSA? And a school that still (even like during the era of Fry's attempts to get us in the SWC) we still (at this point) can only bring potential to the table because (lest we forget) we are a school that still only averaged 15K per home games during a 4 year bowl run; and based on those attendance figures alone is the prime reason I keep suggesting Rick V really needs to think in terms of dramatically tweaking his present ancillary staff. This is why (IMHO) as we look to the future as a school located in the DFW Metroplex part of the Lone Star State, with our being (somewhat) alone on our own island in our state as far as being a non-Big12/CUSA school, that North Texas is just going to have to simply do much, much more than all the Texas-based CUSA schools for us to make our own footprint seen even here in our home state. IMO, we cannot do any of this by only having a new stadium that seats "just 500 more seats" than our present jewel of a stadium, ie, good ol' venerable Fouts Field. Footprint? Many of you old-timers will remember what UH had to do to make their own footprint seen in the Lone Star State (and the SWC) back in the day which I detailed "in red" on page 7 of this thread. UNT will have to do something very similar with Texas-based CUSA schools IMO). STADIUM WARS HAPPENING AT A DFW CITY NEAR YOU: Like it or not, Jerry Jones has raised the "new stadium" stakes here in the North Texas/DFW Metroplex with his billion dollar stadium over in Arlington. We cannot begin to match such a stadium in Denton and neither can SMU or TCU at their own locales, but (IMO) a 40,000 seat stadium at the Mean Green Village (at least) gives us a chance to have some pretty significant, Big Name Schools and very important annual OOC games based in Denton that a 31,000 seat stadium just will never allow us to do longterm. Such games as those at that size of a stadium also are the kind that will help Todd Dodge's Mean Green teams toward those Top 25 ranking opportunities as well. We are not going to make Top 25 just playing who we've been playing lately in 30,500 seat Fouts Field (or a similar sized new stadium). Oh, sure, we can luck into a nice Name School (a la UCF) for a "one time" grand opening game to open our stadium, but on the other hand, what about the long term aspects of scheduling such schools in a stadium that would seat only 500 more than our present one? Yada! Yada! Yada! A 40,000 seat stadium also gives us a better chance to raise our annual football attendance averages with a stadium that size because (projecting ahead) we will have played (at least one major Name School OOC game each Fall in Denton) with schools like UT, TAMU, Texas Tech, OU, OSU, Nebraska, etc, etc, etc)................... ...............and who on this board doesn't thinks Rick Villareal does not have the ability to schedule such schools in a 40,000 seat football venue at our Eagle Point Campus? I think we all would agree that that would be like shooting fish in a barrell for our AD.

One UNT alum told me it wouldn't surprise him to see La Tech & our dear ol' alma mater miss the next CUSA expansion but with that league choosing a school to fit more in its central Deep South footprint/area with a school like Troy U. Thus even more reason for us not to put all our marbles and future with CUSA, we may only get disappointed (again). Like the old SWC, they already have all the Texas schools they want is how I truly believe they now think; and of course, most of them voted against us when Hayden Fry tried to get us in the SWC (so lets just use past history to tell us if they will not vote for UNT for 2 different league scenarios, ie, the SWC and CUSA), just what kind of magic is really going to change their minds about us in yet a 3'rd vote)? So even more the reason I feel UNT must do what it takes to rise above each & every Lone Star-based CUSA school's athletic programs across the board and that being a prime reason for us to build our stadium in its initial phase to a minimum of 40,000 seats. (Why would we ever want to turn down additional gate receipts by our not being able to seat an additional 10,000 UT, TAMU, OU, OSU, Nebraska, etc, etc, etc, fans because we were in a stadium that seated just a bit above 30,000)? What we also don't need to hear at UNT if we did build our new stadium that size would be schools like UT, TAMU, Texas Tech, OU, OSU, Nebraska, etc, etc, etc, saying to our athletic officials: "Well, we'll play you at the Dallas Cowboys new stadium, but 31,000 is still really too small for us to come to Denton to tee it up with you folks; after all, we can play SMU and they have a thousand more seats than you all and, of course, we can still play TCU in their 40K plus capacity Amon Carter Stadium" PS: The main thing (as I recall from my growing up in Greater Houston) that got the UH Cougars voted into the old SWC back in the day was that their program had outgrown and was out-performing most all of the rest of the members of the Southwest Conference (and was even recruiting head to head against UT); thus one theory that we will have to do the same versus all the Texas-based CUSA schools to really make any headway in our state and to get attention outside Texas, but by the time we would do that against all our fellow Texas D1-A schools who are members of CUSA, we might just have a better conference opportunity to consider.

Several years ago, Abner Haynes was also inducted into the Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Honor. The late Lamar Hunt and his UNT-graduated/alumnus wife (Norma) who I believe you told me you even knew as a student from your college days at UNT, Jack, were all at Fouts Field several years ago when Abner was honored. Yet this is old stuff concerning Abner & his glaring absence in the Texas Sports Hall of Fame but it is still a complete abomination from our state's sports experts that the great Abner Haynes was not included in that hall's inaugural class when it first began operations in the city of Grand Prairie and when former UNT SID Fred Graham was its first executive director (or whatever his title was). I found it even stranger that the late, great (and he was truly a good man from all accounts) Lamar Hunt never led the way on any of this with Abner, either. Some get in the Texas Sports Hall of Fame based on what they did in college or what they did in professional sports, but in the case of Haynes, he actually excelled in both college and the pros. Like most of you, I just don't get it and I think we all need somone from that organization to explain all this concering Abner to about 100,000 plus NT Exes who live in the Lone Star State. I think for each inductee now (as I recall the Emmitt Smith controversy with the TSHOF officials) that there is a $25,000 sponsorship fee for one to get inducted, but in year's past I don't think that was the case at all, especially in its first few years of operations before it moved to its present location near the Baylor campus in Waco.

And speaking of that ULM game.... What a night for you guys (and girls) who made the fateful 2001 trip to ULM as to what would happen post-game which a UNT Board of Regent (who should have really been out focussing most his time in fund-raising to increase the UNT System Endowment); anyway, with a pseudo intercollegiate football expert who would step way, way, way out of his boundary lines to change a UNT AD's bold decision of which his being veto'd on that decision would give UNT several more years of non-Top 25 football and what finally took the last half of last season for many to really begin to see what we had had most all the time. I (like many of you) have had some curiosities about if Rick V was really interested in staying at UNT as AD in the past, but I really believe he is the best we've had in a long time in Denton but that he still needs to dramatically tweak his ancillary staff to give himself a chance to be more successful and to then hire those with similar skins and potential talents as we all feel Todd Dodge brings to the table. (No, I will not repeat that long sentence and the thoughts that go with it). If not for a coaching change and (therefore) Todd Dodge being our new MG HFC, Troy U would be the school I would have given a very good chance to make a 4 year bowl run because they seem to be on top their game these days as to what it takes in the Sun Belt (which we know from the past has hardly been upper NCAA 1--A quality; and I think we'd all still trade Fouts Field even up for what the Trojans have with their stadium. PS: And as far as my below "new" signature manifesto is concerned, I defer to the fact that I don't think our AD will forever be in Denton because I really do think he has the charisma & talents to be an AD at a Big 6 BCS school in the future. I just know many of us would prefer him to have a new 40,000 seat stadium on his future resume' rather than a 31,000 seater at the Mean Green Village, that's all. Also believe folks like UT, TAMU, OU, OSU, Texas Tech, Nebraska, etc, etc, etc, will say if we only build a 31,000 seat stadium in Denton: "Why don't you UNT folks just play us at the Cowboys new stadium instead of Denton; 31,000 is still too small for us to play in."

Before our name change, the story I had heard years ago was that former NT President Dr. Alfred F. Hurley had been in conversation with UT bachelor degreed (& SMU Law School grad & large benefactor for SMU) Robert H. Dedman who was a major inspiration to Dr. Hurley when Dedman suggested to him that NTSU could gain more regional-type recognition & respect if we (in deed) dropped "State" and changed our name to the University of North Texas. Then it became former SMU football letterman during the Doak Walker era and (then) governor of Texas, Bill Clements, who would sign the bill that changed our name from NTSU to the University of North Texas. As some of you will recall, Dr. Hurley was quite involved with our entire region thru the North Texas Council of Goverments (NTCOG) and was actually its president at one time. Hurley (in spite of his sometimes villainous description on this forum as a total "anti-athletic" president) was apparently still quite popular with many legislators down in Austin. In fact, for a brief time in our history when many of us gathered for a (now) famous (to us) and hastily called meeting (by Bill Vogel) who when he called my office told me: "Jim, if you care for the future of football at UNT you need to join many others at this meeting and be heard" with this meeting being held at what is now our former football offices/present ticket office building; anyway, many of us feared we might lose varsity football at UNT back in the early 1980's, but some of us will always credit Hurley for ignoring the sentiment of many campus academians who wanted football gone at NT when he (instead) chose not to go down the "drop football at NT" path at all. Quite frankly, that is (still) how I choose to remember Al Hurley when it comes to our having Mean Green football today. BTW, Blue Raiders, your fellow Tenneseean Fred Thompson will be "My Main Man" (so to speak) when he announces!

Jack, we need you to be the official moderator at the Big 8 Political Conference to keep Putin and Bush from a mud wrestling match OR even...............at tonight's Republican presidential debate on CNN! Peace to all...(and lest we forget...............we are all on the same side & that's the side of all the teams that wear... MEAN GREEN)!

Actually, was only saying that a few might consider giving Green Means Go all due respect to what he was trying to unselfishly share to the members of GMG.com an interesting ancedote from last weekends Letterman Weekend happenings. Personally, I enjoyed reading the story during this time of season when not a helluva' lot is happening (athletically) at UNT. Come on folks.................He spoke to Hayden Fry, Fry told him what he told him about the Ford Mustang and some who (quite frankly IMO) "were not" very gentleman-like, MeanMag, were doubting the whole thing; in fact, a few were inferring that either Green Means Go and/or Hayden Fry were liars on this most unimportant to UNT's past, present or future SMU/Ford Mustang story. And FWIW..................I myself have most always been a Chevy man. And yes, I guess we all remember, MeanMag, when we were all called m'f'kers from a past paid UNT staff person. Thankfully, those days are behind us and like Scarlett O'Hara said in front of a burned-up Tara Plantation in the movie Gone With The Wind: Tomorrow is a new day! (or something to that effect).

Peace! Brethren, Peace! I do happen to know Green Means Go gives more money to UNT than probably about 20 of most of us on this board combined, so if he wants to use a few F bombs to get his point across, for heaven's sake let him use a few F bombs (albeit not his usual method of communicating). Shit (can I say that), some of you who weren't around in the 1970's might want to lay off Hayden Fry until you find somone with any semblance of a UNT affiliation who (themselves) have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as far as ex NT coaches are concerned. I count only one at this point in time, but hope Todd Dodge becomes the 2'nd with a UNT affiliation and if he does so because of what he did at UNT, even more power to Mean Green HFC Todd Dodge! And as far as a Ford Mustang is concerned, it for damn sure beats any Buick I've ever seen or driven.

Actually talked to an alum today who said the SMU/Ford Mustang story was even in Lee Iococa's autobiography.

Steve Worster of the Bridge City Indians. Saw him play in a bi-district game near Clear Lake City (near Houston). DKR signed him at UT where he joined a backfield that included Super Bill Bradley, Chris Gilbert and ___?___ Bertelson. That group of UT Longhorns would win 30 games in a row. Then in 1969 UT played for the national championship in the (then) Game of the Century versus Frank Broyles UA Razorbacks (which was largely composed of a team that the Mean Green had all but had beaten only one year before). In fact, the Mean Green's late, great Ron Shanklin told me (and Abner Haynes) at Fort Worth's Dos Gringos years ago that a former Razorback on that team later told him UNT really got screwed in that game by the SWC zebras and should have won the scoreboard aspects of that game. Just think what kind of quality must have been on our 1968 University of North Texas Mean Green football team?!?!? PS: Also saw Paul Rice of Lewisville when they played Denton HS at their old Bronco Stadium. He didn't seem to be on his game that night, though.

I think in light of the last 2 years and all the under-the-radar recruiting results of the last few years that UNT finishing in the top 4 of the 2007 SBC football campaign is realistic and might be considered a good start for TDodge & staff........... ...............but we are also in the kind of league where its very possible to rise from the bottom and go to the top. Sort of apples and oranges with this, but in Fry's 1'st year in Denton he took over a Rod Rust team that had won only 1 game in 1972 and with the enthusiasm (and coaching talent) that Fry brought to NT would culminate with a Missouri Valley Conference 1'st place tie in 1973; unfortunately for us back in that day, the old MVC had no bowl tie-in). The new (positive) direction of Mean Green football is what we can celebrate the most, because we know success will come soon enough.

Uh, only triple, you $ay? Dennis Francione left a million dollar annual contract on the table to leave Fort Worth for Alabama. I don't think their Coach Patterson is that far from a million per year himself. I think Patterson won' leave that kind of money for just any BCS job though. It may have to be a perennial Top 10 school for him to leave a nice, cushy job he has off University and Berry Streets in Cowtown, USA. We can worry about so many things as NT Exes that we have absolutely no control, but I do see where you are coming from with your thoughts, TIgreen. IN TODD WE TRUST: Best rule of thumb is to market the heck out of what we have now, get back to winning (and beating name OOC schools as well as 1 or 2 Top 25 schools this time around) and then..............just enjoy what we have while we have it. Boise State has shown us that even if you lose a top coach, you can still rehire to keep your program in the Top 25 (and knock off an OU along the way in a BCS Championship Series bowl game to boot)!

And isn't it great how www.GoMeanGreen.com played such an important part in this project succeeding? I will also buy this Athlon magazine (although I haven't in years) and then (perhaps) many of us can email or write a letter to the Athlon staff for their part in making this happen? I once called & spoke to the main cog of Athlon back in the 1980's with some surprising results. I will say that they can be some very reasonable people over there (which I believe at that time they were headquartered out of Nashville, TN). CONGRATS MEAN GREEN NATION & OF COURSE.............................OUR OWN CARIS ! ! ! !

Always sorta' thought that was one of those urban tale type of things. Thanks for confirming, uh, GreenMeansGo, that is wasn't. I'm so darn glad we had Hayden Fry for 6 (too) short years and that he is part of UNT athletic history and our legacy as well. I'm also glad most of our Mean Green Nation (of all eras) seem to have set their bars higher now and think we can still do the kind of things many of us got a brief glimpse when Fry was in the midst of his 6 year run in Denton; in fact, most now seem to feel we can exceed anything that happened in the 1970's and that is what most would call progress in light of what (mostly) we've seen the last 2 1/2 decades (with not near enough bright spots for MG football in that period of time). Our new football stadium's eventual grand opening at the Mean Green Village is really going to be a most historic moment for our school and every academic department at our main campus will (in one way or another) benefit from that strategic edifice's presence at the Eagle Point Campus, ie, the Mean Green Village.

Duly impressed with the $350,000 K. Malone gave La Tech. Ex NFL and NBA pros have not always been that generous to their alma maters from what one former UNT Advancement official once told me. FYI and as I recollect, ex UNT men's varsity basketball coach Bill Blakely was one of Karl Malones first sports agents (if not his very first upon graduation from La Tech. Having seen what some of the ex SWC/present CUSA schools are drawing at the turnstiles in football (even against each other) just doesn't make me get as "goo-goo eyed" about CUSA as most of my fellow alums. UNT's annual trips to Florida as a member of the SBC will eventually be a recruiting plus once those 2 Florida/ SBC schools build up their football programs; and with one of those schools which will soon turn dirt on a new football stadium. I also feel larger attendance figures (even more than most CUSA schools are now producing at the turnstiles versus each other) will be very crucial and important down the line as far as a future membership in NCAA D1-A is concerned and is another reason I hope UNT will build our new stadium with as large a capacity as possible and..............................since we pretty well know we can get some name upper-division Big 12 schools into Denton; truth be known, probably many others outside the Big 12. CAN YOU BELIEVE THE TEXAS LONGHORNS WOULD SCHEDULE THIS GAME ON THE ROAD? U of Central Florida is going to host the Texas Longhorns in the grand opening of their new stadium. To (perhaps) a few doubting Thomases who think UNT cannot do such things, couple what UCF did with UT as a not too well known non-BCS school as they host a recent national champion; anyway, couple that with the fact that UNT has already hosted some pretty impressive name schools at Texas Stadium the last few decades and............... ....................... I think more of our own elect will see that the larger a football stadium we can build in Denton, the more Longhorns, Aggies, Red Raiders, Bears, OSU Cowboys, OU Sooners traveling fans we can fit into such a larger stadium (uh, can we all say in unison------"larger OOC Game Day gate receipts at our new campus stadium?"); and with every bit of this taking place at our Mean Green Village, ie, the future home of our new football stadium. FWIW...............won't it be such "name school" OOC Game Days in Denton that will help us start getting those 35-40,000 per home game turnstile averages on an annual basis? johnnylightnin', whether we are ever in a conference together or not, probably still makes sense for La Tech and UNT to play each other in most all sports (men & women) and when both programs are running full cylinders in football, it could make for an eventual good crowd-drawing series. Just my .02...........