PlummMeanGreen

A happy moment for most of us was when plans were dropped to convert the old Services Bldg into an Ath/Cen. (which IMO would have created a patch-work quilt appearance near Fouts in the NW corner of our campus) and that decision coming on the heels of the most exciting news that most all concerning our future football program would be moved across the interstate to the old golf course. (For you who've been around a few decades, hasn't that property dramatically changed since the tearing down of the old golf club house)? An even happier moment for I'm sure most all of us came when the A/C was completed with its blue-print plans indicating that it would not really be a complete facility until a new football stadium were attached to it. The best news of all is that a new football stadium will happen at the MG Village and that that is no pipe dream, even though many of our competitors probably only wished that it were. PS: Great to hear all the good news coming from the fish fry. Also, glad to hear Coach Fry was there and in his usual upbeat form.

Congrats on all your school's future new improvements. Just curious, but how much is all the above going to cost your alma mater? And with the same candor and "to the point" that your fellow alum, ie, Dwayne of Minden would post such, what is the consensus among most of your alums with Tech's plans to remain in the WAC member? If no WAC membership in the future for Tech, what is your school's back-up plan?

UNT in the Mountain West Conference? What a new and novel idea... To CUSA Advocates: As long as a certain Texas school located in a certain part of Texas has their doors open for business, UNT will never (I know, never say never but I think I can with this) anyway, UNT will not be sponsored as as yet another Lone Star-based school in that conference. Too many Texas schools became a problem for Frank Broyles' Razorbacks if some of you older nestors will recall. Aren'th there just some things that past history should teach us all at UNT? Hellsbells! Some CUSA fans will not even drive (en mass) as far as it is from UNT to TWU to go watch the Rice Owls and Houston Cougars tee it up. The attendace at many ex SWC/now CUSA schools (versus each other) may give some a broad hint as to why none of that group were asked to join the Big 12. (Seems it was mostly TCU who turned their lemons into lemonade after the SWC broke up, but FWIW............ they weren't doing jack-shi& most of their few last decades in the now defunct Southwest Conference. The same CUSA/ex SWC schools who would not vote for UNT to be admitted for SWC membership (still) mostly all have the same attitude toward us thats showed up the past several years (decades) when we were merely trying to schedule even a simple home and home series. Even when we get the occassional future games with them, it's almost like they are doing us a favor if they put us on their future football schedules (and yes, I know, even 1, maybe 2 of them are on our future football schedules now); but scheduling occasional games with CUSA schools and being in the same conference with them are like apples and oranges. GET USED TO THE SUN BELT CONFERENCE............. When UNT builds a 35--40,000 seat stadium, averages about 30-40,000 per home game, beats numerous (ranked) OOC football foes, gets Top 25 rankings (a la Boise State) and our (then) UNT leadership decides they want to shoot for the stars with all this, then we mabye we will be ready to make our move, but until then.............. ................UNT (and schools like Muts) are going to be conference-mates in the Sun Belt Conference for awhile. So................we bloom where planted? I think most of feel that is our only realistic choice for now, but threads like this are still sorta' fun. IMO, a new "true" NCAA D1-A football stadium out at the Mean Green Village that has those 25-35,000 plus crowds on Game Day can probably hasten a UNT move to some new conference neighborhbood, though; but who could ever know what the NCAA D1-A conference landscape will even look like when we're ready to make such a move?

Very funny read... And lest we forget, remember when one present All Pro NFL'er said UNT had nicer training facilities, ie, the Athletic Center than some NFL teams? FWIW and as most of you already know, we do have some very nice facilities at the University of North Texas over at the Mean Green Village and when we put the icing on the cake with our eventual new football stadium there will even be (IMHO) a few BCS schools (from the big 6 conferences) that may not have any better than UNT. (Throw in the fabulous "ageless" Super Pit and we do start getting major points for our overall facilities as compared to most in NCAA D1-A). Yet at UNT, we cannot allow ourselves to get back in this "10 years behind the rest of D1-A" modus operendi (such as we did when we finally added artificial turf at Fouts--about 10 yrs. behind the rest of the pack), because during this particular era of NCAA football we find ourselves in staying behind 10 years now will probably put you even further behind the rest of our competitors than say if it were the 70's, 80's or even the 90's. FWIW...........we now have Sun Belt schools adding indoor practice facilities and from what a thread (and photo link) on GMG.com says yet another SBC school that will soon turn ground for a new football stadium. Wouldn't it have been nice if all that kind of SBC news had come from the SBC's largest university ie, the one located in the SBC's largest population center? We seem to be on a steady track at UNT, though, and (yes, I know) we have had to start from scratch with everything we have already built at our Eagle Point Campus aka MG Village &.......................we really should count our blessings with what we do have out there--but we just need our own UNT version of a T. Boone Pickens to step forward soon because I think a growing number of you know by now that it will be that kind of mega-donation by such a person (or corporation) that will get this thing jump-started in Denton.

Dear Brit: What present Texas CUSA schools actually average 25,000 butts in seats besides UTEP? In fact, outside UTEP, who is even remotely close to 25K? Thank you. Cordially, PMG PS: Come on good MUTS folks, you're right in the, uh, "middle" of all this just like the rest of so......................"if it's inevitable, just lay back & enjoy it."

No foutsrouts, we (of state-assisted UNT fame) should merely just do the "Christian" thing and turn the other cheek when it comes to things concerning SMU. Some things (good or bad) just have a way of balancing themselves out in life. I'm sure SMU had good reason to head us off at the pass once again if that were the case. I just hope one day in the sweet by and by some official from their fine campus will explain to all of us.......................why. Now turn to your hymnals to page........... PS: BTW, great realignment idea, GrayEagleOne; in facts, it makes so much darn sense we will probaly never see it happen.

THINGS FOR ALL FELLOW MEAN GREENERS TO PONDER (UPON)...[ .......................................................................................... NOTE: Let me be perfectly clear about my feelings for a new stadium for our alma mater (for some of you newer members of GMG.com): I have believed that North Texas needed a new football stadium since the very first Mean Green home football game I attended as an NT student in September of 1973. FWIW, I though Fouts Field sucked way back then and (like many of you do now) I still think Fouts Field sucks no matter how many times (as AD Helwig used to say) "we polish this t_rd." But in the following manifesto and as much as I (like almost 100% of you) would like to see a bright, shining new stadium at at the MG Village ASAP and with that in mind............. I still think an indoor practice facility for football & basketball would still be what we can afford quicker and would best fit our immediate needs (as we must keep up in the NCAA D1--A "WOW"facililty's arms race. ........................................................................................... Now...back to (most) of the original response to UNTflyer: Oh, like most other posts on this board, UNTflyer, just more wishful speculation and dreaming going on here. BUT........ If we are going to be able to raise the monies needed for a new stadium (which is now more than our present entire UNT System endowment for all you who have forgotten that small fact), then surely raising $5-7 million will not be so much a challenge for an indoor practice facility plus............. .............it would to some degree show we really mean business in Denton about being an eventual true player in the upper echelon NCAA D1-A with this kind of construction activity (and completion). Such a most functional and oft-used facility as an indoor practice facility might very well stimulate our future Big Donor to ante up. Might be the final proof of the pudding or strategic piece of the puzzle such potential Big Donor(s) might need as a convincer to get his/her/their check book(s) out. QUESTION: Who out there really thinks that at UNT we are not going to need the same thing, ie, a Big Donor (albeit on a smaller scale for our stadium) that Oklahoma State had step up for them when all their alums/fans woke up one morning to read that T. Boone Pickens had given their school some most significant monies to (all but) do a complete make-over of their football stadium? IMO.......................an indoor practice facility should become a top-of-the-list priority (which I predict it actually will become in due time from Todd Dodge once he gets fully settled in Denton and appraises our situation the way it is now); nevertheless, it could also be used as a multi-purpose facility for students (PE?), the Green Brigade marching band and who knows, like UL-Lafayette's indoor practice facility will be, it could also serve as the main practice facility for JJ's Mean Green basketball program. With the former 2 groups I listed using such an indoor facility UNT might then have some state funding formulas made available to build this facility which (of course) we won't have such funds from the state of Texas for our eventual new football stadium. Anyhow, the fact that an indoor practice facility could be built much quicker than a new stadium and be made readily available might make sense for this facility to be built since it will also serve as a prime recruiting tool; that is, a tool that many NCAA D1-A coaches (who have such a luxury) call one of their key "WOW" factor recruiting tools. ANOTHER QUESTION: If UNT and UL-Lafayette are recruiting a kid from a high school on the Texas/Louisiana state line (or wherever), will it be ULL's new indoor practice facility that seals the deal for them when we matchup against the Rajun Cajuns in the future on several other recruits? Well...........we already know that ULL has us beat stadium-wise. (FIU will soon have us beat in the stadium department, too). So does it become ULL-2 & UNT-0 when it comes to football facilities that potential recruits will be checking out the most (and with the present trend of indoor practice facilities apparently becoming deciding factors for many recruits these days)? Can we all pretty well assume that we don't get such a "WOW" effect from potential recruits when they are given a tour of Fouts Field? So why not start building what "WOW" football/basketball practice facility we will be able to afford most likely much quicker than our eventual new stadium? PLUS....................we would have a facility that would be used much more often than our eventual future new football stadium since that would probably amount to only 6 or 7 Saturdays per year? UNT & THE NORTH TEXAS SUPER BOWL? ........................ I would think if we had had such an indoor facility in place complementing all those other fine facilities we presently have at the Mean Green Village (including a "very convenient" Radisson Hotel adjacent to the MG Village) that UNT may have been considered by the NFL for one of its 2 Super Bowl teams to use for their lodging & practice. Who knows, even w/o those facilities in place they still might have something in mind for UNT/Denton before its all over with with the upcoming North Texas Super Bowl.

AND I AIN'T THROUGH, YET, ALL YOU YOUNG GUN ALUMS! UNSOLICITED OLD MAN TALK COMIN' ATCHHA' : Emmitt, wait till you & your era get closer to age 60 and when you all have well over 30 plus years of the kind of Mean Green roller-coaster ride many of us older farts have been riding. All of this under several UNT presidents as we skipped about in and out of 2 different NCAA classification levels (heaven forbid that ever happens again) with the sum total of several decades of following all this not really adding up to the kind of numbers (impressive OOC wins?) most of us had really hoped for. Also, with those truly significant OOC (national) wins that just never seemed to ever fall in our corner such as they did for such schools as La Tech, Boise State, etc, etc, with all this specifically in football since that is my favorite sport just as basketball seems to have an fine line edge over football as yours, Emmitt); anyway, many would have hoped for much more for our alma mater of which whose growth on campus, in Denton and in Denton County just never seemed to ever manifests itself in a similar way as far as Mean Green athletics was concerned. (I won't go into the 15K per home game diatribe). MARTYREDOM CONTINUES ................Hellsbells, some from your era, E01, if they had to go thru what some from my era (and many before) had experienced might have to schedule intense talk it out sessions with Dr. Phil (I know, still sounding a bit, uh, "martyre'esque" with some of this); anyway, as our era and before all held onto to hope after hope after hope with each major athletic staff change of which each of those new regimes of past decades seemed to always give us................... promises, promises, promises.........of which very few were ever fulfilled. AN EXERCISE IN FERTILITY: (Whoops! I mean't...............futility, of course). OK, everyone that this applies, please go up to the chalkboard now & write 500 X's: "I WILL NOT READ POSTS POSTED BY PMG." "I WILL NOT READ POSTS POSTED BY PMG." (Don't forget the "quotation marks" either). OK now...............you all with chalk in hand still have 498 more to go. Seriously, I guess I have to add this question: What could ever be the reason to compare 2 UNT coaches' recruiting classes; that is, comparing a class of one coach who doesn't even have 1 season under his belt as compared to another coach that has been on the UNT payroll for over a half-decade now? No biggie with that question, just curious..............that's all.

Good post... It's always been about "personalities" that turn programs around. Tim Fitzpatrick once hired by Helwig showed what he could do with all his talents and contacts. Thats why Fry had some success and this at a time when UNT didn't have near the resources we have today, such an enrollment almost twice as large as when Fry was in Denton and Denton County now closing in on 600,000 citizens. Heck, Denton County during the Fry Era was considered a rural county as I recall reading that description of it in a mid 1970's Texas Almanac. Each & every one of us can only do so much, ie, make sure our butts are in seats for most or all games and give what our budgets allow us to give, but it is so few of our group (if any) who have access to all the ammo that our paid staffers do have at their disposal at UNT. OUR ATTENDANCE MUST START TO GROW DRAMATICALLY............I figure we will pick up from the git-go a minimum of 2,000 +/- new fans from around the Greater Southlake area since many in that area hold Todd Dodge in such high esteem and will want to support him (probably more than UNT at the beginnning); but from many of that same group we will have "keeper fans" who will support UNT even when Todd Dodge takes another HFC's assignment in 10 or so years. We should all hope we could pick up 2,000 new faces from each of these groups: City of Denton, Denton County (outside Denton city limits) and our DFW Metroplex NT Exes base. What would 6,000 new fans from those groups do for our usual annual attendance? You all know the answer to that question. Like many of you have posted many times and in different ways but the theme always the same: We do need to strike now while the iron is hot in Mean Green Country!

Ditto... Can't wait to see UNT win a 1'st round game (and even beyond) in the Big Dance in my lifetime and I hope JJ is the one who pulls it off. Todd Dodge with comparable facilities as most of the other 9 Texas D1-A football schools will (in due time) work miracles in Mean Green Country. We just need to make sure his teams play before record crowds and many things and modus operendis will have to change for that to take place. We already know where a bunch of new fans will be coming from (with their HS whose colors are also green and white).

And should I mention what I have followed the last 34 years (with others on GMG.com much longer than that) that played a big part in causing me to have to get on that medication in the first place?!?!?!? Its just that the university, ie, "our university" that will one day (sooner tha later) pass Texas A & M University (College Station) in enrollment should just be gearing up with proven personnel that will enable us to act like the 2'nd largest university in the sovereign state of Texas. I honest-to-goodness feel Rick V is an NCAA D1-A AD with a very tough job in Denton, but I'm just not sure about all who surrounds him in the NT Athletic Dept. (many he inherited) meeting the same criteria. Thats about all I can say about that.

See below post...

Obviously, each state represented in the Sun Belt probably has different methods of bookkeeping to show profit/loss margins? Duly note that "non football" SBC school U of Denver has the largest athletic budget in the entire SBC? And to quote Ricky Ricardo: Plleeeezzzz esplain that one, Luuuuucy!?!?!?! And shouldn't we continue to just let MT keep thinking they are the class of the Sun Belt? I thought they were (in deed) those 4 straight years we went bowling and they stayed home in the 'Boro being classy!

Only if you will write yours for a new stadium, C.E. What a pair of Texas philanthropist we could be, CE, right up there with Sid Richardson, Hugh Cullen, the Murchissons, the Bass Family over here in Fort Worth, etc, etc, etc, But, uh.......................seriously.....................what saddens many (unless $10 million came in in the last few days or weeks) is how the UNT System endowment has grown so very little since Bobby Ray has been chairman of the Board of Regents (and this group sorta' has influence in such matters now don't they)? Well, they do at most other large Texas universities and that's all I will say about that................BUT......................ALL IS NOT TOTALLY LOST HERE....................... .....................UNT does have a very large endowment of alumnus lists over well over 100,000 names of which every once in a while a Robert Randall Onstead (who UNT fundraisers were "totally" unaware until one day I drove up to the Top of the Golden Triangle and told Dr. Peter Lane of the old Advancement group about the Houston multi-millionairre/NT EX many years ago now) and plaudits go to later NT Advancement-types who did jump on the Onstead development and got this man and his family involved before his most untimely passing about 3 years ago; then a Kansas St. Wildcat had to uncover and develop a guy nick-named Mattress Mac who as most on this forum know ended up giving a significant $1,000,000 (and BTW, this man's name had been on UNT fundraising lists long before Darrell Dickey arrived in Denton........... ...................and then some (apparently undeveloped by UNT officials) home-builder (Warranch sp?) in California suddenly fell out of the heavens for UNT when he asked Norval Pohl where his monies could best be used and where he could earmark a couple of million dollars (or at least that is how the story goes with how our former president deferred that phone call from Warranch to the UNT Athletic Dept (that supposedly didn't really have anything to do with the early development of this Big Donor, either............................ ...............so I suppose what many of us have been suggesting for years is that those who get paid nice salarie$ to do fundrai$ing to do ju$t that..............rai$e fund$$$$$! Don't we all sorta' feel by past experience that UNT has many, many, many other Gold Nuggets (such as all of the aforementioned) who have been very ble$$ed and who just happen to be North Texas Exes that maybe some of our full time fund-raisers should (firstly) discover a map of Texas and then (secondly) instead of feathering their future state of Texas/Denton retirements should just maybe (instead) get off their duffs, do some research with those fund-raising lists of possible donors and then just get the hell out of their on-campus offices and the Denton City Limits to haul in some more of our Gold Nugget-NT Exes type donors who with their Big Money can make things happen much quicker than most of us on this forum could ever dream of doing; even if we were to pool all our monies. If things got done in Denton by thousands of small donors, wouldn't we already have some of the venues we all want to see in the Mean Green Village? Who knows, maybe one of those Gold Nugget/NT Exes could even under-write such things as getting a new football stadium jump-started (or better yet..........get one built entirely) and, uh, if we get real lucky because someone on campus whose job description suggests they be a fund-raiser actually did even more research from our extensive alumnus "A lists" of heavy-hitter potential donors (of which most of us are not on that list) and find yet another Gold Nugget/NT Ex donor that could help us build what I feel we all will see in due time to be a much-needed indoor practice facility at the Mean Green Village; that is, so we can keep up with even some Sun Belt schools since the first shot has already been made concerning such by one of our fellow Sun Belters......BECAUSE....................Remember just last week when one of our best, ie, Emmitt01............... ........................ posted a photo link that showed a very nice architectural rendering of what UL-Lafayette's indoor facility will look like; and such a facility which will also house the UL basketball practice facility once finished? ........................................... Do we really need to start getting left behind at the train station by even some of our fellow Sun Belt schools, fellow alums/MG fans?

So its most likely an indoor practice facility that sealed the deal for TCU when Arlington gets a Super Bowl? Hmmm? ? ? ? UNT can wait 10 years & get even further behind everyone else in Texas before we get one or we can get pro-active and get an indoor practice facility ASAP (1-2 years). New stadium or not, we will one day need such a recruiting "wow" factor as an indoor practice facility that the other 9 D1-A football schools will all undoubtedly have. (Sorry, but if our long over-due jumbotron with a very loud eagle screech sound is still doing it for you, well, just what were we going to have for a scoreboard that would have fit in this new millenium if we didn't have such a jumbotron)? Some may even wonder when the day might come when we actually get pro-active about such things as an indoor practice facility rather than always just mostly being re-active to what's being done by our peers, being built by our peers or what's going on all around us with our peers as we seem to continue our non-stop slumber as compared to the other nine (9) Texas' NCAA D1-A schools?

Good gosh, Stan R, were you at the same NT/TAMU football game @ Texas Stadium that I was? I have no idea how anyone could say what the student count could have been was since Aggie students all seemed mixed in with the rest of their, uh, "former students." And why kick ourselves about so many Aggies showing up at Texas Stadium for that game? Hellsbells! All the former SWC schools that didn't make the Big 12 cut depended on all those travelling Aggies (and Longhorns & Red Raiders) for decades so that they could post a decent home turnstile attendance count for at least 1 or 2 times per year at each of their own gridiron outposts before the SWC implosion. Can you imagine what our home game averages in Denton could have been in past decades with all the present Texas Big 12/former SWC schools coming to Denton every other year? At worst, it was 55% Aggies and 45% Mean Green fans at this game; yet from my vantage point, it actually seemed more like 50/50 among the approx. 50,000 at this game. It was one of my favorite Mean Green football experiences since I graduated and the game was a darn good one (tied 10/10 after the 1'st half?) until about the 3'rd quarter when the Aggies started to dominate, but the Game Day atmosphere was maybe the best and most Big Time "home game" Game Day many of us had experienced and more of the kind of thing we should have been experiencing more of the last 25 or so years truth be told; but at UNT we still tend to take a giant step forward and once we hit a certain plateau, we start taking those gol' darned giant steps backwards. To put another wrinkle of that NT/TAMU game at Texas Stadium in 1996: This game outdrew any Southwest Conference TCU/TAMU game played in Fort Worth even after Amon Carter Stadium was expanded to 47,000 back in the day. I agree with what Dallas Green is saying when he says we should entertain the idea of playing from time to time (maybe not even every year) a very, very high profile opponent at a venue that can hold the kind crowd you'd get for playing such a game (of which Fouts Field or any stadium its size would never be such a venue) BUT............ ..............this present athletic staff we have in Denton seems dedicated to the old "Do It In Denton" spirit albeit we still only averaged 15K per home game averages even during a 4 year bowl run and because of that, have we really seen the true payoff with a hardy handful from Denton? With Denton now being a city that should not have to be coaxed or begged to support its city's largest industry with 15,000 Denton citizens who should be at Fouts Field not even counting NT students or NT alums. Perhaps in another era, hanging in there with "Doing It In Denton" might be the best modus operendi, but as we have continued to fiddle fart around with mostly lackadaisicle non-conference foes at Fouts Field, other Sun Belt schools have started passing us by and scheduling some very impressive opponents at their own on-campus venues. We have no idea how long we are going to have to wait on a new stadium in Denton and who knows, maybe a Big Donor (which its still going to take) will be announced sooner than later, but knowing our history of athletic fundraising at UNT many of us guess we will wait till the 12'th hour when TxDOT finally comes a-callin' and says: "OK, UNT, we told you many years ago what our plans were and now we're ready to expand the interstate near Fouts Field, so are yall ready to move into a new football stadium?" Personally (and in the opinion of many I've spoken to) UNT officials should be stumbling all over themselves to try to schedule the first official college game in the Dallas Cowboys new stadium in 2009; probably in August in the DC's air-conditioned stadium against a true Top 10 school who would (like the Aggies) bring many of their fans, but once again, that type of thing might merely be the thing that pipe dreams or made or would only happen in a perfect world and for those of us who have followed all this for 3, 4 and 5 plus decades, we for darn sure know that our Mean Green World is not always one that you could exactly call perfect.

Isn't OSU one of many who said they wouldn't play any game at Fouts Field? Wonder if Baylor with their half-time locker room black out experience will be coming back any time soon, too? By the way, Fouts Field is a venue about the same size as Troy U's very nice "make-over" of a football stadium that has numerous luxury suites. I guess many of us were at the grand opening via national ESPN television of Troy U's stadium as they opened that stadium with a huge win over the #17 ranked Missouri Tigers. For the sake of all you Young Gun NT Alums and all your investment of hope and time with all this, I really do hope 10-20 years from now that yall are still sitting around posting about all the potential we have at UNT (as we also continue to attempt to find the perfect logo and best shade of green for our alma mater). NCAA D1-A personnel begat upper echelon (non-Bottom 25) NCAA D1-A athletic programs, folks. During a 4 year bowl run, didn't we sorta' find out what we needed to find out about the majority of too many on the NT athletic staff, especially with home turnstile counts during that 4 year bowl run as a pretty fair barometer to that? You know, talk eventually has to be turned into action unless talk is merely being used as a vehicle to extend one's years on the UNT payroll until another job comes up. Speaking of those, how many in NCAA D1-A (or 1-AA or any level) have been knocking themselves out coming to Denton to hire longterm UNT personnel who have been part of a team that has produced for us not much more than Bottom Barrell NCAA D1-A athletics? Are we truly becoming the Robson Retirement Village of NCAA D1-A where all you have to do as a UNT athletic staffer in Denton, Texas, America, is just tickle alum's ears with what one thinks they want to hear just to buy yet more time on the UNT payroll? Need more proof of our standing among all others of the 119 member NCAA D1-A? Just get those NT varsity sports media guides of the last decade out--it's all there in black & white. And we extend contracts to all this, too, is yet another amazing phenomena that (apparently) could only take place in Denton, Texas, where I suppose we just don't ask for or expect much more than what we've been getting.

Sorry... All the Indian mascot/PC talk kinda' got me started (and listening to Mark, Rush and Shaun on WBAP 820AM quite a bit got me going on the other subject).

Amen, DG... Personally, if I were an American Indian I'd be insulted even more by all this, too, (and haven't they had enough insults that began when the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock)? Of course, there were some hostiles and hostilities among some Indain groups, but I suppose our presence created much of that, too. EVEN MORE P.C. ON THE WAY? And with the ACLU-influenced crowd going to try their best to further their own political careers (at our citizen's expense) and with folks like Nancy Pelusi, Harry "We've Lost The War in Iraq" Weenie, Hillarious Clinton, etc, etc, etc,...........So should we all get ready for even more politcal correct-ness with a distinct left wing stinch? Don't we only wish there had been some weapons of mass destruction (beside what was a major "human" WOMD in the person of Sadaam Hussein)? And since the events of 9-11 (seemedly) still didn't make enough of an impression on too many of our fellow citizens along with some of our self-serving politcally elite crowd in Washington D.C. who think all we have to do with radical Moslems is just get them in a circle with all holding hands and we tell them (apologetically) how sorry we've been for our "getting of of hand" the last few years militarily (while they continue to laugh behind our backs and continue with their plans to chop all ours & our kids heads off first chance they get);;;;;;;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;you know, just like those former good American neighbors of ours who crashed a couple of American Airlne jets into the World Trade Center with some of the next wave of a similar group of home-grown radicals who will attempt even more of their skull-drudgery on your's and my neighbors (with not one of our American youth who will be exempt from any of their dastardly deeds, either). Now back to this American Indian mascot thing..................

I think many would want to know if the pulse of our new main campus president, ie, "Dr. B" is still as upbeat & vibrant today as it was a few months ago about the time of the hiring of Todd Dodge and her tour of the USA; or rather has the cold harsh reality of our school's traditional financial deficiencies have set in as far as all the monies that will (ultimately) have to be raised to build a modern new football stadium (with that amount being much greater than our UNT System's entire endowment). And please................don't shoot the messenger with those aforementioned thoughts that reflect the on-going realities of our alma's mater's century long financial short-comings that will eventually have to be addressed (if they haven't already). QUESTION: In the last few years, how much has been added to our school's endowment coffers with our present UNT Board of Regents on board (so to speak)? Also...................to what could become another dilemma for our alma mater which would be if the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) chose to shoot down our stadium proposal since all campus construction (including a possible indoor practice facility) has to be approved by them. (I suppose, though, that TxDOT's interstate plans for near Fouts Field could dramatically change their minds, though, unless they want us out of the college football business altogether which could create cause for a good old fashioned Texas-style blood-letting that would take place in some conference room down in our state's capital city of................Austin, Texas, America! Seriously, the moral of all this is that a truly Big Donor who designates more than what our UNT System's present endowment for a future new football stadium at Eagle Point Campus would probably more than keep our new stadium dream alive since so large a "designated" donation would probably merely receive a rubber-stamp approval by the Coordinating Board. Jeez, none of the aforementioned had nothing to do whatsoever about an indoor practice facility.

What a refreshing concept: Talk turned into action ......................from the Rajun Cajuns. Great link find, Emmitt........................ and yes, we now have a Sun Belt school (not its largest, either) who has taken the lead in this part of the facilities arms race. One very reliable senior poster on this board told me several years ago that there were anywhere from (I believe he said) 14 to 17 of our wealthiest who would each dedicate $1,000,000 toward a new stadium; well, maybe this whole idea of an indoor facility (for basketball, too) may now have become our biggest immediate need that would help us recruit the kind of kids that would help us fill our (eventual) new football stadium out at Eagle Point Campus as well as the Super Pit. No matter how you slice it, our new football stadium is still going to need a T. Boone Pickens type of donor to get that project jump-started (and probably) built. Nice home for Rajun Cajun basketball team, too. Very interesting....Would love to see the blue prints on ULL's facility and how much all that cost.

Thanks for the link... Seems I recall seeing a photo of another practice facility at another school that looked like a large air-filled dome. It looked quite impressive from an (exterior) visual standpoint, too. I also recall that (at one point) former NT Coach DD was upset that he didn't have an indoor practice facility that (apparenty) he had been led to believe would become a reality during his tenure in Denton. Once recalled (jokingly) tellling another poster/fellow alum on this board back in the early 1980's that by the time NT finally got artificial turf that eveyone else would start going back to natural grass. I wish I had only been wrong about that. FWIW...........can UNT keep being about 10 years behind everyone else as far as Texas-based D1-A football schools are concerned with NCAA D1-A football physical plant trends and improvements if we are truly going to try to be a player at the highest level of intercollegiate football competition--both in the Lone Star State and beyond? IMO, TCU's looks nicer inside than outside. Hopefully if UNT ever built one of these indoor facilities that the exterior would look just as nice as the interior; especially to those 60,000+ commuters who would be passing by it daily on I35-E and I35-W. According to one TCU'er I spoke to several days ago, the Horned Frogs have already received some impressive early football committments based (almost) entirely on their new indoor practice facility. I suppose such new recruits actually know where they will most likely spend more time during football season compared to a football stadium. UNT is truly very blessed to have all that acreage (between 2 Texas interstates) that was formerly our golf course that we now call the Mean Green Village. (Heck, word I keep hearing is that there is enough land out there to even build a new football stadium one day). I really think such a facility similar to TCU's (and others) will be on Todd Dodges list of priorities because most all other Texas D1-A schools have one (or will be getting one). So in essence, I don't think this would be considered one of those "keeping up with the Joneses" type of things, but rather one of those "we gotta' have one of these to compete with other NCAA D1-A schools" sorta' things instead.

WE HAVE A FOOTBALL STADIUM TODAY! WE NEED AN INDOOR PRACTICE FACILITY YESTERDAY! And I suppose, MGd, the reason we need an indoor practice facility now is that "neighbor" TCU has one now and how soon can we we expect SMU to get one because their own neighbor down the turnpike has one? UNT is one of 10 Lone Star State-based NCAA D1-A schools and we best find some semblance of a recruiting advantage I think most would agree. Actually, I feel another reason we need this indoor facility is because Southlake Carroll (for heaven's sake) has one. Don't we need to give Todd Dodge a minimum of what he had at his former Texas HS coaching gig? Also, we have a football stadium now (opening up a can a worms with that, I know ) but we don't have an indoor practice facility. FWIW and for those who have forgotten , we have terribly hot August/September (& some October) weather 'round these parts of which TCU's Coach Patterson felt took its toll on his players in some of the Frog's early games. Patterson also said he would still work out his team in hot weather, too, as to get them well conditioned to be able to handle the heat as he said he felt it gave his team some advantages when schools who were not used to such heat came down here to Texas for September and even some early October games when it would still be sultry. If we need to raise $40-$50 million for a new stadium, maybe raising $5-$7 million now for an indoor facility would merely be a Whitman Sampler of things to come? I still think some creative planning by upper echelon UNT leaders could get some state approval (funding?) if an indoor facility were built to also be used by UNT students and the Green Brigade marching band as well. After all, our football team would not be using such a facility non-stop now would they? IMHO, we will need such an indoor facility in time whether we have a new stadium or not in the next 2 years. It just makes sense for us to give this coaching staff every advantage we can give them. Should have done this indoor facility thing for the previous coaching staff FWIW.

Good post.... Anyhooooo...........wouldn't we all rather be "keeping up with the Jones" who annually hover around the Top 25 every year compared to "keeping up with the Smiths" who keep hanging in there with an annual Bottom 25 co-existance? I want a new stadium as much as the next alum or MG fan and I think many of my posts of the last 5 years have expressed such, but it just might make more sense for us to build something like an indoor practice facility out at Eagle Point Campus that is really going to be one of those recruiting "WOW" factors and a facility that will be utilized much more throughout the year than 5 or 6 Saturdays each Fall of any stadium. Nevertheless (and concerning a new football stadium).... BUILD IT SO SOME OF US DON'T GO BLIND TRYING TO MAKE OUT WHAT LOGOS/LETTERS ARE ON OUR FOOTBALL HELMETS! ..................................................