PlummMeanGreen

OK, I'll bite on that last sentence, Jack... Actually, its not that many of us feel Lee Jackson has become UNT's version of some kind of anti-Christ toward UNT athletics (so to speak) nor many of us really personally feel Jackson is leading the way in taking anything (monetarily) from our main campus that could be used at the fledgling UNT-Dallas campus and while on that subject, a campus that is having one helluva' time in becoming a free-standing university and has missed several deadlines set by the Texas legislataure to do so. I think UNT-Dallas was mostly a good idea to just a few south Dallas County politicians and some UNT leaders who forgot to check our campus coffers and checkbooks to see if we could even begin to properly fund such a university without affecting the campus coffers at our main campus. What do I mean when I suggest UNT-Dallas effecting the coffers at our main university? Whatever big monies get raised by NT fundraisers from DFW area Fortune 500 type companies (and smaller) that are earmarked for UNT-Dallas, there will still be some of us out here who will wonder why said company never gave one red nickel to UNT-Denton over the last 100 plus years that they had the opportunity to do so? FUTURE HEADLINE: UNT-DALLAS GETS $20 MILLION FROM TOP DALLAS COMPANY! (Well, that would be fine and dandy for the south Dallas campus, but while the rest of us sit at Fouts Field on Game Day circa 2011, might there be some of our group wondering why UNT fundraisers still cannot seem to come up with a similar $20 million (or more) that could have really played a big part in our getting rid of what is still our campus' worst eye-sore circa 2006, ie, our venerable Fouts Field. Yet observing all indications and even while getting some feedback from some I've spoken to most of whom you know, Jack, and with most of that group who almost unanimously say that Lee Jackson will never be a Norval Pohl when it comes to seeing (and fully understanding) the importance of a vibrant NCAA D1-A inter-collegiate athletic program at UNT-Denton; and for there to be an aspiring and upwardly bound athletic program at a school the size, scope and (supposed) high athletic aspiritions of a school such as NORTH TEXAS. We all know that ex UNT president Norval Pohl set a pro-active/pro-NT athletics mode of cooperation on our campus almost from Day One when he became our alma mater's president. He also didn't just beat drums about all that, either, but made sure that funding would be made available for Mean Green athletics instead of the usual budgetary funding that just was enough for us to get by. Some of you in the past called such funding habits "just enough funding to keep NT athletics on life support." I think most would agree that when any key NCAA D1-A college administrator does not have intercollegiate varsity athletics on his or (her) personal front-burner of importance and their believing without a shadow of a doubt (and not just the lip-service routine) that "college athletics "IS" the picture window of a university that many view our university"; anyway, we have found in the past even at UNT that sometimes such a "non interest in athletics" mode by previous NT leaders made it tougher than nails for Mean Green athletics to make any significant headway. For certain its known that Lee Jackson has already said he is not that gung-ho about athletics (which is not so bad a thing for him to admit) and L.J. was even supposed to have said that he also would not stand in the way of its progress at UNT-Denton; but didn't "logo-gate" tell us a few things about what more "non-UNT graduated" leaders can do to our school without requesting from hardly anyone I know on this forum any semblance of feedback from those who have actually spent the big bucks on items that would have our new UNT brandings? One from the branding commitee even sent (by mistake) an email that ended up on the computer of one of this board's regular posters with that email saying: "We don't have to listen to anything that group has to say?" Well...............might such an attitude as that one day manifest itself when it comes to making decisions on what kind of future NT athletics should have at UNT-Denton with such decisions being made (once again) from non-UNT graduated leaders (for the most part) who won't be around to see (or really give a damn) as to what their decisions hath wrought for the rest of us who will be around to care? Also, don't we already have some fairly strong hints of what losing a pro-UNT athletics president and being replaced by new UNT administrators who are not-so-pro athletics seems to be doing and with one particular and fairly large indicator such as this question proposes: Just what did happen to UNT's plans for a new football stadium out at Eagle Point Campus? Why aren't UNT's key fund-raisers being told from the top to put that on their fund-raising top priority list (since after all, the new football stadium has already been made public from campus leaders and even a virtual tour video of a such a new football stadium which had been produced)?

Well, I guess we will all find out what that "pro athletic" Board of Regents is made of in the next few years, eh, Rick? A true concern of some is that we may now have leadership (even with UNT ties, ie, from our Board of Regents) whose thought processes or possibly altered new mind-sets might be something to this effect: "Well, see there now, after 4 bowl games we still cannot garner fan support for all this, so lets just let Chancellor Lee Jackson do what he wants, give him an open check book and if feels the de-emphases of NCCA D1-A football at UNT-Denton should be part of all this then...........so be it." A few more searching questions might be: Are NT's latest and new present leadership (including perhaps even a couple from our BOR's who may even be vascillating concerning the place of NCAA D1-A athletics at UNT); anyway, are our UNT officials going to always allow the Sun Belt Conference to be our bell cow as to what this athletic program can or cannot do now and in the future? If so, IMHO, that would be a sad mistake and I know many of you who would feel the same. Do our UNT officials blame our fans for not showing up en mass at an old, dilapidated and archaic football stadium that is still a pink elephant to the eyes of thousands of daily commuters out on Interstate-35 E adjacent to Fouts Field; and here we are with a college football stadium in the year 2006 of which its prime 50 yard line seats are still almost 40 yards from the field of action? Do NT officials continue to think Denton County newcomers will buy into all this with the 4'th largest university in Texas of which its on-campus football stadium cannot even compare to what their kids have at their own Texas high school football stadiums with all those venue's modern ammenities? Lest a hardy handful of our newest and most recent versions of appointed NT leadership (w/o UNT degrees, of course) might have forgoten and that would be this: The University of North Texas (Denton) is located at the apex of a major league sports market; located in the 6'th largest TV market in the USA and now from a Dallas Morning News news article from just last week............the North Texas Metroplex has now moved up to become the 4'th largest metropolitan area in the entire USA. Nevertheless in what is a major league sports market here in DFW you will find that most of its college football fans want to experience major college football against (major) schools we've all heard about, but at UNT all these years and decades later, we still have every bit of that show-cased in a............MAJOR COLLEGE WITH A FOOTBALL STADIUM THAT HAS A BLANKETY-BLANKED TRACK INSIDE THE GOL' DARNED THING. ....................................................................... AND GEE-WILLAKERS, HARRY, I AM ONLY 4 POSTS AWAY FROM 8,000! ! !

SCREAMING EAGLE-66, although I agree with most of your thoughts most of the time on this forum, I do beg to differ with you (and others) on the importance of the SMU game this Fall. IMO, winning big games has rarely made a noticeable impact with our athletic program as far as bringing our rich and famous from out of the woodwork. One year under Corky Nelson, we beat 2 or 3 SWC schools as a 1-AA football program, almost beat a Texas Longhorn football team coached by David McWilliams; yet during those times of quality wins over quality schools, we didn't even win the Southland Conference football championship. What would really be big for NORTH TEXAS would be when our new leaders surprise many of us by recognizing that we are on a very fast track to nowhere athletically and they (very pro-actively ) take the bull by the horns (so to speak) start looking at other models or NCAA D1-A athletic programs who have dramatically turned their football programs around while at the same time distancing themselves from a Bottom 10/Bottom Quadrant co-existance while even getting the occasional Top 25 ranking (such as Mike Price and the UTEP Miners pulled off in about his 2'nd or 3'rd year as the head football coach in El Paso). IMO, what else needs to happen at UNT needs to (most likely) happen in one of the large conference rooms located in the Alfred F. Hurley Administration Building. In that conference room our new leadership and NT Board of Regents would hopefully create a long-term blueprint for athletic success that will remove us (once and for all) from our present mode of operation which has us annually competing and at season's end ranking closer to all the NCAA D1-A Bottom 10 schools than most any NT Exes' preferred status of being ranked in the Top 25 (or closer to that grouping of schools). Other than for some local bragging rights among alums at DFW area office water coolers, I don't see an SMU win this Fall making any more difference than our 1990 win over the Stangs did (when we could not seal the deal that season by winning an SLC football championship). Question: What did that 1990 win over SMU do that was really so defining, long-lasting & significant for our football or athletic program (other than for the fact that it was SRO for the game albeit in a Fouts Field that had less seats)?

I venture to guess that Greyhound or Continental Bus Lines (or whoever is still in business) will probably be pickin' up some extra business from non-BCS schools this Fall. There may also be a few more "get there on Game Day and leave after the game" scenarios, too. Probably why even SMU or TCU may want to schedule a few more games with UNT, but thats their right of choice. This gas thing is affecting every part of American life. God only knows that if our allied armed forces did not have a presence in Iraq what we would be paying per gallon at the pump today. My guestimate would be about $10 (+/-) per gallon perhaps? I'm neither a Republican or Democrat, but maybe George W. knew what he was doing after all with the U.S having a distinct presence in Iraq? OK, enuff' of this political subject from me.

One could hardly add much more than what you have posted with all those thoughts, eulesseagle. It just downright bothers me that I (as well as others of you who have told me the same on this subject in recent weeks); anyway, how some of us have lost so much interest in all this to the extent that for the first time since 1960 some of us haven't even purchased a Dave Campbell's TEXAS FOOTBALL magazine or have plans to. (Yes, I know, Lone Star blasphemy)! Even funnier (in a way I suppose) is how it would only take so few strategic moves, personel changes and (yes, in deedy) a new football stadium that could turn all this 180 degrees for many of us who really at present don't see a solid game plan from our campus that indicates an upwardly bound direction to get us in the Top 50 NCAA D1-A schools. Yet all some of us do see (or hear about) are that other NT officials seem to be trying to jump off this UNT ship they've been steering in years past and one can only use their imaginations as to why with that. It's amazing, though, what one can see once one steps away from something and sees things for what they really are or what they really seem to be. I feel for our much older alums who are seeing all their own dreams for this athletic program simply slip away as they are in the middle of their golden years as well as for the many of you young gun NT alums who I think in another 30 years or so of following all this just as faithfully as many of us have done; anyway, for our younger NT Exes who may not see any more progress than what they are seeing now. To you younger NT Exes, it will also amaze you all just how quickly 3 decades will pass before you as you follow the Mean Green scene. ADDENDUM: The part about us building a new football stadium that has personally been of utmost concern the last 2 or so years and especially in light of our present administration begs the question: Would a Lee Jackson-led UNT System really ever push for a new football stadium in Denton, Texas, USA, that would literally cost more than what is in the entire financial endowment coffers of the UNT System ($39 million total at last count)? Thus............the main reason I have always contended (and will till Armeggedon begins) that UNT will (still) have to have a, uh, Big Donor or 2 or 3 to get a new football stadium built at our main campus.

And U of Central Florida is another upstart program that seems to be as ambitous with their big time plans as USF. Question: Who were both of these Florida school's football teams playing the same day the Mean Green beat the University of Tennessee back in 1975? And DG, based on our long-standing tradition, history and uncanny ability to run-in-place and get nowhere fast with the occasional appearance of taking a giant step forward with athletics.............AND.............with new NT leadership and administrations wee-weeing their territory as to make their statements that they will definitely do things different than their predeccessors AND then with the usual(& subsequent) retreating of 2 or more giant steps backwards athletically; anyway, Deep Green, with the aforementioned as our constant mode of operation in Denton, where do you see Florida Atlantic U (who we have yet to beat in 2 attempts & one of those losses to a "then" 5 year old football program during a, uh, "bowl" year); anyway, where do you see FAU and Florida International U in 10 years (as compared to UNT)? I feel like our history would (unfortunately) give us a huge clue as for as the answer to that question goes. I look at GrayEagleOne's post below and can easily understand how someone who has followed this program since the 1940's must feel even more frustration with what we are getting than those of use "late-comers" who started following this during the Hayden Fry era. It has been a constant roller-coaster ride with (seemedly) more valleys than peaks. We all know what Darrell K Royal said about potential now don't we. Well, UNT (all these years later) still remains the (forever) sleeping giant with, uh, potential, but with changing leadership that always seems to vascillate on what direction they feel UNT needs to set its ship asail athletically (with hirings and contract extensions of those hirings of late that suggest they probably don't have much more plans to see us go up the NCAA D1-A ladder and present level, ie, the SBC/Bottom 10 AND.............. ..............UNT leadership who seem to cannot ever identify and then hire the kind of campus fund-raisers who have all the right contact$ or abilities to develop the right kind of contact$ in our "Fortune 500 companies-rich" North Texas Metroplex or to raise the mega-bucks that could get UNT athletics jump-started like never before and in a direction that suggests higher athletic ambitons than the present. Most of all, though, to raise the the kind of Big Buck$ (could be wrong, but most likely not to be found from those of us registered with GMG.com) as to get us pointed in a positive and upwardly mobile direction and out of this constant annual state of UNT being the sleeping giant with all this, uh..............."potential."

And UNT_playmaker, don't forget that UNT is also getting a, uh, UNT-Dallas campus which our officials will help build with all our fundraising expertise and UNT System endowment {only $39 million, folks } and with all those Dallas corporate donations that over the last 100 plus years were rarely ever successfully tapped by our main campus fund-raisers at UNT-Denton. UNT is fighting its war on too many fronts with so few re$erve$. In fact, all should be glad we had Norval Pohl the few years we had him and with his stamp of approval received all the extras albeit (basically) minimal we received at Fouts Field; most of this, of course, before SMU alum Lee Jackson fully took over the reigns of the UNT System. So just go ahead and enjoy Fouts Field, young gun alums, because save the Big Donor which about 99.9% of you on GMG.com have posted is simply not out there for UNT, never-the-less, w/o Mr. B.D. Fouts Field will be home until TxDOT forces our hand to move in about 10 or 15 years. The question many might have when that day arrives is: Will we even be ready in 10-15 years to build a major college football stadium (not a 23K seater, either.......sorry FIU) in light of recent trends, stranger than hell business practices of rewarding athletic mediocrity with contract extensions and NT Exes being further lulled to sleep into accepting such business practices; but now even moreso toward the top of the list of concerns for many..........in light of our new leadership, ie, the new president on our main campus. So............you wanna' get rid of the $tray dog($) that ju$t $howed up on your door$tep$? Well, ju$t don't feed it...it will eventually get the hint, duck their tail$ and go away. Or......like it or not, it might just hang around because no one else really wants it and the poor stray really has no where else to go. So.............MeanJoe, if'ns you don't mind and to borrow your oft' posted lines with a bit of variation: Buy Flea Collars Buy Nice Dog Houses for their Retirements And Be Proud That You $upport Something Few Others At Other Outposts of Similar Size As UNT Would Even (Vaguely) Consider $upporting ...And Especially in the Lone Star Sate, You Know, Where, uh, Football Is King? .

The AM Show on Fox just today interviewed the newly crowned Miss Texas who told that shows co-hosts that she was a Jazz Studies major at the University of North Texas.

Objective Aggie? Somehow those 2 words just don't seem to go together. I have tried to be as unbiased as any NT Ex can be about Abner Haynes and this whole Texas Sports Hall of Fame deal thru the decades, but for the life of me I think even if I were an Aggie (or Longhorn or Red Raider or Bear, etc) and if I knew the Abner Haynes Story AND only saw some game film from NT which even had a Sun Bowl appearance with Haynes' 1959 Mean Green football team and................if one merely viewed some of Haynes' old AFL/Dallas/Kansas City film footage.......anyway, all this still adds up to this IMO: The exclusion of Abner Haynes in the TSHOF still just really doesn't make a hill of beans of sense whatsoever. Someone from the TSHOF committee who handles all this should only ask Lamar Hunt and even Bud Adams (Titan owner and owner of the Houston Oilers back in the day) if NORTH TEXAS great Abner Haynes should be in their exclusive hall down in Waco. I think the answers from those 2 (alone) would be all their committee would need to correct all this concerning Haynes and FWIW, thats all their committee would have needed even in the TSHOF's first few years of operation when it was located in Grand Prairie, Texas, and first operated by ex UNT Sports Information Director, one Mr. Fred Graham. (Wonder why ol' Fred with the vantage and position he had didn't make this happen long ago has been the question of many). If Abner Haynes gets in the TSHOF, it surely won't be because someone from UNT lobbied to make it happen because our leaders seem to have about as much political prowess and power with the powers that be in Texas as Kinky Friedman would have in the almighty state of, uh, Rhode Island. If we of UNT had had friends in high places thru the years and especially now, we would not be a 33,000 enrollment Texas university (4'th largest in TX) trying our dead level best (as we look at our new leadership's trends/attitudes) to avoid a re-entry into NCAA D1-AA (or worse), but probably back in the Southland Conference all over again. Without a new NCAA D1-A style football stadium and our accepting nothing less, just what would be our choices? Leaderhip can really make or break our future athletic direction at UNT and its damn sad that in the past after we have taken a giant step or 2 forward in Denton with our athletic program, we then (traditionally) seem to always wave the white flag and go a few steps backwards with each new regime change. Truly a trend, tradition and cycle we have to break at some point in our history, but one that won't be altered unless we have steady and continuous leadership who want to alter this one giant step forward/2 giant steps backwards scenario. If only Norval Pohl had stayed on as our NT president for the same amount of time as Alfrerd F. Hurley, then I think most of us would feel about 100% more positive about all this than we do at present. Waving the White flag AGAIN? Watch the pool of applicants (or God help us, even one that would be hand picked by Bobby Ray) as for as the one who would become our next AD if and when Rick V decides he's had enough of this charade of decade-in AND decade-out directional vascillation as far as the UNT Athletic Dept. is concerned. Some in the Mean Green Nation who have been around this awhile have become quite expert as roller-coaster ride novelists with all the ups and downs of on-campus athletic philosophy we've seen from our top leaders and ever-changing Board of Regents and this with almost each and every regime change we have at our Denton campus. Hope some of you who have theorized on who would probably be our next AD post-Rick V are wrong, but with the SMU'esque Lee Jackson twisting NT Board of Regents arms and with his main focus still being a free-standing UNT-Dallas (with all the funding he'll need to see that happen; anyway, nothing should surprise any of our elect as far as those who have has seen all this in action before. Hellsbells! Who knows, maybe the next AD at UNT who would follow Rick V could even be an NT professor who has an afternoon P.E. class because at UNT haven't we all discovered by now to never say never?

Joe, probably (and unfortunately) the very one thing that most remember Abner Haynes about. If only those critics could see some game film of one who I think should also be in the NFL Hall of Fame as well and that since other early AFL stars have been added thru the years by the very pro NFL (before merger) voting committees. ANYHOOO...........I spoke with Abner Haynes, ie, "Father Time" as Ron Shanklin used to jokingly call him a few years ago over lunch with our 2 former NT greats. At this Cowtown lunch, I brought the "coin flip" situation up and he had an entirely different interrpretation of what happened at that 1962 AFL championship game down in Houston. Of course, it was a completely different story than what we have all read about thur the year and what the Texas and national sports newspaper/ media-types have just "loved" to report over the decades (and all that at Abner's expense, of course). So Joe as I recall the story Abner told me a few years at a Dos Gringos lunch over here in Fort Worth (& with Shanklin along as well as he was recruiting FW that day---(Hmmm? What a concept, UNT recruiting DFW HS recruits)? .............So anyway, Haynes' explained to me that that entire situation on the coin flip happened because he was taking sideline instruction from not only Dallas Texan's head football coach Hank Stram, but also from Texan owner Lamar Hunt who was pacing the Dallas sidelines like an expectant father as well. As Haynes went on with the story over some of the best Mexican food in Fort Worth, it seems both Hank Stram and Lamar Hunt were sending Haynes different instructions and thus the reason for the confusion on the coin flip against the Houston Oilers. So as Abner told me and 'Shank, he was merely doing what "both" Dallas Texan coaches were instructing him to do at midfield of the AFL championship game.

It's really difficult to find a (printable) word that can express the downright travesty it is that here we are already in the year 2006 & still talking about Abner Haynes not being in the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. As a kid I saw him play against the Houston Oilers in old Jepphesson Stadium (now UH's Robertson Stadium) back in the day and years later read how many said Abner Haynes was really the AFL's first superstar. Good luck Abner Haynes for this (hopeful) long overdue honor.

Now don't be too hasty with all this, Tony, because after all don't we now have a "universally" accepted branding that had the approval of a fairly wide selection from the UNT community who were allegedly asked to add their input with our already "most visible" (NOT) kelly green as our official color and also don't forget one of the main reasons for Lee Jackson's hire in the first place, ie, an immediate groundswell of support and approval from the Texas legislature for a uh, law school to be located in downtown Dallas? So these are the good ol' days for the University of North Texas where NT is the pinnacle for many of our employees and the retirement center for many who could not get higher profile jobs than the ones they have now. So send those million$ in and I'm sure this group will find a place (insert a sublimenal "all of Lee's Gang" personal pet projects) for all these extra funds to be steered toward. Funny how at UNT in the past we seem to most always hire 180% opposite from those who had the big visions for varsity athletics when we hire new administrators. FWIW and IMHO (and many others as well) UNT never had the endowment to be a system school in the fist place and any novice outside the UNT community would most likely agree. If you're going to buy a 2007 Jaguar, shouldn't you really check to make sure you have the budget to afford it? As I recall, overall fundraising for even just the Denton campus before we became a system of 3 schools was hardly anything one could describe as "lights out." In a nutshell, with the resources we have proven time and time again (decade after decade) that we cannot seem to raise, UNT is now fighting our fundraising wars on too many fronts and as many of you have also expressed, it looks like the campus most of us attended in Denton will come up on the short end of the stick with all this longterm (save a Big Donor does not come forth to help jumpstart a new NCAA D1-A football stadium to discount many of ours present feelings about this new Lee Jackson era at UNT). W/O a new football stadium (at UNT-Denton for those who might think UNT-Dallas ) which will make a long awaited statement of where we really want to go; anyway, without this new stadium few in the 119 member NCAA D1-A will really ever take us serious again in the future when they read about all our grandiose plans from even our own campus publications (and not just GMG.com, either). So for the time being, a hardy, hardy handful of you can just keep getting excited about those SBC wins (forget OOC wins) and all those women's basketball wins over the Tarleton States of this world to pad career W/L records. Starve the dogs and the dogs will get the hint and just leave.

Agree to some extent, Jim, but we still might have more in our recruiting arsenal (which compared to most Texas D1-A schools is all but an empty arsenal) if you can add an indoor practice facility to it. Hellsbells, some of these Texas HS potential recruits we try to recruit for UNT had indoor practice facilities at their respective Texas high schools. Even at my home-base of Parker County (where the deer and the antelope play) the Kangaroos of Weatherford HS have a small version of an indoor practice facility and I believe Aledo HS has plans for a very nice indoor facility to go right along with their upcoming new state of the art football stadium. (BTW, several of the Aledo HS football players I've met were duly impressed with Denton ISD's football stadium which they played in in a play-off game). Of course, its still a matter of funding which for UNT is still our main bugaboo and has been forever. TCU had almost 100 years in the SWC to build a fund-raising base and also has big money people who don't mind letting go of some of that big money for TCU athletics. UNT has more big money alums than we know about (or have addresses for) but they are still total strangers as far as giving some of their big money to UNT and that whether its for academic or athletics. FWIW and facing some cold harsh facts, UNT athletics (or academics) is not going to get where most on this board want it to go with the same people/same donors mailing lists its had for the last several decades or so. HE WHO SCHNOOZES LOSES? It really seeemed our dear ol' alma mater was really beginnning to make impressive inroads with Houstonian and NT Ex Robert Randall Onstead (who almost outbid McClane for ownership of the Astros), but he suddenly passed away about 2 summers ago while on vacation. That NT Ex could have very well been our Tom Hicks or T. Boone Pickens if he'd only been developed years before. Oh well......

An advantage of being a public-assisted (Dr. Hurley kindly corrected me years ago to not say "state supported" ); anyway, one advantage a school like UNT might have is putting its creative planning skills to work and getting state approval to build such a facility but to show it will be a mult-purpose facility and be used by other groups other than just our varsity football team. Such groups as the NT Green Brigade, morning & early afternoon PE classes, etc, etc, etc. UNT was about 10 years behind most other similar sized Texas schools in getting artificial turf for our on-campus football stadium; hopefully, we won't be as long in gettting an indoor practice facility since we seem to be in this weather-related greenhouse effect of (seemedly) hotter Texas summers leading almost into October. Still have never understood why the Texas Rangers didn't build their own stadium to have a sliding dome a la Minute Maid Park down in H-Town. You like sitting out in 100 plus degree heat index watching MLB? Well, if so, you probably won't once you hit your 50's and up age bracket.

FFR and Dallas Green, hope yall don't mind that I grabbed a spot on this thread but...........I will have another karaoke "bash" in October on a non-Game Day Saturday this Fall. AND...........Dallas Green, folks in these here parts are still talking about your version of EP's old hit "Polk Salad Annie" at the last get-together. You brought the house down on that one, Jim. BTW, for some of you who have asked here is my new email address: PlummMeanGreen@aol.com PS: Did a system recovery a few days ago so I lost my former complete email address book so............. for those of you I know (or maybe don't know and who will) please send me an email at my new email address listed above so I can put your email address in my new AOL address directory. Thanks in advance... AND TO ALL CITIZENS OF THE MG NATION: HAVE A GOOD DAY!

Ditto on that, FFR... Whether one likes DD's coaching style or not is immaterial when it comes to the real things of life such as one's health. I know each and every one of us on this forum (and beyond) will wish him well and Godspeed with this newly diagnosed health situation of his. Having suffered from depression since Novemeber of 1986 (and probably well before that truth be known), I know the importance of good health and also know how it can affect every aspect of one's life. Like someone once said, "if you lose your health, you've just about lost everything." I agree with that philosophy to some extent, but I also know (as many of you on this board do as well) that you also have to deal with the cards that life has dealt you, too, and just try to make the best of things. PMG

Simply amazing what the hiring of one high profile name football coach has done for the entire UTEP athletic program from top to bottom. I once remember something very similar happening at UNT back in the day... It seems here in the great and almighty sovereign state of Texas, these kind of things (collegiately) most always begin with how your football program is fairing, now doesn't it?

There is only one school from Texas in the SBC, that school just happens to be NORTH TEXAS last time I checked the boxscores. Been on our campus lately, fellow SBC'ers? So why is there such a silly poll as this?

eulesseagle, I think our breast implants, ie, "fakes" seem to be seeping of late? Was talking about this very (possible) CUSA future expansion subject or possibilities with another fellow alum weeks ago. That particular NT Ex thinks we would be in trouble (again) if CUSA expanded anytime soon (like the next 5 or so years)?. I really beleive we were in our best position to get in last time around when Chuck Neinas visited our campus on CUSA's behalf. This even in light of SMU's behind the table politickin'. Yet now, CUSA might have key concerns about UNT: First of all, CUSA officials can read each of our media guides of all our varsity sports and see for themselves that we have only one varsity coach over .500 on our entire staff. CUSA officials might also ponder this: "Why doesn't UNT think they can do any better with their hiring practices because they keep on adding extended contracts to several of their varsity coaches who are nowhere even close to .500 in wins/losses. Folks, what we do in the darkness will eventually come out in the daylight for all in CUSA (and beyond) to see (and not just for "all" of us on GoMeanGreen.com who banter back and forth on what we really have that is marketble to the rest of NCAA D1-A (outside the SBC, of course). Our fellow NT alum also suggested that being picked over UNT in a possible future CUSA expansion could be Troy U (new football stadium that debuted on ESPN national telecast with Trojans getting a very impressive win over the 17'th ranked Missouri Tigers); or even Middle Tennessee (funtional D1-A football stadium/new AD/new spirit and attitude) or even ULaLa who has even hosted TAMU before almost 40,000 and a school that might fit moreso in the CUSA footprint than us. Lest one also forgets, there is also Lousiana Tech who schooled us in a football game last Fall. WHY DO A HARDY HANDFUL OF UNT ELECT ALWAYS SEEM TO FORGET THIS MOST BASIC (yet most glaring and ominous) FACT? We will always have SMU as an albatros around our neck as far as their showing enoughy interest as to sponsor UNT toward a future CUSA membership. If you think about it, CUSA is becoming like the old SWC with just about as many Texas schools as they really need in their conference. They have all the major Texas markets covered, too. Yet for any of our alums to think SMU will turn over a new leaf with their attitude toward UNT is being most naive' and would also be an NT alum who has done little or no research of the history of SMU's attitude toward just about anything relating to UNT, especially when it comes to both schools being in bed with each other in the same athletic conference. FWIW, I don't even think a good ol' fashioned Methodist brush arbor style revival "Come to Jesus" meeting will ever change this particular group of Methodists as far as their long-standing attitude toward us. Hellsbells, maybe its just in the Mustang faithful's DNA to feel this way toward us, ya' think?!?!?!?

Rick, do give Marge' all our love and fervent prayers. Your long time friend, Jim PS: You do know to call us if you need anything.

UCF has a new 45,000-seat stadium set to open for the start of the 2007 season with Texas as the first scheduled opponent. I am now (officially) envious of the UCF football program, dammit!

REVISED THURSDAY PM (1) Dominate the SBC (2) Beat at least one known OOC team annually (and a team that doesn't even have to be ranked in Top 25) (3) Beat the 4'th ranked CUSA team in the NO's Bowl (4) And do all this with a football program that rises above its present status or neighborhood and receives annual rankings as one of NCAA D1-A's Top 50 football programs and then Bobby Ray can just keep on extending those contracts. And FWIW...........why would any NT alum and/or Mean Green football fan settle for less than the aforementioned? Would you prefer to a$$ist in under-writing a program similar to one that was turned around in less than 2 years like that "basketball" school out in El Paso or just keep on seeing us do the same things that keeps us getting the same results at an SBC/Bottom 10 co-existence; and of even more concern, whose results has the UNT fan/alumnus base split right down the middle? Red Inks'ville: Used to have an old used car that I just kept on pumping (non-stop) good money after bad until one day I came to the stark realization that I was not really getting anywhere doing this. So the light bulb finally came on that I really needed to rid myself of the used car that I truly had an emotional attachment toward (if thats possible with an automobile) and just went out and bought a new car. I had the knowledge and good feeling that making payments on that new car was a wiser investment because I knew it would not present to me other added un-necessary or un-needed problems. I suppose I could have kept spending money on the old clunker, but what good would that have done other than persevering what I knew I already had in that used car? We can dream, fantasize and join the "The Emporer's Clothes" (or whatever the title of that short story) crowd all we want, but when will the reality of what our situation really is finally rear its ugly head with those who still refuse to see it and are still telling "The Emporer" that they really do love his new clothes and what can they do to help him purchase even more? Just my .02 after about 3 1/2 decades of following this athletic program fairly close and also in that span of time observing what other NCAA D1 football programs do to turn their ships around. PS: I, too, am proud to be a North Texas Ex and have steered many HS students that direction (& will continue to do so from my sector of education), but I am not proud of my alma mater when it seems to make decisions (mostly by non-UNT graduated employees we should all remind ourselves) that keep different departments of our alma mater mediocre at best or worse. PS II: Check out the other thread on GMG.com of what UCF (Central Florida) is doing (and not just talking about doing) then ask yourselves if you really see this program with our present cast and present momentum being anywhere close (to what UCF is doing now) even in another 10 years in MG Country. PS III: The season ticket tally happening on this thread is inspiring, but wouldn't it be better if UNT sold about 4,000 extra season tickets to new or casual fans (instead of the "always" usual group)?

Now dog'gon' it, Baby Arm!, you just cannot keep any secrets now can you?!?!? I have my "cut & paste" filed by numbers and just pull them up when needed for said themes.

Wasn't UCC a Southern Baptist sponsored school (a la Baylor) at one time? Real nice surroundings at UCC. Could be a very difficult opportunity to turn down for anyone offered the job, but come hurricane season one would want to heed all warnings in that neck of the Texas woods. Many of us Texas Gulf Coasters (present or former) have seen some bad storms down there and Hurricane Carla (1961) was one I will never forget even at age 10. And to Deep Green in the above post, Phil, when our 2-a-days started in August at my high school we fought the un-holy trinity down there, ie, Texas-sized mosquitos, Texas sweltering heat and Gulf Coast humidity so thick you could cut it with a butter's knife. We couldn't wait for the first "blue norther" to come blowin' through and that was for darn sure.

What the Florida coach is doing might be considered minimum expecations for a head football coach at most mid-major schools that are finding it tough to sell tickets to many, many, many new fans. That would probably include most or all SBC schools. If UNT had been averaging 30,000 per home game CUSA officials might have had a difficult time turning UNT down for membership no mattter how much politickin' against our membership was being done behind closed doors by a CUSA school-in waiting who had yet to officially play one CUSA game (assuming that was the case, of course).