SCREAMING EAGLE-66

--I would like to see the interlocked NT on football helmets if they decide to change from we now have. Balfour made those rings, mine is identical except it has university instead of college....

--- I was a Charter member (resident) of College Inn.. I was there in 1964-65 when only the front portion existed... the back part opened the next year. It was all male and we parked our cars where the sorority houses are now (under the back building and under the outside of the second floor. --- Considering how long it has been there it seems to be in good shape. Hate to see it go.

---Can you diagram that sentence?

--I would not have a problem with it if we were not in a war situation but we are. Surely someone can come up with a better idea.... It is obvious from all the posts that some people would be offended.... and we are even talking about NT supporters, not Navy fans. Suggestion --take a cheap shot at their mascot, the Goat... such as "Bar-B-Que the Navy's Goat" ... the Navy in general will not be offended by that. I am sure someone can do better than what is proposed or even my idea. There is no sense in irritating people, especially our own fans. PC is not really an issue to me on this, good taste is..... ---For what it is worth, Iraq had nothing to do with the USS Cole... but Al Qaeda did, just as they were responsible for the Twins Towers, and the Towers had no Iraq connection either (Bush even admits that). ---If those in charge refuse to change it at least say Midshipman or Middies--- not Navy,.... that is school related.....

Absolutely---- when the State put Arlington and Texas Western into the UT system (as UTA and UTEP) it freed up money for us and some others to build and modernize the campus. The old education building was used for government and the back steps had been condemned and chained up... Things were that bad.

---At that time cars were primitive and paved roads were rare so rail was the best way to go. There was also more RR tracks then and pretty good schedules because of the widespread use. We may be back to where we were then--- but for different reasons. Now the the population is very dense and there are very crowded (and slow) roads so rail transportation makes sense again. The price of fuel has climbed as well and air pollution is a factor as well. The metroplex needs to consider more rail service and people can drive or walk to terminals to get aboard to travel to where-ever. It will become more popular as a larger network with more terminals appear and near good destination points such as colleges, large offices and work-sites, museums, fairgrounds, entertainment areas, and athletic stadiums. It would be good have them near transportation centers (airports) and convention areas as well. ---When I was at UNT during the mid 60's we actually had two chartered train trips... one to a Wichita State football game and one to a Baylor basketball game. Party time both ways.....a lot safer way to travel..

----Back on track (pun) to the subject. I think rail service to Denton would contribute to us being THE UNIVERSITY OF THE METROPLEX and make us a lot more accessible to those in Dallas and would help attendance, especially if we were winning and having "attractive" opponents appearing in Denton. SMU being a private school and much smaller will shrink into farther the background as it has been doing since its "death penalty" and the breakup of the SWC.

There is but these rascals have won : Basketball-2006, Football 2006, and then Basketball-2007 (87 days after the football one and iin same academic year) The two sports that people pay the most attention to is Football and basketball so no one else has won one of those since UT won football in the fall of 2005.

---Geeez what a lot of information...This indicates the left side driving had more to do with weapons than whips but I have read (and heard) while in Europe about the narrow streets in London idea. I had also heard that Napoleon was somehow responsible for Europe driving on the right since he controlled most of it. Of course the British would never do anything the French thought up if they could avoid it. Napoleon is also responsible for the spread of the metric system which makes more sense than the English system we use with inches etc. Several countries have switched sides of travel in the past 70 or so years... It would be tough (and expensive) now with all the "interstate/autobahn" type pf highways which did not exist until Germany created them during the 30's. I remember Sweden switching and it making the news and speculation of how many accidents and deaths would occur. If you have never been in an "other side" county , it is crazy even for pedestrians.. You tend to look the wrong way when crossing streets and cars can come around a corner and surprise you. ---Slightly different but it is related is the fact that that we shake hands with our right hands...... most people are right-handed and it demonstrated that the other person likely did not have a weapon in his hand to attack the other person.

---London is much larger than the rest and very crowded... maybe triple the size of Paris. Paris does have a lot of major wide streets... Rome is a mess and not as modern either but does have a few large streets at least wider than London except the tiny ones... Most German cities have been rebuilt due to what happened in 1940-1945 and have good roads. Some countries once traveled on the other side but changed... some Scandinavian ones have changed sides during my lifetime. Who knows what the others did in buggy times, I don't, but that is the reason London gives for being different.

--Perhaps before it is constructed, someone will realize the ONE place in Denton the rail system needs to service is the UNT area for the 33,000 students and those who want to attend events there. ..... plus keep the system open until the crowds/classes are gone. That is exactly what was going on at the White Sox stadium... the rail system ran until game ended plus a given amount of time and extra trains ran. [true also at S.F. Giant games as well] Good rail service to the Six-Flags and stadium areas in Arlington would be very helpful as well. Rail systems cost money to start with but they also decrease the need for more highways, parking space, and highway maintenance.. ---Someone mentioned PERRY and the new roads around A&M... All that boy wants to do is build a super highway across Texas (controled by a Spanish company) paving over some of the best farm land, close a lot of State Parks, cut state services, plus underfund education to public schools and universities. Now there are those wanting him to be the next VP.... get real.

---Agree, Density is the friend of mass transportation but the reverse is true also. Cities will become more dense when the space needed for parking declines because so many people are using public transportation. It also decreases the need for so many large roads and the space roads occupy as well-- which also contributes to the population density. People will use good safe public transportation (especially rail systems) if the system is large enough and fast enough to get them where they want to go. Autos may have increased density as well to begin with.... horses required more space than autos do, espeically if you toss in the space for a wagon, buggy etc. . ---Odd fact-- because London was/is cursed with lots of narrow streets, people in wagon/buggy times drove on the left because most people were right handed. This way when they "popped" a whip --the whip would pop in the middle of the street--- and not pick-off some unfortunate person on the "sidewalk" which would likly happen if they drove on the right side. The practice continued after cars appeared so they now drive on the "wrong side" compared to most other countries....

----There is a lot of truth in what you have said but it is not completely true. Rome had no system 30 years ago and now it is building subways and it has the additional problem of digging into historic sites. Considering most run on electricity those systems were constructed since good electrical systems became available.. they are not all that old... or at least most of each system is not. A lot of American cities had some type of trolley system but most of them are now gone. ---The point now is people do see how good the sytem is and they need to get land for a system in the area that are not that well developed yet or in places that are deteriorating and land is available. When land is not available... I guess start digging....that is what Europe, NY and some others have done. or in Chicago's case build elevated routes. I flew into Chicago last summer and took the rail into central Chicago...(the last part was elevated).... Some cities have just closed streets and made them into rail routes... they take less space than roads to carry the same amt of people. . There is a way if they want to think about it.

---Note: He also played at Midland College out here in far West-Texas. http://www.deonhunter.com/about_deonhunter.php

---The Metroplex is crying for an EXTENSIVE rail system... Dallas has the worse downtown of any major city I have ever been to. I was in Chicago last summer and went to a White Sox game and it appears that most of the fans got there by rail. Most American cities other than NY are way behind what is available in large European cities. London, Paris, and now even Rome have a subway system and above ground rails to get people around and the inner city is alive because of it because parking is not needed and people can and will go the central area. The rails need to extend to lots of places to bring people in and to get them out to other places of interest-----colleges, sports venues, museums, parks, etc. In many major cities cars just are not needed much to travel around. Buses and trolleys connects to these stations. San Francisco which is smaller than the metroplex can be gotten around easily as well by rail. Dallas (metroplex) is a huge city and needs better mass transportation. It is one the largest American cities now. ---For the environmentalist, rail access cuts down on big city pollution caused by cars. Many of the smaller cities of Europe have trolleys to move people around and some actually go pretty far from the center [ especially true in Amsterdam and German cities] . I remember Dallas having a trolley system when I was extremely young, some of those rails still exist in places, there were trolleys. near the State Fair grounds connecting it with downtown in the late 40's. .. Some of these systems were bought by GM and then closed..... [ some say so they could sell more buses and cars ]. I get tickled at many people who think Europe is behind America in modernization.... --- The last time I was in Amsterdam all (more than 90%) the cash registers and computers had flat screens and in America almost none of ours did at that time... They were selling flat screen TVs before we were and cell phones were commonplace in Europe before they were here [note most cell phones have Scandinavian names--Nokia, Ericsen. . We need to modernize our cities and get good mass transportation into place. People need to wake up and realize other places have gotten it right and constructed good rail systems (some have subways or a mix of above and below ground systems) in large cities. Some people just don't get it and think we Americans are on the cutting edge in everything... we aren't...at least not everything, Northern Europe is extremely progressive. The increase in gasoline prices and increased congestion has caused the size of of cars to shrink to more European size (note our old ones of the 60's, 70's) and it will help cause rail systems to appear. I guess it is liberal thinking to see we need to change quite as bit but it is needed and the conservative types like things the way they are and don't see the need to change anything... in fact-- they like the good old days..... but unfortunately for them the world changes everyday whether they like it or not..... As big cities go, Dallas has extremely conservative politicians and the situation is getting worse because they refuse to spend the money needed to modernize so pollution get worse and they build more BIG-WIDE highways and not rails. --- Related --but may not seem so.... Europeans are a lot less fatter than Americans.... they walk more... to get to mass transportation etc. instead of driving up to the door of every store and walking a few feet. I joke about the Americans persons weight is inversely proportional to the distance they park from the door of Walmart. The heavy ones seem to hover around and wait for a close-in place to park and the thin ones will park 100's of feet away and walk. -----Finally YES --it would help attendance some to have a rail system "close to UNT" coming from nearby places... some people just hate to drive in heavy traffic.. of course tail-gaters would still have to drive I suppose. .... LOL ... Unfortunately some Americans would not take it because they might have to walk a half of a mile which they think would just kill them (and might, considering the shape many are in).

--Midland once had another point guard that was "supposedly too small for D-I". He was 5' 6" Spud Webb and played on our last National Championship team. He played for Valvano at North Carolina State after he left here and then played (and started) in the NBA for several years. He also won the Slam-Dunk competition at the NBA All-Star game. ---McCoy only played in 14 games this year in Midland due to illness and I think some injury problems. Some point guards "carry their weight" with steals, assists, and controling the floor and not by scoring a lot of points. ---This was far from MC's first appearance in 19 years (unlike stated above) ... but it was our first Championship in 19 years. Consider the fact that there are probably more junior college teams than there are NCAA D-I teams... at least there is in Texas. NJCAA NATIONAL TOURNAMENT APPEARANCES (8) ---16 teams nationally play in the final 1982(1st), 1984(4th), 1987(2nd), 1994(6th), 2000(6th), 2004(3rd), 2005, and 2007(1st)

--McCoy is hard to judge at this point... he was to be the point guard but only played 14-15 games (MC played 37) due to illness and some injury. In fact he missed the on-campus celebration today at the college.... he was at the hospital. I had hoped to meet him. I think he was the point guard at Arkansas-Fort Smith last year when they won the national tournament. His "illness", another's cracked leg bone, and some other ilness/injuries explained why they lost several game early but got their act together once most of them were able to play (February and beyond). It also explained why no-one at the tournament thought they had a chance to win... too many early/mid season losses and the teams they were playing usually had less than 5 losses, some as few as two.. In short the kid has been on two national championship JuCo teams. The MC season was a lot like UNT.... they did very well at the end after a slow start and low expectations of them by most people.... the big difference is they won the National Juco championship after 7 consecutive wins against teams that usually had about 30 wins. .

---It appears that one of Midland's Players is considering North Texas and has visited the campus earlier. MC just won the National Juco championship last week. The oddity is McCoy played on a team that won the championship last year as well. There are a couple of other good ones that it would be nice to have as well. These kids already have two years of college playing experience (not just sitting on a bench or out of HS)... Ryan McCoy SO-Tr 6’0" 160 Houston, TX _____ From local Midland paper: http://www.mywesttexas.com/site/news.cfm?n...75011&rfi=6 Then there is Jordan Brooks and Ryan McCoy. The pair accomplished a rarity in JUCO basketball by winning a national championship last season at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith and then winning one at MC. Brooks, an all-tournament selection for the second consecutive year, was the spark plug whose motor continuously ran on and off the court. McCasland said the recruitment of Brooks, Victoria and Mels have all skyrocketed since the tournament, although no visits have been set up until after this weekend's NCAA Final Four in Atlanta. All-tournament selection Nemanja Calasan has signed a letter of intent with Utah, while Coach McCasland said McCoy visited North Texas in the fall and will likely go there.

---It appears that one of Midland's Players is considering North Texas and has visited the campus earlier. MC just won the National Juco championship last week. The oddity is McCoy played on a team that won the championship last year as well. There are a couple of other good ones that it would be nice to have as well. --moved content to another thread.

---There are 20 D-I teams in Texas.. which includes the Southland and Southwestern athletic conference. There are several colleges that are not tough travels destinations, such as Rice, Houston, UTEP, New Mexico and New Mexico State which are easy flights from DFW. We should keep the non-D-I games to a minimun (maybe 2). It seems a lot of places have a couple of them. Mid week games for non-conference should be "easy travels" as much as possible just to help the athletes and to keep them in class as much as possible. UT-A, SMU, TCU and Baylor fits this decription by being fairly close.. Football dos not interfere with classes much at all (if any) but basketball is a problem and is for BOTH semesters. Not much can be done for conference games to help this other schedule the distant travel games (FIU, MTSU, & FAU) appear on weekends, even that may be next to impossible. .

I thought it was UTA that he went to and I realized he did not have great success where he went next . Other than that I had lost track of him. He appeared here in Midland last year but I have forgotten why, may have been a reunion of his National Championship team. He had a lot of good years here and the MC program declined somewhat after he left. I think he may have had some connections with D-I coaches that were sending players his way to get experience. A lot of players went to OU where Tubbs was coach and having great success. Tubbs had been an assistant under Blakely at UNT.

--Spud in High school was not really noticed by anyone (according to him to Midland paper) except North Texas. The NT coach told him to go to a JuCo and he would talk to him next year. He was on the National JuCo champ team here in Midland and actually signed at UNT thinking the Midland Coach was leaving because he was a finalist at a 4-yr college... He did not leave so Spud decided to come back to MC and did not go to NT (that was legal) The next year Valvano who had just upset Houston (Phi-Slamma Jamma team) in finals came calling and Spud went to NCSU and then to the NBA where he played for Atlanta and even won the slam dunk contest. UNT screwed up but it may have been good for Spud. --The first time I saw Spud he stole as ball when an opponent tried a jump shot (way over his head)in my first minute to watch him and then Spud went down and dunked.. He was only 5'6' but had several dunks that night and even one goal-tending call. He was amazing. ---I also though UNT messed up by not hiring Stone (Coach) who had won the Juco title and later produced Mookie Blaylock and Rick Grace. He applied at some point.

---Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11 or any terrorist act against the USA. If you think so --name one..!! Ben Laden did . Saddam was an evil man but not an Islamic crazy as is Ben Laden who is still loose and is extremely dangerous. We went after the wrong person... ---This is as Crazy as saying the European German Nazis are bad so let us attack Britain because they are European too....(plus they once tried to rule us and they even burned the White House in the War of 1812, it became called White House because we painted over the blackened fire damage). Obviously they are bad. If Iraq was such a threat to us why did we (Reagan) supply then weapons during the 1980's for Saddam to fight the Islamic crazies of Iran?? Saddam did have a nuclear program but no working weapons during the 1980's [ Israel bombed and destroyed it] but no program now and no CIA evidence that he did....

--The Big East has 16 basketball members... I doubt that they want more and Memphis would be smart to avoid so much competition anyway... Better to be a Big Fish in a small pond that be a smaller fish in a big pond. Ask Cincinnatti how they did this year after moving over..... dead last.... and Louisville W-L record was not that great either. I repeat my prediction... I think in 5 years or less the Big-East will restructure due to excessive size and a difference of interest... half do not play football and half do. ---So Ill. is a good basketball school and the MVC is a good basketball conference although many of the announcers downplay how good it is . (typical BCS BS) . Doubt they want to change their status at all. If the Belt enlarges or changes up I expect Texas State and maybe even Sam Houston to want to improve their status. Sam Houston usually has a rather good basketball program and has done better in football lately.

---The National Junior College Champion this year is: MIDLAND COLLEGE of Midland, Texas. They won this weekend by defeating a 33-2 team from Florida.. They made the final 16 last year and three of the 64 NCAA teams this year had a player that has played at MC---- UT, Weber State, and Washington State. Last year one of Gonzaga's players played JuCo (Junior College) basketball at MC also one of Houston's. UNT should take a lot of some of the Juco for players as well... many good D-I programs do. When Oklahoma played Kansas in the NCAA Finals severals years ago... three of the starters that night had played Juco ball at MC. Two for Oklahoma and one for Kansas. Both OU players made the NBA (Mookie Blaylock, and Rickie Grace.) two years before them was Spud Webb ( who later went to North Carolina State, defending NCAA champions at the time) and UNLV won the NCAA tournament with Larry Johnson who had played JuCo ball at Odessa College. --- In the case of Larry Johnson he had failed to make the SAT min (10 points short I think) but in the case of Spud and I think Mookie, they were just overlooked while in high school...... but later made the NBA after first playing JuCo ball. --- When recruiting UNT should not overlook JuCo players... the best have had two years of playing time (unlike many D-I bench players) and trust me, the best JuCo teams could defeat a lot of D-I programs. I think Colin County JC had a couple of good ones last year. We had several good ones including a player from Lithuania. --I think the TAMU-CC coach was once the coach at San Jacinto JC and won a lot there as well. They made the NCAA this year and led for 3/4 of their first game as a 14 seed.