celebrate Odus Mitchell Pavillion and Joe Greene Statue

[rcade]

For the Mean Joe statue, don't pick this pose:

It makes him look like a Ferguson protester.

[MeanGreenTexan]

For the Mean Joe statue, don't pick this pose:

It makes him look like a Ferguson protester.

This would be iconic, and would become a 'must-stop' for every prospective/current/former student and their families to take a "high five picture with Joe Greene!".

Joe would be all over facebook/Instagram/Twitter for anyone remotely related to North Texas.

[aztecskin]

A Mean Joe statue outside the stadium is a great idea. We could raise the money through someplace like GoFundMe, but before that starts we need someone with a lot of credibility in the UNT community to lead the effort. We also need to know that UNT's president and board support the idea and will allow it to be placed on campus, presumably somewhere fans can see it outside Apogee.

I'd like to see it in the area between the Hill and the entrance. That's the west entrance? It would get the most visibility from fans, students, and alumni without being exposed to people driving by wanting to dick around with a statue for shiggles. 

 

I agree we need some actual university support for this. 

[rcade]

I'd rather see something along the lines of this, where he's defied the laws of gravity and is about to kill poor Walt Garrison while Craig Morton can only look on in horror:

[aztecskin]

Whlie I like the Steeler one, I think something where he's in UNT uniform would be great. The ones some people tweeted at me would be best. 

 

 

[Tyler Maryak]

EDIT:  Correction - his email is David.Wolf@unt.edu.  He is UNT's Vice President for Advancement and extremely responsive to students and alumni.  Even moreso than Prez.

Edited December 7, 2015 by Tyler Maryak

[greenjoe]

I like the Joe Greene statue and the trophy idea.  I would contribute to both.  This would also be a good place to explain the real and accurate background to the moniker MEAN GEEEN

[MeanGreenTexan]

I like the Joe Greene statue and the trophy idea.  I would contribute to both.  This would also be a good place to explain the real and accurate background to the moniker MEAN GEEEN

Not on the statue of Joe Greene.   It's kindof disparaging.    

"Here's a statue of our greatest player...   By the way, WE'RE NOT CALLED THE MEAN GREEN BECAUSE OF HIM!!!!!1!"  

Not the best way to memorialize him.

[817Fan]

I like the Joe Greene statue and the trophy idea.  I would contribute to both.  This would also be a good place to explain the real and accurate background to the moniker MEAN GREEN

I'd contribute to this. Let's get this done.

 

[EagleMBA]

I like the Joe Greene statue and the trophy idea.  I would contribute to both.  This would also be a good place to explain the real and accurate background to the moniker MEAN GEEEN

I wonder if Coca-Cola could be talked into matching donations to expedite this project.

[Stix]

Agree to both a statue, and an award named for him.  But... does Joe want a statue?

[Tyler Maryak]

Okay, let me summarize, so we can have a united direction when we broach this proposal to the powers that be.

We want:  a bronze statue of Mean Joe Green (approx. life-size) and I'm assuming a short bio, possibly including "it's a common misconception that our moniker came from him." (details tbd)
Where:  west entrance to Apogee Stadium
By when:  Beginning of 2016 season?
Cost:  $85,000 (goal)
Fundraising:  two tier, individual contributions primarily through a GoFundMe account and corporate sponsorship (one large sponsor or numerous small sponsors?)
Who:  our main man above who has volunteered for the task (shall we take bids for the sake of transparency due diligence and whatnot?)
Costs to the university?  Athletics?  Alumni Association?  Potential risks?  Rewards?  What am I overlooking?

Side note:  I am a non-profit grant writer, so I would be happy to prepare proposals to corporate sponsors in my off-time.  I'm sure many of you have similar experience and better connections than I, but I want to offer my services however I can.  I love this idea.

Agree to both a statue, and an award named for him.  But... does Joe want a statue?

An excellent question.  Kind of a key stakeholder to have buy-in from...

Edited December 7, 2015 by Tyler Maryak

[Stix]

Where:  west entrance to Apogee Stadium

How about the north entrance?  More people would see it after walking across the pedestrian bridge.

I know, the west entrance is the main entrance.

[Christopher Walker]

I'd like to see it in the area between the Hill and the entrance. That's the west entrance? It would get the most visibility from fans, students, and alumni without being exposed to people driving by wanting to dick around with a statue for shiggles. 

 

I agree we need some actual university support for this. 

East Entrance, Gate 4.

[Aldo]

East Entrance, Gate 4.

Yup. Right as people funnel in to get tickets, or enter the stadjum.

Reminds of the MJ statue in front of the United Center

[Tyler Maryak]

East Entrance, Gate 4.

Poll here regarding location:  http://www.gomeangreen.com/forums/topic/109996-where-would-you-put-the-mean-joe-green-statue/

 

[UNTLifer]

And back to Odus Mitchell.  I would love to see the field named after him.   He deserves something more than the alumni pavilion.  He was a great coach and a better person.  Lucky to have known him.  I am not sure how to start a fundraising campaign of this nature.

[Tyler Maryak]

And back to Odus Mitchell.  I would love to see the field named after him.   He deserves something more than the alumni pavilion.  He was a great coach and a better person.  Lucky to have known him.  I am not sure how to start a fundraising campaign of this nature.

If you (meaning everyone) would like, I can start a dialogue with Mr. Wolf to get his thoughts/impressions/recommendations and mention the need to name our field as well.  
 

If we're serious about this, we need someone who can draft some artist renderings, someone to get some bids on the cost of the statue, and a strong narrative for why this project matters and to whom.  Supporting numbers (# of stadiums with statues, # of donors on GoFundMe, etc.) would be great to have as well.  Most importantly, we need to know who on here personally know the kind of people we need to rub elbows with to put serious money toward it.  They'll be particularly important once we small support from numerous people.

Part of me wants to just go ahead and get the GoFundMe open and capture this momentum, but every other part of me wants to make sure we have a group that will see this through if the going gets tough.  Thoughts?

[MeanGreenTexan]

If you (meaning everyone) would like, I can start a dialogue with Mr. Wolf to get his thoughts/impressions/recommendations and mention the need to name our field as well.  
 

If we're serious about this, we need someone who can draft some artist renderings, someone to get some bids on the cost of the statue, and a strong narrative for why this project matters and to whom.  Supporting numbers (# of stadiums with statues, # of donors on GoFundMe, etc.) would be great to have as well.  Most importantly, we need to know who on here personally know the kind of people we need to rub elbows with to put serious money toward it.  They'll be particularly important once we small support from numerous people.

Part of me wants to just go ahead and get the GoFundMe open and capture this momentum, but every other part of me wants to make sure we have a group that will see this through if the going gets tough.  Thoughts?

Care to share a visual of your idea @Side Show Joe?  

[aztecskin]

 @Tyler Maryak I think that we can get sufficient momentum to fund a solid GoFundMe with a solid story, some renderings, one or two backers, and an organized story. If its not too much trouble, could you prepare a draft of the narrative within two weeks?

@Side Show Joe  Can you talk us through the process of this a bit? From the day someone gives the official 'okay' and hands over a check, how long until we could see a life-sized statue?

@Christopher Walker Yeah that's the side I meant. The East Side Gate 4 is an awesome place for it. 

I don't want to leave out Odus Mitchell, the reason this thread started, but I don't know how that would go over, nor do I think it would be good to conflate the two ideas in one. I say if we can successfully get a statue built of our most famous football alumnus, we can get something named after Odus Mitchell eventually. 

If we want to be all official about it, we can nominate a little committee or some such. I vote the above named people to serve on it. I'd be happy to serve also, in a Chief Twitter-er capacity. 

[Side Show Joe]

Care to share a visual of your idea @Side Show Joe?  

An action pose is nice from a distance, but football players wear helmets. That is a problem with action poses. It just looks funny when a player is caught in an action pose without a helmet.

A pose of Greene standing after making a great play, with his helmet being held at his side by the face mask, would look nice, if his other arm was extended skyward in an eagle claw. Just my thoughts, but I'm open to others.

 @Tyler Maryak I think that we can get sufficient momentum to fund a solid GoFundMe with a solid story, some renderings, one or two backers, and an organized story. If its not too much trouble, could you prepare a draft of the narrative within two weeks?

@Side Show Joe  Can you talk us through the process of this a bit? From the day someone gives the official 'okay' and hands over a check, how long until we could see a life-sized statue?

@Christopher Walker Yeah that's the side I meant. The East Side Gate 4 is an awesome place for it. 

I don't want to leave out Odus Mitchell, the reason this thread started, but I don't know how that would go over, nor do I think it would be good to conflate the two ideas in one. I say if we can successfully get a statue built of our most famous football alumnus, we can get something named after Odus Mitchell eventually. 

If we want to be all official about it, we can nominate a little committee or some such. I vote the above named people to serve on it. I'd be happy to serve also, in a Chief Twitter-er capacity. 

I'll email the foundry and get current numbers. I can say this, if this were to get an official "okay", I'd start by placing an order for a large amount of J Mac clay. I'd have to build a suitable armature on which to construct the sculpture. I am an art teacher, so I would sculpt the statue in the afternoons, evenings, weekends, and summer. It could be ready for the foundry within 8 to 12 months. I can't say exactly how long the foundry would take. It depends on how many sculptures they have to pour. Usually, the foundry can cast a sculpture in 6 to 10 weeks. I know all of this sounds like a long time, but I'd rather make a quality statue then rush it. If you look at OU's Heisman statues at their stadium, they don't look very nice. Baylor's Robert Griffin statue has issues too. If we did this, I'd like for ours to look better. Mr. Greene would probably prefer it look better too.

[aztecskin]

@Side Show Joe Well Seth spent the day talking about taking one's time so that would be fine with me. Thanks 

So we are looking at something like 14 months. Add to that the lead time to get money and support and I say a good 18 months. That's not terrible. 

[97and03]

I swear I posted this already, but it was on  my phone, so you never know.

I would encourage you to work with UNT to set up at donation account for this, if serious.  That way you can still use credit cards to donate online, but individual donations get the non-profit tax benefit, unlike with the gofundme idea. Furthermore, UNT (and alumni and students) benefits by improving their percentage of alumni donating figure. We also complain about UNT not reaching out to alumni for donations, so this solves part of that by getting alumni back in touch with UNT Development, thereby getting info in the database for future fundraising efforts. Additionally, I don't believe UNT would charge for this account, unlike gofundme. (On that last point I could be wrong. They do charge a fee for endowment accounts, but those have interest and are managed by the university. I think this type of account would just be more straightforward, like a piggy bank.)

Just my two cents.

[SilverEagle]

I think the East entrance where MOST of the foot traffic goes into Apogee is the ideal location for a statue(s?). My vision is for the statue(s?) to be right where the football team makes it's walk into the stadium, so that they get to pass by Joe Greene on their way to making more history for North Texas. I would also like to see statues of both Coach Mitchell AND Abner Haynes along the same path/route into the stadium for the team and fans.

Walking past all that great North Texas history. How could a player not be inspired knowing we have such a great history here at North Texas........and it's looking right at him every game day!

And the same should apply to every North Texas fan walking into the stadium.

Addendum:

Since we're all dreaming, how about this. A group statue with all three together. The two greatest players in North Texas history........and the man who coached them both.

Edited December 9, 2015 by SilverEagle

[Stan R]

What a fantastic idea! 

How about we offer bricks similar to the alumni pavilion for $150 each along with a commemorative keepsake (actual cost to make less than ($15) for each brick purchased with that person's name on it.  

I'd be in for one. I'm sure many would contribute to have their names put on bricks surrounding the statue. $1,500 or something for bricks around the very center.  Less as you go outward from the center.  Something like that.