Was C.C. Jitter Nolan our last "Pro Athletics" President?

[DeepGreen]

There was some talk on the board about how Jitter Nolan "handled" the Athletic Department during his tenure at North Texas during the 1970's. Seems like UNT was pretty successful back then.  Is he the reason we now keep coaches, athletic directors, etc., from producing winning results at their respective jobs?  Was the "post Nolan Presidency", and all the years and Presidents that have followed, held at bay by all of the Board of Regents that have followed, presumably to not make the same mistake again.  Were the Presidents not allowed to expect accountability from their athletic leaders and merely made to "meet the Athletics budget" like some on here have suggested?  What has been the "Jitter Effect"?  Is our lack of sustained success because of every President and BOR is looking over their shoulders so as not to repeat what happened before?

Silver?  FirefightnRick? Other fans from that era care to comment?

Edited April 20, 2016 by DeepGreen

[letsgiveacheer]

I entered (matriculated!)  North Texas in 1971, the first year Nolan was president. At his first address to the university, he said "I am the president of the greatest university in the world." The audience then started laughing loudly...but I degrees.

Nolan was very pro athletics. He figured out a way to bring Fry to Denton by paying him both the AD and the head coach salaries. While Nolan was president, both the basketball and football teams were nationally ranked for the only time in our long history.

He was very well liked by the students; he even gave up his president's mansion on Ave C. He was not so well liked by the faculty as he did not have a doctorate. He was more of a business manager rather than an academic.

Edited April 20, 2016 by letsgiveacheer

[GrandGreen]

Interesting theory, but I don't think it has anything to do with anything at least past the Moore hire.  I think Moore was hired to be the anti-Fry.  

My opinion is that Hurley just didn't see much value in college sports and was content with a low level athletic presence.  I really think the BOR was much more behind the move back to D1 than Hurley.  I credit Bobby Ray and others on the BOR for elevating athletics at NT and beginning the substantial flow of resources into NT athletics.  

People complain about the current BOR, but a look at NT's sport budget demonstrates strongly that the support is there.  Of the later presidents, I believe that Pohl and Rawlins were big supporters of athletics.  Bastille wasn't interested, but at least she pretended she was and didn't openly oppose NT sports.     

Smatresk is still an unknown to a large degree.  I like most wish he had made some changes, but certainly don't think he is anti-athletics.

 

[TheWestie]

24 minutes ago, GrandGreen said:

Smatresk is still an unknown to a large degree.  I like most wish he had made some changes, but certainly don't think he is anti-athletics.

 

 

Smatresk is very, very pro-athletics. He's spoken many times about how he personally is a sports fan and about how much he understands that athletics is a reflection on the university.

 

[GrandGreen]

5 minutes ago, TheWestie said:

 

Smatresk is very, very pro-athletics. He's spoken many times about how he personally is a sports fan and about how much he understands that athletics is a reflection on the university.

 

This is a refrain uttered by almost any President at a D1 university.   To me, it means nothing until there are actions to support that view.  

[UNTexas]

4 minutes ago, TheWestie said:

 

Smatresk is very, very pro-athletics. He's spoken many times about how he personally is a sports fan and about how much he understands that athletics is a reflection on the university.

 

Actions speak louder than words. He has done nothing noticable to change the culture within the Athletic Department. Talk is really cheap. I hope he does something about the sad sad state of affairs our school is in athletically.

[SilverEagle]

12 hours ago, letsgiveacheer said:

I entered (matriculated!)  North Texas in 1971, the first year Nolan we president. At his first address to the university, he said "I am the president of the greatest university in the world." The audience then started laughing loudly...but I degrees.

Nolan was very pro athletics. He figured out a way to bring Fry  to Denton  by paying him both the AD salary and the head coach salary. While Nolan was president, both the basketball and football teams were nationally ranked for the only time in our long history.

He was very well liked by the students; he even gave up his president's mansion on Ave C. He was not so well liked by the faculty as he did not have a doctorate. He was more of a business manager rather than an academic.

Not long after Hayden Fry was hired, he called a town meeting and invited all the faculty and students that could fit in the auditorium (not the main one, but one of the music auditoriums) and proceeded to say basically the same thing to the crowd......but nobody was laughing. Although I giggled a little when he said he wanted North Texas to be the Notre Dame of the south.

We haven't had a President go through as much trouble, and play fast and loose with the budget, like Nolan did to get a high profile coach. Not long after Fry left for Iowa the anti-Nolan/Fry "old nesters" contingent gathered up a lynch mob and ran Nolan out of town with trumped up charges of mis-managing funds. In fact it was the very next year (79).

When James Rogers updated his book "The Story of North Texas" on the occasion of our centennial, it was clear that he was probably in the anti-Fry group. He didn't give him much credit, and the last thing he said was that Fry left for Iowa and left the athletic department 1 million in the hole. Imagine what he might have said about the McCarney situation and the buy-out. 

So Deep and Letsgiveacheer,  this is a long harangue to say that IMHO yes, Nolan was probably our last President that (adjusting for inflation) made a serious commitment to athletics.

Obviously someone woke up back in the late 60's early 70's to the reality that North Texas needed to catch up on fund raising, both for the benefit of the University in general, as well as athletics. I have been told more than once that Nolan was hired because of his fund raising skills and/or connections. With a faculty and administration that was used to the anti-fund raising policies of Dr. Matthews, I'm sure Nolan and Fry were a huge culture shock. And IMHO after they both left, the Matthews minions just closed ranks. And THEIR minions are still very much in charge. 

What I want to know is who's idea it was in the first place to hire Nolan as our University President.

 

Edited April 20, 2016 by SilverEagle

[NM Green]

Smastrek is very pro athletics.  Loved seeing him ham it up at the rebel games and you know he loved that run to the sugar for the Warriors.  We just need to give him something to get excited about and Seth and company are going to do that!  

GMG

[Roadruner]

On April 20, 2016 at 11:07 PM, GrandGreen said:

This is a refrain uttered by almost any President at a D1 university.   To me, it means nothing until there are actions to support that view.  

The Roadrunner was here in the late 60’s and worked for the university during Nolen’s term.  He was not liked by the faculty because he was not a Dr. and he was a conservative Rep. He did a great job while he was here but rented the super pit out to a republican caucus group and got fired within about 2 weeks from that event.  Politics is always playing a roll in our non-success. 

You have to keep in mind two things about Jackson and the BOR:

1. Jackson was a Disliked Judge in Dallas County and they pushed him off on UNT as know one wanted him- so we win.

 

2. The BOR are appointed by the Governor and are his Rich friends- they are doing him a favor for serving on our Board- They do not care at all for UNT- they are just serving out their time – Athletics is semi funded by the state so it is not really a concern for them.

 

Jackson is Retiring in 2017 so our Pres. May have an opportunity to take action then but I do not think it will happen.

 

You have to have balls to get the hard things done –unfortunately all of our administrators have been neutered. 

[VideoEagle]

This all depends on how, exactly, you define "pro-athletics." 

Except for posts here, everything I've heard from people and read online elsewhere reports, Smastrek is very, very pro-athletics. Just because he didn't fire RV or Bedford doesn't make him disqualify him from being "pro-athletics" to me as I do not know what his options were. I have no idea about sources of funds, limits on the uses based on the source, directives from the BOR, etc. 

Jitter Nolan was very pro-athletics no matter how you define that. Hurley is considered by many here to be anti-athletics, but he did fight back a push by the faculty to drip football altogether at least twice. I think Hurley's hands were at least somewhat tied by the budget and school politics. Nothing anyone could have done in 1982 could have prevented the drop to IAA, but a push by the school could have brought us back to 1A status much, much sooner. 

[UNTLifer]

2 hours ago, Roadruner said:

 

The Roadrunner was here in the late 60’s and worked for the university during Nolen’s term.  He was not liked by the faculty because he was not a Dr. and he was a conservative Rep. He did a great job while he was here but rented the super pit out to a republican caucus group and got fired within about 2 weeks from that event.  Politics is always playing a roll in our non-success. 

You have to keep in mind two things about Jackson and the BOR:

1. Jackson was a Disliked Judge in Dallas County and they pushed him off on UNT as know one wanted him- so we win.

 

 

2. The BOR are appointed by the Governor and are his Rich friends- they are doing him a favor for serving on our Board- They do not care at all for UNT- they are just serving out their time – Athletics is semi funded by the state so it is not really a concern for them.

 

 

Jackson is Retiring in 2017 so our Pres. May have an opportunity to take action then but I do not think it will happen.

 

 

You have to have balls to get the hard things done –unfortunately all of our administrators have been neutered. 

 

So much wrong with this post. 

Nolen was president during the 70's ending in 79', not in the late 60's.

Jackson was a 10 term State Rep and was elected 4 times to serve as a Dallas Co. judge.  I don't think he was disliked or "pushed off on UNT."

The BOR has a number of UNT alumni.  Brint Ryan, Courtny Haning, Donald Potts, Rusty Reid, Gwyn Shea and Laura Wright are all alumni.

Athletics is not funded by the state.

[Cerebus]

No doubt in my mind that Norvahl Pohl was very pro athletics.  

He did a lot of good in the time he was here, and I think he would have done much more if he was allowed to stay on.  Unfortunately he was loyal to a Provost that really wrong footed some tenure reforms and the faculty demanded their pound of flesh.  

[UNT90]

6 hours ago, VideoEagle said:

This all depends on how, exactly, you define "pro-athletics." 

Except for posts here, everything I've heard from people and read online elsewhere reports, Smastrek is very, very pro-athletics. Just because he didn't fire RV or Bedford doesn't make him disqualify him from being "pro-athletics" to me as I do not know what his options were. I have no idea about sources of funds, limits on the uses based on the source, directives from the BOR, etc.