North Texas St vs Arkansas 1968

[westdorm528]

Might need some help here from some old timers...this story has became folklore...it happened many years ago...this is what I remember....How can we play Arkansas without what happened 50 years ago...  

It is Sept 1969....I am a freshman at North Texas St Univ...Mean Joe Green just graduated and was the 3rd or 4th pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers.. I need some electives to take and enroll in" Coaching Football" taught by Coach Rod Rust"...Coach Rust shows up on the 1st day...[think he showed up on the last day of classes} Coach Fred McCain off coordinator will be our instructor.....talks about the 1968 Mean Green team...No 1 in the nation in passing with NCAA record breaker Steve Ramsey...No 1 wr in the country Ron Shanklin{ also a Pitt Steeler the following year}..Ramsey set to break 7 NCAA passing records,etc,etc...
On the 1st day of class both Rust and McCain set up the 16 mm film...He tells us he wants us to see how North Texas got robbed in Little Rock vs Arkansas last year. 
He sets the 16 mmm black and white film...we watch North Texas and Mean Joe shut their offense down..then I think in the early 4th qrt Ramsey throws a touchdown pass to Shanklin with Ark leading 17-15...it was a low pass but Shanklin catches it..the ref right on the ball calls for a TD...NT up 22-17....but hold it...another ref behind the play is waving it off saying Shanklin trapped it..incomplete pass...can't remember if the refs confer but no touchdown...now Coach Rust runs that play again to the class...and again..Shanklin made a clean catch..it was low but the ball never touched the ground.. Hogs end up 6th in the country,10-1 and win the Southwest conf title..
North texas got robbed...think we ended up 8-3 or something like that...but we really did win in Little Rock that day..
Coach McCain said with that southern drawl "you can never trust anyone from Arkansas or Oklahoma" he would become my all time favorite teacher and over the years McCain became Ath Dir...he is the coach who told stories that you just loved... my roommate from NY and I loved hearing story after story...we told coach we were NY Giant fans...he coached Spider Lockhart of the Giants..he would tell us Carl thought "he could cover Jesus Christ on a down and out..."... then he told us how Carl outscored the No 1 wr in the nation in Howard Twilly...from Tulsa....I didn't get many A's in my 4 yrs at North Texas but he gave me and Danny one....
Coach passed away about 10-15 years ago....but think he might be on the sidelines Saturday in Arkansas in spirt...I'm sure no one on the NT coaches staff knows this story...wish someone would tell them...

on a sad note Steve Ramsey who played for the Broncos and Giants died awhile back and Ronnie Shankin who played in a few Superbowls for Pittsbugh also passed away....but I got to see Ramsey break all 7 of the passing records...they were for a few years the NCAA record holders in combined TD passes...Go Mean Green....think we could be in trouble this week...hopefully not...

[DeepGreen]

I remember every bit of that fateful night.  NT had it all that game, in fact, the whole year.  We were a force.

[97and03]

I tweeted this to Capper and Wren. 

[rws69]

I was there and had seats that were very low. The touchdown in question was in the end zone to my right and across the field. I did not see the ball touch the ground. It looked like a clean catch, and I was shocked when the second referee called in incomplete. Your story, however, is the first time I heard that we had that captured on film. That 2-point "win" was the closest for Arkansas that year as they beat the Aggies by 3. 

North Texas went 8-2, losing to Arkansas and Memphis. (Memphis accounted for 3 of our 5 losses in 3 years.)

Arkansas went 10-1, losing only to Texas, after beating Georgia (8-1-2) in the Sugar Bowl, and finished #6 in final AP poll.

Texas went 9-1-1 after a tie with Houston and a loss to Texas Tech in their first two games, and beat Tennessee in the real Cotton Bowl. 

Edited September 14, 2018 by rws69
deleted incorrect reference to Tulsa

[Eagle71]

I think you meant to say "Memphis State" rather than Tulsa.

1967 20-29 L

1968 12-30 L

1969 13-15 L

22-6-1 ('67-'69)  and I still hate Memphis State to this day!

[UNTexas]

3 hours ago, westdorm528 said:

Might need some help here from some old timers...this story has became folklore...it happened many years ago...this is what I remember....How can we play Arkansas without what happened 50 years ago...  

It is Sept 1969....I am a freshman at North Texas St Univ...Mean Joe Green just graduated and was the 3rd or 4th pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers.. I need some electives to take and enroll in" Coaching Football" taught by Coach Rod Rust"...Coach Rust shows up on the 1st day...[think he showed up on the last day of classes} Coach Fred McCain off coordinator will be our instructor.....talks about the 1968 Mean Green team...No 1 in the nation in passing with NCAA record breaker Steve Ramsey...No 1 wr in the country Ron Shanklin{ also a Pitt Steeler the following year}..Ramsey set to break 7 NCAA passing records,etc,etc...
On the 1st day of class both Rust and McCain set up the 16 mm film...He tells us he wants us to see how North Texas got robbed in Little Rock vs Arkansas last year. 
He sets the 16 mmm black and white film...we watch North Texas and Mean Joe shut their offense down..then I think in the early 4th qrt Ramsey throws a touchdown pass to Shanklin with Ark leading 17-15...it was a low pass but Shanklin catches it..the ref right on the ball calls for a TD...NT up 22-17....but hold it...another ref behind the play is waving it off saying Shanklin trapped it..incomplete pass...can't remember if the refs confer but no touchdown...now Coach Rust runs that play again to the class...and again..Shanklin made a clean catch..it was low but the ball never touched the ground.. Hogs end up 6th in the country,10-1 and win the Southwest conf title..
North texas got robbed...think we ended up 8-3 or something like that...but we really did win in Little Rock that day..
Coach McCain said with that southern drawl "you can never trust anyone from Arkansas or Oklahoma" he would become my all time favorite teacher and over the years McCain became Ath Dir...he is the coach who told stories that you just loved... my roommate from NY and I loved hearing story after story...we told coach we were NY Giant fans...he coached Spider Lockhart of the Giants..he would tell us Carl thought "he could cover Jesus Christ on a down and out..."... then he told us how Carl outscored the No 1 wr in the nation in Howard Twilly...from Tulsa....I didn't get many A's in my 4 yrs at North Texas but he gave me and Danny one....
Coach passed away about 10-15 years ago....but think he might be on the sidelines Saturday in Arkansas in spirt...I'm sure no one on the NT coaches staff knows this story...wish someone would tell them...

on a sad note Steve Ramsey who played for the Broncos and Giants died awhile back and Ronnie Shankin who played in a few Superbowls for Pittsbugh also passed away....but I got to see Ramsey break all 7 of the passing records...they were for a few years the NCAA record holders in combined TD passes...Go Mean Green....think we could be in trouble this week...hopefully not...

One of my favorite coaches at UNT was Bill Michael. Hell of a man and a hell of a coach. He was to team Captain at Arkansas and began his coaching career there as well. Also coached at Oklahoma! He hit both states. He coached for a really long time and ended his career with us.

[rws69]

15 minutes ago, Eagle71 said:

I think you meant to say "Memphis State" rather than Tulsa.

1967 20-29 L

1968 12-30 L

1969 13-15 L

22-6-1 ('67-'69)  and I still hate Memphis State to this day!

You are correct - how could I forget after seeing all three of those?