Mattress Mack and the Super Bowl

[UNT Texas Hooligan]

58 minutes ago, NorthTexasSportsNetwork said:

Can someone tell me more about this person and what happened? I’m fairly new to this topic

He's a former North Texas Football player turned business man. He turned a small mattress store into a big furniture Eutopia in Houston. He is a big personality, doing commercials, giving political opinions, etc. He is one of our biggest alumni in a social sense, but for the reasons above, that relationship has soured. Some people here think he would willingly give to North Texas for the good of the school but some know that with someone like him, there is always a stipulation for him attached, and we have grown and improved well beyond needing to ask him for money. Sure, there have been efforts to repair the relationship (North Texas sending buses to Houston to assist him in helping with Hurricane Harvey efforts), but nothing has really shown that it has improved at all. 

[UNT 90 Grad]

3 hours ago, UNT Texas Hooligan said:

He's a former North Texas Football player turned business man. He turned a small mattress store into a big furniture Eutopia in Houston. He is a big personality, doing commercials, giving political opinions, etc. He is one of our biggest alumni in a social sense, but for the reasons above, that relationship has soured. Some people here think he would willingly give to North Texas for the good of the school but some know that with someone like him, there is always a stipulation for him attached, and we have grown and improved well beyond needing to ask him for money. Sure, there have been efforts to repair the relationship (North Texas sending buses to Houston to assist him in helping with Hurricane Harvey efforts), but nothing has really shown that it has improved at all. 

He did have a current full size UNT helmet at the checkout station recently. 

[GreenBacker]

Big day for Mattress Mack.  Maybe he’ll feel generous towards UNT again.

[NT93]

On 2/5/2021 at 10:54 AM, MeanGreen_MBA said:

He is a small business man, not a public company that has cash to burn. 

Are you telling me a guy that can place a 3.5 million dollar bet on the Super Bowl doesn’t have cash to burn?

[greenminer]

https://www.espn.com/chalk/story/_/id/30833023/furniture-store-owner-jim-mattress-mack-mcingvale-bets-346m-underdog-tampa-bay-buccaneers-cover-35-point-super-bowl-spread

[gangrene]

On 2/5/2021 at 10:10 AM, greenjoe said:

$3.46 million seems like an odd amount to me.  I wonder how that number came up ? 

I'm guessing it's the amount for which he'll have to refund everyone that bought mattresses during his promotion.  Hedge your bet...

[greenb.o.g.]

On 2/5/2021 at 11:31 AM, NorthTexasSportsNetwork said:

Can someone tell me more about this person and what happened? I’m fairly new to this topic

This is the only press I could find through recent searches. At the time it was a big hullabaloo ...

https://www.hbcusports.com/forums/threads/this-year-iron-bowl-gets-overshadowed.53581/

[Cr1028]

https://www.furnituretoday.com/furniture-people/gallery-furnitures-mattress-mack-places-3-46m-bet-on-super-bowl/
 

The promotion states “if the Buccaneers win on Sunday, Gallery Furniture customers that spend $3,000 or more on a new mattress will get their money back.”

[Cr1028]

On 2/4/2021 at 4:02 PM, greenjoe said:

If I recall, Mac donated $1mil at an NT basketball game.  I was there.  
 

RV fired Dickey after his “black practice jersey” stunt.

Mac was upset that his pal, Dickey, lost his job. 

Mac threatened that he wanted his money back, or, it be given to the School of Music, or, that there be a practice field named for Dickey.  
 

You know which was chosen. 

 

On 2/5/2021 at 9:47 AM, UNT 90 Grad said:

I don’t remember if it was a bowl game or some other pivotal game, but I recall Dickey wearing a Gallery Furniture cap instead of the typical white North Texas cap.  

Maybe I’m remembering it wrong, but I believe Dickey was told he was being let go prior to black jersey game but given the opportunity to still coach the game.  I thought that was the whole reason why he pulled the black jersey stunt. 
 

https://www.espn.com/college-football/news/story?id=2654445

Yes Dickey was fired before black-jersey-gate but allowed to coach out the rest of the season. As a middle finger to RV, the university, or someone, he “bought some black jerseys for the team to wear at the last home game because the players always wanted to wear black jerseys”.  You may say, well he just wanted to take care of his players/team, you might be able to make that case if they hadn’t come out to warm up in their regular jerseys only to go in and sneakily change before kickoff. There was a locker room fight at halftime and just mass dysfunction around that game. RV didn’t give Dickey the McCarney treatment though, he allowed Dickey to coach an away game at Monroe the very next week. Lunacy.

[El Paso Eagle]

48 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

 

Yes Dickey was fired before black-jersey-gate but allowed to coach out the rest of the season. As a middle finger to RV, the university, or someone, he “bought some black jerseys for the team to wear at the last home game because the players always wanted to wear black jerseys”.  You may say, well he just wanted to take care of his players/team, you might be able to make that case if they hadn’t come out to warm up in their regular jerseys only to go in and sneakily change before kickoff. There was a locker room fight at halftime and just mass dysfunction around that game. RV didn’t give Dickey the McCarney treatment though, he allowed Dickey to coach an away game at Monroe the very next week. Lunacy.

DD did a good job at winning the conference. I do think, right or wrong, the way he went out with the black jerseys played a big part is the reason he has not got another HC job. People understand coaches get fired, it's common in the business, but how you handle it makes a difference.