Excuses

[Tom McKrackin]

40 minutes ago, wardly said:

That was the last construction of any structure on our campus dedicated solely to athletics until we oped our new football stadium 10 years ago.

[SilverEagle]

15 hours ago, wardly said:

I'm sorry if I implied that all posters  have the power to effect change at UNT. However we can change or modify our input in a more constructive way. The changes I made in business were accepting the past criticism and going forward with a positive attitude. Everyone works for someone and I certainly was no exception. Regarding Jitter Nolan, if you have the time or interest to investigate you will find that he and UNT parted ways because he allegedly moved funds dedicated to construction of a new music hall to athletics. I still don't think you younger [my 5 years at UNT 1961/1966] graduates realize that until our new president came on board how cash strapped our athletic department was. Hayden built a 3,000 square foot athletic building in the parking lot across from the super pit. That was the last construction of any structure on our campus dedicated solely to athletics until we oped our new football stadium 10 years ago.

Yeah I heard a long time ago about Jitters alleged sleight of hand regarding University funds. I also heard even longer ago that the reason he was hired was because he was allegedly a very good fund raiser. When I worked for the University (furniture moving/storing crew) back around the time that Hayden was hired, ol' Jitter was putting on a fund raising event at the Presidents home. The moving crew that I worked on was dispatched to haul in and set up the tables etc in the house. I had an occasion to go out to the garage to retrieve extra chairs and came across boxes and boxes of liquor and bubbly refreshments. I commented to my co-workers that I'd been in liquor stores that weren't that well stocked. 

Big expectations obviously caught up with him, and I guess he thought that at that moment in time, the athletic department was a more pressing investment.

As to Hayden only building the structure that you described, it sounds like the ticket office at Fouts. Which eventually was expanded to locker rooms, weight room, and coaches offices and meeting rooms. I seem to remember that all of that was built during the Corkey Nelson era.

I remember that Hayden wrote a book after he moved to Iowa, and he mentioned in it that he had raised 26million toward the construction of the Super Pit. That was good ol' Texas BS. He talked a lot about building stuff, but he never got around to before he left.

I still believe they were the best one-two punch team of promoters of this University. In between them and our current President everyone else has been........uninspiring.  And before Jitter....the word Pedantic comes to mind.

Edited September 10, 2021 by SilverEagle

[wardly]

55 minutes ago, SilverEagle said:

Yeah I heard a long time ago about Jitters alleged sleight of hand regarding University funds. I also heard even longer ago that the reason he was hired was because he was allegedly a very good fund raiser. When I worked for the University (furniture moving/storing crew) back around the time that Hayden was hired, ol' Jitter was putting on a fund raising event at the Presidents home. The moving crew that I worked on was dispatched to haul in and set up the tables etc in the house. I had an occasion to go out to the garage to retrieve extra chairs and came across boxes and boxes of liquor and bubbly refreshments. I commented to my co-workers that I'd been in liquor stores that weren't that well stocked. 

Big expectations obviously caught up with him, and I guess he thought that at that moment in time, the athletic department was a more pressing investment.

As to Hayden only building the structure that you described, it sounds like the ticket office at Fouts. Which eventually was expanded to locker rooms, weight room, and coaches offices and meeting rooms. I seem to remember that all of that was built during the Corkey Nelson era.

I remember that Hayden wrote a book after he moved to Iowa, and he mentioned in it that he had raised 26million toward the construction of the Super Pit. That was good ol' Texas BS. He talked a lot about building stuff, but he never got around to before he left.

I still believe they were the best one-two punch team of promoters of this University. In between them and our current President everyone else has been........uninspiring.  And before Jitter....the word Pedantic comes to mind.

I can't count the number of past presidents that did nothing to help athletics and actually hurt our program. After Fry left I attended a small alumni meeting of local business men in Dallas. They planed to hire Abner Haynes, provide him with an office and secretary , and solicit donations for the athletic department. This group would fund it and  cost to UNT was nothing.  All we needed was authorization from our new president, Frank Vandiver[sic][ who later left us for Texas A&M.,] as at the time any donations such as this could be written off. He sent a representative to this meeting who expanded upon Frank's vision for North Texas that didn't include athletics. I just couldn't believe he turned us down. This was free money to the athletic department at no cost to North Texas. To me this was the greatestever  missed opportunity for athletics at UNT. There was no guarantee we would have been successful but to not even try. Most of those businessmen I have never seen again.

[SilverEagle]

11 hours ago, wardly said:

I can't count the number of past presidents that did nothing to help athletics and actually hurt our program. After Fry left I attended a small alumni meeting of local business men in Dallas. They planed to hire Abner Haynes, provide him with an office and secretary , and solicit donations for the athletic department. This group would fund it and  cost to UNT was nothing.  All we needed was authorization from our new president, Frank Vandiver[sic][ who later left us for Texas A&M.,] as at the time any donations such as this could be written off. He sent a representative to this meeting who expanded upon Frank's vision for North Texas that didn't include athletics. I just couldn't believe he turned us down. This was free money to the athletic department at no cost to North Texas. To me this was the greatestever  missed opportunity for athletics at UNT. There was no guarantee we would have been successful but to not even try. Most of those businessmen I have never seen again.

Well, it looks like you did an excellent job of making my point about the problem starting at the top. BUT, you know who would have given you and your group a big thumbs up on that proposed free promotion/fund raising proposal? You guessed it! Good ol' Jitter Nolan. Hayden Fry too.  

Another good home grown resource squandered. I used to work with the wife of former TCU/Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Sherill Hedrick. She used to tell me about going to Kansas City Chief reunions with her husband, where Abner Haynes was frequently in attendance. She mentioned on more than one occasion that Abner was a very good speaker and would have been a great promotional guy for North Texas. She once wondered out loud why North Texas never utilized him as a fund raising/promotional guy for the school.......I just smiled and didn't say anything.

[greenminer]

15 hours ago, SilverEagle said:

She mentioned on more than one occasion that Abner was a very good speaker and would have been a great promotional guy for North Texas. She once wondered out loud why North Texas never utilized him as a fund raising/promotional guy for the school.......I just smiled and didn't say anything.

Any indication on whether or not this was explored? It's a good story, but I wonder if UNT reached out and Abner said 'no'?