Can we change the forum name?

[emmitt01]

As much as we talk about where SMU might, maybe, possibly, could be, perhaps, hypothetically, conceivably, by chance be going in conference realignment....can we change the name of the board to GoSMUconjecture.com???

[SilverEagle]

Well done sir.

 

As I pointed out in another thread where I was discussing (actual) North Texas history. We can waste our time by blaming SMU for keeping us down, but UT has screwed with us much more than any other school in Texas. Get out your copy of "The Story of North Texas" and read the chapter about what should have been our final name change in 1961. 

[DeepGreen]

16 minutes ago, SilverEagle said:

Well done sir.

 

As I pointed out in another thread where I was discussing (actual) North Texas history. We can waste our time by blaming SMU for keeping us down, but UT has screwed with us much more than any other school in Texas. Get out your copy of "The Story of North Texas" and read the chapter about what should have been our final name change in 1961. 

I don’t have the book on North Texas’ history.  Can you give me the “Cliff Notes” answer to the  ‘61 name change?

[Greenrex]

4 hours ago, emmitt01 said:

As much as we talk about where SMU might, maybe, possibly, could be, perhaps, hypothetically, conceivably, by chance be going in conference realignment....can we change the name of the board to GoSMUconjecture.com???

You done went-n-hit the nail on the head again, Emmit!

[DeepGreen]

10 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

I believe it had something to do with us wanting to be either Texas State or UNT (I don’t recall which) and Texas said it was too close to their name at that time. And at that time, what the all white Texas Longhorns wanted, Darrell Royal’s all white team got.

Thanks.  I just needed a refresher on the name change subject.  I remember being pissed that "Southwest Texas State" was able to change their name to Texas State Univ.

[Wag Tag]

6 hours ago, emmitt01 said:

As much as we talk about where SMU might, maybe, possibly, could be, perhaps, hypothetically, conceivably, by chance be going in conference realignment....can we change the name of the board to GoSMUconjecture.com???

What have you heard?

[Mean Green 93-98]

3 hours ago, SilverEagle said:

UT has screwed with us much more than any other school in Texas. 

Wasn't Darrell Royal in favor of adding NT to the SWC?

[SilverEagle]

3 hours ago, Cr1028 said:

I believe it had something to do with us wanting to be either Texas State or UNT (I don’t recall which) and Texas said it was too close to their name at that time. And at that time, what the all white Texas Longhorns wanted, Darrell Royal’s all white team got.

Actually it basically went this way. North Texas achieved "University" status in 1960 or 61. A name change was in order, but to do that a bill needed to be submitted to the Texas legislature. The sponsor for the bill was a representative from Mineral Wells (I can't remember his name). Our choice of name change in the 1961 legislative session was THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS. It made it through the house with no problem, but when it arrived in the Senate, it got real ugly. At least three Senators, (the most vocal of which, was an educator from El Paso), stood up and strongly objected to the proposed name change. They said that it was an affront to the great University of Texas and their great traditions.  Many Senators (especially the UT grads) piled on with all of the negative perceptions/tropes that were typical of that era.  "That little teachers school", "That Little commuter school", "Their credits won't even transfer to any of the REAL schools in Texas"..etc, etc.  Bottom line was, if the bill continues as written, several of the Senators threatened to filibuster the bill. ALL of those negative comments are part of the official legislative record. It's not rumors leaking out of a committee meetings.

Well, North Texas HAD to have a name change, so the Bill sponsor met with the......a-hole Senators and asked what they could live with. They said they could live with NTSU. So the Bill was changed and it went back through the house and senate and was finally approved. 

North Texas went after the preferred name change again in 1988 and were successful. But not after some UT graduates in the legislature tried some procedural shenanigans to screw with the process. 

 

 

Edited July 22, 2022 by SilverEagle

[greenjoe]

Ralph Yarbrough ?

[SilverEagle]

Here is a pretty good summary. 

 

While University Day 1988 was a festive event, it was intended “to be a joyous, but not frivolous, occasion,” as achieving the new name was much more difficult than anticipated.  After having changed names several times throughout its history, in 1961 the institution first attempted to legally change its name from North Texas State College to the University of North Texas; however, while the bill, introduced by State Representative Joe Ratcliff, easily passed the Texas House, it met opposition in the Senate from Senator Charles Herring of Austin. Senator Herring feared the bill would harm the University of Texas and “said it was ridiculous to think there could be two universities ‘in a little town the size of Denton.’”  He called North Texas State College’s attempt to become the University of North Texas a “fraud on the public,” and insisted that the institution “is nothing but a teachers college and that’s what it’s going to be for years to come.” Representative Ratcliff compromised, rather than let the bill die in the Senate, and the name was changed to North Texas State University.

A second attempt to change the name to the University of North Texas was made during the 1969-1971 legislative session, however this move was once again challenged by the University of Texas at Austin, and their opposition prevented introduction of this into legislation at that time. Not willing to completely give up on the name change, university officials began discussing the potential change to the University of North Texas once again in the fall of 1986. This bid ultimately met with success, but not before nearly dying twice on the legislative floor. Neither near-failure had anything at all to do with the merits of the bill itself, but both were purely due to political games. The first near casualty came from Representative Wilhelmina Delco of Austin, who delayed passing the bill through the Higher Education Committee in favor of her own bill. The bill finally passed out of the House committee only three days before the end of the legislative session. The second challenge for the bill came from Representative Jim Rudd of Brownfield, who, in retaliation for an unrelated slight, placed objection to five of Senator Glasgow’s bills, including that of North Texas State University’s name change. Some quick work from members of the Calendars Committee got the bill moved to a higher priority, and the House approved the change from North Texas State University to the University of North Texas. Govenor Bill Clements signed the bill without any further drama, officially changing the school’s name to the University of North Texas, effective May 15, 1988.

[Cr1028]

Thank you @SilverEaglefor the education 

[SilverEagle]

2 hours ago, SilverEagle said:

Here is a pretty good summary. 

 

While University Day 1988 was a festive event, it was intended “to be a joyous, but not frivolous, occasion,” as achieving the new name was much more difficult than anticipated.  After having changed names several times throughout its history, in 1961 the institution first attempted to legally change its name from North Texas State College to the University of North Texas; however, while the bill, introduced by State Representative Joe Ratcliff, easily passed the Texas House, it met opposition in the Senate from Senator Charles Herring of Austin. Senator Herring feared the bill would harm the University of Texas and “said it was ridiculous to think there could be two universities ‘in a little town the size of Denton.’”  He called North Texas State College’s attempt to become the University of North Texas a “fraud on the public,” and insisted that the institution “is nothing but a teachers college and that’s what it’s going to be for years to come.” Representative Ratcliff compromised, rather than let the bill die in the Senate, and the name was changed to North Texas State University.

A second attempt to change the name to the University of North Texas was made during the 1969-1971 legislative session, however this move was once again challenged by the University of Texas at Austin, and their opposition prevented introduction of this into legislation at that time. Not willing to completely give up on the name change, university officials began discussing the potential change to the University of North Texas once again in the fall of 1986. This bid ultimately met with success, but not before nearly dying twice on the legislative floor. Neither near-failure had anything at all to do with the merits of the bill itself, but both were purely due to political games. The first near casualty came from Representative Wilhelmina Delco of Austin, who delayed passing the bill through the Higher Education Committee in favor of her own bill. The bill finally passed out of the House committee only three days before the end of the legislative session. The second challenge for the bill came from Representative Jim Rudd of Brownfield, who, in retaliation for an unrelated slight, placed objection to five of Senator Glasgow’s bills, including that of North Texas State University’s name change. Some quick work from members of the Calendars Committee got the bill moved to a higher priority, and the House approved the change from North Texas State University to the University of North Texas. Govenor Bill Clements signed the bill without any further drama, officially changing the school’s name to the University of North Texas, effective May 15, 1988.

I was wondering if anyone else had noticed the bolded sentence at the end.  Most of you may or may not know that Bill Clements was an SMU graduate. and rather than screwing with us, (which he was certainly capable of doing), he signed the bill changing our name to UNT. So much for SMU conspiracies.

Of course, maybe he wanted to screw with UT more than he wanted to screw with us.

 

I still hate SMU however,

 

Edited July 23, 2022 by SilverEagle

[NT80]

2 hours ago, SilverEagle said:

I was wondering if anyone else had noticed the bolded sentence at the end.  Most of you may or may not know that Bill Clements was an SMU graduate. and rather than screwing with us, (which he was certainly capable of doing), he signed the bill changing our name to UNT. So much for SMU conspiracies.

Of course, maybe he wanted to screw with UT more than he wanted to screw with us.

 

I still hate SMU however,

 

In the 70's there was still NTSU, ETSU, WTSU, and SWTSU.   Many students in Denton preferred the name be changed to drop the North and simply become Texas State University.  There were also calls then from Legislators to merge TWU into NTSU citing duplication of state schools too close together.  Neither happened of course.

As for Bill Clements, he will forever be remembered as the Smut Board Chairman that continued Ponygate payments to players even after NCAA sanctions...

DALLAS — Texas Gov. Bill Clements has apologized for his role in the widening Southern Methodist University football payoff scandal as he attempted to repair his damaged credibility and quiet the outcry that has threatened to engulf his 2-month-old administration.

''In hindsight, it is clear we were wrong,'' Clements said of the decision to ''phase out'' rather than promptly end illegal, secret payments to 13 athletes after the NCAA had sanctioned the Dallas university for similar abuses in August, 1985.

[akriesman]

Thank you Emmitt !    Maybe we should create a new forum for SMU only posts (joking)   Frankly, I am sick of hearing about them here.

The more publicity on the internet for SMU, the more you are helping their cause.   Even bad publicity is better than no publicity.

Edited July 23, 2022 by akriesman

[rcade]

12 hours ago, SilverEagle said:

I still hate SMU however,

There's room in your heart to hate both SMU and UT.

[Jonnyeagle]

I don’t get why everyone gets so freaked out about us talking about SMU.  They are our rival and have been for decades.  We play them every single year and the outcome of the game more often then not can determine the direction of our season since we usually play them early.

And now we are in the same damn conference so we will play them in all sports every year and in some twice or more a year.

So it seems quite logical that we would talk about SMU from time to time on here and interact with their posters.

[emmitt01]

39 minutes ago, Jonnyeagle said:

I don’t get why everyone gets so freaked out about us talking about SMU.  They are our rival and have been for decades.  We play them every single year and the outcome of the game more often then not can determine the direction of our season since we usually play them early.

And now we are in the same damn conference so we will play them in all sports every year and in some twice or more a year.

So it seems quite logical that we would talk about SMU from time to time on here and interact with their posters.

Two things:

1) It’s not “time to time”, there are literally 5 different threads about SMU “talking to” a conference or “pressuring” a conference to let them join.  
 

2) There is ZERO actual evidence that they are going anywhere.  When we joined the AAC, one of their posters was over here telling us they wouldn’t be in the league long and to wait for an announcement.  This is a live picture of those who decided to wait for it…

 

I have “talked to” a lot of hot women in my life.  Stand by for me and Charlize Theron’s wedding invites. 

Edited July 23, 2022 by emmitt01

[SilverEagle]

10 hours ago, NT80 said:

In the 70's there was still NTSU, ETSU, WTSU, and SWTSU.   Many students in Denton preferred the name be changed to drop the North and simply become Texas State University.  There were also calls then from Legislators to merge TWU into NTSU citing duplication of state schools too close together.  Neither happened of course.

As for Bill Clements, he will forever be remembered as the Smut Board Chairman that continued Ponygate payments to players even after NCAA sanctions...

DALLAS — Texas Gov. Bill Clements has apologized for his role in the widening Southern Methodist University football payoff scandal as he attempted to repair his damaged credibility and quiet the outcry that has threatened to engulf his 2-month-old administration.

''In hindsight, it is clear we were wrong,'' Clements said of the decision to ''phase out'' rather than promptly end illegal, secret payments to 13 athletes after the NCAA had sanctioned the Dallas university for similar abuses in August, 1985.

The first time I ever heard of us possibly changing our name to TSU was when Hayden Fry was coach/AD. He mentioned to a reporter that he had been trying to schedule a game (or series) with Ohio State. He said that in talking to Woody Hayes about this, coach Hayes indicated that he was reluctant to schedule a game with a school that had a small-time sounding name like NTSU. Fry said that Hayes suggested that we look into changing our name to something like TSU. That then prompted a discussion/debate as to whether or not the name TSU was reserved for the Aggies in case, they wanted to change their name. Historically that had always been the case for schools originally called "A&M.

Anyway, when SWTSU changed their name to TSU in 2003, we had already achieved our original choice of a name change.....after the third try.

 

As to Bill Clements.  I just remember his quote when he was caught lying about the paying of players....."well, no one had their hands on the Bible when they were quoted about their involvement"

[NT80]

3 hours ago, SilverEagle said:

Anyway, when SWTSU changed their name to TSU in 2003, we had already achieved our original choice of a name change.....after the third try.

I learned later that because North Texas was not part of the Texas State Univ System (Lamar, Sul Ross, Sam Houston, SWT) we could not change our name to TSU.  

UNT has it’s own System now, one of six University Systems in Texas. 

 

Edited July 23, 2022 by NT80

[letsgiveacheer]

In the early 70's, one joker started the rumor that our name would be changed to Lyndon B.Johnson U. This rumor got some traction and there was actually some serious discussion about the pros and cons of such a change.

[SilverEagle]

26 minutes ago, letsgiveacheer said:

In the early 70's, one joker started the rumor that our name would be changed to Lyndon B.Johnson U. This rumor got some traction and there was actually some serious discussion about the pros and cons of such a change.

Was that during the time when one of the candidates for Homecoming queen was a character who called himself "King Bizzaro"?

[NM Green]

I was one of those students who really wanted our name to change to TSU. In hindsight I am glad we kept North prominently stated as part of our name. We do not have an identity crisis like I thought we did. 

Second hindsight revelation. I couldn’t stand the SOW when it first launched. So happy I was proven wrong on both accounts. 

Love UNT Love our diving Eagle. 

beat utep

GMG

[NT80]

7 hours ago, NM Green said:

I was one of those students who really wanted our name to change to TSU. In hindsight I am glad we kept North prominently stated as part of our name. We do not have an identity crisis like I thought we did. 

I also wanted a change to TSU back in the late 70's.  I thought the "North" was too regional and would keep us from growing; enrollment then was 17,000.   Last year it was 42,372 and will rise again this Fall.  The "North Texas" region has exploded the past 20 years and that has also helped our identity. 

Others pointed out it's also more prestigious to be a "University of" something" than a something University, lol. 

[SilverEagle]

8 hours ago, NT80 said:

I also wanted a change to TSU back in the late 70's.  I thought the "North" was too regional and would keep us from growing; enrollment then was 17,000.   Last year it was 42,372 and will rise again this Fall.  The "North Texas" region has exploded the past 20 years and that has also helped our identity. 

Others pointed out it's also more prestigious to be a "University of" something" than a something University, lol. 

Which was why UT screwed with us in the first place, when we first applied for what we thought would be our last name change in 1961.

[Rudy]

23 hours ago, emmitt01 said:

Two things:

1) It’s not “time to time”, there are literally 5 different threads about SMU “talking to” a conference or “pressuring” a conference to let them join.  
 

2) There is ZERO actual evidence that they are going anywhere.  When we joined the AAC, one of their posters was over here telling us they wouldn’t be in the league long and to wait for an announcement.  This is a live picture of those who decided to wait for it…

 

I have “talked to” a lot of hot women in my life.  Stand by for me and Charlize Theron’s wedding invites. 

Exactly. The way $mut is "talking" to other conferences is similar to the way I "talk" to hot women. It's me talking and them ignoring.