FW*Telegram NT planning to build on progress

OldTimer · April 21, 2006

UNT planning to build on progress

By JEFF WILSON

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

UNT athletic director Rick Villarreal has grand plans for improving the quality of Mean Green athletics over the next five years.

More photosDENTON -- A news conference was scheduled for April 4, 2001, to introduce the new athletic director at North Texas.

As those types of ceremonies go, the right things were said and spirits were high when Rick Villarreal was hired. The question is, though, how many people believed the hype?

Support for the Mean Green was hardly rampant. The Mean Green Club had only 52 members. The alumni base and community had heard previous empty promises about where UNT's teams were headed, and they were all still idling in the driveway.

UNT has put the Family Truckster into gear and is moving forward five years later. Progress has been made, but Villarreal admits more ground needs to be covered over the next five years.

"If we had to compare the program then to the program today, you wouldn't even know they're the same place," Villarreal said. "We have to look at this as a different program and how we are now going to approach the next five years because it's not the same one we found five years ago."

Every team has benefited in the past year from improved facilities. The department is housed in a new building that includes a large, modern weight room and a much-improved training room. The football team has two practice fields and a locker room.

That building is the landmark improvement under Villarreal, but not the only one. The soccer team has a new field, the tennis team has a new set of courts, the softball team's new field will be completed within the month, and a new academic center has been completed.

"People like to see results of their contributions," football coach Darrell Dickey said. "Now, we finally showed that we're going to do things for the athletic department, other than just fielding a team."

The next step is getting more fans to come see the teams play and, ideally, walk away impressed enough to contribute an annual gift.

Donations from private businesses are also coveted -- like the $5 million given by Movie Gallery to Sun Belt member Troy to help renovate its football stadium.

UNT sits just to the north of teams in the five major professional sports leagues, Texas Motor Speedway and two NCAA Division I-A football-playing colleges. UNT might not be as attractive an option, but it would provide a big-name company with visibility.

Villarreal said the Mean Green Club's membership has moved past 600. But he's not satisfied with that. To be a viable Division I athletic department, thousands are needed.

"We've got to start raising between $1 million and $2 million a year just in annual giving to sustain the program into the future," he said. "Four years ago, you're raising $50,000. Now you're getting that $500,000. It allows you to do things with the program."

Football attendance is the best example of where fan support can improve. In 2004, when the Mean Green was headed toward its fourth consecutive Sun Belt Conference title, the average home crowd was 15,184, less than half the capacity of Fouts Field and 109th in the country.

Basketball attendance hasn't flourished either. Villarreal believes more consistent, successful seasons will fill seats, and his directive to coaches for the next five seasons is to build winning teams.

He believes the facilities are in place and coaches have access to everything needed to be successful.

"If you're going to have athletics, you might as well be good," Villarreal said. "Are we committed to doing it long term? I think we are. You've just got to put the right mixture of facilities, coaches and players, and I think we're close to that."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jeff Wilson, (817) 390-7953 jwilson@star-telegram.com

LongJim · April 21, 2006

UNT planning to build on progress

Encouraging.

Mad Hatter · April 21, 2006

Nice article......But what's the plan?

SilverEagle · April 21, 2006

Nice and generic.

April 21, 2006

Basketball attendance hasn't flourished either. Villarreal believes more consistent, successful seasons will fill seats, and his directive to coaches for the next five seasons is to build winning teams.

How about winning teams next season?

PlummMeanGreen · April 21, 2006

What I finally (duh?) began to see as the fly in the ointment for anything significant being built in Denton (like a $50 million football stadium) is the blatant cold fact for many of us on this board that Lee Jackson will have to eventually do the job that was commissioned for him to do by our UNT System Board of Regents and that is..........to build a free-standing university in south Dallas County.

With that in mind and with another "ice water in the face" fact is that our entire UNT System endowment last I checked was still under $40 million. In fact, when RV came in talking about raising $90 million for athletics, he should have checked back then (if he in fact didn't) what the school's total endowment was before making such a goal; but on the other hand, look at what some alums at other schools (T. Boone Pickens) will do for that part of a university that past UNT presidents have called our "picture window of the university."

Edited April 21, 2006 by PlummMeanGreen

foutsrouts · April 21, 2006

We have GOT to get baseball going. We go WAY too many months without athletic visibility. We are sitting in a hotbed of baseball talent, and if we were lucky enough to be successful in a short period of time, it could really contribute to the overall success of our athletic program. College baseball seems to gradually be turning into less of a "back burner" sport every year. Twenty years ago college crowds were miniscule everywhere in the state other than UT-Austin. That has changed dramatically.

April 21, 2006

What I finally (duh?) began to see as the fly in the ointment for anything significant being built in Denton (like a $50 million football stadium) is the blatant cold fact for many of us on this board that Lee Jackson will have to eventually do the job that was commissioned for him to do by our UNT System Board of Regents and that is..........to build a free-standing university in south Dallas County.
With that in mind and with another "ice water in the face" fact is that our entire UNT System endowment last I checked was still under $40 million. In fact, when RV came in talking about raising $90 million for athletics, he should have checked back then (if he in fact didn't) what the school's total endowment was before making such a goal; but on the other hand, look at what some alums at other schools (T. Boone Pickens) will do for that part of a university that past UNT presidents have called our "picture window of the university."
←

I don't know what Lee Jackson's principal goal was but I do know what his strength has been. He was great at knowing which buttons to push to get funding for Dallas County when he was in the legislature. I expect a constinuation and yes, a lot of the funding will go toward the funding of the University of North Texas at Dallas. While there is no necessity for having a larger endowment to help with the building of a new university, it may be possible that some of the interest is used at the Dallas campus.

It seems to me that we are not necessarily competing for the same donations. Some would give to UNT academics or a specific college, some would be interested in the UNTD campus only and some prefer giving to athletics because the dollars are more visible. There's no denying, however, that some of the donations that might have gone to athletics will be diluted or even given to another entity.

Right now, the only real need at the main campus is for a couple of new dorms and a new health center. The health center has been addressed and the dorms will begin returning money quickly after completion. Tho only need to tap into the endowment interest might be for facurlty salaries or hiring prominent professors.

I don't see any major dollars being drained from our meager endowment for the Dallas campus. Maybe a little seed money or an emergency expense but nothing of significance. Hopefully, UNTD will begin their own endowment campaign soon. Except for a common chancellor and board of regents, UNT-Dallas should stand on its own.

I do get miffed at the backseat that the Athletics Department is required to take. The football stadium will soon be 55 years old and is too small and archaic to attract major opponents. There are only five buildings on campus that are more than 55 years old that I can recall and most of them (Marquis, Terrill and the College of Music have been extensively renovated. I'm not sure about Chilton and the Auditorium Building. Because of the location and design of Fouts it cannot be renovated and so a new stadium should be an extremely high priority. Since we are in one of the better baseball conferences in the country, so should a baseball stadium (which we've never had). When those are accomplished, the athletic department can go back to the end of the line.

IMO, athletics will get and keep the quantity and quality of students that UNT needs to maintain its status as a premier research university. I look at UTD, a quality university that is not advancing because the student body is not growing. Their athletic program is minitua and I believe that is why they are somewhat stagnant. So, I think that we should pull out all of the stops. Take a large portion of the OOD and put them on securing a new stadium. Get a campaign going that will involve all of the greenbackers on this board, outside agencies or whatever it takes. Just get it done.

untgirl04 · April 21, 2006

There are only five buildings on campus that are more than 55 years old that I can recall and most of them (Marquis, Terrill and the College of Music have been extensively renovated. I'm not sure about Chilton and the Auditorium Building. Because of the location and design of Fouts it cannot be renovated and so a new stadium should be an extremely high priority. Since we are in one of the better baseball conferences in the country, so should a baseball stadium (which we've never had). When those are accomplished, the athletic department can go back to the end of the line.
←

Actually, there is an older building on campus - Curry Hall. It was originally the president's house on campus, and is now one of COBA's buildings. They have team labs and some large lecture halls, but there's still the pool in the basement.

Semantics aside, I do agree with you that we need both a new football stadium and a baseball stadium. I like the idea of creating a residence hall as part of the stadium, so that they can use a bit of state money to help out. Students would definitely have no excuse for not attending games..... Do you think if we add the residence hall to the stadium, we can count everyone who lives in the building as "butts in seats"?

Go_UTA · April 21, 2006

I look at UTD, a quality university that is not advancing because the student body is not growing. Their athletic program is minitua and I believe that is why they are somewhat stagnant.

Yes, UTD is a quality university and their athletic program is small, but it is not true that they are not advancing and are stagnant. In fact, they are extremely aggressive and are to be taken very seriously. They have a good-sized endowment allowing them to attract a bunch of bright students with scholarships (including National Merit winners) and supplement faculty salaries to attract some of the brightest. Besides UT Austin and A&M, they are the third university in the state which can realistically be said to have "selective admissions." Their annual external research budget is running around $33 million a year and growing (UT Arlington's is about $23, and UNT's is about $17).

Their student life stinks and their campus isn't very appealing (in my opinion), but it is a university on the move. They are in the "emerging research" group of universities (along with UTA and UNT and a few others), but they may be the next Tier I university in Texas.

The competition to increase research budgets and advance the academic profile of universities is a lot quieter and less public than athletics, but this is where the real race is. If there is any reorganization of higher education in Texas and changes in funding based upon classification, we all want to be positioned as favorably as possible for this possible eventuality.

Yes, they would be "better" with a more visible athletics program for all the reasons we on this board appreciate, but it really isn't affecting their rapid ascension. In fact, they have a very clear idea of who they are and not having major athletics (due to their unique history) has helped them focus on academic excellence.

Frankly, I keep my eye on UTD more than anybody else in the metroplex.

PlummMeanGreen · April 21, 2006

I don't know what Lee Jackson's principal goal was but I do know what his strength has been. He was great at knowing which buttons to push to get funding for Dallas County when he was in the legislature. I expect a constinuation and yes, a lot of the funding will go toward the funding of the University of North Texas at Dallas. While there is no necessity for having a larger endowment to help with the building of a new university, it may be possible that some of the interest is used at the Dallas campus.
It seems to me that we are not necessarily competing for the same donations. Some would give to UNT academics or a specific college, some would be interested in the UNTD campus only and some prefer giving to athletics because the dollars are more visible. There's no denying, however, that some of the donations that might have gone to athletics will be diluted or even given to another entity.
Right now, the only real need at the main campus is for a couple of new dorms and a new health center. The health center has been addressed and the dorms will begin returning money quickly after completion. Tho only need to tap into the endowment interest might be for facurlty salaries or hiring prominent professors.
I don't see any major dollars being drained from our meager endowment for the Dallas campus. Maybe a little seed money or an emergency expense but nothing of significance. Hopefully, UNTD will begin their own endowment campaign soon. Except for a common chancellor and board of regents, UNT-Dallas should stand on its own.
I do get miffed at the backseat that the Athletics Department is required to take. The football stadium will soon be 55 years old and is too small and archaic to attract major opponents. There are only five buildings on campus that are more than 55 years old that I can recall and most of them (Marquis, Terrill and the College of Music have been extensively renovated. I'm not sure about Chilton and the Auditorium Building. Because of the location and design of Fouts it cannot be renovated and so a new stadium should be an extremely high priority. Since we are in one of the better baseball conferences in the country, so should a baseball stadium (which we've never had). When those are accomplished, the athletic department can go back to the end of the line.
IMO, athletics will get and keep the quantity and quality of students that UNT needs to maintain its status as a premier research university. I look at UTD, a quality university that is not advancing because the student body is not growing. Their athletic program is minitua and I believe that is why they are somewhat stagnant. So, I think that we should pull out all of the stops. Take a large portion of the OOD and put them on securing a new stadium. Get a campaign going that will involve all of the greenbackers on this board, outside agencies or whatever it takes. Just get it done.
←

Totally concur, Jack...

IMHO, UNT never had a large enough financial endowment to have really taken on the UNT-Dallas project and to still (effectively) cover its bases in Denton and Fort Worth. Instead of tackling the UNT-Dallas project, I really felt we should have further developed UNT Health Science Center over here in Fort Worth; work toward getting the future UNT Law School and UNT Pharmacy school for our main campus while letting TAMU or Texas Tech fight over who got the south Dallas County project. NOTE: Even Lee Jackson in a DMN article several months ago was extolling the (already known) fact that "UNT is not a wealthy institution" (or words to that affect).

I've thought this from the git-go when new stadium talk first began but we will still need the Big Donor to get this project jump-started at our Eagle Point Campus. Of course, I also feel UNT needs to expand its horizons as far as potential donors are concerned and go outside the box and its usual potential donor list in order to develop the one(s) who could be that Big Donor.

Don't know about any of you, but it really does sorta' bother me that many pro athletes have contract$ that could more than get our new stadium jump-started but..................oh well.

Edited April 21, 2006 by PlummMeanGreen

DeepGreen · April 21, 2006

NOTE: Even Lee Jackson in a DMN article several months ago was extolling the (already known) fact that "UNT is not a wealthy institution" (or words to that affect).
←

Part of the reason NT is still a Tier 4 University.

Don't know about any of you, but it really does sorta' bother me that many pro athletes have contract$ that could more than get our new stadium jump-started but..................oh well.
←

Hell, many pro athletes have contracts worth twice as much as NT's total endowment! Now how do you feel?

meangreendork · April 21, 2006

Time to find a sponsor for the new field. Microsoft has a large team in Irving (but a MS stadium would probably crash daily), the GameStop company is located in Grapevine, and there are countless companies in DT Dallas to look at.

"The Richards Group Stadium at North Texas"?

"Tracy Locke Field"?

Look at Miller, or Peterbilt...heck, GM has a plant in Arlington, don't they?

Mean'n'Green07 · April 21, 2006

Time to find a sponsor for the new field. Microsoft has a large team in Irving (but a MS stadium would probably crash daily), the GameStop company is located in Grapevine, and there are countless companies in DT Dallas to look at.
"The Richards Group Stadium at North Texas"?
"Tracy Locke Field"?
Look at Miller, or Peterbilt...heck, GM has a plant in Arlington, don't they?
←

Only one state has more fortune 500 companies founded than texas, and a good portion of these companies are located in the DFW area. When the time gets closer towards building that new stadium, we really shouldn't have a problem finding a sponsor. However, I disagree with the no new need for academic buildings.

I read in a newspaper UNT has the worst ratio of classrooms per student in the state. On top of that I think we need more science buildings/engineering type buildings to continue to get more federal grants in a time where the state is decreasing funds.

Can someone also explain to me all the animosity toward Lee Jackson? I have never publiclly heard him say hes not pro-athletics, and everyone on campus I have talked to doesn't seem to think that (besides the people on this message board). Is this more of a conspiracy theory or are there actually hard facts?

Baby Arm! · April 21, 2006

Can someone also explain to me all the animosity toward Lee Jackson? I have never publiclly heard him say hes not pro-athletics, and everyone on campus I have talked to doesn't seem to think that (besides the people on this message board). Is this more of a conspiracy theory or are there actually hard facts?
←

Lee Jackson has publicly stated that he is not a sports fan. Some on this board equate that to being anti-athletics. Also there is logo-gate'05, (there's nothing wrong with the new logo, I think most have come to like it) however the way the logo release and design process were handled was a PR disaster.

Bear in mind I don't think this alone means he's anti athletics but some on this board have a mentality if he's not with us, he MUST be against us.

Its similar to how one poster chooses to villify the most pro-athletics BOR chairman we've had in years. A BOR chairman that has said he wouldnt allow the hiring of a new president that wasn't pro-athletics, But becuase Bobby Ray didn't fire Dickey after a 2-9 season this one poster choses to dictate conspiracy theories about Bobby Ray and the Kansas State mafia, family vacations together, etc.

Most of this stuff is just internet message board fodder and shouldn't be taken seriously.

MeanGreen61 · April 21, 2006

Lee Jackson has publicly stated that he is not a sports fan. Some on this board equate that to being anti-athletics. Also there is logo-gate'05, (there's nothing wrong with the new logo, I think most have come to like it) however the way the logo release and design process were handled was a PR disaster.
Bear in mind I don't think this alone means he's anti athletics but some on this board have a mentality if he's not with us, he MUST be against us.
Its similar to how one poster chooses to villify the most pro-athletics BOR chairman we've had in years. A BOR chairman that has said he wouldnt allow the hiring of a new president that wasn't pro-athletics, But becuase Bobby Ray didn't fire Dickey after a 2-9 season this one poster choses to dictate conspiracy theories about Bobby Ray and the Kansas State mafia, family vacations together, etc.
Most of this stuff is just internet message board fodder and shouldn't be taken seriously.
←

At least Jackson is a season ticket holder and member of the Mean Green Club

MeanMag · April 21, 2006

I read in a newspaper UNT has the worst ratio of classrooms per student in the state. On top of that I think we need more science buildings/engineering type buildings to continue to get more federal grants in a time where the state is decreasing funds.
←

obviously you haven't seen research park... I don't know of a nicer building in the UNT system. Besides, they just built a new Chemistry building, and a new environmental science building, which is very nice.

I do think that a brand new business building should be tops on the list.

axis · April 21, 2006

Besides UT Austin and A&M, they are the third university in the state which can realistically be said to have "selective admissions."
←

A&M has a selective admissions process? When did this happen?

April 21, 2006

Actually, there is an older building on campus - Curry Hall. It was originally the president's house on campus, and is now one of COBA's buildings. They have team labs and some large lecture halls, but there's still the pool in the basement.
Semantics aside, I do agree with you that we need both a new football stadium and a baseball stadium. I like the idea of creating a residence hall as part of the stadium, so that they can use a bit of state money to help out. Students would definitely have no excuse for not attending games..... Do you think if we add the residence hall to the stadium, we can count everyone who lives in the building as "butts in seats"?
←

You are right about Curry Hall beiing older but I've never heard of it being the president's house. Prior to and during the time that I attended it was known as the History Building and once housed a small museum. The president's home in the early years was at the site where Hickory Hall now stands.

Thanks to you I now understand why they call it Curry Hall. I didn't realize that it was used by COBA but Jack Curry was the fournding dean of the School of Business so it makes perfect sense that they would honor him.

Mean'n'Green07 · April 21, 2006

Most of this stuff is just internet message board fodder and shouldn't be taken seriously.
←

I think anyone who reads a GGII post won't takes this board seriously

That being said we'll beat UT by 40 points.

DeepGreen · April 21, 2006

Most of this stuff is just internet message board fodder and shouldn't be taken seriously.
←

You mean....some of this information may not be true?

untgirl04 · April 21, 2006

You are right about Curry Hall beiing older but I've never heard of it being the president's house. Prior to and during the time that I attended it was known as the History Building and once housed a small museum. The president's home in the early years was at the site where Hickory Hall now stands.
Thanks to you I now understand why they call it Curry Hall. I didn't realize that it was used by COBA but Jack Curry was the fournding dean of the School of Business so it makes perfect sense that they would honor him.
←

I remember reading somewhere that the President's house, for a period of time, was Curry Hall. I think it might have been in Down the Corridor of Years. I tried to find a reference online, but to no avail. However, I do remember hearing from several people that Curry has a pool in the basement, which would support the theory that it once was a residence.

I find it very interesting that it was once a history building as well. I wish we'd put another museum on campus - I think that would be a great way for alumni and students to connect. I've always been very interested in the history of North Texas, but unfortunately, there's not all that much literature available.

LongJim · April 22, 2006

A&M has a selective admissions process? When did this happen?
←

I think they have a "must love animals...and we do mean LOVE animals" requirement.

FirefightnRick · April 22, 2006

No other event on campus brings more alumni back to Denton more than the football games. Each year this event is NT's greatest opportunity to bring back alumni and cultivate their support and money, and it happens 5 times a year. That is why building a state-of-the-art football stadium and complex should be the university's most crucial goal at this time.

If you want to recruit the nation's top music students? Have Dr. Scott host them and their parents in one of the universities new suites during a game while showing off our talent on the field with the Mean Green Brigade. Same thing for journalism majors, business majors etc. While their here, bring in some of our Pulitzer prize winning professors and others who have reached great strides in their carreers, introduce them during the game and let them hear the cheers of appreciation from thousands.

NT's people have earned some fantastic accomplishments over the years. We should be screaming them from the rooftops as often as we can and a brand new venue that would draw in a television audience now and then would be the perfect stage to do it from. It's a no brainer in my oppinion.

Rick

Edited April 22, 2006 by FirefightnRick

Ibleedgreen · April 24, 2006

GrayEagleOne...Not the History Building, the Historical Building. We used to refer to it as the Hysterical Building, because it was so old, even in the late 60's.