UNT alums wanted

Marty · August 21, 2006

Wanted: Texoma UNT alums

University of North Texas athletic director Rick Villarreal has been very active in including the Texomaland area in his quest to attract alumni back to the fold.

For the fifth time in six years, UNT alumni will gather Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. at the American Bank of Texas on Texoma Parkway in Sherman to meet Mean Green coaches, including head football coach Darrell Dickey and basketball coaches Johnny Jones and Tina Slinker.

Two years ago, about 200 alumni met with then-university president Dr. Norval Pohl, Villarreal, and coaches.

Winning alums back has been a tall order for Villarreal, but four consecutive bowl trips between 2001 and 2004 have helped. With 100,000 UNT graduates living within an hour’s drive of campus, gaining their support is the key to UNT’s attaining the status of a big-time athletic presence.

Villarreal said alumni support fell off in the interim between Hayden Fry’s heyday in the 1970s and the recent run of success in the Sun Belt Conference. During that time, the Mean Green dropped to Division I-AA and then struggled for several years after returning to I-A in 1995.

“If we at the University of North Texas are going to be what we need to be, which is a nationally competitive program, then we have to raise the level across the board,” Villarreal said. “Not just with our student-athletes and our coaches, but with our alumni. We have got to get those folks to start buying into the program.

“The reason programs like Alabama and Texas are the way they are is because of the alumni base and the people that support them. We have to get our people supporting our program to get it to the next level.”

The Texoma alumni event has been held in the past through the efforts of Chuck Pool and the late David Bayless, two UNT exes from Denison and longtime supporters of the Mean Green and the university.

Bayless’ son, David Jr., will continue the event.

Senior associate AD Hank Dickenson, who is in charge of the Mean Green Club, said two years ago that the Texoma event was one of the largest ones outside the immediate Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex for UNT alums.

“We have a lot of alumni (in the Texoma area) that don’t drive over for games on Saturdays,” Villarreal said. “It’s only an hour and 15 minutes from Sherman. So it’s really important for them to come out to our event on (Tuesday) to see what’s going on with athletics, but it’s even more important for them to buy season tickets and make that drive for an hour and 15 minutes. If they haven’t been there in a while, they won’t recognize the place.”

Getting these fans involved on Saturdays, Villarreal said, is only the first step. A number of improvements has already been made to athletic facilities, but his ultimate goal is a new stadium to replace aging Fouts Field.

Villarreal said that now that the initial upgrades are in place, attention can now turn to raising funds to replace Fouts with a modern, 30,000-seat stadium across Interstate 35E, where the new Mean Green athletic complex is located.

On Tuesday, Texoma UNT fans will once again be given an opportunity to help put the Mean Green on the major-college athletic map.

“That is a great group over there (in Sherman), and there’s a small core that’s been very active,” Villarreal said. “Mr. Bayless was such a spark plug and inspiration. I hope the people of Sherman and Denison will rally around what he wanted, and that was to make the Mean Green the best it could be.”

SilverEagle · August 21, 2006

It wasn't during the Corky Nelson era that the University lost most of it's alumni support The biggest loss of alumni support was during the Craig Helwig era.

Cowtown · August 21, 2006

I second that.

Remember the days when if you were caught in the parking lot with a pre game beer, regardless of age, you could be given a ticket.

BleedGreen64 · August 21, 2006

I go back to the days when Denton was dry and you got a beer in Dallas, Fort Worth, Oklahoma or the bootleggers.

My 1:15 minute drive from Ellis County through Dallas traffic is not bad. It is lots of fun to rub shoulders with others who love and dupport the Mean Green.

You Texomans come on down and bring friends. Let us start selling out so that we have to have the new stadium to hold everyone.

GMoney · August 21, 2006

It wasn't during the Corky Nelson era that the University lost most of it's alumni support The biggest loss of alumni support was during the Craig Helwig era.

AMEN Brotha! Maybe he was trying to relate that era with the Chancelor Hurley's time frame, but Helwig accelerated in 2 years what took Hurley 20 years to start!

Hurley and Helwig

MeanGreen61 · August 21, 2006

I go back to the days when Denton was dry and you got a beer in Dallas, Fort Worth, Oklahoma or the bootleggers.
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Grew up in Denton. It was the wettest little dry town in north Texas Seems that the town motto was 'vote dry, drink wet'.

NT80 · August 22, 2006

A number of improvements has already been made to athletic facilities, but his ultimate goal is a new stadium to replace aging Fouts Field.
Villarreal said that now that the initial upgrades are in place, attention can now turn to raising funds to replace Fouts with a modern, 30,000-seat stadium across Interstate 35E, where the new Mean Green athletic complex is located.
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Hey, maybe the ice is thawing on the new stadium idea again?

Edited August 22, 2006 by NT80