DRC On-again, off-again series full of history

OldTimer · September 9, 2006

Football: On-again, off-again series full of history

12:46 AM CDT on Saturday, September 9, 2006

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

Erric Pegram isn’t sure exactly what happened on the sideline at Fouts Field back in 1990, when yet another memorable moment in the on-again, off-again rivalry between North Texas and Southern Methodist unfolded.

UNT had blocked a field goal just before halftime when the former Mean Green running back turned to watch a play that quickly developed into a melee.

“We had a huge fight,” Pegram said. “If there was anything that started a rivalry between North Texas and SMU, it was that fight. It was a knockout brawl. … Both benches cleared.”

The incident is just one highlight in a heated series that seems to have it all — fights, sniping in the media, coaches trading sides and close friends facing off, not to mention the intrigue of an affluent private school taking on one of the largest public institutions in Texas.

That history is one reason a game that might as well be dubbed the “Safeway Parking Lot Bowl” will be played tonight, more than a decade after the series went on an inexplicable hiatus following the 1992 season.

According to coaches and athletic department officials at both schools, an SMU-UNT series just makes too much sense to remain dormant.

“We talk about creating excitement for football in the area and this game does that,” UNT athletic director Rick Villarreal said. “It also helps both teams’ budgets and it puts people in the stands. It’s the kind of game that should be played on a regular basis.”

UNT officials have been lobbying to make a game with SMU a yearly tradition seemingly since the schools began their series in 1922.

The teams played 20 times between their first meeting and 1942 before the series went into its first extended dormant period. That break might have lasted even longer had it not been for legendary coach Hayden Fry.

Fry worked at SMU from 1962-72 before being fired. He ended up at UNT a short time later and immediately started lobbying for the schools to begin playing again.

“SMU was very good to me when I was the coach at North Texas,” Fry said. “I wanted to get a series going and we started playing.”

SMU beat UNT and Fry 7-6 in 1974. The Mean Green broke through three years later at Texas Stadium when quarterback Ken Washington threw a touchdown pass and ran for another score to lead the Mean Green to a 24-13 win.

UNT went on to finish 10-1 in one of the greatest seasons in Mean Green history.

Fry left for Iowa after the 1978 season, allowing SMU to regain control of the series and deal UNT one of its most embarrassing losses of the last 25 years in 1989. The Mustangs were in their first season since receiving the death penalty from the NCAA while UNT was coming off an 8-4 season. SMU overcame what seemed like long odds and hammered the Mean Green 35-9.

SMU’s only other win that season was over Connecticut.

UNT gained a measure of revenge and one of its few wins in a series SMU leads 27-3-1 in the 1990 season.

Mean Green quarterback Scott Davis rushed for 203 yards and scored a pair of touchdowns while helping UNT end a six-game losing streak to the Mustangs that dated to 1977.

“It was a big game because SMU was right down the road,” Pegram said. “It was accessible to fans. It fired us up because it was the first time we had seen the stands at Fouts Field packed.”

It was also the last time for a packed house at Fouts for an SMU game.

The Mustangs cut off their series with UNT after the 1992 season. Former SMU coach Mike Cavan and athletic director Jim Copeland said they didn’t think the school had anything to gain by playing UNT.

A game with SMU offered much more for the Mean Green, which former coach Matt Simon pointed out in 1994 in one of the more memorable quotes by a UNT coach in recent years.

“I’d like to play because I think we could beat them,” Simon said. “And my players feel the same way. If they’d like to play on a Safeway parking lot … just give us a date and time.”

The administrators and coaches at SMU eventually agreed to renew the rivalry when they signed a contract for a two-year series that will begin tonight.

That change can be attributed at least in part to the arrival of Phil Bennett as head coach at SMU. Bennett, Villarreal and UNT head coach Darrell Dickey all worked together at LSU.

“We thought it was important to get regional rivalries,” Bennett said. “We think financially it’s a good move for us. … To me, playing this game is a no-brainer.”

The abundance of storylines in tonight’s game illustrates why the series makes so much sense.

“There is a have and have-not aspect to this game,” said George Dunham, the longtime radio voice of the Mean Green and a radio personality at The Ticket, an all-sports station in Dallas-Fort Worth. “I can’t think of another matchup where SMU will go on the road and really be hated.”

The personal matchups are just as intriguing.

Bennett said this week that if he were to die tomorrow, Dickey would be one of the five people who would carry the casket at his funeral.

SMU quarterback Justin Willis is a former Ryan standout who played against UNT wide receiver Isaiah Smith of Denton, a team that struggled while Ryan made four straight appearances in Class 4A state championship games.

“We would pull for them when they got into the playoffs because we knew them, but it was tough to lose to them every year,” Smith said.

Smith is just one of several UNT players who will know their opponents well in a game that will establish bragging rights for the year. It’s the scenario that has played out for years in the UNT-SMU series and is what the administrators and coaches envisioned when they agreed to renew the rivalry.

“There is no question any time two teams play and there is some familiarity, it adds a little excitement,” Dickey said. “There probably won’t have to be a lot of speeches this week to get anybody excited.”

Staff Writer Calvin Watkins of The Dallas Morning News contributed to this report.

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com.

GMoney · September 9, 2006

UNT had blocked a field goal just before halftime when the former Mean Green running back turned to watch a play that quickly developed into a melee.
“We had a huge fight,” Pegram said. “If there was anything that started a rivalry between North Texas and SMU, it was that fight. It was a knockout brawl. … Both benches cleared.”

I can tell you exactly how the fight started. If you see me at the game and really want to know be sure to ask me. It's too long to type right now. Let's just say the first shove/punch was made by an assistant strenght coach at NT named Bentley against one of their assistant coaches. However, that was just a small part of what all happened.