DO YOU REMEMBER?

[FirefightnRick]

DO YOU REMEMBER.....?

http://www.unt.edu/newuntfeatures/bowl2002/index.htm

Were you there?

I was and I'll never forget it. Who would have thought it would go that far?

Do you remember how it began?

..........when roughly 900 of us were there to see what some claimed as the laughing stock of college football, go out and win the final game of the season that November day to finish 3-8?

NT wasn't very good that year but our defense started to shut down some folks and getting us the ball back. If only we could find some offense? REMEMBER?

Do you remember these faces only 24 months later?

They were the ones that were the laughing stock two years earlier(back in '00). The ones that were part of a conference that so many on the oustide only one year earlier said was "such a sad, waste of space to even have a bowl game". or, "How pathetic it was to be a part of a conference that had to let a team with a losing record attend it's innaugural bowl".

Remember this guy and his interception returned for a Mean Green TD on national TV?

Or this guy with the trophy?

That's Kevin Galbreath, the 2002 New Orleans Bowl MVP. He raised that MVP trophy after NT beat the co-champions of C-USA. The same C-USA co-champions that had beaten TCU and nearly beat the eventual national champions earlier that year. Remember the criticisms after that Cincy game? No, because there were none. Most of those hateful criticisms turned into........"Damn, NT is playing good ball now" by folks at TCU, SMU, Tech and on and on and on. Dave Campbells rated us as one of the better teams in Texas not soon after that. Oh, and after that.........

Do you remember the next year after that?

36 months removed from being the laughing stock we're kicking another stuck up private school in the privates..........at FOUTS. Again, it was SHHHHHH!!!! with not much criticism coming at NT or the Sun Belt that day and on into December later that season. Remember?

What I'm getting at is, I remember how it began and many here need to as well if you were there. If not then you can catch up on it.

Since June I have been very busy building the limber for your "Boomer the Cannon". You, the Mean Green Nation Member now owns yet another part of the collegiate experience, which by the way is EXTEMELY unique and belongs to The University of North Texas. But as busy as I have been working on it I still managed to attend a couple of the games including the SMU win. I have been critical of the offense, it's true. But my time in the shop also got me to thinking back how it began back in '00 and the more I thought of it and looked at the pictures and remember how it grew the more I realize that time in '00 was not that much different than this current time now. I've just got a good feeling about what the future may have in store for us?

We had a young team in '00 and we watched them grow. I never did like the offense but our defensive play more than made up for it. It's very reminiscent of this years team which is again very young. What have they done to deserve this positive hope I speak of? Well, not sure I've been all that positive, especially with the offense. But both sides of the ball are starting to show some signs of life following a 2-9 season. If you take out SMU's defense NT has faced the average of the 28th best defense in the nation so far. Yeah we have gotten manhandled in all three games but there were positives in all three and there is plenty of time to build on it.

Speaking of SMU? Most of us here thought this team and the program didn't take the SMU game serious. It's quite clear now that was not the case at all. I spoke of it here, you spoke of it here and everyone including DallasGreen to the Dallas Morning News hammered it home to the program the importance of that game. In fact, GMoney spoke to many of the players himself to point out the important reasons for us to beat SMU. The players themselves came into NT not knowing a thing beforehand about what it meant for NT to beat SMU. Hell, they were only around 3 or 4 years of age when we beat SMU the last time in '90. As it turned out they did take that game serious, fought hard and got the win as most of us here thought was the absolute minimal, acceptable goal for our OOC season, and they did it better than I could have ever imagined it. Now, they certainly have not come close to meeting all their goals I'm sure but as I said earlier they are showing signs of life. On that November day in '00 we would have never even dreamed of what the near future held for us just as I'm sure the players and their families, the coaches and AD staff couldn't have imagined it either. And just like in '00, time will only tell what great things may be in store for this team down the road. That is why I'm giving this team my patience and support. They deserve it. They have earned it.

Finally, I wanted to simply say.....I AM NORTH TEXAS! I love my school, I love my Mean Green. They are MY team, the only team I have. The Mean Green are the only team my kids have, and Scrappy is the only Bird of Prey mascot my kids love. As far as they are concerned we could go 1-11 and they would still be loving them some Mean Green and the game day atmosphere we enjoy each weekend. What does it say about a team, a program, a school when it's fans love and support them, regardless of the wins and losses? It makes them winners. How? I win each time I see all of you again. I win with each new friend I meet at Fouts. I win each time I shake your hands, and drink your beer, eat your food and slap high fives with you and remember experiences past that no amount of money short of a time machine could bring back.

We continue to be winners on and off campus because we support our players, our program and our school. In our daily lives "The Corridor of Years" has taught us what it's suppose to, and that is to go out and meet any challenge we face head on as Greene did, as Cobbs did, as Kennedy, or Hall or Maher, or Davis, or as Bridges did too, regardless of the previous days' score or of the hill to be climbed the next day.

Each time I see all of you, each time I see and support the Mean Green, each time I step onto the beautiful campus of NT I think of what got me here today and how my experiences and time spent there prepared me for success in the future.

Rick

Edited September 28, 2006 by FirefightnRick

[Baby Arm!]

Rick, the Limber looks great. Any further info from RV on whether they are going to display it and boomer in the AC lobby?

[UNT_playmaker]

Go Mean Green

[NM Green]

Seeing the Superdome open tonight brought goosebumps and major emotions. If I can I am going to go to the New Orleans Bowl Mean Green or not. That city needs visitors and much much more. It would be great to sing and dance with the people of the Big Easy again this fall amongst the MG Nation.

Time to turn it up and go 2-0 before the end of the State Fair!

GMG

[edcollopy]

good take Rick...very well said.....and we better win sat.

[meangreanmick]

DO YOU REMEMBER.....?

http://www.unt.edu/newuntfeatures/bowl2002/index.htm

Were you there?

I was and I'll never forget it.  Who would have thought it would go that far?

Do you remember how it began? 

..........when roughly 900 of us were there to see what some claimed as the laughing stock of college football, go out and win the final game of the season that November day to finish 3-8? 

NT wasn't very good that year but our defense started to shut down some folks and getting us the ball back.  If only we could find some offense?  REMEMBER?

Do you remember these faces only 24 months later?

They were the ones that were the laughing stock two years earlier(back in '00).  The ones that were part of a conference that so many on the oustide only one year earlier said was "such a sad, waste of space to even have a bowl game".  or, "How pathetic it was to be a part of a conference that had to let a team with a losing record attend it's innaugural bowl".

Remember this guy and his interception returned for a Mean Green TD on national TV?

Or this guy with the trophy?

That's Kevin Galbreath, the 2002 New Orleans Bowl MVP.  He raised that MVP trophy after NT beat the co-champions of C-USA.  The same C-USA co-champions that had beaten TCU and nearly beat the eventual national champions earlier that year.  Remember the criticisms after that Cincy game?  No, because there were none.  Most of those hateful criticisms turned into........"Damn, NT is playing good ball now" by folks at TCU, SMU, Tech and on and on and on.  Dave Campbells rated us as one of the better teams in Texas not soon after that.    Oh, and after that.........

Do you remember the next year after that?

36 months removed from being the laughing stock we're kicking another stuck up private school in the privates..........at FOUTS.  Again, it was SHHHHHH!!!! with not much criticism coming at NT or the Sun Belt that day and on into December later that season.  Remember?

What I'm getting at is, I remember how it began and many here need to as well if you were there.  If not then you can catch up on it.

Since June I have been very busy building the limber for your "Boomer the Cannon".  You, the Mean Green Nation Member now own yet another part of the collegiate experience, which by the way is EXTEMELY unique and belongs to The University of North Texas.  But as busy as I have been working on it I still managed to attend a couple of the games including the SMU win.  I have been critical of the offense, it's true.  But my time in the shop also got me to thinking back how it began back in '00 and the more I thought of it and looked at the pictures and remember how it grew the more I realize that time in '00 was not that much different than this current time now.  I've just got a good feeling about what the future may have in store for us?

We had a young team in '00 and we watched them grow.  I never did like the offense but our defensive play more than made up for it.  It's very reminiscent of this years team which is again very young.  What have they done to deserve this positive hope I speak of?    Well, not sure I've been all that positive, especially with the offense.  But both sides of the ball are starting to show some signs of life following a 2-9 season.  If you take out SMU's defense NT has faced the average of the 28th best defense in the nation so far.    Yeah we have gotten manhandled in all three games but there were positives in all three and there is plenty of time to build on it. 

Speaking of SMU?  Most of us here thought this team and the program didn't take the SMU game serious.  It's quite clear now that was not the case at all.  I spoke of it here, you spoke of it here and everyone including DallasGreen to the Dallas Morning News hammered it home to the program the importance of that game.  In fact, GMoney spoke to many of the players himself to point out the important reasons for us to beat SMU.  The players themselves came into NT not knowing a thing beforehand about what it meant for NT to beat SMU.  Hell, they were only around 3 or 4 years of age when we beat SMU the last time in '90.  As it turned out they did take that game serious, fought hard and got the win as most of us here thought was the absolute minimal, acceptable goal for our OOC season, and they did it better than I could have ever imagined it.  Now, they certainly have not come close to meeting all their goals I'm sure but as I said earlier they are showing signs of life.  On that November day in '00 we would have never even dreamed of what the near future held for us just as I'm sure the players and their families, the coaches and AD staff couldn't have imagined it either.  And just like in '00, time will only tell what great things may be in store for this team down the road.  That is why I'm giving this team my patience and support.  They deserve it.  They have earned it. 

Finally, I wanted to simply say.....I AM NORTH TEXAS!  I love my school, I love my Mean Green.  They are MY team, the only team I have.  The Mean Green are the only team my kids have, and Scrappy is the only Bird of Prey mascot my kids love.  As far as they are concerned we could go 1-11 and they would still be loving them some Mean Green and the game day atmosphere we enjoy each weekend.  What does it say about a team, a program, a school when it's fans love and support them, regardless of the wins and losses?  It makes them winners.  How?  I win each time I see all of you again.  I win with each new friend I meet at Fouts.  I win each time I shake your hands, and drink your beer, eat your food and slap high fives with you and remember experiences past that no amount of money short of a time machine could bring back. 

We continue to be winners on and off campus because we support our players, our program and our school.  In our daily lives "The Corridor of Years" has taught us what it's suppose to, and that is to go out and meet any challenge we face head on as Greene did, as Cobbs did, as Kennedy, or Hall or Maher, or Davis, or Bridges did too, regardless of the previous days' score or of the hill to be climbed the next day. 

Each time I see all of you,  each time I see and support the Mean Green, each time I step onto the beautiful campus of NT I think of what got me here today and how my experiences and time spent there prepared me for success in the future. 

Rick

←

That is the best post I have ever read on this board.

[CMJ]

Bravo Rick.

[GangGreen]

I think I'm gonna cry. GO MEAN GREEN!

[GoMTBlue]

Great post Rick. That's one of the great things about supporting a SBC program. People tend to jump on the bandwagon of these bigger schools (Texas, Tennessee, etc.), but the ones of us who help build the bandwagon will have a greater sense of pride in our programs. We will remember the struggles and hard times and then the good times will be even more special.

[MeanGreen61]

[greenjoe]

down the corridor of years

we'll forget the joys and tears

but North Texas, North Texas

we love

Come early

Yell loud

Stay late

Win

Join the Mean Green Club

Buy Season Tickets

GO MEAN GREEN

[CaribbeanGreen]

Amen. Thanks, Rick.

What a great, great time it was.

[NTEdgex2]

Rick, you made me cry. See you Saturday.

GMG!

[TeachinTodd]

This post made me want to drive home 31 miles from work and put on my UNT jersey and wear it for two days straight! I can't wait to see ya'll on Saturday - be looking for me in my tight (and I mean that in the fat sense of the word) #58 jersey!

GO MEAN GREEN!

[medpilot21]

Great post Rick. Yep, I remember all of that. Great trips to N.O. I'm ready to go back. Besides, Harrah's needs some more of my money...

GMG!!!

[stebo]

As always, a great post by the Rickster

[Norwester]

It's kind of surprising how few "rah rah" posts like Rick's there are on here.

I jumped on the Mean Green bandwagon in 2002, but didn't get on the message boards until after 2004. I found a lot of posts trashing DD, Fouts Field, the belt, etc.

It was good that there weren't as many when, I believe it was Rick or John Denver, told people to knock it off because potential recruits read these. But it seems like lately negative posts have come back with a vengance.

I think it would be better for everyone in Mean Green Nation if there were more celebrating positives like this post rather than highlighting the negatives.

[Coffee and TV]

Not to be a dick and ruin the party, but is our cannon really that unique? I mean, there's gotta be 30-40 other I-A's that have it, right?

[CaribbeanGreen]

It's kind of surprising how few "rah rah" posts like Rick's there are on here.

I jumped on the Mean Green bandwagon in 2002, but didn't get on the message boards until after 2004. I found a lot of posts trashing DD, Fouts Field, the belt, etc.

It was good that there weren't as many when, I believe it was Rick or John Denver, told people to knock it off because potential recruits read these. But it seems like lately negative posts have come back with a vengance.

I think it would be better for everyone in Mean Green Nation if there were more celebrating positives like this post rather than highlighting the negatives.

←

It's far more fun for some posters to revel in negativity. These are the same people who must secretly root against NT, based on the blind negativity towards our current regime and the refusal to deem anything in our recent past a rousing success. The same people who post 10 times the amount after a bad loss than a great win.

I thought this was supposed to be fun. Not for some, apparently.