Even When We're Way Ahead Of Everyone Else

[SUMG]

In today's FW Star-Telegram.....college football writer, Wendell Barnhouse, has an article where he bemoans the lack of black head football coaches in Division I college football.

I don't disagree with Mr. Barnhouse on that....but I had to correct him, when he stated that:

(Talking about UH hiring OU assistant Ken Sumlin) "And Sumlin is the first black coach at a Division I school in the state of Texas."

Don't you get tired of UNT never getting credit for breaking racial barriers? I do. So, I sent him this e-mail:

Dear Mr. Barnhouse,

In your article today (5/17)....you state that Ken Sumlin is the first black head coach at a Division I-A school in Texas.

Not true, sir.

My alma mater, UNT....had Matt Simon as our head coach from 1994-1997. And while we were I-AA in 1994.....we moved up to I-A from 1995-1997 (and are still at that level). So, we beat UH by about 13 years in that regard.

I'm proud of my school, Mr. Barnhouse, when it comes to racial diversity.

We had black football players (Abner Haynes, Leon King)...about 10 years before Jerry Levias broke the color barrier in the SWC.

Also, we've had two black men's basketball head coaches (Jimmy Gales, and our current coach Johnny Jones). Can any other Texas Division I school say that? (other than the SWAC schools, of course).

And, we just hired a head coach for our women's team...who is black (Shanice Stephens). I'm not sure, but I don't think any other Division I school in Texas has had a black women's head coach. (I'm talking about the non-SWAC schools, once again.)

So while other schools may need a wake up call...how 'bout some kudos every so often for good ole UNT?

You're a good writer, Mr. Barnhouse. Even the great ones make a mistake every now and then.

Go Mean Green!.

john mcdowell

[Zeke]

Excellent letter.

The Abner Haynes/Jerry Levias comment was needed, as many writers seem to think that Levias broke the Texas college color barrier.

[PlummMeanGreen]

Having grown up in the Houston area in the 50's and 60's you would begin to know some of our problems at UNT & most of that having to do with all the gross neglect of our school (outside DFW) and just basic non-coverage of North Texas athletics from the 2 papers I read, ie, the (now defunct) Houston Post and the Houston Chronicle. Fact is (as most of you would know), we were just not a member of the almighty SWC (which amazingly I still miss today albeit we mostly still get the cold shoulder from most of the schools from that old storied league as we did in past decades).

Abner Haynes once told me what a past (now deceased) UNT Board of Regent told him many years ago at a Mexican eatery in Fort Worth.

The recently inducted Texas Sports Hall of Famer, Ron Shanklin & myself were eating some great Mexican food at Dos Gringo several years ago and Abner told our late, great friend Shank' and myself that UNT should have really started making a push to go up the NCAA 1 ladder as far back as UNT's Sun Bowl team of 1959. Well, as has been said many times ad nausem on this forum from one of its posters:), lets just get our media guides out to see where we've been, what we've done lately (as compared to all ex SWC schools) and see where we're headed today.

Of late, Ive been just about as disillusioned about this program as I ever have been post my own graduation in May of 1976. Am I yet any less a fan of our dear ol' alma mater and the Mean Green? No, just like 99.9% of you are not, either. We just need some really big news soon (and I'm not talking about one football player making his grades) although that is always good news).

Let me shorten this best I can by saying what many of you already know:

This projected new football stadium (IMHO) is really no longer a situation as to our mostly needing to replace the one we have now (which has had as many coats of paint on it as old time comedienne Phyliss Diller must have had in face-lifts)....

....but the building of this new stadium has (IMHO once again) become a rather large symbol of what we really want to do with our entire athletic program, and to a greater extent, our entire Denton-based university.

Again, I think the building of this new stadium has become a most important symbol which may answer the question for many of: Does UNT (as the future 2'nd Largest University in the State of Texas) really want to be a true player in NCAA D1 sports period or do we want to continue our role as PSU, that is, Potential State University? We know Todd Dodge wants to get rid of that word "potential" at UNT and was one of the first things he said when he was hired 2 Decembers ago.

Many will judge our entire university by what we build out at the Eagle Point Campus and if we blow all of this by the continual delay of getting this enormous project jump-started (or even a worse case scenario of never getting it started period), then all of our fellow Texans across the Lone Star State (&beyond) will have their answer about the University of North Texas' main campus.

I know this is possibly the worst time there could be to raise Big Monies for this football stadium with whats going on with the world economy, but we sure do need to "git-er" done anyway.

GMG!

Edited May 17, 2008 by PlummMeanGreen

[SUMG]

Here's the article that Mr. Barnhouse wrote...so you can read it for yourself:

http://www.star-telegram.com/college_sport...ory/648693.html

[EagleD]

Here's the article that Mr. Barnhouse wrote...so you can read it for yourself:

http://www.star-telegram.com/college_sport...ory/648693.html

Did he e-mail you back? B/c he responded to my e-mail and tap danced around the mistake by saying Sumlin was the first black head coach HIRED by a 1-A school.

But that's not what he printed.

GO MEAN GREEN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SUMG]

Did he e-mail you back? B/c he responded to my e-mail and tap danced around the mistake by saying Sumlin was the first black head coach HIRED by a 1-A school.

But that's not what he printed.

GO MEAN GREEN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yessir, he responded. I thought his response was very weak, very similar to what he must have said to you. Here's his response:

Thanks for reading and for taking the time to write. You are correct about Simon but the point is that North Texas was a I-AA school when Simon was hired. The fact that UNT moved up to I-A distinguishes from the fact that a current I-A school hired a minority as its head coach. I did check the facts. I'm not slighting UNT and Simon. You might consider it a splitting of hairs but the bottom line is that Sumlin is the first minority to be hired by a I-A school.

Anyway, his response makes me think he's a jackass. I now regret having been so cordial to him.

If anyone else wants to e-mail him...his e-mail is: wbarnhouse@star-telegram.com

Edited May 17, 2008 by SUMG

[Arkstfan]

But wasn't Simon hired because UNT wanted new leadership as part of the move to I-A?

[EagleD]

Yessir, he responded. I thought his response was very weak, very similar to what he must have said to you. Here's his response:

Thanks for reading and for taking the time to write. You are correct about Simon but the point is that North Texas was a I-AA school when Simon was hired. The fact that UNT moved up to I-A distinguishes from the fact that a current I-A school hired a minority as its head coach. I did check the facts. I'm not slighting UNT and Simon. You might consider it a splitting of hairs but the bottom line is that Sumlin is the first minority to be hired by a I-A school.

Anyway, his response makes me think he's a jackass. I now regret having been so cordial to him.

If anyone else wants to e-mail him...his e-mail is: wbarnhouse@star-telegram.com

Word for word. I learned how to cut and paste in kindergarten too.

[hickoryhouse]

I guess there was more than one or two who emailed him about his lack of fact checking,

[greenminer]

Word for word. I learned how to cut and paste in kindergarten too.

You give him too little credit. He very well could have setup his Outlook with an autoreply rule to emails with "UNT" and "Simon" in the body of the message.

[NT80]

But wasn't Simon hired because UNT wanted new leadership as part of the move to I-A?

Yes, NT had already made the move to 1-A on paper when Simon was hired in 1994 for it's last season in 1-AA. It was in the process of leaving the SLC for 1-A Indy in 1995 then Big West in '96. This guy is just looking for an out on his mistake, poor research on his part.

[PlummMeanGreen]

Yes, NT had already made the move to 1-A on paper when Simon was hired in 1994 for it's last season in 1-AA. It was in the process of leaving the SLC for 1-A Indy in 1995 then Big West in '96. This guy is just looking for an out on his mistake, poor research on his part.

And we should expect more from those media-types who think SMU and TCU are still the darlings of the Metroplex?

Hellsbells, look how long it took former UNT great Abner Haynes to be inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame which (BTW) any local DFW sports reporter (or TV sportscaster) in the last few decades could have played key roles in leading a grass roots campaign to get this huge over-sight corrected. Any of you fellow Old Gun Alums recall such an article or push in DFW? I sure as hell don't and I missed very few daily sports pages around these parts since 1972. IMHO and I know the opinons of many of you, the great Abner Haynes should have been in its inaugural class, but I know we tend to be a bit bias on this board.

Like UH fundraiser Bill Yeoman (hmmm? what a concept, an ex HFC coach icon & legend as a fundraiser); anyway, like Yeoman has said in recent years: "It's very difficult being a UH alum at times" (or something to that effect). Well, I think many of us at UNT can for darn sure relate to what he is saying with that.

Some things in our Lone Star State seem to almost be set in stone when the SWC was created as far back as 1918 or whenever it was created; that is, for all the schools that weren't part of its beginning.

GMG!

Edited May 17, 2008 by PlummMeanGreen

[SUMG]

This guy Barnhouse is one of the Big 12 cheerleaders...from what I recall. He's sort of like Jay Bilas...in that he only seems to care about the "big conferences."

Well...let's just see how his Big 12 schools (in Texas) have done....compared to little ole pissant UNT:

We've had three black head coaches for the two major sports (Simon, football; Gales and Jones, basketball). We HIRED them...to be our coaches.

The Texas Big 12 schools have had one hired black head coach in the two major sports (Melvin Watkins, b-ball coach at A & M).

Now, I think Baylor had an interim black head coach (Harry Miller)....who replaced fired b-ball coach Darell Johnson. But Miller wasn't HIRED to be the head coach.

So, when it comes to hired black head coaches...here's the score:

little ole North Texas---- 3

The Big 12 Texas schools---1

Eat on that Barnhouse.

Edited May 17, 2008 by SUMG

[GreenBat]

This guy Barnhouse is one of the Big 12 cheerleaders...from what I recall. He's sort of like Jay Bilas...in that he only seems to care about the "big conferences."

Well...let's just see how his Big 12 schools (in Texas) have done....compared to little ole pissant UNT:

We've had three black head coaches for the two major sports (Simon, football; Gales and Jones, basketball). We HIRED them...to be our coaches.

The Texas Big 12 schools have had one hired black head coach in the two major sports (Melvin Watkins, b-ball coach at A & M).

Now, I think Baylor had an interim black head coach (Harry Miller)....who replaced fired b-ball coach Darell Johnson. But Miller wasn't HIRED to be the head coach.

So, when it comes to hired black head coaches...here's the score:

little ole North Texas---- 3

The Big 12 Texas schools---1

Eat on that Barnhouse.

John,

Don't use facts to F'up good story. Barnhouse, like most of the Metroplex-area writers, is pro Big 12, whose closest school is more than 100 miles away.

Edited May 18, 2008 by GreenBat