What an Alabama Writer has to do this Season

Harry · June 26, 2011

"And while I'm at it, add North Texas to that list. They're the Eagles, Mean Green is just sort of nickname. They're from Denton, Texas, and even though you've never heard of them much, they're one of the largest universities in Texas. I just hope nobody asked me what Denton is near."

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/741671-what-an-alabama-writer-has-to-do-to-get-ready-for-the-season-in-2011

UNTcrazy727 · June 26, 2011

Ugh...we're not the eagles.

CaribbeanGreen · June 26, 2011

See, you said "writer", but then you linked to Bleacher Report. Hey, we all make mistakes!

SilverEagle · June 26, 2011

Ugh...we're not the eagles.

Yes we are!

From the official traditions page....

Scrappy, the Eagle Mascot

Having gone by names like "Normalites" and "the Normal Boys," a student petition was started in the Fall of 1921 to decide on an official mascot name. A student-faculty council wanted to choose a name not used by any other major Texas school. Some of the choices debated were Dragons, Eagles, Hawks and Lions. The names were submitted to the student body in January 1922, and on February 1, 1922, students voted for the EAGLES

from the same site.

Mean Green Nickname

There are many spoken origins to the name "Mean Green." The oldest written source comes from a 1967 Dallas Morning News article by Randy Galloway entitled "MEAN GREEN ON THE LOOSE! Defense Swallows Foes For NTSU."

The article features defensive players; James "steals kids' candy" Ivy, Lindy "cheats at marbles" Endsley, Joe "kicks puppies" Greene, Ret "slugs old ladies" Little, Charles "the hatchet" Beatty, Henry "tears up dolls" Holland, Bob "likes to let air out of wheel chair tires" Tucker.

The article describes that around campus, the "Mean Green" phrase originated from Sidney Graham, wife of the Eagles' sports information director in 1966 and soon became a second nickname.

Why in Gods name is this such a hard concept for college graduates to understand.

UNTcrazy727 · June 26, 2011

Yes we are!

From the official traditions page....

Scrappy, the Eagle Mascot
Having gone by names like "Normalites" and "the Normal Boys," a student petition was started in the Fall of 1921 to decide on an official mascot name. A student-faculty council wanted to choose a name not used by any other major Texas school. Some of the choices debated were Dragons, Eagles, Hawks and Lions. The names were submitted to the student body in January 1922, and on February 1, 1922, students voted for the EAGLES

from the same site.

Mean Green Nickname
There are many spoken origins to the name "Mean Green." The oldest written source comes from a 1967 Dallas Morning News article by Randy Galloway entitled "MEAN GREEN ON THE LOOSE! Defense Swallows Foes For NTSU."

The article features defensive players; James "steals kids' candy" Ivy, Lindy "cheats at marbles" Endsley, Joe "kicks puppies" Greene, Ret "slugs old ladies" Little, Charles "the hatchet" Beatty, Henry "tears up dolls" Holland, Bob "likes to let air out of wheel chair tires" Tucker.

The article describes that around campus, the "Mean Green" phrase originated from Sidney Graham, wife of the Eagles' sports information director in 1966 and soon became a second nickname.

Why in Gods name is this such a hard concept for college graduates to understand.

Dude, you proved my point. Our mascot is an eagle, and our school nickname (what your teams go by) is the Mean Green.

Our nickname was the eagles, but didn't the school officially change it to the Mean Green in the early 2000's?

SilverEagle · June 26, 2011

Dude, you proved my point. Our mascot is an eagle, and our school nickname (what your teams go by) is the Mean Green.

Our nickname was the eagles, but didn't the school officially change it to the Mean Green in the early 2000's?

Our name is the Eagles.....our nickname is the Mean Green. Until Sydney Graham started pestering her husband to include "Mean Green" (meant for the defense) in his press releases, we didn't have a nickname.

My dad's name was Robert, but everyone called him Bob....which was his nickname.

My name is William, but everyone calls me by my nickname....Bill.....not dude.

UNTcrazy727 · June 26, 2011

Our name is the Eagles.....our nickname is the Mean Green. Until Sydney Graham started pestering her husband to include "Mean Green" (meant for the defense) in his press releases, we didn't have a nickname.

My dad's name was Robert, but everyone called him Bob....which was his nickname.

My name is William, but everyone calls me by my nickname....Bill.....not dude.

Look, I know when most people on this board went to UNT we were known as the "Eagles", but that isn't the case anymore. You'll be hard pressed to find any UNT apparel with Eagles on it and they'll only become more rare over time.

The eagle will always have it's place in UNT culture (ex. Scrappy, logo, and being in the fight song). However, the name of our athletic teams is the North Texas Mean Green, not North Texas Eagles.

MDH · June 26, 2011

This reminds me of two years ago in the student section @ Fouts. A new transfer student from Tech kept yelling "Let's go Eagles!". Everyone looked at him with a blank stare. Fun fact: he also was carrying a 6 inch blade in his boot - those techies.

Mean Green 93-98 · June 26, 2011

This reminds me of two years ago in the student section @ Fouts. A new transfer student from Tech kept yelling "Let's go Eagles!". Everyone looked at him with a blank stare. Fun fact: he also was carrying a 6 inch blade in his boot - those techies.

Everyone who gave him that look should have been slapped.

UNT 90 Grad · June 26, 2011

Look, I know when most people on this board went to UNT we were known as the "Eagles", but that isn't the case anymore.

Hmmm. If that's what you believe, you should start a campaign to have the lyrics changed in the fight song and see how far you get.

Edited June 26, 2011 by UNT 90 Grad

UNTcrazy727 · June 26, 2011

Hmmm. If that's what you believe, you should start a campaign to have the lyrics changed in the fight song and see how far you get.

Maybe if you would have kept reading my post you would have saw what I think about this.

FloMoGrad · June 26, 2011

It's why we flash the claw and not a big can of paint with a sinister look painted on it.

DeepGreen · June 27, 2011

Does this picture cause problems for anyone?

Never mind. I'm having problems with photobucket.

Edited June 27, 2011 by DeepGreen

greenminer · June 27, 2011

Look, I know when most people on this board went to UNT we were known as the "Eagles", but that isn't the case anymore. You'll be hard pressed to find any UNT apparel with Eagles on it and they'll only become more rare over time.
The eagle will always have it's place in UNT culture (ex. Scrappy, logo, and being in the fight song). However, the name of our athletic teams is the North Texas Mean Green, not North Texas Eagles.

I like that most people have adopted our moniker. That doesn't mean Eagles is gone. I hopped on over here and here and saw plenty of SOW eagles. It seems pretty popular to me with no sign of disappearing. So what shop were you at?

I like the story of Alabama: they actually had their moniker (Crimson Tide) before they adopted the elephant as mascot. Maybe we'll be there one day, where Eagles is an after thought. For now IMO we are far from it.

Maybe it wasn't intended, but you're very combative right now. See how far that gets you.

UNTcrazy727 · June 27, 2011

I like that most people have adopted our moniker. That doesn't mean Eagles is gone. I hopped on over here and here and saw plenty of SOW eagles. It seems pretty popular to me with no sign of disappearing. So what shop were you at?

I like the story of Alabama: they actually had their moniker (Crimson Tide) before they adopted the elephant as mascot. Maybe we'll be there one day, where Eagles is an after thought. For now IMO we are far from it.

Maybe it wasn't intended, but you're very combative right now. See how far that gets you.

Not sure how you think I'm being combative. I'm just simply stating that "Mean Green" is the name that represents our school, not "Eagles."

I know that the Eagle is on all of our products and I believe it will always be apart of the school's culture (as I said in my previous post...)

UNT 90 Grad · June 27, 2011

Not sure how you think I'm being combative. I'm just simply stating that "Mean Green" is the name that represents our school, not "Eagles."

I know that the Eagle is on all of our products and I believe it will always be apart of the school's culture (as I said in my previous post...)

I agree that "Mean Green" is the name that is most commonly used to represent our school. I think it is just rubbing some of us the wrong way in that you are stating as fact that it is incorrect to refer to our athletic teams as the "Eagles". You don't seem to have much to back that up and anything anyone brings up to the contrary you dismiss as some sort of cultural tip of the hat to the history of the university. "Eagles" did seem to start being used less around the time of the most recent logo branding along with the birth of SOW. Up until 2005, the endzones at Fouts still had "EAGLES" printed in them. Maybe you'll point to that as being the year of the big change, though I never heard of the university making "Eagles" officially incorrect anymore as was questioned in an earlier post.

SilverEagle · June 27, 2011

Since 1966, when the Grahams started calling the defense the "Mean Green", the University, (in particular the athletic department) has used it in various degrees in conjunction with our MASCOT NAME.....EAGLES.

When Hayden Fry arrived in 73, he went about changing the culture and/or attitude of our athletic department. Toward that end, he decided that he would de-emphasize all things that might have to do with our losing ways and our losing attitude. SO, he changed the color of the uniforms, emphasized MEAN GREEN instead of Eagles, and got a new Eagle image, which many people called the Flying Worm. And even though he emphasized MEAN GREEN, the words almost always had the stylized Eagle riding on top.

After Hayden Fry left, the people in charge moved things back to emphasizing Eagle and went back to darker green with the uni's.

Until Rick V. arrived, Eagles and Mean Green were used pretty much in equal parts. Like Hayden Fry, Rick V. liked Mean Green more than Eagles and the emphasis has moved back to MEAN GREEN.

HOWEVER, if you'll notice, the Eagle (in the form of the SOW and the presence of Scrappy at athletic events) is still very much the official image of North Texas.

I still don't understand why this is such a hard concept for some people to understand.

CaribbeanGreen · June 27, 2011

I know it's technically not perfect history, but when explaining it to those utterly unfamiliar with our situation, I just use the Elephant > Crimson Tide/Oakland A's, Ibis > Hurricanes, War Eagle > Tigers, Tree > Cardinal bit and it usually satisfies the situation.

greenminer · June 27, 2011

When Hayden Fry arrived in 73, he went about changing the culture and/or attitude of our athletic department. Toward that end, he decided that he would de-emphasize all things that might have to do with our losing ways and our losing attitude. SO, he changed the color of the uniforms, emphasized MEAN GREEN instead of Eagles, and got a new Eagle image, which many people called the Flying Worm. And even though he emphasized MEAN GREEN, the words almost always had the stylized Eagle riding on top.

To elaborate on this a little further: Fry was the consumate entrepreneur on our behalf. It really had a lot to do with the drafting of Joe Greene. When Pitt drafted him and the media attached "Mean Green" to him (erroneously), Hayden really played off of that. Randy Galloway thought it was very tactical of Fry to decide that it was time to start emphasizing "Mean Green" over Eagles...why not? We had a name in the NFL that would go down as an all-timer...maybe the all-timer on D. This was an opportunity to attach North Texas to that.

Ultimately, Fry's ploy led to one of the most misunderstood stories in UNT lore. We are NOT named after Joe "Mean" Greene. The Pitt media attached it to him after he was drafted. The moniker was in place while he played here, but never in fact was attached to him. By all accounts of those who were here at the time, Joe was only "Big Joe" while he suited up for the "Mean Green" defense.

Edited June 27, 2011 by greenminer

SilverEagle · June 27, 2011

To elaborate on this a little further: Fry was the consumate entrepreneur on our behalf. It really had a lot to do with the drafting of Joe Greene. When Pitt drafted him and the media attached "Mean Green" to him (erroneously), Hayden really played off of that. Randy Galloway thought it was very tactical of Fry to decide that it was time to start emphasizing "Mean Green" over Eagles...why not? We had a name in the NFL that would go down as an all-timer...maybe the all-timer on D. This was an opportunity to attach North Texas to that.

Ultimately, Fry's ploy would lead to one of the most misunderstood stories in UNT lore. We are NOT named after Joe "Mean" Greene. The Pitt media attached it to him after he was drafted. The moniker was in place while he played here, but never in fact was attached to him. By all accounts of those who were here at the time, Joe was only "Big Joe" while he suited up for the "Mean Green" defense.

MEAN GREEN was coined for the defense. Very similar to what LSU did with their defense.

Here is their story.......

Chinese Bandits –

Whenever LSU forces a turnover or gets the ball back via a defensive stop, the LSU band plays the Chinese Bandits tune. Tiger fans bow to the defense while the tune is played. The term "Chinese Bandits" originated as the nickname that LSU Coach Paul Dietzel gave to the defensive unit he organized in 1958, which helped LSU to win its first national championship. The next season, the 1959 Chinese Bandit defense held their opponents to an average of only 143.2 yards per game. No LSU defense since has done better.

Ibleedgreen · June 27, 2011

MEAN GREEN was coined for the defense. Very similar to what LSU did with their defense.
Here is their story.......

Chinese Bandits –

Whenever LSU forces a turnover or gets the ball back via a defensive stop, the LSU band plays the Chinese Bandits tune. Tiger fans bow to the defense while the tune is played. The term "Chinese Bandits" originated as the nickname that LSU Coach Paul Dietzel gave to the defensive unit he organized in 1958, which helped LSU to win its first national championship. The next season, the 1959 Chinese Bandit defense held their opponents to an average of only 143.2 yards per game. No LSU defense since has done better.

You cannot officially change a team's nickname without the vote of the student body. We will always be "Eagles" and we will always be "Mean Green." We ARE North Texas. We are the Mean Green Eagles!!!!

UNTcrazy727 · June 27, 2011

This reminds me of two years ago in the student section @ Fouts. A new transfer student from Tech kept yelling "Let's go Eagles!". Everyone looked at him with a blank stare. Fun fact: he also was carrying a 6 inch blade in his boot - those techies.

This seems to happen once every football or basketball game.

foutsrouts · June 27, 2011

Apparently someone neglected to tell the stadium architects that we are no longer Eagles. What do we call the women's basketball team now? The LadyMeangreeners?

UNTcrazy727 · June 27, 2011

Apparently someone neglected to tell the stadium architects that we are no longer Eagles. What do we call the women's basketball team now? The LadyMeangreeners?

Not sure, but I know that they're not the Lady Eagles.

foutsrouts · June 27, 2011

Not sure, but I know that they're not the Lady Eagles.

You sure? Somebody better call the athletic department and the NT Daily ASAP, because it looks like they haven't yet gotten the memo and are even calling the tennis team Lady Eagles.

http://www.ntdaily.com/?p=50067