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Countdown to Conference USA: Get To Know North Texas

Harry

By Harry
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Harry Grand Master

Harry

Posted
Posted

North Texas, making the jump from the Sun Belt along with FAU, FIU, La. Tech and MTSU, definitely holds the title for the most unique nickname out of all the C-USA schools. They actually got it as a derivation of the nickname of one of its most famous alumni, Pro Football Hall of Famer “Mean Joe” Greene, who actually got his nickname while in the NFL. Turns out green (obviously) is the school color of North Texas, so their fans began to refer to the team as the “Mean Green”. Of course, “Mean Joe” is known outside of sports circles for this:

read more: http://pickaxedigest.com/2013/06/22/countdown-to-conference-usa-get-to-know-north-texas/

PlummMeanGreen Grand Master

PlummMeanGreen

Posted
Posted (edited)

Late UNT Sports Information Director Fred Graham's wife "Sidney"?" might disagree with their story about the Mean Green. Drex can probably add to this subject.

Amazing how historical fact can change just because someone is too lazy to research the truth or they might even have an agenda--truth or no truth be told?

GMG!

Edited by PlummMeanGreen
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greenminer Grand Master

greenminer

Posted
Posted

Mean Green was coined by Sidney Sue Graham. It was a nickname provided for the defense. Dentonites only knew Joe as "Big Joe".

A big sarcastic "thanks" to the Pitt media for confusing them, and Hayden Fry for amplifying the problem in his book.

  • Upvote 3
FirefightnRick Proficient

FirefightnRick

Posted
Posted

North Texas, making the jump from the Sun Belt along with FAU, FIU, La. Tech and MTSU, definitely holds the title for the most unique nickname out of all the C-USA schools. They actually got it as a derivation of the nickname of one of its most famous alumni, Pro Football Hall of Famer “Mean Joe” Greene......

No........we did not.

Time to re-post greenminersteve's website and send PickAxeDigest the link. Also, there is a comment section at the bottom that anyone who cares to can correct them on it.

Rick

  • Downvote 1
PlummMeanGreen Grand Master

PlummMeanGreen

Posted
Posted (edited)

As far is getting all the relevant sports information out (not just statistics of games, etc...) during the Fry era and out of the respect for the deceased.............well, as I said............out of the respect for the deceased.
Still A Subtle Hint: Hayden Fry and Fred Graham were never drinking buddies and I will leave it at that.....out of respect for the deceased. Add yet another Fred and the drinking bud's story would be the same with that particular Fred. too, but that was yester-year and yester-year's gone. Personally, I liked all 3 of those fellers.

Our alums back in that day wanted SID Fred Graham to be a "Mean Green Sports News Promoter" and Fred just did not see it that way and he was probably mostly correct in that regard as far as the old function of SID's before the 70's.. Yet Sports Information Offices were beginning to change back in the mid 70's, though, from one functioning as almost a bookkeeper, statistician to what SMU's very successful Mustang Mania promotion efforts showed many SID's across the the NCAA the kind of news that would soon begin to be expected to come out of their departments back then up through today.

I do think Fry and Graham parted friends, though, but they still never became drinking buddies last I heard.

GMG!

Edited by PlummMeanGreen
Mean Green 93-98 Grand Master

Mean Green 93-98

Posted
Posted (edited)

Out of curiosity, can any of our older alumns describe what the home unis looked like during Big Joe's era? I'm guessing somewhere out there might be an image on the net you can link to.

He's way before my time, but . . .

41MJ60cmV%2BL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

6172382ce54d8901897e85544c2e84d1a0fabf3e

greene6.jpg

Edited by Mean Green 93-98
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letsgiveacheer Rising Star

letsgiveacheer

Posted
Posted

Sorry guys. Thanks for the correction. Looking forward to C-USA and can't wait until the two teams meet on the gridiron in a couple of years.

Welcome. It looks like all the cool guys in CUSA will be wearing green!

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Harry Grand Master

Harry

Posted
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Posted

Sorry guys. Thanks for the correction. Looking forward to C-USA and can't wait until the two teams meet on the gridiron in a couple of years.

Glad to have you on here! Look forward to playing you as well!

letsgiveacheer Rising Star

letsgiveacheer

Posted
Posted

So UNC-Charlotte's team is the 49'ers? Is there an interesting story behind that?

Maybe PickAxe can elaborate but as I understand, they are named after the gold rush (yes!) that took place around Charlotte in 1849.

PickAxeDigest Newbie

PickAxeDigest

Posted
Posted (edited)

Maybe PickAxe can elaborate but as I understand, they are named after the gold rush (yes!) that took place around Charlotte in 1849.

That is also a common misconception :) but the "49ers" name comes from 1949, the year the school gained college status. It was formerly the Charlotte Center of the University of North Carolina, but through the efforts of several people (led by Bonnie Cone, the director of the Charlotte Center) it was converted into a college.

Down the road, obviously, it became a four year school, gained university status and joined the UNC System outright.

Edited by PickAxeDigest
  • Upvote 2
ragpicker Newbie

ragpicker

Posted
Posted

Fry was a great promoter. Before "Mustang Mania" he had the "Cardiac Kids" and really worked at restoring interest in SMU football during the ascendency of the Cowboys. Through an incident (the details of which I can't recall) his relationship with the Dallas press soured or he could have been even more successful as a promoter.

Fry understood the challenge of competing with of pro football and tried to do something about it. We could still learn a few things from Coach Fry. Advertising, coordination and cooperation with other are D1 programs in the area to promote college sports in general would probably be a Fry priority these days.

JesseMartin Explorer

JesseMartin

Posted
Posted

So can we all assume that there wasn't a gold rush in North Carolina the same year there was one in California?

And since the name is based on the school's founding year, would it be too much of a stretch to assume that UNT90's user name refers to his freshman year when our own school was founded? ;)

(Yeah, I don't think anybody but me would come up with that one. But come on...it's funny.)

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letsgiveacheer Rising Star

letsgiveacheer

Posted
Posted

So can we all assume that there wasn't a gold rush in North Carolina the same year there was one in California?

And since the name is based on the school's founding year, would it be too much of a stretch to assume that UNT90's user name refers to his freshman year when our own school was founded? ;)

(Yeah, I don't think anybody but me would come up with that one. But come on...it's funny.)

Ah, but there was and therein lies my confusion. I remember reading the Carolina gold rush was the origin of their nickname, witness the pickaxe in their logo!!

But maybe this axe is just to throw me and everyone else off!

Carolina Gold Rush

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