Sports
Green With Envy
Just once I'd like my alma mater, the University of North Texas, to get as much respect as, say, the University of Texas. Is that too much to ask?
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That was exactly what I wanted to hear. North Texas was my school, so North Texas was my team. This is the university that produced Abner Haynes in the fifties! This is the school that Mean Joe Greene played for in the sixties! And this is the school that broke the color barrier among Texas' major universities when, in 1956, Haynes and Leon King became the first African Americans to suit up—a decade before Southern Methodist University's Jerry Levias would become the Southwest Conference's first black scholarship player and more than fourteen years before Texas would integrate its football team. That alone was a cause for pride.
The oddest thing happened, though, as Coach Dickey's neck moved closer to the chopping block. The week after its loss to Monroe, North Texas hosted undefeated Middle Tennessee State, the favorite to win the Sun Belt. With a homecoming crowd of 11,621 looking on, North Texas knocked off the Blue Raiders by a score of 24-21. In its remaining four conference games, the team pounded Arkansas State 45-0, came from behind to beat New Mexico State 22-20, clobbered Louisiana-Lafayette 42-17, and whipped Idaho 50-27. No team in NCAA history had lost its first five games and still earned a bowl bid. But that's exactly what the Mean Green did. The turnaround was as exciting as it was baffling. When I asked quarterback Scott Hall if he could put his finger on what happened, he replied, "No, probably not." The same goes for linebacker Brad Kassell, who was named the Sun Belt's defensive player of the year. "I don't understand it, and I couldn't explain it," he said. But they both agreed that the team had worked harder than ever. "After the Monroe loss, this football team could have gone in a couple of different directions, most of them bad," said Coach Dickey. "They could have been pointing fingers, getting down on themselves, packing it in for next year, and waiting on the new coach. Instead they pulled together."
As it turned out, both the Mean Green and the Longhorns still had games to play on December 1, something neither team expected—though for completely different reasons. Like North Texas, the University of Texas got hot after that fateful Saturday, winning six straight conference games. When Oklahoma State upset the Sooners on November 24, Texas earned the right to play in the Big XII championship. A win would send the Longhorns to the Rose Bowl.
Meanwhile, North Texas had scheduled a non-conference game against Troy State, a makeup for the contest against the University of Arkansas that had been canceled after September 11. Though the outcome would have no effect on its bowl appearance, North Texas needed the win for credibility. With a record of 5-5, a victory would make them legitimate. A loss would make them a laughingstock. My confidence was high. Remember that completely unreliable SI preseason poll? Troy State had been ranked just above Monroe, at 112th. I knew I was cursed when North Texas blew a fourteen-point lead and gave up a game-winning field goal with 23 seconds left. Not to be outdone, that evening Simms threw three interceptions and lost a fumble before taking a seat on the bench. Both teams lost by two points.
But if some Texas fans complained about a repeat trip to the Holiday Bowl, nothing dampened the enthusiasm in Denton for going bowling—not even the embarrassing fact that the school was going with a losing record. The bowl brought validation for a team that never quit—and that didn't make apologies. "I was just delighted for our kids to be winning for a change, under adversity," said Haynes, the starting halfback in North Texas' 1959 bowl game who now runs Abner Haynes and Associates, a Dallas-based company that represents athletes and entertainers. "Even with the losses, it's a great lesson. There are a lot of ways to succeed, and the message is don't quit."
In the New Orleans Bowl North Texas faced Colorado State, and the experts predicted that the Mean Green could hang tough until at least the first snap. But a sea of North Texas fans at the Superdome, a rousing pep rally, and a well-timed pile driver that Scrappy the Eagle delivered on the Rams' mascot gave me hope. Unfortunately, Colorado State wasted no time on the field. Quarterback Bradlee Van Pelt hooked up for the longest pass of his career on the first play. The Rams would score two plays later and led 17-0 after the first quarter.
With North Texas trailing 24-7 with just over seven minutes left in the first half, Mean Joe Greene told ESPN2 during a telephone interview, "I want to tell you, North Texas has probably got 'em right where they want 'em." The Eagles did score again before halftime, but Colorado State dominated the second half and won 45-20. Still, there wasn't a glum North Texas fan poking around Bourbon Street that chilly Tuesday night. The team never stopped trying, and that made me prouder of my school than I could have imagined. Besides, even though North Texas finished the year at 5-7, the miracle season gave me new bragging rights: The Mean Green was the only Division I-A team in Texas to win its conference.
Now I'm looking forward to August 31. That date marks the start of the new football season, and the Mean Green will drive down I-35 to play the Longhorns. UT will be coming off its thrilling bowl win over Washington—and the first season since 1983 in which the team finished with a top-ten ranking in the AP poll. In eight tries, North Texas has never beaten Texas, but I was at their last meeting, in 1992, and I'll be at this one, hoping for the upset. Until then, I plan to advertise one more fact that will surely make the Longhorn faithful quiver with fear. In 2002 the Mean Green will return more starters than any other team that went to a bowl last year. That's just one more reason why I'll be hoping for another conference title, another bowl bid, and—why not?—a winning season to top it off.
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