North Texas Mean Green (formerly North Texas Eagles) represents the

University of North Texas The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 years later."Denton Normal School," ...

(UNT) in intercollegiate athletics. The teams compete in Division I of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

(NCAA). North Texas competed in the

Sun Belt Conference The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football conference, the Sun Belt began sponsoring football in 2001. Its football teams participa ...

until joining

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...

(C-USA) on July 1, 2013. UNT's official school colors are Green and White. North Texas' mascot is an Eagle named Scrappy.

Nickname

The name "Mean Green" was adopted by fans and media in 1966 for a North Texas football defensive squad that finished the season second in the nation against the rush. That school year,

Joe Greene Charles Edward Greene (born September 24, 1946), better known as "Mean" Joe Greene, is an American former professional football player who was a defensive tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL) from 1969 to 1 ...

, then a sophomore at North Texas, played left

defensive tackle A defensive tackle (DT) is a position in American football that will typically line up on the line of scrimmage, opposite one of the offensive guards, however he may also line up opposite one of the tackles. Defensive tackles are typically the la ...

on the football team and competed in

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

(

shot put The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's ...

). There are conflicting accounts for the origin of the nickname. Two possible origins are two separate cheers that supposedly developed during North Texas' 1966 game against

UTEP The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stu ...

. One cheer was by Sidney Sue Graham, wife of the North Texas sports information director. In response to a tackle by Greene, she blurted out, "That’s the way, Mean Greene!" However,

Bill Mercer William A. Mercer (born February 13, 1926) is an American sportscaster, educator and author. Originally from Muskogee, Oklahoma, he has retired to Durham, North Carolina after a long residence in Richardson, Texas. In 2002, he was inducted in ...

, former North Texas play-by-play announcer, states Graham's thought behind the nickname was the Mean Green defense. Her husband began including the nickname for the team in press releases and it caught on with the media. Meanwhile, in the student section, North Texas basketball players Willie Davis and Ira Daniels, unsatisfied with the unenthusiastic crowd, began to chant "Mean Green, you look so good to me." The rest of the crowd soon followed. "After that we did it every game," Davis says. "A lot of people later on started associating it with Joe because his last name was Greene, but it actually started with that simple chant that Saturday night at

Fouts Field Fouts Field was a stadium at the University of North Texas, located in Denton, Texas. Its primary use from its opening in 1952 until 2010 was as the home field for North Texas Mean Green football. Over its 59-year history, Fouts Field was the c ...

. And that's the truth." By 1968, "Mean Green" was on the back of shirts, buttons, bumper stickers, and the cover of the North Texas football brochure. Even the band became identified as the "Mean Green Marching Machine."

Sports sponsored

A member of

, North Texas sponsors teams in six men's and ten women's NCAA sanctioned sports.

Baseball

In 1984, the university fielded a varsity baseball team until it was discontinued after the 1988 season because of the newly enacted Title IX requiring an equal number of female players to male players. The team competed as a member of the

Southland Conference The Southland Conference, abbreviated as SLC, is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the South Central United States (specifically Texas and Louisiana). It participates in the NCAA's Division I for all sports; for football, it pa ...

. After starting the program's inaugural season with a 0–19 record, the Eagles won their first game against the

Emporia State Hornets The Emporia State Hornets are the athletic teams that represent Emporia State University (ESU). The women's basketball and softball teams use the name Lady Hornets. The university's athletic program fields 15 varsity teams in 11 sports all of who ...

, 4–1. The team played their home games at Mack Park in Denton. The university had planned to revive the program and build an on-campus ballpark. The ballpark would have been home field of both the Mean Green, and

Denton Outlaws The Denton Outlaws were a collegiate summer baseball team based in Denton, Texas, from 2005 to 2007. They played their home games at Falcon Field in Corinth, Texas. The team was quite competitive during their short time in the Texas Collegiate Lea ...

. The program's revival failed to happen and the Denton Outlaws disbanded after the 2007 season. The 2014 UNT fiscal budget included $600,000 in start up costs for reviving the Mean Green baseball program. The university plans to construct a new on campus ballpark within the

Mean Green Village The Mean Green Village is a collection of athletic facilities in Denton, Texas. It is located on the opposite side of Interstate 35 in Texas from the University of North Texas campus at the intersection of Interstate 35 East and West. Since 2002, s ...

. Decade long accounting errors by the UNT System have led to the baseball program to be placed on hold indefinitely. The earliest the program could have been revived was in time for the 2016 season, dependent on the facilities' construction beginning in early 2015, but that has yet to happen.

Season-by-season results

Source:

Football

Founded in 1913, the Mean Green has won eight

Lone Star Conference The Lone Star Conference (LSC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the southwestern United States, with schools in Tex ...

championships, five

Gulf Coast Conference The Gulf Coast Conference (GCC) was a short-lived NCAA college athletic conference composed of universities in the U.S. state of Texas from 1949 until 1957. The charter members of the conference were University of Houston, Midwestern University ( ...

championships, five

Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the third-oldest collegiate athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the midwest. History The MVC was established ...

championships, two

championships and most recently, four consecutive Sun Belt Conference championships. The team has also appeared in eight

bowl games In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, Division I Fo ...

, winning three, most recently the 2014 Heart of Dallas Bowl. From 1952 until the 2010 season, home football games were played at

. A new 30,850-seat stadium,

Apogee Stadium Apogee Stadium is a college football stadium located at the junction of Interstate 35 East and West in Denton, Texas. Opened in 2011, it is home to the University of North Texas (UNT) Mean Green football team, which competes in Conference US ...

opened for the 2011 season.

Basketball

Since 1973, the school's teams for men's and women's basketball have played their home games in the Super Pit. For most of its history, the Mean Green have had patches of success, starting in the 1970s when the team received its first ever top-20 ranking under head coach https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Blakeley Bill Blakeley. Blakeley coached three consecutive 20-win seasons: 1975–76 (22–4); 1976–77 (21–6); 1977–78 (22–6) From 2001 to 2012, the men's team experienced relative success under head coach Johnny Jones. During the 2006–2007 season, North Texas won its first Sun Belt Conference title and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1988. North Texas won the Sun Belt Conference title again during the 2009–2010 season to advance to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in four years. Jones left the team for his alma mater

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

in 2012, and his replacement

Tony Benford Tony L. Benford (born March 22, 1964) is an American basketball coach who is an assistant coach of the TCU Horned Frogs men's basketball team. Biography A native of Hobbs, New Mexico — and 1982 graduate of Hobbs High School — Benford played ...

has struggled to maintain Jones' success in Denton. In 2013, North Texas joined

Men's golf

The men's golf team has won four NCAA Championships in 1949, 1950, 1951, and 1952.

School spirit

The school's colors are Green and White. The music for the ''alma mater'', "

Glory to the Green and White The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 years later."Denton Normal School," ...

", (originally titled "Our College") was composed by Julia Smith in 1919 and adopted by the school in 1922. The lyrics were written by Charles Langford, then a third-year letterman on the football team. The school's fight song, Fight, North Texas, composed by Francis Stroup, was adopted in 1939. The school mascot is an eagle named Scrappy. The 400-member

Green Brigade Marching Band The Green Brigade Marching Band is the marching band of the University of North Texas in Denton, home of the North Texas Mean Green. The band is open to all university students, but is curricular and integral for music education majors. The Gre ...

performs at every home game, both pregame and halftime, for the crowd.

Facilities

Many of the school's athletic facilities are located at the

, which opened for the 2006–07 athletic season. The athletic village area includes: *

(Football) *

UNT Coliseum The UNT Coliseum is a 9,797-seat multi-purpose arena located in Denton, Texas, United States, built in 1973. While the arena's formal name is the UNT Coliseum, the building is more commonly referred to as the Super Pit, a nickname derived from ...

(Men's, women's basketball
Mean Green Soccer and Track & Field Stadium
(Women's Soccer, Track & Field)
Waranch Tennis Complex
(Women's Tennis)
Lovelace Stadium
(Softball)
North Texas Volleyball Center
(Volleyball)

Alumni

Golf
The era of collegiate prominence in Texas golf began with North Texas winning four consecutive NCAA Division I Championships from 1949 to 1952. Intercollegiate golf had until then been dominated by the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...

, which—since 1897 when intercollegiate golf began—had won 36 national titles. North Texas students

Don January Donald Ray January (born November 20, 1929) is an American retired professional golfer, best known for winning the 1967 PGA Championship. Early life Born in Plainview, Texas, January graduated from Sunset High School in Dallas. He was a member ...

, who later won the

PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. It is one of the four men's major championships ...

, the 1951

U.S. Amateur The United States Amateur Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Amateur, is the leading annual golf tournament in the United States for amateur golfers. It is organized by the United States Golf Association and is currently held each August ov ...

champion

Billy Maxwell Billy Joe Maxwell (July 23, 1929 – September 20, 2021) was an American professional golfer. Maxwell was born in Abilene, Texas. He played college golf at North Texas State College and helped them win four consecutive NCAA Division I team ch ...

, and

Joe Conrad Joseph William Conrad (March 14, 1930 – December 12, 2018) was an American professional golfer. He had a successful amateur career, playing in the 1955 Walker Cup and winning the 1955 Amateur Championship. He turned professional at the end of ...

who was the winner of the 1955

British Amateur Championship The Amateur Championship (sometimes referred to as the British Amateur or British Amateur Championship outside the UK) is a golf tournament which has been held annually in the United Kingdom since 1885 except during the two World Wars, and in 19 ...

, the 1953

Trans-Mississippi Amateur The Trans-Mississippi Amateur or Trans-Miss Amateur is an annual amateur golf tournament. It is organized by the Trans-Mississippi Golf Association and was first played in 1901. It is played at a different course each year that are located near or ...

winner, was the 1953 and 1954

Southern Amateur The Southern Amateur is an amateur golf tournament. It has been played since 1902 and is organized by the Southern Golf Association. From 1902 to 1963, it was played at match play. Since 1964, it has been played at stroke play. In December 2021, ...

winner, was the 1951 Texas Amateur winner, was the 1950 Mexican Amateur winner, was a member of the 1955

Walker Cup The Walker Cup is a golf trophy contested in odd-numbered years by leading male amateur golfers in two teams: United States, and Great Britain and Ireland. The official name is the Walker Cup Match (not "Matches" as in Ryder Cup Matches). It is ...

U.S. team, was a member of the victorious

Americas Cup (golf) The Americas Cup was a biennial men's team golf tournament between teams of amateurs golfers from the United States, Canada and Mexico. It was held nine times between 1952 and 1967. The United States won all the matches except in 1965 when Canada w ...

team in 1954 and 1956, and is a member of the Texas Golf Hall Of Fame, were all members of the North Texas golf team when they won the NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships. Fred Cobb (1899–1954), the coach, launched the team in 1945. years since winning its fourth consecutive

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

, only one other team in the nation— the Houston Cougars—has surpassed four consecutive titles. In the -year history of intercollegiate golf, North Texas is one of only nine with more than one national title. Football
On September 1, 1956,

Abner Haynes Abner Haynes (born September 19, 1937) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the American Football League (AFL). Early years and integration of major college football in Texas Born in Denton, Texas, Hayn ...

and his high school classmate Leon A. King (born 1938), became the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

students to participate on the North Texas football team. In the larger picture, Haynes and King were the first to break the color barrier for intercollegiate sports in Texas—seven years before anyone was authorized to break it at a

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma an ...

school. Haynes quickly became an offensive and defensive star on the team. Despite his athletic leadership and fan popularity, Haynes experienced painful encounters with

Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...

—including not being allowed to live on campus. Perhaps the worst was when Ole Miss,

Mississippi State Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univers ...

, and

Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...

discontinued scheduling North Texas after 1956, citing state laws. Haynes went on to play with the

Dallas Texans Dallas Texans may refer to: American football *Dallas Texans (NFL), 1952 team in the National Football League *Dallas Texans (AFL), 1960–1962 team that is now the Kansas City Chiefs * Dallas Texans (arena), 1990–1993 Arena Football League team ...

(1960–1963), earning the American Football League MVP in 1961, and continued playing when the team became the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The tea ...

(1963–1964). Then he played for the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

(1965–1966), the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

(1967), and the

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The J ...

. Haynes is in the Halls of Fame o
North Texas
(1986),

(1991), and Texas Sports (2007). Haynes, who now lives in Denton, is one of a few athletes who was able to play high school, college, and professional football in North Texas. Mean Joe Greene, in 1968, was selected as a College Football Consensus All American, the only alumnus in the -year history of football at North Texas to win the honor. He went on to the

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

where he anchored the Steel Curtain defense that led Pittsburgh to four

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

titles. In 1976, North Texas inducted Greene as a Distinguished Alumnus, an honor bestowed only to twenty-nine others during the then ten-year history of the award. On August 1, 1983, Governor Mark White appointed Greene to the Board of Regents of North Texas, making him the first African American to serve as a regent of any Texas state university. In 1987, Greene was inducted into the

Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coach ...

, the only alumnus ever to become a member. In 1988, he was named to the North Texas Hall of Fame.

Championship history

National titles

* NCAA Division I men's golf: 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952

Conference titles

Football

: 1932, 1935*, 1936, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1946, 1947 *

: 1950, 1951, 1952, 1955 *

: 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004

Men's basketball

* Southland tournament: 1988 * Sun Belt tournament: 2007, 2010 * Sun Belt West Division: 2009–10 *

College Basketball Invitational The College Basketball Invitational (CBI) is a men's college basketball tournament created in 2007 by The Gazelle Group. The inaugural tournament occurred after the conclusion of the 2007–08 men's college basketball regular season. The CBI s ...

: 2018 *

C-USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are ...

: 2020 *C-USA West Division: 2022 * C-USA tournament: 2021

Women's soccer

Sun Belt The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the Southeast and Southwest. Another rough definition of the region is the area south of the 36th parallel. Several climates can be found in the region — des ...

: 2001, 2004, 2005, 2011, 2012 * Sun Belt tournament: 2004, 2005, 2012 *

: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 * C-USA tournament: 2015, 2018, 2019

Others

: Men's outdoor track and field (18) :

Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association The Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association (TIAA) was a college sports association that operated from 1909 to 1932. All of its members were located in the US state of Texas. History Founded in 1909 by Southwestern University, Austin College, ...

:* 1923 :

:* 1932, 1933, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1943, 1946, 1949 :

:* 1967, 1970, 1973, 1974 :

:* 2000, 2002 : Men's cross country (10) :

:* 1932, 1934 :

:* 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1994 :

:* 2000 :

:* 2014, 2018 : Men's golf (30) :

:* 1941, 1942, 1943, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949 :

:* 1950, 1956 :

:* 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975 :

:* 1984, 1993, 1996 :

Big West Conference The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...

:* 1999 :

:* 2003, 2012, 2013 :

:* 2015 : Women's indoor track and field (1) :

:* 2005 : Women's outdoor track and field (3) :

:* 2003, 2012, 2013http://www.meangreensports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=1800&ATCLID=207642361&SPID=572&SPSID=9307 : Women's cross country (1) :

:* 1989 : Women's tennis (4) :

:* 1990 :

:* 2010, 2012, 2013 : Women's golf (1) :

:* 2021 : Volleyball (1) :

:* 1995 :

(West Division) :* 2010*, 2012 :

:* 2017 : Softball (2) :

:* 2019*, 2021

Football postseason

Optimist Bowl The Optimist Bowl was a postseason college football bowl game played in 1946. It was held at Public School Stadium (later known as Robertson Stadium), in Houston. The game was sponsored by the Houston Optimist Club, through agreement reached wit ...

: 1946 *

Salad Bowl A salad bowl is a serving dish for salad. It can also refer to: * Salad bowl (cultural idea), a cultural idea referring to the United States * Salad Bowl (game), a defunct, annual, post-season college football bowl game * Salad Bowl strike, a seri ...

: 1948 *

Sun Bowl The Sun Bowl is a college football bowl game that has been played since 1935 in the southwestern United States at El Paso, Texas. Along with the Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl, it is the second-oldest bowl game in the country, behind the Rose Bowl. ...

: 1959 *

New Orleans Bowl The New Orleans Bowl is an NCAA-sanctioned post-season college football bowl game that has been played annually since 2001. It is normally held at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans; when the Superdome and the rest of the city suffered damage due to ...

: 2001,2002,2003,2004,2017 * Heart of Dallas Bowl: 2014, 2016 *

New Mexico Bowl The New Mexico Bowl is an NCAA-sanctioned post-season college football bowl game that has been played annually since 2006 at University Stadium, on the campus of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Owned and operated by ESPN ...

: 2018 *

Myrtle Beach Bowl The Myrtle Beach Bowl is an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football bowl game first played in December 2020 in the Myrtle Beach metropolitan area. Coastal Carolina University hosts the game at its Brooks Stadium in Con ...

: 2020 * Frisco Football Classic: 2021

References

External links

* {{Texas sports