UTA had just made the jump to the University Division from the College Division the previous year, the equivalent of going from Division II to DI today. It is perhaps the most disastrous jump in the history of the NCAA. I have yet to see a case study worse than UTA's.
The final College Division season was winless. They just moved to a baseball stadium off campus. That meant there were very few September home games. There was no improvement in funding. The schedule got tougher while the talent was the same or even less. There was no momentum for the program in any respect. No other sport was competitive. There was zero winning culture in the Athletic Department - UTA won zero conference championships in the 1970's.
The Maverick Athletic Department tried to staunch the losing trend by hiring former Arlington State College alum John Symank. He was a hard-nosed coach and the thought was he would be able to turn it around. Of course, his first year was a rebuilding one as he went 2-9. Ironic that a rebuilding season would see a two-win improvement, since the previous year was 0-10, but such was the dire straits UTA was in at the time.
There was decent talent on the 1972 roster. The most notable was Dexter Bussey. He would move on to the next level and rush for over 5,000 yards for the Detroit Lions. He, along with Jack DeGrenier (TE), Rhea Coppedge (K), Hiram Burleson (LB) and Earnest Baptist (CB), would end the season on the all-Southland Conference first team. Tackles Steve Stone and Alvin Mayeaux were second-teamers.
1972 was a radical year for the Southland schedule-wise. The start of 1972 would be the first without Trinity University, who dropped out of the conference to go non-scholarship, while Southwestern Louisiana (now just University of Louisiana) and Louisiana Tech joined. The start of the season would be the first with McNeese State and the last for Abilene Christian.
That created scheduling issues. In football, contracts for games are scheduled years in advance. Some teams played six games against conference teams, while others played five. So to keep it even, every team only counted five games in the conference standings. There was a weird scenario where one game counted in the conference standings for one team, but not the other. UTA didn't have McNeese scheduled and would play the other five teams.
One of the few bright spots surrounding the UTA football program was the fact that fellow Tarrant County school TCU would now appear on the schedule. Also, that meant other heavy weights like Southern Mississippi, UTEP and North Texas would appear on the yearly slate. Of course, that meant very few wins for a UTA team that was outmatched.
To open the 1972 season, on this day (September 9) in UTA football history, UTA opens the 1972 season in Hattiesburg against the Golden Eagles of Southern Mississippi.
Taken from the Dallas Morning News, 9-10-72.
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