UTA FB History: Vol. 7 Gm. 5 - Star-Studded

 On the last day of September, this year's series will dip into the 1961 season for the first time. Like the last time in 2017, it seems I'm working backward, starting with 1978, doing them twice before going to '72. Last week was 1967 and this week is the fourth and final qualifying season.

The Arlington State Rebels opened the 1961 season against Southern Mississippi on the road, losing in a blow out 30-7. They came home for the second game and defeated the Southwestern Louisiana Bulldogs, now known as the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns, 26-0. They came into today's game at home with a 1-1 record.

The early 1960's are the hardest for me to cover for a couple of reasons. The first is their independence status limits both records and meaningful games. Some of my research went through the Southland Conference records. Some of the games had a conference title with a possible postseason berth on the line.

How Weak is the 0-2 Record?

The last time the Maverick Rambler checked in with this year's UT Arlington volleyball squad, I wondered how good the team was with their 6-0 record. Losses to Central Arkansas and Tulsa kind of confirmed they weren't top of the conference good. 

Especially weird was they dominated the Sugar Bears in 5 sets, 25-27, 25-20, 29-31, 25-17, 11-15. The Mavericks lost two sets by the bare minimum in what other sports would call overtime. But here's the weird part. The Mavs lost a match where they had 12 more kills, two more aces, five more assists and trailed by two in blocks and one in digs. UTA out hit UCA .185 to .095, as the Mavs had four less errors. Rarely will you see that stat line attached to a loss. It certainly was a winnable match that got away in the fifth set.

A three-set loss to the Golden Hurricanes showed the Mavericks were a tad behind Tulsa with only the third set close at 23-25. The Mavs did rebound with a sweep of the normally solid Oral Roberts Golden Eagles. After this tournament, I firmly believed UTA was a top-third WAC school. 

Stuck on the Side of the Road

 When the middle of the UT Arlington athletic season is underway, I try to avoid posting about irrelevant news stories. Instead, I try to save them for summer. It's not a hard-set rule I establish for this blog but one I generally try to follow. Occasionally there are exceptions and this will be one of those.

A recent news report has released that Chicago State is actively exploring the idea of starting an FCS football team. If this is true, every .... reason or excuse, depending upon your own viewpoint, that UTA officials have given for not looking into starting a team are absolutely flimsy. Let me explain why.

First, for those who aren't familiar with Chicago State, and I'd imagine there are quite a few, they are probably the University in Division I with the most challenges. Their enrollment is 3,000 overall and headed in the wrong direction. Their athletic budget is near the smallest in DI. Their revenue sources are severely limited. No conference wants the school, and they are independent without a conference home, save for a few affiliations like men's soccer. Few schools want to play them at their place. As such, attendance is dismal. Some of their facilities are nice, but others are lacking, or non-existent. Their student body is composed of commuter students. They've been Division I since the mid-1980's and have zero tournament appearances in any team sport. Only the track team had any success in the late 1980's.

If this University can begin the process to start a football program, anyone can.

UTA FB History: Vol. 7 Gm. 4 - Come from Behind

 We look at the 1967 UT Arlington Rebels for the first time this year in today's history installment. You can see the season opener a week ago here, a 17-14 victory over the Los Angeles State Diablos. It was the first time the squad, known as Arlington State in prior years, started 1-0 since 1960.

Speaking of season openers, this fits in with the two original prior posts this year. All-time, ASC/UTA was 8-19 in season openers, a .296 winning percentage. Oddly enough, UTA is almost the exact opposite in season finale's, 18-9. Odd that the same thing that plagued the 1970's squad existed in the 1960's, a much better time for overall performance. From 1959 to 1969, the Rebels were 61-35-1, while the 70's saw a 40-68 cumulative record. 

Now of course, UTA began the process of playing at the highest level near the beginning of that decade, prompting the decline the winning percentage. But it still strikes me as odd that in 27 University seasons, the football team won only eight games to start the year.

UTA FB History: Vol. 7 Gm. 3 - Playing with the Big Boys

 We venture to the 1972 season for the first time this year as we continue the 2023 edition of This Day in UTA Football History. The season opener was covered a week ago in 2017. In short, the Mavericks lost to Southern Mississippi on the road, 38-17.

I've chronicled it many times, and it's in the intro to the linked blog entry, but it is worthy of repetition. UTA is the worst example of a University moving up to the highest level of athletic play. I won't comment on whether the on-campus facility, Memorial Stadium, was an eye sore. I will say the alternative of playing in Turnpike Stadium, later renamed Arlington Stadium when the Washington Senators relocated to Arlington and became the Texas Rangers in the summer of 1972, was terrible.

Even before they had to compete with professional baseball in September, playing in Turnpike/Arlington Stadium was a misfit at best. The stadium had poor sightlines for fans, average player amenities at best, had to work around the infield dirt for the players and the sports media didn't have adequate work space, just to name a few. It got a bit better in later years when the field was moved exclusively to the outfield and the outfield bleacher expansion put the seats well above the field rather than seat level at home plate, but there were administrative challenges of sharing a field with another organization. 

UTA FB History: Vol. 7 Gm. 2 - Self-Inflicted Wounds

 As I mentioned in game 1 of the seventh Volume of This Day in UTA Football History, several of this year's entries will break my general rules for this series. This week, primarily it's to avoid doing the same season two weeks in a row.

In 2017, I covered the season opener for the 1972 season. Seeing as how the other two qualifying seasons didn't start the season until next week, that leaves the 1978 season as the only candidate for today's entry. 

Coming off the disappointing loss in the season opener against Drake where they lost four fumbles and came inches short on a last-minute drive, UTA was set to host long-time rival West Texas State. As mentioned last week, they were set to open the season at Cravens Field on the campus of Lamar High School.

2023/24 Schedule Detective Update

It's been near a month since the last post regarding the schedules of the UT Arlington basketball programs, so rather than put the new information in a comment of an old post, I'll add the new information into this one. 

First, I haven't seen much on the women's side, so I don't have anything new to add. In year's past, the ladies have fewer leaks or people interested in putting the information out before the schools. What is released now will likely be it, save for a game or two, until the schedule is released.

On the men's side, the schedule is getting near complete by piecing together information from other team's schedule releases. Announced yesterday, Texas Tech has published their upcoming schedule and the Mavs will make an appearance in Lubbock for the first time since 2010. UTA is 0-6 all-time versus the Red Raiders, all in the Texas Panhandle, save for a neutral site game in 1992.

How Strong is the 6-0 Record?

It has been 19 years since the UT Arlington volleyball team has started 6-0 after this weekend's matches. It's something that has been fun to watch and enjoy. However, it has looked almost too easy. Given that many blog posts of mine have chronicled the Mavs struggling against teams they maybe should not have struggled against, it seems like I am in weird territory.

The Mavs opened the season against the Bryant Bulldogs in the Amy Svoboda Memorial Classic last weekend. The Mavs looked like they started out rusty, but found their groove in the final two sets for a 3-1 win. The following day, they matched up against the Rhode Island Rams and looked much more consistent in a straight set sweep. They did not allow the Rams to reach 20 points in any set.

That set the stage for the final match against the host of the weekend tournament, the Air Force Falcons. Both teams won their first two matches leading up to the finale.

UTA and Air Force were evenly matched and a tight back and forth affair ended in a thrilling five-set win for the Mavericks. Each team got to the 20-point mark in every set, no set was won by more than five, two sets were won by the bare minimum of two and each team had a comeback set win. Overall, it was just a fun match to watch.

The victory gave UTA its first 3-0 start since 2020 and first 3-0 non-COVID season start since 2017.

UTA FB History: Vol. 7 Gm. 1 - The First Volume of Redundancy

 Football season is back upon us as today marks the first game for most Universities. As such, This day in UTA Football History resumes today as well. The seventh volume is an interesting year, as it is the first where the seasons featured have been featured in prior editions.

For those new to the blog, the This Day in UTA Football History series chronicles the history of the football program corresponding with a historical game from the past played on football Saturday. I try to provide a variety every week and want to avoid back-to-back weeks from the same year. That gets harder on a second run through.

As UTA played 27 University seasons, that means an average of roughly four season per year, give or take a season. Obviously, at some point, the seasons are going to repeat at that's what is occurring this year.

So for the first time, I'm going to have to say the same thing in a different way, but not today.