Today marks the resumption of one of my favorite series I do on this blog. Starting near the turn of the century an institution that has had many names, with the longest and most current being the University of Texas Arlington, sported a football team. While websites like Wikipedia site 1919 as the starting date, I have found articles from games before that. Even Wikipedia has a team picture from the aughts.
What's not in dispute, and there is little lost to history, is the final year. 1985. As usual, there will be four seasons in this year's edition, 1963, 1968, 1974 and, of course, 1985.
This series has certainly evolved since the first year I published it in 2013. That year covered the same seasons as this year's version. For what happened on this day in 1974, click here.
For today, we dip into the season opener for 1985. Today's opponent was Angelo State. While this was the first game of the series with both members being a part of the NCAA as four-year Universities, they played a minimum of 14 times between 1940 and 1958. The final record was 6-8. The then Arlington State Rebels won the last three in the series when they were Junior College National champions in the mid-to-late 1950's. And were likely one of the worst opponents to open this season this year.
The Angelo State Rams were quite the force in the NAIA and Division II in the 1970's and '80's. They won a NAIA national title in 1978, made the playoffs in '79 and '80. They made the DII playoffs in 1987 and '89. The Rams, along with the rest of the Lone Star Conference, went to DII in 1982.
In 1984, they went 8-3 en route to a LSC championship. Other than a 5-6 mark in 1983, the Rams had a winning season every year since 1977. To say they were a tough draw for a buy game would be an understatement.
In 1985, the went 7-4. Three of the losses were by two, three and two points. They lost to Sam Houston by ten, the only multiple score deficit, even though it was at home.
Sadly, the Mavs were scrapped for an opponent. Football schedules are built years out from when they are played. Occasionally, a game has to be schedule in the offseason, but that is rare. At the start of the 1984 season, UTA only had ten games scheduled. Likely today's game was one of convenience. The 1985 guide shows the future schedules for 1986 and '87. Angelo State did not appear on the schedule again and all 11 games were filled.
Timing was bad too as there was a lot of turnover on the roster. Not the least of which was quarterback. Phil Blue led the Mavs to a 7-4 record in 1984. It was the second-best record since UTA moved up to the equivalent of Division I in 1971. 1979 saw a 9-2 record and before that, a 10-win season in 1967, which is the high water mark for the program. The only other winning season in the Division I era was a 6-5 mark in 1981. Needless to say, Blue was a big reason for the winning mark.
Running back Scottie Caldwell was likely the largest reason for the winning mark. He's UTA's all-time touchdown leader and second in all-time rushing. Three of the top five single-season rushing yards belong to him. He finished 79 yards shy of Derrick Jensen's career rushing mark. Oddly enough, at 929 yards, 1984 was his worst rushing mark as he was nursing a nagging injury mid-season.
All told, the Mavs returned three offensive starters. Guard Mike Fay, center Clint Hailey and receiver James White were it. There were a lot of question marks. Defense experience fared better with seven returners. Three were in the linebacking core. Half the line and half the secondary returned.
The irony is there would be several single-season, offensive records broken by the end of the year. But the problem was that was not known at the start of the year who would be where. Another irony, all eleven starters would have returned in 1986. They would have had the exact opposite situation, were they to have fielded a team. Nine defenders would have returned too. Both kickers as well, but that's not the point of the post.
Now couple the inexperience / unknown roster coming into the season with a Division II contender to open the season and there was a bad recipe. The tone of the blog post seems pretty straightforward, so I don't think there's too much spoiling happening if I say the Mavs lost today's game. That set the stage for the second worst average attended season at Maverick Stadium. Losing to a Division II team to start the season had to play a factor. It was the highest game of the season. It was also a guarantee game, which means essentially UTA paid for a loss. Attendance was largely cited, along with cost, as the reason for the teams disbandment. What could have been had UTA not scheduled this game, or had a ten-game season...
On this day in UTA football history, the UTA Mavericks host the Angelo State Rams in 1985.
Taken from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, September 8, 1985.
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