It's been a while since On This Day in UTA Football History checked in with the 1974 season. In 2013, I opened the entire series with the season opener, a 33-6 loss to Western Michigan in Kalamazoo. In this year's version, the second week of the season was the first feature for the 1974 UT Arlington football team. In that game, the score was closer, but a 12-3 loss is still a loss, even if it was against a Southwest Conference school in TCU.
There's not much of a spoiler alert, but 1974 was a bad season. There is only one season in the UTA books worse than 1974, and that was a winless mark in 1970. A look at the 129-150-2 overall record of UTA as a University and the .463 winning percentage looks a little below average. Factoring out the two seasons mentioned and all of a sudden, the winning percentage rises to .496, or two games below .500. It was just an incredible amount of poor performance.
And that really was the mark of Head Coach Harold "Bud" Elliott. He was competitive, but ultimately mediocre. He'd win more in 1975 and improve again to a game below .500 in '76. That year, he was a win away from the Independence Bowl, which debuted that year. '76 was also the first year in the 1970's where the offense scored more points than the defense gave up.
But, unknown at the time, just missing the Indy Bowl would be an example of Coach Elliott just missing out. Four of his ten seasons were 5-6. His second-best season was 6-5, ironically winning a Southland Conference Championship. That occurred in 1981 and the .545 winning percentage is the worst regular season mark of a conference champ in SLC history. Louisiana Tech had a 6-4 mark in 1978 before losing the postseason Bowl.
I've made prior notes in the series of games where turnovers and other mental mistakes cost a game, including a 14-13 loss to Arkansas State in '76. In that game, there were seven fumbles, two lost, a missed extra point, two interceptions thrown, one leading to the first Indian (now Red Wolves) score, a 47-yard drive that ended with a missed field goal at the ASU five-yard line and near the end of the game, a long drive that went to the ASU 22-yard line ended on a fourth down fumble. There's a lot of errors that if one or two were more disciplined, the entire outcome is different.
But this isn't a post about 1976. Undoubtedly, I will cover this game when '76 comes up in the rotation. It's more of an example of the hump Coach Elliott, and therefore the Movin' Mavs as they were known then, just couldn't get over. But they were competitive.
After the TCU game, UTA was in an 0-2 hole. I've mentioned it ad nauseum that the Arlington Stadium era of UTA football was a complete disaster. Regardless of the talent of the field, there was no chance this team would succeed in the Texas Rangers home park. From 1970 to '76, Turnpike Stadium, changed to Arlington Stadioum upon the Rangers arrival in 1972, was the UTA home. In seven opportunities, zero season openers took place at the UTA home. In 1971, the home opener was September 25. In 1976, the home debut occurred on September 18. Both were the third game of the year. Those two are the only September dates in Arlington Stadium in that time period.
I've mentioned several times the program punched up to play harder competition to achieve the University Division membership requirement of half the schedule against the UD opponents. Playing tougher opponents several times before coming home every year? Sounds like a recipe for disaster in theory and in practice it was worse.
The third game of the 1974 season was another example of the poor stadium situation. It would have been the third all-time Arlington Stadium September home game. But, unknown when the schedule was completed, the Texas Rangers would say no. There was a clause in the Rangers contract that gave the organization control of events at the stadium 24 hours before AND after a Ranger game.
In early August, the Rangers told the City of Arlington, owner of the stadium, that they would be exercising their clause. This came well after the release of the UTA football schedule. A quote attributed to Athletic Director Claude "Cheena" Gilstrap made clear UTA only knew about the Rangers having the power a day before the game.
It turned out to be a moot point as the Rangers ended up having a doubleheader with Kansas City. However, UTA scrambled to find a home on short notice. The Cotton Bowl, prior to the State Fair of Texas, ended up the "winner" over Cravens Field on the campus of Lamar High School. The Bulldogs of Louisiana Tech won 42-15, in front 4,419 fans.
In 1976, they again had to vacate Arlington Stadium for a regularly scheduled home game. This time, it was a win at Craven field with 7,283 in attendance. That mark would have been higher than all but six (out of 29) Arlington Stadium games in its seven-year run as UTA's home. Considering the capacity of Cravens is 9,000 (compared to 20,000 at Arlington Stadium), it was the best atmosphere since 1969.
While the Athletic Department was already planning a new home that would eventually be Maverick Stadium, even though they knew 1976 was the last year they'd share a home with the Rangers, that '76 game was really the cherry on top.
After the Cotton Bowl loss to the 'dogs, the Mavericks hit the road (surprise, surprise) for three games, losing them all: New Mexico State 42-14, Southern Mississippi 39-10 and McNeese State 43-0. Now at 0-6, the Mavs hadn't played at the home field yet.
So today, on October 26, in UTA football history, the Mavericks opened the 1974 home opener by hosting the UT El Paso Miners.
Taken from the Fort Worth Star Telegram, October 27, 1974.
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