The last time the 1969 UT Arlington Rebels made an appearance on this series, they lost to New Mexico State in the home opener and second game of the year. The theme of that entry was the solid attendance the team attracted in the decade that followed and the struggles for UTA's home stadiums in coming years.
After a 15-game home winning streak ended in the last game of the 1968 season, it turned into a home losing streak in the link game. Previously, the longest home losing streak was four, set in 1963. The first home game of 1964 was a tie, making it a five-game streak with no wins. It would be five true loses at the fourth home game of the year.
After the NMSU game, UTA went on the road again, though it was one of the shorter road trips in program history to Commerce, Texas where they beat the East Texas State Lions, 38-28. One more road game followed a week later in Lake Charles, Louisiana, a 13-7 Rebel victory. It was the last game of six against the McNeese State as non-conference opponents.
In the third week of October, UTA hosted San Diego State College. At the time, the Aztecs were the dominant school in the College Division ranks, the equivalent of Division II nowadays. They won the College Division National Championship from 1966 to '68. 1969 was the Aztecs first year in the University Division.
UTA was the closest loss when they played in San Diego in the year prior. The 23-18 final score was the smallest margin of victory San Diego State would take all year, though there was a 10-10 tie to Tennessee State. Had the game been played in Arlington, it may as well have been a Rebel win.
But the '69 game was not as close. San Diego State walked away with a 27-10 road win. In two home losses, both games drew an official 9,500 in attendance. Those two games had more in the stands than every Maverick Stadium game save one. What changed in a decade? Best answer I have is poor program management.
That came with moving to Turnpike Stadium in an effort to host bigger profile teams, like San Diego State. Which they ironically came to Arlington in the older Memorial Stadium this season.
For today's game, a road affair at Trinity Un5iversity was on tap. It would open Southland Conference play and UTA was looking to win its SLC season debut for the fourth year in a row. Other than the SLC's first football year, UTA had opened its conference slate against the Tigers every year. UTA was 3-1-1 in SLC openers going into today's game.
UTA had an all-time record of 7-5 versus Trinity. Were it not for the 2-19 combined record in 1970 and '71, the series could have been more lopsided. Trinity is in Division III non-scholarship today and were of similar mind then. When UTA made known their plans for moving up, them and Abilene Christian weren't on the same page. Trinity left the SLC after the 1971 season while the Wildcats followed them out the door a year later.
On this day in UTA football history, the '69 Rebels open conference play against the Trinity Tigers.
Taken from the Dallas Morning News, October 26, 1969.
The 1986 Mavericks would have a tougher Southland test in the second game of the year as the Northeast Louisiana Indians, now Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks, were waiting to host UTA.
If UTA is a great example of how not to move up a subdivision, NLU, now ULM, is a great case study in what not to do when moving up a subdivision. They are consistently last place in every sport in order to make Football Bowl Subdivision football work. Outside of football, they won one conference championship in the Sun Belt in the time they and UTA shared a home.
But in the 1980's, men's basketball was dominant in Monroe. Women's basketball made a final four. Baseball made a good run of winning, though they weren't dominant. Football won a Division I-AA national title in 1989. They were a quality contributor to the conference.
In '86, the football squad was a very UTA-like 5-6 and 3-2 in the conference. They beat Southwest Texas State by four and Lamar by one at home, two teams that weren't world beaters. They played SLC champs and eventually national title game participant Arkansas State tough on the road the end the year, though. They lost that one in Jonesboro 26-21.
This date became an open date for ULM, so I'm not certain who the Indians added to the schedule to replace UTA.
All-time, UTA was 6-5 against the then-Indians. In Monroe, they were 3-3. Once NLU joined the Southland, the Mavs and Indians played even at 2-2. The Mavs also won once at Malone Stadium in that time. In short, it wasn't like Louisiana Tech where there was dominance on one side.
Given their overall likely record, this should have been win number two in the Southland. It could easily have been an upset. But, the end result is only speculation as 1986 did not register on this day in UTA football history.
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