UTA FB History: Vol. 10 Gm. 11 - Break the Pattern

Alright! The game I've been looking forward to since this year's edition started. It will tie everything together as far as 2026's theme. The actual payoff came next week in 1981, but the reason for the payoff was due to today's game. 

The McNeese State Cowboys were the preseason pick to win the Southland Conference that year. Meanwhile, the UT Arlington Mavericks were slated for the fourth spot. The Cowboys were the two-time defending SLC champs. UTA was coming off a three-win season. The Cowboys were 6-2-1 while UTA was 4-5. UTA was 2-1 in the conference race while McN was 2-0-1. To say McNeese was the favorite in today's game would be an understatement.

Two weeks prior, the Mavericks lost to Arkansas State to fall to 1-1 in the conference standings. The SLC lineup had been very consistent with the same group of six teams since the 1973 season. Northeast Louisiana (now UL Monroe) and North Texas would join in 1982 so 1981 was the last year of a five-game conference slate. From 1973 to 1980, only champions from 1976 and '78 won a title with a number greater than zero in the loss column. UTA's season was looking suspiciously like the ones the fan base had seen consistently for the past decade plus. Holding strong but not holding the top.

As mentioned, after that stAte loss, UTA was now 1-1, but the team they just lost to, and subsequently gave the tiebreaker to in the loss, was now 2-1. The then-Indians had to win out and there was nothing UTA could do to catch them.

UTA FB History: Vol. 10 Gm. 10 - Close to that Proverbial Cigar

When this year's edition of This Day in UTA Football History last looked at the 1970 UT Arlington Rebels, they lost to Southwestern Louisiana to move to 0-5 on the year. In head coach Burley Bearden's final year, things weren't looking good. 

Nothing changed in the win column in the two games that followed as UTA dropped games to Trinity, 24-0, and West Texas State, 33-8. 

In that last entry, I mentioned how attendance had tanked year-over-year when they moved off-campus. In 1969, UTA averaged 8,460 in the 10,022-seat on-campus stadium. That's a pretty good capacity percentage, even for a 5-5 team. Memorial was considered too small and outdated for a team playing at the highest level and they moved out for 1970 to Turnpike Stadium.  

2026 Basketball Preseason Picks

The United Athletic Conference released the preseason polls for both the men and women basketball teams. In addition to the portal era muting expectations from year to year, there's a while new conference for coaches to evaluate. Take it with a grain of salt, not that I didn't anyway.

For the women, the poll is as follows:

UTA FB History: Vol. 10 Gm. 9 - Tide is Turning

In this 1981-heavy volume of This Day in UTA Football History, we return to the 1981 season. Remember, the theme of the 1970's for UT Arlington was lose early in the year, play competitive football in the Southland Conference, but ultimately lose a game or two in the conference slate and finish in third place, occasionally second. Many times that lost SLC game came in the fiont third of the SLC race.

Well today, that formula fits to this point in the year as that last piece of what was a very predictable puzzle of UTA football was put in place. Fans had seen this song and dance before.

When we last looked at the '81 Movin' Mavs, they had done something that was somewhat of a rarity. They beat Louisiana Tech, 31-14. That win saw their SLC mark go to 1-0. That had happened only three times since 1970. Given the past struggles against Louisiana Tech combined with the poor start, the 5,138 would be the lowest of the year. 

Following the LTU win, UTA was off for a week before taking on North Texas in the Cotton Bowl during the State Fair of Texas. In the eventual 7-6 win, 15,797 witnessed the game. As far as crowds go, that would be the fourth-largest showing amongst the seven games in the series to that point. Fair, but roughly 4,000 shy from the largest crowd. It was a down year for North Texas State to that point and UTA sported a 2-4 record going into the rivalry game.

Now sitting with a 3-4 record, 1-0 in conference, 1981 introduced the final puzzle piece from the previous decade that gave the same-ole, same-ole feeling.

UTA FB History: Vol. 10 Gm. 8 - Plodding Along

As a general rule, the 1960's were a very successful decade for Arlington State College, turned UT Arlington, on the gridiron. Lumping in the inaugural 1959 season, only three seasons in the 1960's resulted in a losing season. A 4-6 mark in 1962, a 1-8 tally in '63 and this season's final record. Three seasons in a row is the definition of a rebuilding project. This season was certainly an improvement over the prior year, but that hole was pretty deep and improvement from a one-win season was expected.

When we last looked at 1964, ASC had beaten Arizona State College, 10-9. It was the first time UTA had won a game in a while, breaking a six-game streak dating back to the prior year. That six-game streak was the longest losing streak in program history at the time, broken in 1970, continued to 1971 at 13 games. Had 1970/71 not broken it, a separate six-game streak in '71 would have. So would another in 1972 and 1980. There was also a nine-game losing stretch that started in the last game of 1973 and carried over to 1974. For as successful as the '60's were, the 1970's were the opposite.

After the ASC game, ASC (I'm sure that game wasn't confusing with both teams having the same acronym) carried a 1-1 record. The Rebels, as they were known then, followed that up with a small road trip to the Cotton Bowl to play Southern Methodist University. The Mustangs were not a power in 1964, but the 1-9 Mustangs did beat the lower Division Rebels 14-0. Of the first 11 four-year ASC/UTA teams, they would likely beat SMU at least six times, and probably more. It was just a bad draw and bad timing.

But they couldn't ride the momentum of playing a Southwest Conference team tough into the next few games.

UTA FB History: Vol. 10 Gm. 7 - Start of a Bad Trend

There is a pretty consistent theme with the tenth volume of This Day in UTA Football History. Today's entry will be when the bulk of the bad administrative ideas were put into practice. The plans started before 1970, well before in some cases, but the majority of the changes started in 1970.

Of the 27 four-year seasons, 16 ended with a losing record. Now I always counter that five of those 16 ended with a 5-6 record. It doesn't make a grand difference, but it does add a little perspective that some of those "losing" teams were still quite competitive. Every single 5-6 season had at least one loss that was by less than a touchdown. Four of them were multiple. So a couple of better breaks and UTA could have had more winning seasons than losing ones.

The counter to the five 5-6 teams is that there was only one winless season. That would come in the 1970 season, and we look at that season for the first time today.

I normally don't wait this long to introduce a season, but 1981 has taken a lot of attention to this point. However, for a winless squad, there actual is a lot to talk about with the 1970 squad.

UTA FB History: Vol. 10 Gm. 6 - Unexpected Rebound

At the halfway mark of the football season, I return to UT Arlington's 1981 season. It will be the fourth time in six games to peak into the season, though the first one was a repeat with no other option. For those that know the outcome of the season, the idea may be I like to cover it for that reason. 

But the reality is this season both exposed the stereotypical nature of UTA football for the previous decade plus and also showed what Maverick, or as they were known then, Movin' Mavs, football could have been. Its demise was not inevitable. The eventual disbandment was just as much due to mismanagement by the program and Athletic Department as it was due to changing student demographics. Maybe even more.

1980's UTA had roughly the same amount of student housing as 1960's Arlington State College/UTA did. In UTA's heyday of the late 1960's, the Dallas Cowboys were just as much of a draw as they were in the 1980's. The Texas Rangers didn't exist in the 1960's and the Dallas Mavericks had started roughly a decade later. I still say hogwash to the idea that if you wanted to go to an NBA game in January, you forego a college football game in October.