UTA FB History: Vol. 10 Gm. 4 - Righting the Ship

At the conclusion of this entry, the 2026 version of This Day in UTA Football History will be one-third complete. Ironically, this year has solely been focused on the 1981 season prior to this point. Of the four seasons that qualify for this year, it just has been difficult to spread it around. The 1959 season opener was today, for example, covered in 2015. 

Last week was the opener to the 1964 season, a loss to New Mexico State, 3-0. Going back to the prior season, it was the sixth straight loss, a then program record that would be broken in the 1970 season. That record still holds at 13 games, ended in the 1971 season when the newly-renamed Mavericks beat West Texas State.

It may be weird for those who only hear how poor the support was when the program was disbanded. Former Arlington State College used to be a leader in the Southland Conference in football attendance. They used to have a following locally. They used to be winners. 

UTA FB History: Vol. 10 Gm. 3 - A Different Era

For the third week in a row, 1981 gets featured in This Week in UTA Football History. As a reminder, it's not something I like to do. But I touched 1964 and 1970 in the 2015 volume and 1959 hasn't played their first game yet. With a bit of limited options, I wanted to touch a greater theme that touches all of college football today.

Looking at today's opponent, one can see the drastic changes over the decades. It also is a bit of a milestone. I'll touch on both.

In Arlington State College's, turned UT Arlington, quest to move to the highest level of college football, and athletics as a whole, they needed to play higher competition. To move from the College Division to the University Division, half the schedule had to be against University Division schools to join said University Division. Since the Southland Conference schools were in the lower level, the Rebels, then later Maverick, made a point to play University Division schools in the non-conference to achieve that goal.

Included in that University Division pool were the teams close to UTA. I've made a lot about the North Texas State University/UT Arlington rivalry, and deservedly so. With minor exceptions here and there, the NTSU/UTA games are some of the highest attended games in UTA history, home or away.

UTA FB History: Vol. 10 Gm. 2 - Administrative Folly

As This Day ion UTA Football History progresses since the founding of the blog through the years and duplicate seasons occur, I start to have to diverge from some of my rules. In this case, covering the same season in consecutive weeks. As there was one all-time game on September 5, 1981, it was the only option for last week. As such, we'll stay with the 1981 season today.

I mentioned in 2015 how the '81 season is one of my favorites. Those who know the outcome know why. But the outcome was the result of this team. 1985 is also one of my favorite seasons. That was a 4-6-1 year that was ultimately a tie for fifth out of seven teams. But that team had heart and talent, just not luck. 1981 had all three.

But I want to explore a theme from 1981 that really exhibits what UT Arlington football really was about as volume 10 progresses. While the team finished well as a whole, the consistent themes of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, ultimately fatal four full seasons later, are present.

But first, a little background.

2026/27 Men's Basketball Schedule.

I had a comment for the schedule detective when I found that Jacksonville of the Atlantic Sun was visiting Arlington in December. However, there was an error and when I pressed publish, the comment box came up the said "publishing..." but it never would actually publish. I did it many times and tried different ways but no success. 

In the end, it didn't matter terribly much as the schedule is basically done. I got a copy of the schedule, sans start times. Everything I learned was there and of course the rest has been filled in with no real surprises. 

The schedule for this coming year:

UTA FB History: Vol. 10 Gm. 1 - 1981 Rerun

Today is the first iteration of This Day in UTA Football History for the 2026 season. Unfortunately, there is only one game that has occurred on this date and that was covered 11 years ago today in 2015. For those that know, they know why 1981 was an important season. However, it both exemplifies and shows what could have been with Maverick Football. 

On this Day in UTA football history, UTA opens the 1981 season.

The Maverick Rambler: UTA Football Vol. 3, Game 1: End of an Era

It Begins

The UT Arlington volleyball team began the 2026 season this past weekend at the Razorback Invitational. After a 2-1 start, all three matches showed a team that looks much improved over last year's team. Now, if you remember, last year's team was 8-5 in the non-conference, but had a disappointing showing with a 3-8 record in Western Athletic Conference play. At one point, they were 8-2. However, if you look back at my posts, I saw cracks in the armor and that 8-2 start that gave me concern.

Before I continue, I just want to get a warning in that there's a real chance my volleyball coverage will not be as frequent or regular as the past two years. I work half my work week on the weekend for my regular bill paying job, so getting to physically watch the games will be a challenge. I volunteered to be the booster club president for the junior high school two of my boys attend. While it isn't set in stone, it does look like they will both start for their respective grade. In addition, my junior in high school has transitioned from junior varsity starter to varsity starter. There's a real chance there will be very little down time. That's to say nothing of This Day in UTA Football History, which usually requires around two hours, sometimes more, per entry. This week's entry will be a repeat, so there's not much to it, giving me time to give the volleyball team and its players their proper due.

Plus, I'm already behind. Before I get into the weekend's start, the United Athletic Conference released their preseason poll and just by looking it over and knowing what occurred last year, there's a real chance this will be the toughest slate since UTA left the Sun Belt Conference.

The coaches predicted the following finish:

That's one way to do it

I mentioned several months ago about Chicago State starting a football team. We were in the middle of an athletic year and I generally try to avoid more esoteric topics when games and competitions are in high gear. We aren't now and I want to briefly touch on their journey to a football team.

For those who aren't familiar, Chicago State is a poor, cash-strapped athletic program with declining enrollment. They have had a hard time finding a conference home for much of this century. They were in the Great West Conference, a coalition of wayward schools that did not have a formal path to the postseason. UT Rio Grande Valley's precursor, UT Pan American, was in that conference. Both schools took advantage of the Western Athletic Conference's desperation and CSU became a conditional member. Essentially, they paid the WAC to be a member. It really didn't help them overall, as they remained a cash-strapped program.

When the WAC added the Texas Four and later UT Arlington, along with other schools, the WAC declined to renew the conditions and the Cougars were independents again. They had no home in the late 1980's and early 90's, and again in the mid-2000's. The third time, they had decided no more.