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.
TCU went through something similar in terms of a lack of competitiveness as UTA. Were it not for bigger name schools coming to Fort Worth, their attendance wouldn't be much bigger than double UTA's. They were in the mid-teens for many of their games.
For a season that would eventually be labeled a success, no one knew it at this time in 1981. In fact, it genuinely looked like another very disappointing season. Southland Conference play started today. There'd be one more non-conference game later, but the Movin' Mavs were 1-4. Only one of the four was close, a 35-31 loss to West Texas State on the road.
UTA scored 82 points to that part of the year. They had given up 186. This looked like the early 1970's or a repeat from 1980's 3-8 mark the year prior.
But, as I've mentioned several times, it was a byproduct of a hard schedule. It was a relic to a time when a school's stature within the National Collegiate Athletic Association was dependent on who they played.
To move up to the University Division in the late 1960's and early 1970's, as UTA did, half the schedule had to be against teams in that division. During that time, a conference could be composed of teams from both the University Division and the College Division, creating a really weird dynamic compared to today's clear delineations. Seeing as how no other member school was a part of the University Division within the Southland Conference, UTA had to do it on the non-conference side.
And that created headaches. 1972 is a great example. UTA finished second in the SLC with a 4-1 record. They had an overall losing mark at 5-6. They lost their first six, all but one against the higher division, before winning their last five, all against the lower division. In what should have been a good team and celebrated, it instead is remembered as the third of nine straight losing seasons. For those that know the final outcome of this season, the similarities are striking.
By 1981, the hard scheduling wasn't a requirement. The rules for membership within Division I were different. UTA no longer needed to schedule harder teams. What we did see then was a shifting budgeting trick that is much more common today.
Arlington State College first played what looks like a guarantee game in 1964. That was a relatively rare occurrence then where a school would pay a set amount to another school to visit their stadium. It was to circumvent the normal home-and-home contract, or the occasional two road for one home game, where each school gets a home game against the other. Universities like Texas-Austin or Arkansas started doing this more as they would make more money playing a home game and giving a flat fee to the opponent than going on the road in alternate years.
While I don't know it is a guarantee game in actuality, UTA played Southern Methodist University in the Cotton Bowl in 1964, an eventual 14-0 Mustang win. The Rebels held their own in that game, but did not get a return game to Arlington and the two didn't play again until 1980. In four games against SMU, all were played at their place.
Now 1964 could have been a reneged contract where SMU declined to play at ASC and paid a fee for the contract not being fulfilled, but I doubt it. Over the years, the typical teams from the "bigger" conferences never came to UTA. The Mavs played TCU eight times, all in Fort Worth. Oklahoma State hosted UTA twice. In 1982, UTA visited Texas A&M. In 1984, it was Texas Tech.
Now UTA had a few of their own over the years. Bowling Green came to Arlington twice. It could be for different reasons, such as a coach wanting a few players to play in front of family in that area, but I doubt a Mid-American Conference school would willingly do that for without a return game.
In 1979, UTA paid Idaho State to come to Arlington when a game scheduled with Southern Mississippi was moved to accommodate the Golden Eagles. They picked up a game and needed that date and UTA was gracious to help them. However it left a hole in the schedule that needed filling on short notice.
The most painful one perhaps was Angelo State in 1985 as UTA paid the Rams to come to Arlington and then lost to the Division II team, 35-23. That loss killed fan support the remainder of the year. That date was open for years as the 1983 and '84 media guides did not have that game filled. It appears that UTA just struggled to fill it.
But, for whatever reason, UTA had two guarantee games to Southwest Conference schools in 1981. So they didn't need to play the tougher team as before, but that paycheck for a struggling budget sure was nice.
The irony is that UTA started going away from those types of games, sometimes labeled body-bag games. In the last three games against SWC schools, they were outscored 139-29. Just in 1981, the disparity was 86-16 over two games. The last win was a 21-14 tally against TCU in 1979.
It looked like UTA was getting away from that as there were no paid games in 1985 and there were none scheduled for 1986 or '87 either. Too little too late as it would turn out.
The last major piece of the poor football management equation, Today is the second home game of the 1981 season. What would you do as a fan? I'd be going either way, but I recognize I'm not the typical Mav follower. The reality is fair-weather fans have little interest in a 1-4 team that's been blown out all year.
But, in proving UTA wasn't immune from typical sports principles, today would be the lowest attended game of the year. I've alluded to it, but UTA rebounded heavily as the season progressed, starting today.
So to summarize, losing record, numerous blowouts, minimal home games and a low hope for success. On this day in UTA football history, UTA hosts Louisiana Tech to open Southland Conference play.
Taken from the Fort Worth Star Telegram, October 11, 1981.
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