Meager Support for UTA Football Revival

Should UTA bring back football? Okay, this is not exactly one of today’s burning issues, but a story in Thursday’s FWST piqued my interest in this topic. A group of students organized a rally this week to advocate the revival of the football program. The rally was not exactly a success. The FWST reports:

Sam deBerry had hoped hundreds of people would march to bring football back to the University of Texas at Arlington, but about 70 turned out for a noon rally Wednesday.

"It speaks volumes of where we are as a school," deBerry said. "If any other campus had a rally, they would have had thousands of students. We have very little school spirit."

The Mavericks for Football Now and other students, many in T-shirts emblazoned with the words, "Got football? (we don't)" walked with deBerry from the University Center Mall to Davis Hall, where the university president's office is housed.

"What do we want?" deBerry yelled through a bullhorn.

"Football," the small crowd of football activists yelled back.

DeBerry started the group this year to attempt what no one has been able to do, bring a football team back to UT-Arlington. The program was disbanded after the 1985 season.

...Frank Lamas, vice president for student affairs, walked forward with his arm extended. He had been waiting with five UT-Arlington police officers. Just in case.

"The president isn't here," he said.

[University President James] Spaniolo was at a faculty meeting across campus. The activist pleaded his case to Lamas, asking why the campus would expand and renovate the Activities Building for $34 million but ignore football.

...Lamas thanked him, reiterated the president's goal of first breathing life into current sports and took the petition.

...Somewhat dejected, deBerry and other members of the group folded up their large “WE WANT FOOTBALL” banners and walked away.

I know a little bit about UTA football. My father has worked at UTA since my birth, and we attended many UTA football games during my early years. (We were season ticket holders.) This was really the only football I saw in person for the first 15 years of my life.

I remember when UTA played home games at Arlington Stadium. The football field lay across the outfield, with one endzone near the right field line, and the other endzone in left centerfield. No part of the gridiron touched the infield dirt. The fans would sit in the outfield bleachers only. Thus, behind one sideline was the baseball infield and an empty stadium. It looked ridiculous.

UTA later moved its home games to Cravens Field, a high school stadium at Lamar High School. In 1980, UTA began playing at Maverick Stadium, which was actually a nice facility.

UTA had some decent players. I remember watching Derrick Jensen, the school’s all-time leading rusher. Jensen played in the NFL for the Raiders, and became a decent special teams player. Marcus Allen was the star of Super Bowl XVIII, running for 191 yards as the Raiders defeated Washington. My fondest memory of that game, however, is Derrick Jensen blocking a punt and recovering the ball in the endzone for a touchdown. I thought it was a great moment for UTA football. A Maverick scored a touchdown in the Super Bowl!

Former UTA players Tim McKyer and Bruce Collie won super bowl rings with the 49ers. And, believe it or not, there were other UTA players who made it to the NFL, including the great Dexter Bussey.

My all-time favorite Maverick is Roy Dewalt. Dewalt played quarterback for UTA from 1977-1979. Dewalt was an option quarterback, and UTA ran the wishbone at the time. No one mistook UTA for OU, but Dewalt was a good quarterback, and it was great watching the triple option in person.

UTA’s 1979 team was the best in my memory. Dewalt led UTA to a 9-2 record. (UTA lost close games to North Texas and McNeese State.) UTA even beat TCU that year, and Dewalt was the Southland Conference offensive player of the year.

Cleveland selected Dewalt in the 9th round of the NFL draft, but the Browns wanted Dewalt to change positions. Dewalt went north of the border and signed with the British Columbia Lions. He had a few good seasons in Canada, and he led BC to victory in the 1985 Grey Cup.

Take it from someone who was a genuine UTA football fan, then University President Wendell Nedderman made the right call when disbanding the football program after the 1985 season.

The student body and the greater Arlington community simply failed to support the football team. The program lost money. The opening of Maverick Stadium generated some new excitement, but that excitement quickly waned. Attendance was poor.

I remember sitting at Maverick Stadium one especially cold Saturday evening with my father, my brother, and a handful of other hardy UTA football fans. By the third quarter, I was shivering uncontrollably and my teeth were chattering away. My brother surveyed the sparse crowd and raised a fair question: “Why don’t they just let all of us sit in the press box?”

UTA is a commuter school. There is not adequate support for a football team today. UTA’s enrollment exceeds 20,000, but only 70 or so participated in Wednesday’s rally. This comical event actually provides evidence that it is not quite time to bring back football.

For now, those who crave the return of UTA football will just have to settle for stories about the good old days.