North Texas is trying to bring back former football players for the Fouts Field Finale. Eagletalk.net is trying to contact former players in order to get their memories of what it was like playing at the old lady.

The first former North Texas player we talked with was Kenneth (K.C.) McNeil, 69, 70, 71 and 72. Before we begin, some North Texas Fans may be confused why certain players in past years did things which are not allowed today. This is because there have been NCAA rule changes since then and we will try to explain the changes in the stories to keep confusion at a minimum.

At the time McNeil played, players played for four years because there was no such thing as a red-shirt freshman like there is today. A redshirt allows a player to play for four years in a five year span. The year they sit out is called the redshirt year. It generally is the freshman year but it can be any year. Sometimes a player may get a sixth year when they are injured. During McNeill’s time incoming players played on the freshman team which was more or less the team the varsity practiced against.

McNeill was recruited by Head Coach Rod Rust who had just come off several successful seasons. In 1967, his first year as head coach, he took North Texas to a 7-1-1 record and the Missouri Valley Conference Championship. In 1968 North Texas went 8-2 and 1969 they went 7-3. In 1968, McNeill signed with North Texas to play fullback and middle linebacker, but during his freshman season he suffered a hamstring injury and was moved to defensive tackle. He was on the freshmen squad which only played five games that season.

During his sophomore year he was switched to center and played behind an All-American so he was basically in training to take over the position. He also played on all the special teams that year.

In his junior year, McNeill played himself into the starting center position.

He ended his career at the center position and was the tri-captain of the team during his senior year.

“We only played four years [because] there wasn’t anything like there is today” McNeil explained, talking about the red-shirt now available. He also went on to add that almost everyone played on the freshmen team when they first got to campus.

The team started to decline and according to McNeill “it was a turbulent time.” There was the Viet Nam Police Action going on, women wanted equal rights and there was the civil rights issue. All these external issues started to spill over to the football team making it a challenging time for the players and the coaches.

As a result the team went 3-8 in 1970 and 1971 before falling to 1-10 in 1972. “We had the talent on the team” stated McNeill but the outside events hurt the team’s performance. In 1973, after McNeill eligibility was gone, Rust was replaced by Hayden Fry and North Texas went 5-5-1 becoming Co-champions of the Missouri Valley Conference which backs up McNeill’s statement about the team having talent.

The Missouri Valley Conference included North Texas, Memphis, Louisville, Tulsa, New Mexico State and St. Louis. North Texas was part of the conference from 1957-1974.

As a member of the Lettermen’s Club, McNeil tries to go to “as many home football games as his schedule will permit. I make four or five games a year” he stated. He then added he travels to some away games if possible.

He has watched as North Texas continues to move forward. “I’m proud of what is going on” with North Texas. “I appreciate the student body increasing their student fees to help fund the new stadium.” He likes all the new building going on within the athletic department and the success in all the programs. He hopes the football team can soon join the ranks of success of the other sports programs.

It is not only what is going on with athletic programs that makes him proud. He also likes all the other improvements going on around campus. He has watched as the campus has grown up around him and the same thing can be said about the Denton area.

While North Texas was a large campus when he played, Denton was a small town. “There weren’t a lot of things to do back then” pointing out Denton’s population was about 20,000 at the time. So there wasn’t a lot of night life. Now there is so much more for former football players and alumni to enjoy when coming back to Denton for football games.

McNeill said “I think [Athletic Director] Rick Villarreal is doing a great job” with all the athletic improvements at North Texas and hopes Villarreal will be able to get North Texas into one of those “big name teams” in the coming future. According to McNeill, Villarreal has done so much with so little and what he has done is amazing.

McNeil now works for Pumpco an oil field services company and is the Material Service Manager. He comes back to the Letterwinner’s meeting to get reacquainted with former players and friends as well at to meet new players and establish new friends.

McNeill’s most memorable moments playing for North Texas have to do with playing Louisville. The first was being “the first team to open up Texas Stadium” in Arlington. Dallas was out of town at the time and North Texas was assigned the home team locker room. “The players ran into the locker room trying to grab one of the Dallas player’s lockers.” He doesn’t remember whose locker he had because it was not that important to him; getting a win was. They were 0-4 going into the game and the opponent was the University of Louisville under the leadership of Lee Corso. McNeill got his wish by upsetting the Cards 20-17. 

He chuckled and said the reason North Texas got to play in the stadium was because they were the “warm-up for the Cowboys. They needed to make sure that everything worked.”  It was an opportunity to train the employees, make sure the restrooms functioned, check the phones, test the lights and make sure everything was in working order before the Cowboys played their first game there.

(The actual first game played in Texas Stadium was Division 1-AA, Texas Southern beating Bishop College 32-21. The game was played on Thursday, Oct 14th. North Texas was the first 1-A team to play in the stadium beating Louisville and the first pro game was Dallas beating New England, 44-21 on Oct. 24, 1971) 

He laughed about a recent trip he made to Louisville, KY. He stopped by to see the new Papajohns’ Stadium and he was impressed with what he saw and feels the North Texas Stadium is right there with the Louisville Stadium.

The reason he chuckled was simple, the old stadium was on the Kentucky Downs Fairgrounds. “When we played Louisville our locker rooms were in the horses stalls. We got to walk down the same aisles as the horses.”