One of the projects the Sickos Committee on Substack will explore during this off-season is one where we will do a dive into the internet archives to find out the seemingly lost history of College Football teams who we used to have playing on Saturdays in the fall. We will explore universities and colleges who used to have football but then decided for whatever reason to end their football program. Then we will highlight their Best Season of all time in our however many part series called the Best Season of All Time for Schools Who Stopped Having A Football Team also known as the BSOATFSWSHAFT (ya damn right). 

I’ll give you some background on the program if I can find it. Give you some basic history about the team, when they started playing and when/why they stopped playing and of course their best season in my opinion. Also, I’ll see if I can find a football helmet with the logo to show it to you here.

Now for the next team I wish to explore in this series. 

The University of Texas-Arlington Mavericks

Why did I choose this team?

I had this one set up to do the second in the series, but I got distracted by Vermont. Then I went to Portland because they acted out the death of the football program by shooting and burying a football. And really, I just forgot I had this one partially researched and set up to go, as it kept getting buried further and further in the Google Drive. Well, at least, I finally remembered 12 parts later in the series. Better late than never, right, Mavs?

History of the team

The UT Arlington football team traces its roots to 1919, when the program was established at Grubbs Vocational College. By 1923, Grubbs was renamed the North Texas Agricultural College (NATC) with the football team then playing as the Junior Aggies competing in the Central Texas Conference. As the Aggies, the program captured four conference championships through the 1948 season. 

The 1943 North Texas Aggies football team was ranked at No. 69 (nice) among the nation's college and military service teams in the final 1943 Litkenhous Ratings

By 1949, the school would again change its name and mascot in competing as the Arlington State College Blue Riders through the 1950 season only to again change the mascot to the Rebels for the 1951 season. The Blue Riders name was pretty cool, and the name will basically resurface in a different form later. 

Arlington would reach its zenith as a junior college program by capturing both the 1956 and 1957 Junior Rose Bowls as national junior college champions. (This will not be the best season of all time because they have to be in the NCAA for this, and I determined that in one of these posts at one time.). 

Following the 1958 season, Arlington State became a four-year school and began competition as a College Division school. Finally, in the NCAA. 

After founding the Southland Conference as a charter member for the 1964 season, by 1966, the school officially became the University of Texas at Arlington. 

UTA won conference championships in the Southland 1966, 1967 and 1981 seasons in addition to winning their lone bowl game, the 1967 Pecan Bowl. (That seems like an interesting season, hmmm)

UTA also played in multiple stadiums throughout their time as a program and had a good bit of stadium drama, which likely didn’t help the program succeed in the long run. 

• Memorial Stadium, 1959–1969

UTA averaged around 9,000 in attendance from 1966 to 1969. However, the university viewed Memorial Stadium as small and outdated. UTA was planning a move to the university level, the highest level of college football at that time, and decided they needed to play in a bigger venue to encourage higher-level teams to play in Arlington. This was needed to move up as the NCAA required half the schedule to be against university-level competition. Along with the urging of Arlington City Hall, which just bought Turnpike Stadium from Tarrant County, the Mavericks began playing their home games at a multipurpose, off-campus stadium built primarily for baseball, though it could be converted for football use, in 1970.

• Turnpike Stadium, 1970–1976

When the Washington Senators moved from Washington, D.C., to Arlington and changed their name to the Texas Rangers, they became the primary tenants of the stadium. This created conflicts between the franchise and the University. One notable example was when the Rangers exercised a clause giving them control over the stadium 24 hours before and after home games. Here was practice in 1972 at the Baseball Field University of Texas at Arlington Football Practice at Arlington Stadium - August 1972

UTA also had to play their 1974 home opener at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, about 25 miles away from campus. UTA would occasionally have to play in other venues as well, such as Cravens Field, a facility in North Arlington that is owned and operated by the Arlington Independent School District.

• Cravens Field, 1977–1979 (seen in 1974)

Finally, after renovations announced that the now-renamed Arlington Stadium would become a permanent baseball facility, the UTA football team eventually moved their home games to Cravens Field from 1977 to 1979. UTA's all-time home record at Arlington Stadium was a meager 11–18, with a winning percentage of .379 (compared to .670 at Memorial Stadium), while they were 8–6 at Cravens.

• Maverick Stadium, 1980–1985

The UTA Athletic Department knew that Turnpike Stadium and Cravens Field weren't long-term homes. They were working on a way to move the UTA football program into their own facility on campus. Preliminary approval for Maverick Stadium was issued by the UT System Board of Regents in November 1977. This cleared the way for planning to begin, and the Regents approved the final plans in October 1978. After bids were approved later that year, construction began early in 1979 on the site of the football practice fields on the west side of campus.

After more than a decade, the first on-campus football game was played as the University of North Texas opened the venue in front of a record crowd of 18,033, an eventual 31–14 loss for UTA. It was also the first ESPN college football broadcast, as the fledgling network had just begun operations. Due to the NCAA's television contract, the game couldn't be shown live and was a tape-delayed broadcast.

In 1981, UTA went 4-1 there on their way to winning their final Southland Conference championship.

It was also their last year participating at the NCAA's highest level of football, then known as Division I-A, as the NCAA would reclassify UTA and almost the entire Southland Conference as Division I-AA.

Creator: Mallison, Rodger (Photographer)

Texas-Arlington Football By the numbers:

Overall Record: 329-281-25 Pct .518 with Active Years: 1919-1985.

However, from 1958 - 1985, 129–150–2 (.463) when they were in the NCAA. 

Why did the football team get shut down?

The program would be officially disbanded after an announcement by then university president Wendell Nedderman on November 25, 1985, citing financial loss and low attendance as the primary impetus for its abandonment. They were losing nearly one million dollars per year by having football.

This seemed quite simple here. No one watched them play football, and they couldn’t afford it. They finally got their own stadium, but no one came to watch them play, and the Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington area had a myriad other options for football at the time.

The 1967 Texas-Arlington Mavericks

After winning the 1966 Southland Conference title, the Mavs returned a ton of talent and were looking to repeat.

They were coached by Burley Bearden. I couldn’t find much history about Coach Bearden except that his only coaching job was with UTA from 1966 to 1970. Also, his first name was Burley, and he was not associated with Burly Paper Towels.

He led UTA to two Southland Conference titles in 1966 and this year in 1967. But he was dismissed after a 0–10 season in 1970.

The 1967 Season was one with extremely close calls in the first four games.

The Mavs took out the Cal State Los Angeles Diablos 17-14. They took a 17-7 lead in the second quarter and held on for a three-point win. They became ranked 9th in the AP Small Colleges Poll after the win.

The next week, they welcomed New Mexico State to Arlington. A quote from the Reveille Yearbook says, “The theory that a good big man can whip a good small man anytime went out the window on September 23, as the UT Arlington Rebels edged powerful New Mexico State University, 15-14.” The Mavs got a two-point conversion in the third quarter and held on for dear life for a one-point win, thanks to a few missed Aggie field goals in the first half.

The Magical Mavs then traveled to Commerce and managed to win another squeaker. They were being shut out 6-0 with 1:42 remaining in the game but hit 15-yard touchdown pass and snuck through the extra point for a 7-6 win. They were 3-0 with a point differential of plus 5.

Next week, the Mavs moseyed on over to take on McNeese State in Lake Charles. Again, the Mavs found themselves down 16-7, but somehow came back and hit a field goal with less than seven minutes left to win by 1!

The Mavs were 4-0 with a point differential of plus 6!

They finally won a game with some room to spare. “UT Arlington finally became tired of those nip-and-tuck ball games on Saturday, October 14, when they trounced Tarleton State College 37-7 before 8,500 at home.”

The box score was incredible here. 12 turnovers and a total of 9 Interceptions. The Mavs were 5-0 and actually won a game with some breathing room.

The next week, they went down to San Antonio to take on Trinity in a Southland Conference game. In a game of runs, UTA took a 15-0 lead, but Trinity fought back for a 16-15 lead, but the Mavs pulled away for a 31-16 win.

UTA traveled to Canyon, Texas and fell for the first time. The Mavs, plagued with troubles all night, lost two points nearly at the outset of the game when WTS gained a safety (1967 SAFETY ALERT). Shortly thereafter. West Texas scored again, upping their lead to 9-0 and triumphing 37-27.

The Mavs were undefeated no more, but hey, it was a loss to a non-conference opponent, and they only dropped from #4 down to #5 in the AP Small Colleges Poll.

Next week, they welcomed Abilene Christian College and dropped long touchdown bombs all over the place. They won easily, 34-7, with touchdown passes of 40, 75 and 80 yards.

They traveled to Jonesboro next to take on Arkansas State. “The wet, muddy Mavs found that an inch was as good as a mile as they edged Arkansas State University 16-14 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, on November 11 amid rain and muck.” The Mavs escaped after a last-minute field goal went wide, resulting in their fifth possession win of the season.

They welcomed Lamar next in a winner-take-all battle for the Southland Conference Crown. The Mavs were locked up 10-10 with Lamar but got two more field goals to lead 16-10. “Jim Marcum intercepted a crucial Cardinal toss with 2:09 remaining, and offensive guard Greg Bailey recovered a fumbled punt with 1:31 remaining to help win the big one.” THE MAVS WERE SOUTHLAND CHAMPS!

The Mavs actually had a chance at a Bowl Game too. They got an invitation to the Pecan Bowl in Abilene, TX, vs. #2 North Dakota State.

“In 27-degree weather, the University of Texas at Arlington played their first postseason bowl game as a senior college on December 16 and trounced the North Dakota State Bison, 13-0. Dubbed the Pecan Bowl and played in Abilene, this televised game was played in the midst of ice and snow and pitted the Mavs against the No. 2 small college in the nation.”

Incredible efforts to just clean the field from Ice to even play this Pecan Bowl.

After the season, the Mavs racked up the awards with All-American Status or Honorable mention.

Any chance the program returns?

In 2023, the UTA students voted on a referendum which gauged student support for the return of football resulting in increased student fees. The referendum passed 1,004 in favor to 625 opposed. So the program has cleared the first hurdle to come back. You’d think that UTA would come back into the Southland which would be the most logical fit. However, they are currently in the Western Athletic Conference since 2022. I am sure some shuffling of conferences could happen and the Southland would take them back or they could stay in the reformed WAC. I think UTA Football will be back soon but I just don’t know how soon.