Despite that loathing in my college days, I've become a bit of a UT Football fan over the last few years [okay, more like  2 decades]. That spectacular 2005 team certainly didn't hurt. There are countless things to loathe about the University's football program that most civilized humans would  find despicable, not the least of which is its staggeringly low graduation rate among its players. Then there's the millions the department rakes in on the backs of its unpaid football labor and, in a monumental crime against aesthetics, there's the recent wholesale sterilization of Memorial Stadium during its decade-long multi-phase upgrade to a 101,000-plus seat behemoth, which wiped away all the charm it once had in great surplus.

And what of the displaced bats?


The UT football program, according to a 2008 survey, graduates about 50% of its players. The average among major colleges in the AP Coaches Poll top 25 on October 15, 2008  was 67%. Texas was ranked number 1 in the poll at that time in football. It ranked  23rd in graduation rates among the top 25. Vanderbilt led  that pack with a 91% graduation rate. Texas Tech came in at 3rd with 79%, making me like Coach Mike Leach even more than I already do. [Also see ESPN's awesome report on college  graduation rates from a few days ago. ]


In 2006, as the team was coming off its BCS title, the football program raked in over $50,000,000 in revenue, more than any other college football program. This year, despite the recession, it has pulled in over $80,000,000. If it can beat Alabama on January 7, 2010 - which I seriously doubt - the UT football program could be seeing unheard of revenue streams next year, which may happen anyway despite a loss in the championship game. Again, college players don't get paid. I'm not sure if its slavery or indentured servitude.

Coach Mack Brown, the great indenturer, as of last week, is now making a $5M/year salary.  I'll just say that one of my favorite profs from back in the day, Janet Staiger, lead the faculty charge to denounce the unheard of raise. Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds, the indenturer in chief, has a reported base salary of just under $500,000. I guess not having to go  on TV every weekend warrants a smaller paycheck. According to other reports, he clears $700,000 after bonuses. Again, the guys running around bashing each other at full speed make nada. As per above, most don't even get an education of any type other than those hard knocks.


The first UT game I ever attended, I got paid to go to as a camera assistant for ESPN. It was against Texas A&M on a Thanksgiving night. I think it was 1988. It wasn't a bad gig. When I started going to games in the early 90's, you could get a ticket to sit in the general admission bleachers in the north end zone for $5 at Randall's Supermarket with a coupon from a 2 liter bottle of  Dr. Pepper or Diet Dr. Pepper. The view was pretty good, and you were close to the action. I caught a ball after a field goal against Colorado. I had to give it back.

Then came the stadium upgrades starting in the mid-90's.. Luxury suites were added. Ticket prices soared. Texas was blown out by UCLA in it's first game with suites. I laughed.


From that time in the mid-90's to the present, the stadium's capacity grew from 75,000 to the 101,000 that it is today. Worse, it's been whitewashed and yuppified, looking more like a shopping mall food court than a football stadium full of history. Naturally, the bats and the ghosts are gone, too. Its charms have been destroyed in the drive for the almighty buck. It's locked down tight when not in use for game day which is but 6 or 7 times a year, at most.

I went to see Texas play  Texas Tech in September. The allegedly promising Texas team looked beatable, even shaky in its 10 point victory. Worse, my tickets on the very top row in the north end zone were $101 after service fees. There wasn't even a seat, just a spot on an aluminum bench with a number on it. I cannot even imagine how much the 50 yard line seats cost. As you can see from the photos, I spent most of my time standing in my spot, taking pictures of things going on outside the stadium.


So, with so much to dislike about big state U's football program, why am I a fan? Quite simply, it's nostalgia.  My dad, who died way too young, was a big UT football fan, and a football nut in general. One of my most cherished possessions in the world from about the age of 4 to 8 was an orange football he gave me and proceeded to teach me to kick with my left foot, rather than my right for some reason. My mom still swears to  this day that it is the reason my left foot is bigger than my right.

I  remember how my dad  made all my brothers, sisters and I watch James Street and the Longhorns pull off their comeback victory against Arkansas in Fayetteville in 1969. I can remember Nixon in the locker room, giving a national championship plaque to the team.

It didn't register in my five-year-old brain that both teams on the field that day were products of a segregated south and that UT would not field a black player until the following year. Though it shared the national championship in 1970, it would be more than 35 years before a black quarterback would lead the program to its next outright championship. The 1969 team was the last all-white team to win a national championship.