Growing Up Green: 1941-2015: Becoming UNT (1980-1989)

The North Texas Hockey Club

Inspired by the US Olympic hockey team’s gold medal victory over Russia in the 1980 Winter Olympics, a group of hockey players formed a club-team at NTSU in the 1981-82 school year. The North Texas team was accepted into the Southwestern Collegiate Hockey Conference in June 1981 and won the conference championship in their first and only year. Dr. William Powers, a professor in the Speech and Drama Department, led the club as their faculty sponsor and coach. The North Texas Club never made it past their freshman season due to a lack of a nearby ice rink and the cost of renting ice time.

A white advertisement with green text in big letters. At the top half are the words Hockey Club of North Texas, with lines made to look like a hockey handle. The bottom half contains the information for a meeting.

A news page titled The Hockey Hero News at the top in big black letters. Under that is an article titled NT in Hockey Conference, followed by two columns of text.

A poster, at the top of the page is a painting of a mountain with people running. A banner for Coors is on it, under it the word Sport. The O in that word is bigger than the other letters, with someone skating inside of it. Under it is the words Ice Hockey Club of N. Texas, with a schedule with dates and locations on it.

A long-sleeved white shirt with green sleeves and collar. It says North Texas Hockey CLub on it, the T shaped like 2 hockey sticks.

A white card with the words Hockey Hero in it in green.

A blue binder with papers in the clips. The left page and the right page contains the title, saying Powers' dream is for ice hockey at North Texas. The left page is followed by two columns of text. The right page is followed by three columns of text.

Brave Combo

Carl Finch started the band Brave Combo in 1979, the same year he completed his M.F.A. at North Texas. A mainstay of the Texas music scene today, Brave Combo’s sound is often described as “polka” or “world music” and combines influences ranging from Polish American polka to Zydeco.

Finch (left) and Barnes (right) entertain students outside of the third union building, 1985.