UP/HP: Anti-SMU?

[McClown27]

It would probably come as a shock to the majority of HP's/UP's residents that SMU is a Div. 1-A school in athletics.

Ain't that the truth. The Park Cities used to populate SMU with students and players; now, everyone goes to UT and has sends their kids to play at Georgia.

[DiamondM]

My point is that I want SMU to get the revenue, not Jerry Jones or Clint Murchison. I could care less about traffic issues in the Park Cities.

Sorry, I know this is picky, but it's one of my pet peeves. I think you mean you "COULDN'T care less." I think that's what most people mean when they mess up this phrase. I could care less about SMU football -- mainly because I care an awful lot.

[McClown27]

Sorry, I know this is picky, but it's one of my pet peeves. I think you mean you "COULDN'T care less." I think that's what most people mean when they mess up this phrase. I could care less about SMU football -- mainly because I care an awful lot.

Sorry, I will proofread my posts in the future. I am glad that someone else is so enthusiastic about it.

I just looked it up. "I could care less" is an acceptable colloquial way of saying "I couldn't care less," because it reveals the sarcasm of the speaker. However, you are correct, it is difficult for the reader to pick up on the sarcasm. For use in text or email, it is proper to use "I couldn't care less." Yet, due to the hermeneutical limitations of texts, I want everyone to know that I was still being sarcastic.

[Kappas Are Yummy]

Maybe you should define "hermeneutical" for all the TCU and NTSU fans that we know lurk on this board!

[SMUPhil]

Ain't that the truth. The Park Cities used to populate SMU with students and players; now, everyone goes to UT and has sends their kids to play at Georgia.

Of course UT will get a ton of kids, they probably get the highest percentage of any public school senior class in the state, and it's a much cheaper choice.

I'm not sure how it compares to 20-50 years ago, but in the last 10 years, I believe SMU has increased its student population from UP/HP. My good friend that went to HP showed me a copy of their newspaper with a list of seniors' college choices from 2004. SMU had moved up to number 2, behind UT. I believe ATM or Baylor was third with decently less numbers than SMU.

[MrMustang1965]

My good friend that went to HP showed me a copy of their newspaper with a list of seniors' college choices from 2004. SMU had moved up to number 2, behind UT. I believe ATM or Baylor was third with decently less numbers than SMU.

If that's the case, then why the hell isn't SMU getting those kids and their parents and their grandparents and all of their friends/neighbors to come to an SMU athletic event that is RIGHT IN THEIR FRIGGIN' BACKYARD??????? SMU's mktg. department should be (and maybe they already do!) getting the names of every one of those kids from the Park Cities who will be on The Hilltop and then FLOODING their house with mailouts and phone calls!

[Flatlander]

the irony is that because it was perceived that SMU cowtowed to the Park Cities for so long, most of the rest of Dallas took it to mean that SMU was the school for the Park Cities, not Dallas in general. Now that the Park Cities has seemingly turned its back on the program, there is little left in the stands. SMU needs to reach out to Dallas and the suburbs from Rockwall to Denton.

The fact of the matter is that most HP kids that are top notch caliber will choose a Big XII program over SMU unless there are major famil ties to the Stangs. HP's top OL went to Tech, QB went to UGa. Hudnall is a good pickp, but doesn't fit the 'top 100' type recruit and SMU is a great fit for him. More importantly, he KNOWS HOW TO WIN! That can't be stated enough.

[McClown27]

the irony is that because it was perceived that SMU cowtowed to the Park Cities for so long, most of the rest of Dallas took it to mean that SMU was the school for the Park Cities, not Dallas in general. Now that the Park Cities has seemingly turned its back on the program, there is little left in the stands. SMU needs to reach out to Dallas and the suburbs from Rockwall to Denton.

The fact of the matter is that most HP kids that are top notch caliber will choose a Big XII program over SMU unless there are major famil ties to the Stangs. HP's top OL went to Tech, QB went to UGa. Hudnall is a good pickp, but doesn't fit the 'top 100' type recruit and SMU is a great fit for him. More importantly, he KNOWS HOW TO WIN! That can't be stated enough.

I hate to admit this fact, but all of a sudden it seems we have begun to agree on some things.

[McClown27]

If that's the case, then why the hell isn't SMU getting those kids and their parents and their grandparents and all of their friends/neighbors to come to an SMU athletic event that is RIGHT IN THEIR FRIGGIN' BACKYARD??????? SMU's mktg. department should be (and maybe they already do!) getting the names of every one of those kids from the Park Cities who will be on The Hilltop and then FLOODING their house with mailouts and phone calls!

I think they do. Park Cities just ain't what they used to be though, pretty anti-SMU since Ford was built.

[Dutch]

i love the blanket statements that all you guys are making. (sarcastically - since we've been addressing this as well)..."everyone in HP/UP should embrace SMU, and attend home games, and send their kids there, don't worry about the $32,000 in tuition alone."

As a HPHS & SMU alum, and a current resident of UP, the crap that comes out of your collective mouths about this subject reflects poorly on both you and SMU - by not embracing the local community, and somehow blaming them for the deficiencies at SMU, even though the vast majority of the park cities residents didn't go to SMU. to compound on that, a good guess would be that well over 90% of the residents of UP/HP are college graduates, you're assuming that they should drop supporting their alma mater, and jump on the faltering SMU bandwagon (never thought i would see those words together), which ironically is what most SMU alums do by supporting a good athletic program that they grew up watching b/c that's where their folks went, or was the local school, etc.

[McClown27]

i love the blanket statements that all you guys are making. (sarcastically - since we've been addressing this as well)..."everyone in HP/UP should embrace SMU, and attend home games, and send their kids there, don't worry about the $32,000 in tuition alone."

Your kids can go to any college they want. That is not the point. SMU is unfortunate in its location--as MM1965 was suggesting--because it is the only place in Texas that fancy parties, fashion shows, and antique auctions outdraw college football. These kind of social events are so important to the Parkies that SMU can't even use money from high school football or Burn games to decrease the athletic deficit. Makes me wonder how many people from Texas actually live there.

I don't care what anyone says, if our games were played in Midland-Odessa or Tyler, our stadium would be filled up with local fans (yes Phil Bennett's Mustache, that probably didn't go to the school).

[Kappas Are Yummy]

If I understand him correctly, I think that what McClown is saying is that Parkies are more concerned with who has more lights in the trees in their front yard than the world class university across the street.

I have to say he could be right. I mean, if I lived in the Park Cities, I'd do everything I could to make SMU stronger, alumni or not, simply because it would increase my already inflated home value.

[Dutch]

"if our games were played in Midland-Odessa or Tyler, our stadium would be filled up with local fans (yes Phil Bennett's Mustache, that probably didn't go to the school)."

I think you meant to say "that probably didn't go to school at all". it's why so many people in Odessa are Tech fans. it's all they've got. I'm not trying to make any comparisons, other than a generalization that a very high percentage of Park Cities residents attended at least undergraduate college, and a high number have attended another school for post graduate studies. it's just a fact. if you look at the populations of Tyler or M/O, i would not be wrong in saying that a greater % did not attend a 4 year university. am i wrong in this assumption? i don't want to waste my time looking it up, but will if you continue to be such an idiot about this subject.

quit blaming the park cities for the problems of SMU. they are totally unrelated, and SMU's budget problems go way deeper than UP not letting them host a few high school football games. do you really think $10k/weekend is going to make up a $3.5MM defacite? guess you were a student in the Meadows School of Arts & Crafts (obviously no business acumen).

[93Mustang]

What a ridiculous string of posts. My guess is that over 50% of our very small season ticket base lives in UP or HP. This includes me and as I walk to games with my family, I see other neighbors doing the same thing. To suggest that the Park Cities do not embrace SMU sports is a joke on many levels. I wholeheartedly agree with the sentitment that SMU needs to shed its "snob" attitude and try to become Dallas' college team by reaching out to south Dallas and DISD to get kids coming to our games when they're young so they might want to attend the school in the future. However, to rip the Park Cities for not supporting the program shows a complete lack of understanding of who attends our games. Our attendence from all segments of our alumni has been awful at Ford, but that's a product of our lack of success. Hopefully, a winning season will start to turn things around. By the way, if SMU was in the boonies, we'd have dropped football by now.

[Kappas Are Yummy]

Woah, woah, woah. I think it's really out of line to bash people that live in towns like Odessa simply because we like to generalize that many of them were not as lucky as some of us to be born, silver foot in our mouth, in places like the Park Cities and attend SMU.

Just because people there care more about community events like football fandom than placing expensive lights in their trees, shouldn't make them objects of ridicule.

As for bashing Meadows, I think that's also out of line. I'm a proud Meadows graduate and my checkbook balances just fine, thanks.