UNT: Mean Green Athletics

The "Mean Green" nickname took hold in 1966, credited variously to a fan's cheer for defensive star Joe Greene and to a basketball-team chant. This walk starts at the arena students call the Super Pit and crosses to Mean Green Village, the athletics complex that grew up south of I-35E starting in the mid-2000s. Along the way you'll pass the wing-shaped football stadium, a plaza honoring two integration pioneers, and the home fields of soccer, track and softball. Stick to the public sidewalks and plazas; team buildings are not open for walk-in visits.

North Texas has been the Mean Green since 1966, a nickname credited both to fans cheering defensive star Joe Greene and to a basketball-crowd chant. This walk explores the places where that identity comes alive, from a 1970s arena with a famous nickname to a modern stadium designed to look like a bird in flight.

The UNT Coliseum, opened in 1973, is known as the Super Pit in honor of the old gym fans called the Snake Pit. Beyond basketball it has hosted NCAA tournament games, commencements and major concerts, Pearl Jam in 1993 among them. Much of the route lies in Mean Green Village, the athletics complex that took shape on a former golf course south of I-35E beginning in the mid-2000s.

Its showpiece is DATCU Stadium, opened in 2011 as Apogee Stadium. The V-shaped north stands suggest an eagle's spread wings, and it was the first newly built college football stadium in the country to earn LEED Platinum certification, later adding wind turbines. The most meaningful stop is Unity Plaza, dedicated in 2022 to Abner Haynes and Leon King, who in 1956 became the first Black players in major college football in Texas. Haynes went on to an AFL MVP season, while King built a long career as an educator in Dallas schools.

It's an easy, open-air route that blends sports history, sustainable design and a civil rights milestone.