The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. UNT's main campus is in Denton, Texas, and it also has a satellite campus in Frisco, Texas. It offers 112 bachelor's, 94 master's, and 38 doctoral degree programs. Established in 1890, UNT has achieved remarkable growth and is now counted among the largest universities in the nation. In the fall semester of 2023, it achieved a record enrollment of 46,940 students. UNT is the largest university in Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and the third largest university in Texas, following Texas A&M and UT Austin.
The University of North Texas consists of 14 colleges and schools, 37 research centers and institutes, the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science, and a library system that comprises the university core. UNT is the flagship member of the University of North Texas System, which includes additional universities in Dallas and Fort Worth. The University of North Texas is designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) and a Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) by the U.S. Department of Education.
UNT is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".[12] It is designated an Emerging Research University (ERU) by the State of Texas. In 2023, the state of Texas established the Texas University Fund (TUF) with the purpose of expanding and supporting research initiatives at four Texas universities, including the University of North Texas, with the goal of elevating them to the ranks of the nation's top universities. The Texas University Fund began with an initial funding of $3.9 billion and receives an annual allocation of $100 million as a permanent endowment.
The University of North Texas' main campus is located in Denton, Texas, within the expansive Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The main campus spans 900 acres, encompassing the academic district north of I-35E, the Eagle Point athletic district south of I-35E, and Discovery Park. UNT also has a branch campus, UNT at Frisco, which covers 100 acres and was donated by the city of Frisco. Frisco is a suburb in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, it has been the fastest-growing city in the United States over the last decade.
The university's athletics teams are the North Texas Mean Green. Its sixteen intercollegiate athletic teams compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. North Texas is a member of the American Athletic Conference. UNT's official school colors are Green and White and its mascot is an Eagle named Scrappy. The Mean Green have won 130 conference championships, including 34 since 2000.
Notable Alumni
Athletics
Stone Cold Steve Austin, wrestler
Bill Bishop, NFL defensive tackle
Bruce Chambers, former Texas Longhorns football assistant coach (1998–2014)
Patrick Cobbs, NFL running back
Jaelon Darden, NFL wide receiver
Lance Dunbar, NFL running back
Tony Elliott, NFL nose tackle
Toby Gowin, NFL punter
"Mean" Joe Greene, NFL Hall of Famer, NFL defensive tackle and assistant coach
Cedric Hardman, NFL football defensive end; 1970 first round draft pick, San Francisco 49ers
Abner Haynes, AFL and NFL running back
Jim Hess, former college coach and NFL scout
Don January, PGA Senior Tour golfer
Chris Jones (born 1993), basketball player for Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli Basketball Premier League
Brad Kassell, NFL Defensive Player
Carl "Spider" Lockhart, NFL defensive back
Billy Maxwell, PGA Senior Tour golfer
Tony Mitchell, NBA forward
Umar Muhammad, football player
Jamize Olawale, NFL fullback
Zach Orr, NFL linebacker
Carlos Ortiz, PGA Tour golfer
Willie Parker, NFL offensive lineman
Johnny Quinn, USA Olympic Bobsled
Ray Renfro, NFL wide receiver
Hurles Scales, NFL defensive back
Kal Segrist, MLB second baseman and Texas Tech Red Raiders baseball head coach (1968-83)
Ron Shanklin, NFL receiver and All-Pro player
Charlie Shepard, all-star CFL running back
J.T. Smith, NFL wide receiver
Dennis Swilley, NFL offensive lineman
Tra Telligman, UFC fighter
Harry Vines, wheelchair basketball pioneer
David Von Erich, deceased professional wrestler dubbed the "Yellow Rose of Texas," brother of Kevin Von Erich
Kevin Von Erich, professional wrestler dubbed "the Golden Warrior", brother of David Von Erich
Brian Waters, NFL offensive lineman
Jeff Wilson, NFL running back
Arts and media
Lawrence B. Jones, journalist, news anchor, news reporter, investigative reporter, and Fox News media personality
Theodore Albrecht, musicologist
Larry Austin, composer
Joe Don Baker, film actor, Charley Varrick, Walking Tall, Cape Fear, three James Bond films
Dave Barnett, sports announcer
William Basinski, musician
Bob Belden, jazz musician, Grammy Award-winning composer
Brian Biggs, children's book illustrator
Gregg Bissonette, jazz and rock drummer
Sally Blakemore, paper engineer and pop-up book creator
Joan Blondell, Oscar-nominated film and television actress, Desk Set, Nightmare Alley, The Cincinnati Kid, Grease
Craig Bohmler, composer
Zach Bolton, voice actor
Pat Boone, pop and gospel singer, actor and television personality
Billy Lee Brammer, novelist and journalist
Justin Briner, voice actor
Brave Combo, Grammy-winning polka rock band
Karen Mixon Cook, disc jockey
Eden Brent, blues pianist and vocalist
Rogers Cadenhead, author of computer books; Web publisher; member of RSS Advisory Board
Matt Chamberlain, session drummer
Thomas Haden Church, Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning film and television actor, Sideways, Spider-Man 3, Broken Trail
Jeff Coffin, jazz saxophonist of Dave Matthews band and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones
Joseph Patrick Cranshaw, film actor, best known as "Blue" from movie Old School
Ivan Davis, classical concert pianist
Aaron Dismuke, voice actor
Miranda Dodson, Christian folk musician
Bob Dorough, bebop and jazz pianist/vocalist of Schoolhouse Rock songs
George Dunham, radio talk-show host and former "voice of the Mean Green Radio Network"
Matthew Earnest, theatre director
Greg Edmonson, musician
Todd and Toby Pipes, one hit wonders from the 1990s (Deep Blue Something)
Rob Erdle, watercolorist, regents' professor
Charlie Fern, White House speechwriter, journalist
Kelli Finglass Director of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, television personality, television producer
Steve Flanigan Film Producer, Director and DP.
Mark Followill, sports announcer
O'Neil Ford, architect whose works include San Antonio's Tower of the Americas
Steven Fromholz, singer-songwriter, 2007 Poet Laureate of Texas
Bobby Fuller, rock singer/guitarist best known for his band's cover of "I Fought the Law"
Phyllis George, Miss America 1971; First Lady of Kentucky, 1979-83; TV personality; broadcaster for The NFL Today
Jimmy Giuffre, jazz musician
James Hampton, actor and director
Gerald Harvey Jones, a.k.a. G. Harvey, (1933-2017), painter.[2]
Kyle Hebert, voice actor
Don Henley, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and drummer, solo and with The Eagles
Sara Hickman, folk singer/songwriter
Ray Wylie Hubbard, country music singer
Kyle Irion, blogger and fiction author
Elliott Johnson, artist and designer
Norah Jones, Grammy-winning pianist and singer-songwriter
Jeffrey L. Kimball, cinematographer of Top Gun
Scott Kurtz, creator of the webcomic PvP
Sue Ane Langdon, actress
Michael Lark, comic book artist
Lecrae, Christian hip-hop artist, actor, co-founder of Reach Records
T. Lewis, illustrator of the comic strip Over the Hedge
Tom "Bones" Malone, trombonist; played with Saturday Night Live and Late Show with David Letterman house bands, and The Blues Brothers
"Blue Lou" Marini, saxophonist; played with Saturday Night Live house band and The Blues Brothers
Jim Marrs, conspiracy theorist and author of Crossfire: the Plot that Killed Kennedy (the basis for the Oliver Stone film JFK)
Lyle Mays, composer and keyboardist with Pat Metheny Group
Dr. Phil McGraw, television personality and psychologist
Eli McDonald, artist
Larry McMurtry, novelist, essayist and screenwriter; won Pulitzer Prize for novel Lonesome Dove and Academy Award for screenplay of Brokeback Mountain
Meat Loaf, rock singer and film actor
Bill Mercer, sports and professional wrestling announcer
Takesha Meshé Kizart, operatic soprano
Jim Metcalf, news reporter and Peabody Award recipient
R.K. Milholland, creator of webcomics Something Positive, New Gold Dreams and Midnight Macabre
Lawrence Montaigne, actor, writer, dancer, and stuntman
Latonia Moore, operatic soprano
Maren Morris, Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter[3]
Bill Moyers, journalist and commentator
Jack Nance, stage, TV and film actor, notable for his works with director David Lynch including Eraserhead, Twin Peaks
Trina Nishimura, voice actor
Warren Carl Norwood, author of science-fiction novels
Roy Orbison, rock singer-songwriter in Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Brina Palencia, voice actor
Alan Palomo, frontman for Neon Indian
Jessie Pavelka, television star and model
Craig Pilo (born 1972), drummer
David Portillo, operatic tenor
Emily Pulley, operatic soprano who has performed in more than 150 operas
Patricia Racette, operatic soprano
Leila Rahimi, sports reporter and anchor
Anne Rice, author, Interview with the Vampire
Michelle Rojas, voice actor
Jim Rotondi, jazz trumpeter, educator and conductor
Melissa Rycroft, dancer and television personality
Philece Sampler, film, television, and voice actor
Christopher Sabat, voice actor
Emilia Schatz, video game designer at Naughty Dog
Ann Sheridan, film actress, star of Dodge City, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Nora Prentiss
Damin Spritzer, organist and academic
Clinton Howard Swindle, journalist and author
Alexis Tipton, voice actor
Darren Trumeter, member of The Whitest Kids U' Know comedy troupe
Paul Varghese, stand-up comedian, appeared on NBC's Last Comic Standing
Jennifer Vasquez, Big Brother season 6 contestant; actor
Craig Way, sports announcer
Peter Weller, film actor and star of RoboCop
Noble Willingham, television and film actor, Walker, Texas Ranger, Good Morning, Vietnam, City Slickers
Kaela Sinclair, musician, keyboardist and vocalist for M83[4]
Shara Worden, musician, performs under the name My Brightest Diamond
Xiaoze Xie, artist
Denny Thomas, emmy winning editor
Science and education
W. J. Adkins, B.A. 1930 (1907-1965), founding president of Laredo Community College
Dee Brock (B.A., M.A., Ph.D.), senior vice president of educational programming at PBS
Elise F. Harmon, B.S. (1909-1985), physicist, chemist, and major contributor to the miniaturization of computers
Anita Jose, Ph.D, business strategist, essayist, and professor at Hood College
John E. King, PhD, president of the Kansas State Teachers College (now Emporia State University); president of the University of Wyoming, 1966-1967
Juan L. Maldonado (B.A. 1972, Master of Education 1975) has been the president of Laredo Community College since 2007.[7]
Gary S. Metcalf (1957), organizational theorist and management consultant
Charles Mullins, cardiologist and former CEO, Parkland Hospital; administrator, University of Texas System
Lorene Lane Rogers, Ph.D. (1914-2009), president of The University of Texas, first woman president of a major public university
Nicola Scafetta, Ph.D, physicist
Government and public service
Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs since 29 April 2015. He was the former ambassador to Washington, former adviser to the Royal Court of Saudi Arabia
Dick Armey, former Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, Texas District 26, which includes UNT, former economics professor and department chair at UNT
Robert Lee Bobbitt, Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives (1927-1929); Attorney General of Texas (1929-1930); state court judge (1935-1937); chairman of the Texas Highway Department (1937-1943)
Michael C. Burgess, current U.S. representative for the 26th Texas district, which includes UNT
Konni Burton, Texas State Senator as of 2015
Jack Cox, Republican gubernatorial nominee in 1962; Houston oilfield equipment industrialist
Tony Goolsby (Class of 1961), member of the Texas House of Representatives from Dallas County from 1989 to 2009
Warren G. Harding, former Texas State Treasurer (1977-1983) and Dallas County Treasurer (1950-1977); former President of North Texas State University.
Jim Hightower, populist activist and former Texas Commissioner of Agriculture
Opal Lee, activist who championed Juneteenth becoming a U.S. Federal holiday
Joseph L. Lengyel, General, U.S. Air Force; Chief, National Guard Bureau
Clint Lorance (born 1984), Army officer convicted of second-degree murder for battlefield deaths; pardoned
Diane Patrick (Class of 1969 and 1999, M.A. and Ph.D.), member of the Texas House of Representatives from Arlington; former faculty member in education
Ray Roberts, former Congressman from Denton; namesake of nearby Lake Ray Roberts
Gwyn Shea, former Texas secretary of state (2002-2003) and a member of the Texas House of Representatives (1983-1993) from Irving; UNT regent since 2007
Drew Springer, Jr., state representative from District 68 in North Texas and the eastern South Plains
Barbara Staff, co-chairman of the 1976 Texas Ronald Reagan presidential primary campaign
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Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. The city is located in North Central Texas. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly 350 square miles (910 km2) into three other counties; Denton, Parker and Wise. According to the 2016 census estimates, Fort Worth's population is 854,113. The city is the second-largest in the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area (the "DFW Metroplex").
The city was established in 1849 as an Army outpost on a bluff overlooking the Trinity River. Today, Fort Worth still embraces its Western heritage and traditional architecture and design. USS Fort Worth (LCS-3) is the first ship of the United States Navy named after the city.
Fort Worth is home to the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and several world-class museums designed by internationally known contemporary architects. The Kimbell Art Museum, considered to have one of the best collections in Texas, is housed in what is widely regarded as one of the state's foremost works of modern architecture, designed by Louis Kahn with an addition by Renzo Piano. Also of note is the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, designed by Tadao Ando. The Amon Carter Museum of American Art, designed by Philip Johnson, houses one of the world's most extensive collections of American art. The Sid Richardson Museum, redesigned by David M. Schwarz, has one of the most focused collections of Western art in the U.S., emphasizing Frederic Remington and Charles Russell.
The city is stimulated by several university communities: Texas Christian University, Texas Wesleyan, University of North Texas Health Science Center, and Texas A&M University School of Law, and many multinational corporations, including Bell Helicopter, Lockheed Martin, American Airlines, BNSF Railway, Pier 1 Imports, XTO Energy and Radio Shack.
The Treaty of Bird's Fort between the Republic of Texas and several Native American tribes was signed in 1843 at Bird's Fort in present-day Arlington, Texas. Article XI of the treaty provided that no one may "pass the line of trading houses" (at the border of the Indians' territory) without permission of the President of Texas, and may not reside or remain in the Indians' territory. These "trading houses" were later established at the junction of the Clear Fork and West Fork of the Trinity River in present-day Fort Worth. At this river junction, the U.S. War Department established Fort Worth in 1849 as the northernmost of a system of 10 forts for protecting the American Frontier following the end of the Mexican–American War. The City of Fort Worth continues to be known as "where the West begins."
A line of seven army posts were established in 1848–49 after the Mexican War to protect the settlers of Texas along the western American Frontier and included Fort Worth, Fort Graham, Fort Gates, Fort Croghan, Fort Martin Scott, Fort Lincoln, and Fort Duncan. Originally 10 forts had been proposed by Major General William Jenkins Worth (1794–1849), who commanded the Department of Texas in 1849. In January 1849, Worth proposed a line of 10 forts to mark the western Texas frontier from Eagle Pass to the confluence of the West Fork and Clear Fork of the Trinity River. One month later, Worth died from cholera in South Texas.
General William S. Harney assumed command of the Department of Texas and ordered Major Ripley A. Arnold (Company F, Second United States Dragoons) to find a new fort site near the West Fork and Clear Fork. On June 6, 1849, Arnold, advised by Middleton Tate Johnson, established a camp on the bank of the Trinity River and named the post Camp Worth in honor of the late General Worth. In August 1849, Arnold moved the camp to the north-facing bluff, which overlooked the mouth of the Clear Fork of the Trinity River. The United States War Department officially named the post Fort Worth on November 14, 1849.
Native American attacks were still a threat in the area, as this was their traditional territory and they resented encroachment by European-American settlers, but people from the United States set up homesteads near the fort. E. S. Terrell (1812–1905) from Tennessee claimed to be the first resident of Fort Worth.[17] The fort was flooded the first year and moved to the top of the bluff; the current courthouse was built on this site. The fort was abandoned September 17, 1853. No trace of it remains.
Town development
As a stop on the legendary Chisholm Trail, Fort Worth was stimulated by the business of the cattle drives and became a brawling, bustling town. Millions of head of cattle were driven north to market along this trail. Fort Worth became the center of the cattle drives, and later, the ranching industry. It was given the nickname of Cowtown.
During Civil War, Fort Worth suffered from shortages of money, food, and supplies. the population dropped as low as 175, but began to recover during Reconstruction. By 1872, Jacob Samuels, William Jesse Boaz, and William Henry Davis had opened general stores. The next year, Khleber M. Van Zandt established Tidball, Van Zandt, and Company, which became Fort Worth National Bank in 1884.
Panther City and Hell's Half Acre
In 1875, the Dallas Herald published an article by a former Fort Worth lawyer, Robert E. Cowart, who wrote that the decimation of Fort Worth's population, caused by the economic disaster and hard winter of 1873, had dealt a severe blow to the cattle industry. Added to the slowdown due to the railroad's stopping the laying of track 30 miles (48 km) outside of Fort Worth, Cowart said that Fort Worth was so slow that he saw a panther asleep in the street by the courthouse. Although an intended insult, the name Panther City was enthusiastically embraced when in 1876 Fort Worth recovered economically. Many businesses and organizations continue to use Panther in their name. A panther is set at the top of the police department badges.
The "Panther City" tradition is also preserved in the names and design of some of the city's geographical/architectural features, such as Panther Island (in the Trinity River), the Flat Iron Building, the Intermodal Transportation Center, and in two or three "Sleeping Panther" statues. In 1876, the Texas and Pacific Railway finally was completed to Fort Worth, stimulating a boom and transforming the Fort Worth Stockyards into a premier center for the cattle wholesale trade. Migrants from the devastated war-torn South continued to swell the population, and small, community factories and mills yielded to larger businesses. Newly dubbed the "Queen City of the Prairies", Fort Worth supplied a regional market via the growing transportation network.
Fort Worth became the westernmost railhead and a transit point for cattle shipment. Louville Niles, a Boston, Massachusetts-based businessman and main shareholder of the Fort Worth Stockyards Company is credited with bringing the two biggest meat packing firms at the time, Armour and Swift, to the stockyards.
With the boom times came a variety of entertainments and related problems. Fort Worth had a knack for separating cattlemen from their money. Cowboys took full advantage of their last brush with civilization before the long drive on the Chisholm Trail from Fort Worth up north to Kansas. They stocked up on provisions from local merchants, visited saloons for a bit of gambling and carousing, then galloped northward with their cattle only to whoop it up again on their way back. The town soon became home to "Hell's Half-Acre", the biggest collection of saloons, dance halls, and bawdy houses south of Dodge City (the northern terminus of the Chisholm Trail), giving Fort Worth the nickname of "The Paris of the Plains".
Certain sections of town were off-limits for proper citizens. Shootings, knifings, muggings, and brawls became a nightly occurrence. Cowboys were joined by a motley assortment of buffalo hunters, gunmen, adventurers, and crooks. Hell's Half Acre (also known as simply "The Acre") expanded as more people were drawn to the town. Occasionally, the Acre was referred to as "the bloody Third Ward" after it was designated one of the city's three political wards in 1876. By 1900, the Acre covered four of the city's main north-south thoroughfares. Local citizens became alarmed about the activities, electing Timothy Isaiah "Longhair Jim" Courtright in 1876 as city marshal with a mandate to tame it.
Courtright sometimes collected and jailed 30 people on a Saturday night, but allowed the gamblers to operate, as they attracted money to the city. After learning that train and stagecoach robbers, such as the Sam Bass gang, were using the area as a hideout, he intensified law enforcement, but certain businessmen advertised against too many restriction in the area as having bad effects on the legitimate businesses. Gradually, the cowboys began to avoid the area; as businesses suffered, the city moderated its opposition. Courtright lost his office in 1879.
Despite crusading mayors such as H. S. Broiles and newspaper editors such as B. B. Paddock, the Acre survived because it generated income for the city (all of it illegal) and excitement for visitors. Longtime Fort Worth residents claimed the place was never as wild as its reputation, but during the 1880s, Fort Worth was a regular stop on the "gambler's circuit" by Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday, and the Earp brothers (Wyatt, Morgan, and Virgil). James Earp, the eldest of his brothers, lived with his wife in Fort Worth during this period; their house was at the edge of Hell's Half Acre, at 9th and Calhoun. He often tended bar at the Cattlemen's Exchange saloon in the "uptown" part of the city.
Reforming citizens objected to the dance halls, where men and women mingled; by contrast, the saloons or gambling parlors had primarily male customers.
In the late 1880s, Mayor Broiles and County Attorney R. L. Carlock initiated a reform campaign. In a public shootout on February 8, 1887, Jim Courtright was killed on Main Street by Luke Short, who claimed he was "King of Fort Worth Gamblers." As Courtright had been popular, when Short was jailed for his murder, rumors floated of lynching him. Short's good friend Bat Masterson came armed and spent the night in his cell to protect him.
The first prohibition campaign in Texas was mounted in Fort Worth in 1889, allowing other business and residential development in the area. Another change was the influx of black residents. Excluded by state segregation from the business end of town and the more costly residential areas, the city's black citizens settled into the southern portion of the city. The popularity and profitability of the Acre declined and more derelicts and the homeless were seen on the streets. By 1900, most of the dance halls and gamblers were gone. Cheap variety shows and prostitution became the chief forms of entertainment. Some politicians sought reforms under the Progressive Era.
In 1911, the Reverend J. Frank Norris launched an offensive against racetrack gambling in the Baptist Standard and used the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Fort Worth to attack vice and prostitution. When he began to link certain Fort Worth businessmen with property in the Acre and announce their names from his pulpit, the battle heated up. On February 4, 1912, Norris's church was burned to the ground; that evening, his enemies tossed a bundle of burning oiled rags onto his porch, but the fire was extinguished and caused minimal damage. A month later, the arsonists succeeded in burning down the parsonage. In a sensational trial lasting a month, Norris was charged with perjury and arson in connection with the two fires. He was acquitted, but his continued attacks on the Acre accomplished little until 1917. A new city administration and the federal government, which was eyeing Fort Worth as a potential site for a major military training camp, joined forces with the Baptist preacher to bring down the final curtain on the Acre.
The police department compiled statistics showing that 50% of the violent crime in Fort Worth occurred in the Acre, which confirmed respectable citizens' opinion of the area. After Camp Bowie (a World War I Army training installation) was located on the outskirts of Fort Worth in 1917, the military used martial law to regulate prostitutes and barkeepers of the Acre. Fines and stiff jail sentences curtailed their activities. By the time Norris held a mock funeral parade to "bury John Barleycorn" in 1919, the Acre had become a part of Fort Worth history. The name continues to be associated with the southern end of Fort Worth.
Building on its frontier western heritage and a history of strong local arts patronage, Fort Worth promotes itself as the "City of Cowboys and Culture". Fort Worth has the world's first and largest indoor rodeo, world class museums, a calendar of festivals and a robust local arts scene.
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