125 Year Archival Retrospective

Nic Nicosia, a native of Dallas, Texas, is an alumnus of the University of North Texas. He earned a Bachelor of Science in radio-television-film, with a concentration in motion pictures, in 1974. As an artist, he has become known for his photographs, films, drawings and sculpture.

Nicosia’s father loaned him money to open a camera shop, Denton Photo, located at 105 Ave A, near the UNT campus. In 1977, Nicosia was one of thirteen photographers that exhibited at the White Mule Photographic Gallery, located at 101 Ave. A. in Denton. In 1978, Nicosia’s photographs focused on images people’s backs. In 1980, Nicosia, a graduate student at North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas), won the purchase award in the annual Spring Competition for the Voertman Awards. The titles of his two photographs were City Scape #1, Denton, Texas and Cedar Trees. Nicosia has been recognized as being an early practitioner of staged photographic images, in both color and black and white. This development, generally dated to 1980, and lets the photographer construct the details in the image to convey an idea or a story to the viewer. He has produced work that explores his view of life in the suburbs. His photographs, unique and sometimes disturbing, quickly came to the attention of the art world. In 1983 he was selected to participate in the Whitney Biennial. He would also take part in the Whitney Biennial in 2000.

In 1983, he took part in the North Texas Photographic Invitation exhibition, which focused on staged, rather than spontaneous, images. He would also display his works in Concentrations 13: Nic Nicosia, at the Dallas Museum of Art in 1986.

Nicosia has kept his ties to Denton and the University of North Texas. He has placed his photographs on display in the Art Building and given lectures to the students. (1991). He has also served as a judge, on multiple occasions, for the Visual Arts Society of Texas, a Denton art organization that promotes local, regional, and national artists.

Nicosia began to make sculptures in 2009-2010. His sculptures, twins, was commissioned by the Austin Contemporary. The commission made it possible for Nicosia to enlarge smaller works and cast them in stainless steel. The figures were displayed on the Katy Trail.  In 2020, the Nasher Sculpture Center acquired Nicosia’s bighands. The piece was commissioned by the Nasher and was made possible by a group of Nicosia’s patrons.

Nicosia was honored with a retrospective of his films at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, “Nic Nicosia: Real Pictures 1979-1999.” Among the films shown were “Domestic Drama,” 1982, “Near (modern) Disasters,” 1983, “Love + Lust,” 1990-1991, “Middletown,” 1997, and the series “Life As We Know It,” 1986.

Nicosia’s photographs are part of the following collections: Chase Manhattan Bank, The Atlantic Richfield Company, The New Orleans Museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Gernsheim Collection at the University of Texas, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

He first burst onto the art scene with photography but has expanded to sculpture and film. Nicosia is an artist who has been open to learning new formats to express his singular vision.

Denton Photo Store advertised regularly in the UNT school paper, the North Texas Daily, This ad appeared on February 19, 1975.

The NT Daily alerted their readers to a Nic Nicosia exhibit on campus and lecture on campus on March, 21, 1991.

Nic Nicosia was highlighted on the North Texan web site.

Movies have long provided a place to gather with friends or go on a date. The films allow audiences to experience a story well told and see images of a wider world. Denton’s first exposure to films shown in town occurred in 1910. A. N. Moorman’s Majestic Theater had a short life and was quickly replaced by the Airdrome Theater. Located on a corner at East Hickory and Austin Streets, the Airdrome was an open-air theater that provided bleachers for the audience. 

The first permanent movie theaters were established on the Denton square in 1913. The Princess was opened on the north side. The Dreamland Theater and the Palace were located on the west side.

The Princess Theater originally seated its audience on folding chairs. Among the first feature films shown was “Ivanhoe.” In 1922, the Princess showed the first colored photoplay (a play that was adapted into a movie) in Denton. Damaged in a fire in 1924, the Princess was repaired and reopened in that same year with a new name, the Camel Theater.  The theater ceased operations in 1926.

The Dreamland produced music to accompany the films by using a “Wurlitzer orchestra.”  This was an automatic piano that could provide an hour and a half of music by using up to six rolls of music that were changed mechanically.  The Dreamland also held the distinction of showing the first hand-colored movie shown in Denton, “The Serpent of Eden,” which was shown in 1914.  The Dreamland closed in 1956.

Advertising for the theaters in the school newspaper, the Campus Chat, liked to reassure their customers that their money was being well spent. In 1919 the Dreamland was touted as “Dreamland Theater – Always a Good Show.”  An early advertisement (1929) for Princess Theater read, “Always a Good Show, Sometimes a Great One!”  Another ad for the Princess, which ran in 1948, stated that it “shows the best pictures that money and brains can buy.”

The Palace Theater, was the first to show a film with recorded sound on May 14,1929, using Thomas Edison’s Vitaphone system. The system used a disc of recorded sound. The feature shown was, “Saturday’s Children,” featuring Corinne Griffith. Al Jolson was presented in Vitaphone at the Palace in “The Singing Fool,” two weeks later. The first full length talkie shown in Denton, “Alibi,” also played at The Palace in 1929. It also showed the first musical in Denton, “Desert Song.” The Palace was sold in 1932 and continued to operate as a move theater until 1950. It then became a special events venue before closing in 1956.

In 1934 the east side of the square acquired a movie theater. The Ritz Theater was located in the Paschall Building.  The Ritz stopped operating in 1936. The structure was renovated and reopened as the Plaza Theater.

In 1935, The Texas Theater joined the theater line-up on the west side of the square. At one time the site housed an opera house. The Graham Opera House, constructed in 1877, was operated by George and Henry Fastorff. The opera house was torn down in 1890 and replaced, in that same year, by the structure that was operated as a furniture store before being remodeled to become a movie theater in 1935. The Texas Theater’s sound equipment was built by R. C. A. The theater seats were decorated with imitation leather with backs covered with chromium. The interior was decorated by Nena Claiborn of Dallas in dark purple, yellow, and cream on a background of green. It had a cooling system for summer and heating for the winter.  By 1939, Denton’s local paper listed four theaters: the Plaza, the Texas, the Palace, and the Dreamland as venues on Theater Row.

In 1949, the Campus Theater was added to the theater choices for the citizens of Denton. The theater seated 1,147 people and opened with the Texas premiere of “I Was a Male War Bride” with Cary Grant and Ann Sheridan (a former resident of Denton).  It would show movies until it closed in 1985. In 1990 it was purchased by the Greater Denton Arts Council and the Denton Community Theatre. After renovation, it was re-opened in July 1995. It became the home of the Denton Community Theatre and other performing arts groups in Denton.

In 1957, the Texas Theater was renamed as the Fine Arts Theater. The theater was redecorated with a pair of paintings by a Dallas artist. One was a cityscape of London and the other showed an elephant beside the Eiffel Tower. It could seat 767 people. After closing as a movie theater in 1981, it was used as a church, a performance space, and a dollar theater. In 1982 the theater was damaged by a fire. New owners, Aviation Cinemas and Talented Friends, have said that they have plans to preserve the structure and continue with movie screenings and live performances.

The citizens of Denton and the student population were first exposed to movies in the commercial center of their town, the Denton square. The movies brought people into town to eat a meal, shop, and see a movie. The movie theaters were important part of the economic and cultural life of the city.

The Texas Theater, which was later renamed the Fine Arts Theater, is seen in  1942. The Theater was located on Elm Street.

Theater Row was advertised on the side of a building near the Duke and Ayers Store. Duke and Ayers was located on Hickory Street.

Military units march past Theater Row on Elm Street in 1942.

Women march past Theater Row on Elm Street in 1942.

The Fine Arts Theater as seen from the area around the Courthouse looking across Elm Street. The photo is undated.

The sign for the Campus Theatre peeks out on the left on Hickory Street, 2015. The photo was taken by Junebug Clark.

The Campus Theater is lit up after dark in 2003-2004. The photo was by Randy Mallory.

This undated photo shows the Fine Arts Theatre, at this time probably being used as a church. The building on the left was built to fill a space left after a fire on the square in 1994. The photo is by Jim Bell.

In 2016, the UNT Homecoming Parade passed the Campus Theatre on Hickory Street. UNT President Neal Smatresk waves at the crowd from his car.

Students participate in a pep rally in front of the Texas Theater, later the Fine Arts Theater. In 1951.

Theater Row in 1942

Students had the option of studying agriculture in the early years of the university. The department was intended to prepare students to teach agriculture in secondary schools in rural areas. Some of the courses offered were in animal husbandry, gardening, soil and water conservation. A portion of campus was set aside for an experimental garden.

The professor most closely associated with the agriculture program was J. H. Legett. He first set foot on the campus as a North Texas student. Legett was an active participant in campus activities.  He played in the unofficial sports that were organized by the students in the early years of the school, playing both football and basketball. The football players had no regular uniforms at that time. He told the student newspaper, the Campus Chat, that he showed up for a game “dressed in some old clothes and wearing a mackintosh.” Legett published two short compositions in the North Texas State Normal Journal in 1904, when he was a junior. He was also member of the Glee Club in 1905.

After graduating in 1905, he worked at the Humble Oil Field for several months. He then wrote to the school requesting a teaching position in the Science Department. President J. S. Kendall hired him at a lab assistant on November 1, 1905. The classes he was first assigned to included chemistry, physics and English.  Legett  would advance to became the head of the Agricultural Department, which was organized in 1912.

During 1907, he was away from campus to attend the University of Chicago. During his absence, the Normal Building burned down. This destroyed all the scientific equipment owned by the school. His first task upon his return was to help purchase replacement equipment.

He continued the pattern set while he was a student and worked to be an active faculty member on campus.  In 1921, Legett served on the Faculty-Student Council and was chair of the Committee on the Schedule of Examinations. While a member of the Biology Department, he served as the president of the North Texas Biological Society, which was made up of the faculty of North and Central Texas Colleges and Universities. He would also hold the position of president of the Biologica Club of Texas. By 1928, he was the head of the Biology Department.  In 1933, Legett and Professor J. R. Swenson were honored by the Ex-Students at that organization’s annual banquet. In 1939, he was a member of the steering committee for the North Texas Teachers College Golden Jubilee Program to celebrate the school’s fiftieth year.

Legett served on committees and boards outside of the college. He was a member of the board of directors of the Denton County Livestock Show (1928). He showed his own dairy cattle in that same year.  He also held various offices in the Denton Commandery No. 45 Knights Templar. Legett served as a member of the board of directors of the Denton County Teachers Federal Credit Union.

After World War II, UNT was short on places to house the influx of former soldiers returning to civilian life and entering the college.  To house them the college purchased two military surplus structures.  The buildings had been previously used as Bachelor Officers Quarters in the Naval Air base at Eagle Mountain Lake in Tarrant County. They were disassembled and trucked to Denton and then rebuilt on land purchased from Professor Legett. The buildings became known as Legett Halls, to honor the former professor. The structures stood on the west side of Avenue E, between West Sycamore and West Prairie Streets.  The two-story frame buildings were used to house 200 men. Unfortunately, the structures were not popular with those housed in them. They were too evocative of military life, which the men were trying to leave behind them. The buildings were used until 1956, when they were torn down to make way for a new dormitory building, West Hall.

Legett retired in the summer of 1946.  The Department Agricultural ended at the same time.  J. H. Legett died in 1952.

Agricultural students worked on a garden plot as part of their studies. The Denton Courthouse could be seen in the distance.

Jesse Legett, the far left on the back row, is pictured with members of the Spring Oratorical Contest members, 1902.

J. H. Legett, assistant in Science, is pictured in the 1908 Yucca.

Legett Hall was marked by the number 37 on this 1953 photograph.

Students on today’s University of North Texas campus join campus organizations in large numbers. These groups include fraternities, sororities, academic-focused groups, and intermural sports, among other groups. In the early days of the university, groups included club sports, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and groups formed around music performances. An early array of clubs were the county clubs. Every student was immediately a member of the club for their home county. If the number of students from a specific county was not high enough to form a county club, then the counties formed a regional club, such as the West Texas Club.

“Old friends like old books are the ones we love most, and these friends are usually the ones whom we have loved from childhood – those from ‘home.’ When we enter college, we make new acquaintances, we form new friendships, but there is no tie that binds our hearts like the home ties. This fact we recognize in our county clubs. “ – 1923 Yucca

Documentation for county clubs first shows up in the 1911 school yearbook, the Yucca, with the West Texas Club. In 1912, the clubs included the following counties, Van Zandt, Collin, Ellis, Hill, and Wise. In 1913, Parker, Dallas, and Tarrant Counties joined the expanding list of clubs.

The clubs often had their own colors, flowers, and mottos. Palo-Pinto County Club’s motto was “Let us fail in trying to do something rather than sit still and do nothing.” West Texas Counties Club’s motto was “To give everyone the glad hand and smile to beat the band.” They chose the sunflower and brown and gold as the club’s colors. Collin County did not list a motto, but the Black-eyed Susan was their flower, and turquoise and gold were their colors.

Clubs elected officers and a reporter, who was expected to correspond with newspapers in the county/counties, as well as keep in touch with former members. The reporters became members of the Scribes Club, one of the largest literary organizations on campus.

Not all county clubs were active, something the students recognized. However, many enjoyed the social life and support these clubs provided students. Their activities included sunrise breakfasts, parties, athletic games, and picnics. Members also helped organize conferences, Re-Assembly Week (when ex-student information was updated and the alumni welcomed back on campus), and later Homecoming activities.

Many members went on to have prominent careers. As a student, Ben Wooten was a member of the Pine Burr Club, made up of students from Panola, Rusk, and Shelby counties. Wooten later became a banker and then served as the chair of the North Texas Board of Regents. W. A. (William Alfred) Meacham was the Tarrant County Club president. He went on to have a career as an educator in Fort Worth. His efforts were honored by having a school named after him.  C. A. Bridges was the president of the Cooke-Grayson County Club. He would become a faculty member at North Texas and write the History of Denton. A. O. Calhoun was the president of the Denton County Club. He had a career in education, becoming the first principal of Denton High. He would be recognized by having his name placed on the Calhoun Middle School.

After World War II, the focus of the school broadened. The concentration on teacher training expanded to embrace diverse majors and career options for the students. County clubs were slowly replaced by organizations that focused on the future employment of each club’s members. One of the last recorded county clubs was Jefferson and Jack Counties Club which was mentioned in the school newspaper, the Campus Chat, in 1951.

The 1915 Dallas County Club

The 1915 West Texas Club

The Pine Burr Club drew members from Rusk, Shelby, Panola, and Nacogdoches Counties in 1923 [1923 Yucca]

The 1920 Van Zandt County Club

The 1920 Cooke-Grayson County Club had C. A. Bridges as a member. He is seated second from the left.

Collin County Club members had their individual photographs in the 1932 Yucca.

In 1939 the name of the Van Zandt County Club was changed to the Free State Club. An explanation of the name change was published in the 1941 Yucca.

The University of North Texas was founded in Denton, a town that was largely built of wood and had a long history of fires. Denton endeavored to deal with the problem by replacing wood with brick and organizing a Fire Department in 1874. The firefighters were volunteers who were equipped with buckets and a hand drawn hook and ladder wagon which was added in 1876. Between 1880 and 1882, cisterns were installed on each side of the square to collect the runoff from the surrounding buildings. The water was intended to only be used to fight fires.

The first fire station opened in 1882 on the north-west corner of North Locust and McKinney Streets. The equipment included a new La France steam fired engine which was pulled by two horses. The engine burned coal to produce the steam that “threw” the water as far as 120 feet high.

In 1890, the same year UNT was founded, Denton purchased a former grocery store on the north side of Oak Street between Cedar and Bolivar Streets. The structure was altered to provide office space for the city government, a jail, and a fire station. This arrangement would continue until 1928.

In 1891, UNT opened its first building on campus, the Normal Building, a brick and stone building. The following year the city replaced the cisterns with proper water connections (standpipe, fire plugs, etc.). The Denton Water, Light, and Power Company, a private firm, started the powerhouse pump.

In 1907, lightning struck the Normal Building. The advancements in water pressure and firefighting had not made it out to the campus, and the building burned down. The loss prompted the school to start its own fire company. The manager of the Athletic Department and chief of the city fire department worked together to create the Independent Volunteer Fire Company.  Forty-five male students made up the new company. They worked with a hundred feet of hose, nozzles and wrenches donated by the city.  

The first officers listed for the Normal College Volunteer fire company were: J. B. Jackson, chief; J. T. Milam, first assistant; F. A. Ashmore, second assistant; R. B. Bigham, secretary; G. F. Wimberly, assistant secretary and treasurer.

The Normal College firefighters fought fires at several boarding houses (Sigler, Simmons, and Ball), the High School, and the Cottage Hotel. The school yearbook, the Yucca, noted that during first year that the student firefighters responded to around eight fires. By the second year, they ran to help fight up to twelve fires.

The first proposal made to establish a fire station on the city’s west side was submitted in 1913. It was noted that since the Normal Building burned down around twenty-three fires had broken out in the surrounding area with only one building saved. The lack of water pressure was identified as the primary problem. This was the same year that the Denton Fire Department hired college students to supplement their force. The students were expected to participate in firefighting whenever they were not in class. They were trained in the same manner as other beginner firefighters. For their efforts they received a salary and had room and board in the fire stations.

Denton built two substations in 1930. One was located near the campus, at 117 Avenue B.

During World War II, as men were called up to serve in the war, the Department of Civil Defense hosted a course at the college to teach women to fight fires.

The hiring of students to serve as firefighters for the Denton Fire Department ended in 1967. A student firefighter, Kenneth Kramer, died on June 14 after being buried by a collapsed wall of the Kimbell-Diamon Milling Company. He was 21 years old. The remaining student firefighters on the force were transferred to the Central Fire Station to work in dispatching.

The growth of the City of Denton and the University of North Texas has been intertwined, especially in firefighting. Students stepped up to protect their campus and the surrounding community. Their work as volunteers and paid firefighters provided them with community involvement, positions of responsibility, and funds to continue their educations.

The men of the Independent Volunteer Fire Company pose with their hoses in the 1909 Yucca.

The Independent Volunteer Fire Company, 1910 Yucca.

The Independent Volunteer Fire Company poses in front of the Science Building with President Bruce (second in on the right).

1916 Yucca ran a picture of the company and the members’ names.

When men were leaving to fight in World War II, women stepped in to work as volunteer firefighters. This photo shows women participating in a training drill.

Kenneth Kramer, a sophomore, is seen in the 1966 Yucca.

The Normal Building, the first building on the University of North Texas campus.

There have been four structures that held administrative offices on campus. These include the Normal Building, the Main Building, the Administration Building (now the Auditorium Building), and the Administration Building (now the Hurley Administration Building).

One of the structures faces Hickory Street and is now known as the Auditorium Building.  The Texas Legislature appropriated $300,000 for the construction of the three-story structure. It was designed by Page Brothers, of Austin, Texas. Construction of the building started in 1923 and finished in 1924 when it opened as the Administration Building. The new building replaced the Main Building (1903-1923).  During construction, displaced administrators were moved from the Main Building to the Library Building (now known as Curry Hall). Some offices and classrooms would be moved to a new wood-framed building constructed from materials saved from the Main Building. It would later become a Women’s Gym, known informally as Harriss Gym.

The Administration Building opened with approximately 5,000 students on a campus of forty acres which boasted six brick buildings. This structure opened with an office for student publications; a Women’s Reception Room; office space for the President; Dean of the College; business manager; Dean of Men; Dean of Women; registrar; President Emeritus; secretaries; and the departments of English, Foreign Languages, Social Sciences, classrooms, and faculty offices. There was also an auditorium that could hold roughly 2,500 individuals and a pipe organ. In 1932, a penthouse was added to house a cooling system for the auditorium. In 1937, the Campus Chat (the campus newspaper) noted that the structure held sound picture equipment to allow movies to be shown at the Saturday Night Stage Show.

The class of 1928 donated a gazebo with a water fountain inside it. By 1935, students favored the new water fountain in the Administration Building because the electric cooling equipment could maintain a steady cool temperature of the water. It was so popular that students started to campaign to add a water fountain inside the Science Building.

In 1947 a partial basement was added to the structure. The Administration Building changed its purpose when a new Administration Building (now called the Hurley Administration Building) was opened in 1956. The older structure had its name changed to the Auditorium Building, and it was decided to use it for classrooms, offices, and as a performance space. Among the people who have performed or lectured on the stage were the Moon Maids, Pat Boone, Hal Holbrook, Vincent Price, Ralph Nader, Marjorie Tallchief, Lilly Tomlin, and Michael Moore.

The Main Building (1904-1922), showing its south side, was the second structure used as an administration building. The third Administrative Building (1923- ) was constructed over the Main Buildings site.

An undated image of the Administration Building, now known as the Auditorium Building.

The commencement ceremony was held in the Auditorium Building in the 1960s.

An aerial view of the campus in the 1930s shows the President’s House, the Administration Building, the Science Building, the Library, and the Power Plant.

Graduates leave the commencement ceremony, held in the Administration Building, in the 1950s.

‘Fessor Graham introduces an act during the 1941 Stage Show which was held during Homecoming. They are on the Administration Building’s stage.

President McConnell addresses the members of the North Texas State Teachers College during a War Assembly at the start of America’s involvement in World War II, 1942. 

An image of the audience in the Administration Building auditorium, circa 1926.

 A new, and the fourth, Administration Building was opened in 1956. The structure beside it was torn down at that time. The structure was known as Harriss Gym. It was made from materials from the second Administration Building (the Main Building) and was used to house some of the offices and classrooms while the third Administration Building (now the Auditorium Building) was constructed.

A group of female students at North Texas Normal College met on October 12, 1902, to form the Mary Arden Club. The organization was named for William Shakespeare’s mother. The faculty member responsible for this new literary group was Miss Edith Lanier Clark. Clark, an English instructor at the time, wanted a club that would study the works of Shakespeare. Members analyzed two plays each session and performed a play each year for their fellow students. The first officers were Sadie Hanks, president; Tennie Malone, vice-president; Jennie Coller, secretary; and Jimmie Stiff, treasurer. Olive Murphy and Georgian Phipps served as sergeant-at-arms. The membership was limited to 30 students until 1914. In 1915, the club joined the Texas Federation of Women’s Clubs.

Club members chose the club’s name, colors (white and orange), and flower (white rose) during the second meeting of the club. The 1932 yearbook, The Yucca, stated that Eugene Chinn, a student, suggested the name of the club. During the first year the club presented acts from Hamlet and As You Like It in the area that is now behind the Auditorium Building. Elizabeth Hillyard, head of the art department, designed the senior club pin in 1906. It was a gold arrow with three pearls representing faith, fidelity, and friendship. At least three songs were composed for the club. Lois Rodgers wrote the senior club song, “When a Mary Meets a Mary” in 1925. Olga Borth composed a song for the Junior Mary Ardens in 1935. Virginia Haile composed a song to Mary Arden and dedicated it to Edith L. Clark in 1940.

The club originally met in the Normal Building, the first structure to be built on the North Texas Normal’s campus. Unfortunately, that building was struck by lightning in 1907 and burned down. Meeting in other campus structures (the Main Building, the Library [now Curry Hall], and later the College Club House) did not fully meet the needs of the club. The Mary Arden members raised funds for a structure to meet in by staging Shakespearian plays and through donations from former members. The lot was acquired between 1914 and 1915 with plans to build a club house. However, the lodge could not be built until after World War I. Bessie Shook, an English instructor, laid the corner stone. The Mary Arden Lodge was a shingled bungalow with French windows, a terrace and pergola. There was a spacious club room with a beamed ceiling and fireplace, a dining room, and a kitchen. It was located across Avenue A, east of the 10-acre campus of the Normal College. It was said to be the first clubhouse owned by a women’s literary club in Texas. It was also the second one by a member of the Federated Women’s Clubs in Texas (the other one was in Beaumont). Martha Simkins, artist and former UNT faculty member, presented an oil portrait of Edith Clark to the club in 1923. The painting was hung above the fireplace. The club made the last payment on the lodge in 1927.

As the club grew, the subjects studied by the members broadened to include art and current event issues (political, economic, and social). In 1933, the theme for the fall semester was “The Successful Woman of Today and Her Profession.”  During World War II, members also participated in gathering toys for under-privileged children, were active with the local Red Cross chapter, buying war bonds, hosting dances for service members, and contributing to kits for soldiers.

In 1935, the Club was split into the Junior Mary Ardens and the Senior Mary Ardens. The Junior Mary Ardens was composed of freshmen and sophomores, with juniors and seniors making up the Senior Mary Ardens. By 1945, the Junior Mary Ardens had one hundred members.

The Mary Arden Lodge was rented out for use by other campus organizations for meetings, dances, and other activities. However, after World War II, the Mary Ardens were the first club to donate funds for the building of a Union Building. Their donation reflected the expansion of the student enrollment and the need for more space to accommodate the growth of student groups.

Edith L. Clark retired in 1944 after working for the university for 42 years. Originally an English faculty member, the school’s president appointed her Dean of Women in 1918. Virginia Haile became the second sponsor of the Mary Arden Clubs.

Ms. Clark was honored at the 1952 Homecoming, the same time that the club celebrated its 50^th anniversary. The club held a luncheon in the Crystal Room of Marquis Hall. Grace Cartwright, a member of the Board of Regents and a former club member, was one of the guests.

The property, needed for the long-range development of the campus, was purchases by the school in 1959 for $10,000. The structure was torn down in 1960. The block it sat on was eventually the home of the Art and the Speech and Drama buildings. The Mary Arden clubs were once again searching for space to meet in. The Junior Mary Ardens initially met in the Women’s Gym.

The money from the sale of the lodge funded scholarships for the Edith L. Clark and Mary Arden Lodge scholarships. The scholarships were first handed out in 1960. Betty Joyce Peterson received the Edith L. Clark scholarship. Barbara Bristow received the Mary Arden Scholarship. The latter scholarship started out as a loan for members in need during 1939. Mrs. Elizabeth M. Fly of Amarillo provided the original money for the loan fund.

Edith Clark died in 1964 at the age of 90. In the following year, the Board of Regents approve a contract for the building of a new women’s dormitory with plans to name it after Edith Clark.

The Mary Arden Club continued to be active and listed in the “Student Handbook” until 1975.

Students walking on the south side of the University Union, near Highland Street, have the opportunity to view a sculpture by a world-famous artist and UNT alumnus, Jesús Moroles.

Jesús Bautista Moroles (1950-2015) was born in Corpus Christi. He was the eldest child in a family of six children. He was named after an uncle, who was sent to fight in the Korean War. He grew up in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, attending the Sidney Lanier Expressive Arts Vanguard School in that city. In high school, he learned silk screening. His work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit were on full display when he started to produce spirit items with his school logo. He eventually expanded to producing similar products for other schools. By the end of High School, he had developed his own business. 

After graduating from Crozier Technical High School, Moroles received his draft notice in 1969. He enlisted in the Air Force, but he had to take a test to prove that the Air Force should accept him. His math results were high, and the Air Force took him in to fill an emerging field, computing, that they needed to fill. He took two years of technical training and became an electronics repairman.  This was during the Vietnam War. He would serve for four years.

When he returned home, Moroles enrolled in El Centro College. He enrolled and took a year of nothing but art courses. He was asked who his counselor was and confessed that he did not have one. He then had to take the academic courses that he needed for a diploma. He earned an associate’s degree from El Centro College, Dallas.

He then enrolled at North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas). Moroles studied sculpture with Mike Cunningham. It was during this time that he realized that he wanted to work with granite. His Bachelor of Fine Arts degree was earned in 1978.

“That’s [Granite] the only thing I work with it was the hardest thing I tried. I liked the challenge.” Jesús Moroles [Smithsonian Oral History with Ms. Cary Cordova]

His education also included working as an apprentice for Luis Jimenez, a figurative artist, for a year. He then spent a year in Carrara, Italy studying sculpture. Upon his return, Moroles moved to Waxahachie where he rented space in a stone carver’s factory.

He moved to Rockport in 1983 to live near his family.

“I moved here to be close to my parents, so they could keep an eye on me. You know, I grew up leaving home when I was drafted, and then gone for four years, then to college for four years, and then was an apprentice, and was gone- and then To Italy. So I was gone for 10 years, and so it was the first chance that I could kind of get back…” Jesús Moroles [Smithsonian Oral History with Ms. Cary Cordova]

He built a studio to hold his sculpture equipment and stones he had picked out for future sculptures. Moroles technique to carve the granite was to drill holes in the stone and then use wedges to “tear” the stone. This process exposes the interior of the stone, creating the design and the texture of the artwork.

“The stone itself is the starting point. I always choose pieces that already suggest their final form. By working directly in response to the character of the stone, I hope to expose the truth of the material.”  Jesús Moroles [Dallas Independent School District]

“And so we drill holes in it and put wedges in it and play them like tuning forks and create pressure, and then all of a sudden it explodes open and falls apart.” Jesús Moroles [Smithsonian Oral History with Ms. Cary Cordova]

Moroles came back to UNT to participate in a performance combining music and dancers with his “tearing” the stone known as “Thunder in the Stone: Tearing Granite” in 1993. The concept for the piece came from his experience of being on an airplane and flying through a thunderstorm. David Shrader, dean of Music, and Larry Austin (musician), and Sandra Combest (choreographer) were involved in the production. The production combined dance, dramatic noise, and the visual show of the carving of the stone to make a sculpture. The show would also be performed at the Davis/McClain Gallery.

Moroles also traveled widely. His sculptures are now installed around the world. A few of these countries include Mexico, Egypt, China, France, Italy, and the United States. In Egypt, he was able to visit the quarries where the stone for the ancient carvings and monuments came from. He was also able to carve that stone. He ended up with an eighteen-foot granite sail. He made numerous trips to China. On his first trip to China, Moroles stayed for two months and created a Spirit Fountain.

His sculptures can be seen closer to the UNT campus at the Dallas Museum of Art; the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston; the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico; the Albuquerque Museum; and the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, Texas.

Among the honors Moroles received were the Texas Medal of the Arts Award for Visual Arts (2007), the National Medal of the Arts (2008), and he was honored as a Texas State Artist by the Texas Commission on the Arts (2011).

Moroles was killed in a car accident near Jerrell, Texas on June 14, 2015.

In March 2021, the Dallas School Board Trustees voted to change the name of the Sidney Lanier Expressive Arts Vanguard School to the Jesús Moroles Expressive Arts Vanguard School. Sidney Lanier was a Confederate poet.  Moroles was a former student of the school.

(1924-1989)

Generations of students learned to ride and care for horses at the University of North Texas thanks to a woman named Sweet Estes. Ms. Estes was born in Ennis, Texas. She was named Sammie Jean Estes and acquired the nickname “Sweet” from her big sister, Queena Jo Estes, shortly after birth. Sweet started selling rides on horses and mules as a child. The practice continued when she arrived on campus in the 1941-1942 school year. Rides on her horses cost 50 cents for the first hour and 25 cents for the second hour.  Before long she raised her prices to 75 cents an hour.   Soon the school approached her to give classes to her fellow students.  The stables were located on Maple Street. Her stables later moved south on Bonnie Brae. As a student she had a little time for anything but being a student, running her business, and teaching riding to her fellow students. However, she was a member of the Physical Education Professional Club. The horse rentals and a salary for teaching helped pay her way while earning a bachelor’s (Winter 1948) and master’s degrees (January 29, 1956).

“My sister and I rode at Sweet Estes’ stable on the far west end of Maple Street, a dirt street at the time….I can remember the names of 14 horses: Jitters, Indigo, Cho-Cho, etc. We rode west and south of town and around the golf course being built.”

              -Marjorie M. Dannelley Larson, North Texan, Fall 2011

              In 1948, Sweet was hired on as a full-time faculty member to teach horseback riding and other physical education classes. Shortly after her appointment she was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She took time off from teaching to pursue treatment for the disease. Her name does not appear in the catalogs between 1950-51 and 1951-52 school years. The doctors had warned her that she might never be able to ride a horse again.  She proved them wrong, returning to teaching and riding in 1952-53.

The classes ceased in 1962, when the Texas Legislature removed funding for physical education courses they felt did not belong in colleges and universities. Ms. Estes continued as a Physical Education instructor. She also continued to act as the sponsor of the riding club, Los Caballeros, so students could continue learn horseback riding (just without course credit).  She also altered her business plan by renting her horses to summer camps and gave individuals and groups riding lessons outside her university employment.

              “Riding is a team effort where the human has the responsibility to make it work”

              -Sweet Estes, North Texas Daily, 1977-04-28

Horseback riding would return to UNT in 1972. In 1974 backpacking classes were also offered. She took students on field trips to hike in Colorado and New Mexico. During the winter the trip was to Blanca Peak in Colorado. Warm weather trips visited a different site on each trip.

“This is a great chance for them [students] to get out and see the country and learn how lucky they are to live in such a beautiful world and to get a chance to experience it. It also gives them a chance to learn what they can and cannot do, to gain confidence in themselves. And it’s a great way to put problems back home in perspective. It gives them and me a chance to clear out the cobwebs”

              -Sweet Estes, North Texan, Winter 1985

Sweet Estes was last listed as a faculty member in the 1989-90 Undergraduate Catalog. She died in Florissant, Colorado in 1989.

One of Ms. Estes favorite sayings was “Prepare for the worst, hope for the best and smile through it all.”  Her life gave her numerous examples of hard times and hardships she had to overcome. Throughout it all, she followed the course that gave her the most happiness – working with horses and bringing that joy to anyone who wanted to learn.

One of the most celebrated coaches of UNT history was the aptly named Charles C. Sportsman (Choc). Born in 1902 in McKinney, Texas, he attended Texas University in the fall of 1922 before transferring to North Texas State Normal College (now known as the University of North Texas) in the summer of that same year.  He quickly became active on campus, both in athletics and in a variety of organizations. He was the captain of the 1925 varsity football team, earning a letter for athletic accomplishments. He also lettered in track and field and was a member of the Lee Literary Society, president of the Athletic Council, vice-president of his senior class and president of the Collin County Club. He participated in three senior assemblies by performing vocal solos. In 1926, he joined with other campus athletes to organize the T-Club. The club was for athletes who had earned a letter and wanted to promote school spirit. The group elected him the vice-president and the first yell-leader for this organization. The other office holders were Bill Meyers, president; W. B. Hargrave, reporter, and Fay Vernaell, secretary-treasurer. He retired as the captain of the football team in 1926. He gave a speech at the season end banquet where he thanked the team and the coaches for their hard work in the past season.

1926 also saw Sportsman wed Jennie Tunnel, an alumna of the renamed North Texas State Teachers College.  The couple planned to live in Choc Sportsman’s hometown of McKinney, Texas.

In 1928, Sportsman became an assistant football coach under the direction of Coach Jack Sisco. By 1930, Sportsman was the coach of track and field. He continued to seek to improve and gain higher academic credentials. Sportsman travelled to Southern California to work on his master’s degree during the summer of that year.

During the 1930’s Sportsman’s track team won nine of eleven Lone Star Conference Championships and held ten Lone Star track records. They held the conference record in every running event except hurdles. He coached “The Flying Twins,” two sets of identical twin brothers (Wayne and Blaine Rideout and Delmer and Elmer Brown). The twins set the world indoor record in the medley relay. They would go on to set other world records as individual set of twins (outdoor distance medley relay) or as a single athlete (the world record in the three-quarter mile run).

The track team competed and trained at Eagle Stadium, the first athletic field at UNT. It was located on today’s Library mall. Originally, the fans stood and watched the competition. By 1929, stands were added to the west side of the field. The track was redesigned in 1930. Field stands were added to the west side in 1933. The east side received stands in 1937.  This stadium was dismantled in 1952, when Fouts Field was opened.

In the 1930’s the school held an inter-class track meet that was open to male students. Members of the Varsity Track team acted as coaches for the participants, who were divided into class teams. A good showing could help a man qualify for a place on the Varsity Team. Women were not included in varsity sports until Title IX was signed into law in 1972.

By 1942, World War II had started to drain campus of its male students and faculty. Among those who left to serve their country was Choc Sportsman, who joined the U. S. Navy. He was commissioned a lieutenant in the Navy and assigned to a training program in Annapolis, Virginia. He became the director of the track program at the Navy Pre-Flight School in Georgia.

Lieutenant Commander Charles Sportsman was honorably discharged from the Navy in 1945. North Texas wanted him to return to being a successful coach for the NT track team. Instead, Sportsman decided to return to California to continue his education at the University of Southern California. He would go on to work for San Diego State University for 21 years.

After the war, Sportsman would serve as a State Department athletic consultant at the Theater Athletic Staff School in Stuttgart, Germany. He also coached at other schools, such as the University of Virginia and St. Mary’s College. The State Department also sent Sportsman to Southeast Asia where he worked with the coaches in the Federation of Malaya to set up an athletic program. He commented that, “people are alike all over the world where sports are concerned, regardless of color or nationality.” [Campus Chat, 1959-08-07] He would also coach the 1968 Greek Olympic track squad.

In 1976, he was honored during the Homecoming celebrations with other Golden Eagles: architect O’Neil Ford and Dorothy Babbs (founder of “Old Maid’s Day”). He was inducted into the UNT Athletic Hall of Fame in 1981.  The other inductees were Coach Odus Mitchell, “Mean” Joe Greene, Ray Renfro, Johnny Stovall, Don January, Wayne Rideout, and Ted Wright.

In 1987, he attended a reunion of the NT track and Field Hall of Fame members during that year’s Homecoming.  All those who had participated in track and field were invited to return to UNT for the celebration. The plan was to fully endow two scholarships: the Pop Noah Scholarship and the Choc Sportsman Scholarship.

After retiring in 1968, Sportsman moved to a cattle ranch near Tyler, Texas. He died in 1994.

Sportsman was posthumously inducted into National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics as Track and Field coach for San Diego State University in 2013

The Sportsman family’s connection to UNT was continued when Choc Sportsman’s nephew was hired by UNT In 1992. Ken Garland was selected as the track and cross-country coach, the same position once held by his uncle.  Garland had followed a similar path as his uncle: he was a member of the McKinney High School track team (1961-1964) and a member of the UNT team (1965-1969).