I've always wondered what would have happened if after 1996 and the end of the Oilers, if Houston never got back an NFL team. The Texans either were started up in San Antonio in 2002, or Houston became what LA did: A giant city with no NFL. Would anyone fill me on how Houston promoted the Coogs for those five years with no NFL competition? I know A&M and Texas are big in Houston, but technically Rice was the only football competition in the city for those 5 years. As a kid in the 80's I used to always think that Houston was on the verge of turning into an SEC like college football giant, but the sleeping giant has yet to waken.--That could have been the window. Can anyone fill me in on what was going with the administration, city etc. during that time? Why didn't the Coogs explode during that period? SWC breakup? Move to CUSA? Other factors? Thanks!

They were good in the 80s because Bill Yeoman was a good coach, and was smart enough to get away with an awful lot on the side.

When I was a really small kid I used to love to Cougars, and the Oilers too.

Not enough space to go into all the problems.

Short answer is, (1) no support from administration, (2) revolving and weak ADs, (3) lousy coaches, and (4) deflated fan base subsequent to demise of SWC and being left out of B12.

Basically, they blew their chance. Their fb program went in the toilet during the years the city was w/o the NFL. UH was great at bad timing. Had the SWC folded a couple years earlier, they likely would have been included in one of the major conferences.

Stayed in the Astrodome too long.

Definitely bad timing. Had UH been good in a NFL vacuum then they might have finally put together a real fan base and presence in Houston, something they've never been able to come up with. Had they done so the. It's quite arguable that they might have gotten picked up by a major conference after the fall

(12-02-2014 10:09 PM)10thMountain Wrote:  Definitely bad timing. Had UH been good in a NFL vacuum then they might have finally put together a real fan base and presence in Houston, something they've never been able to come up with. Had they done so the. It's quite arguable that they might have gotten picked up by a major conference after the fall

This. The other stuff contributed to the issue---but sucking against teams that the local population had little interest in prevented UH from filling that football void. This was the biggest marketing mistake since New Coke. We should have been pouring money into the program at that time. If we had gone the SMU route and hired the football version of Larry Brown in the mid-1990's---Houston would probably be in a power conference by now.

(12-02-2014 09:17 PM)billybobby777 Wrote:  I've always wondered what would have happened if after 1996 and the end of the Oilers, if Houston never got back an NFL team. The Texans either were started up in San Antonio in 2002, or Houston became what LA did: A giant city with no NFL. Would anyone fill me on how Houston promoted the Coogs for those five years with no NFL competition? I know A&M and Texas are big in Houston, but technically Rice was the only football competition in the city for those 5 years. As a kid in the 80's I used to always think that Houston was on the verge of turning into an SEC like college football giant, but the sleeping giant has yet to waken.--That could have been the window. Can anyone fill me in on what was going with the administration, city etc. during that time? Why didn't the Coogs explode during that period? SWC breakup? Move to CUSA? Other factors? Thanks!

Rice was actually much bigger back then and had crowds in excess of 50,000 sometimes during that period. They always seemed to be one game away (just like UH in a different way but I digress) and came close to capturing the city but fell short, thus any credibility they once had as a Northwestern/Vandy/Stanford type program has faded. Their tiny enrollment and alumni base costs them well deserved bowl and NIT bids as well.

UH was going through its worst stretch in school history and it couldn't have come at a worse time, as the credibility it once had as a Georgia Tech, Clemson, Syracuse type program began to fade with some of the worst teams in school history. It's a minor miracle the program has recovered to the point where being 7-4 is very disappointing because the trajectory of the program was to be of the Southland Conference level in 2001 after accolades like the Heisman Trophy, Final Fours and competing for national championships not too much before that.

But to be honest, UH has never captured the market, like almost any school in a pro sports market. What doesn't help is how UH always disappears from the national radar after being nationally relevant, usually immediately like the basketball program falling off the edge of a cliff after Phi Slama Jama.

Also, the major sports programs and fan support went into a coma at exactly the right time for politics to exclude UH from the Big 12 as the SWC imploded. The SWC had weakened but still had some cachet, so I'm not sure why it wasn't salvaged or perhaps they didn't lobby for an ACC or Big East invite (probably because they were strictly east coast centric in the days before realignment went out of control). In any event, original C-USA was an excellent fit with all things considered (more or less urban, large public schools with an excellent basketball history).

On a side note and speaking of UH nostalgia:




25 years ago today, Andre Ware won that.

(12-02-2014 11:34 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  On a side note and speaking of UH nostalgia:




25 years ago today, Andre Ware won that.

I loved Andre Ware and followed Houston back then....exciting to watch!

I'm one town away from where he went to high school at. They had his name on the water tower for many years.

Dickinson High school was a pretty good football program back in the 70 and 80's. They produced some pretty good quarterbacks, namely Donnie Little and Andre Ware.

Ware is a pretty good announcer.

(12-03-2014 12:03 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  Ware is a pretty good announcer.

I think so too

For you nostalgia buffs, the SWC's 100th birthday is this coming monday the 8th!

(12-03-2014 11:31 AM)jfournet Wrote:  Dickinson High school was a pretty good football program back in the 70 and 80's. They produced some pretty good quarterbacks, namely Donnie Little and Andre Ware.

They're deep in the playoffs now as a matter of fact.