WE ARE NORTH TEXAS

At an age when many are well into their retirement. Jack Allday is working tirelessly on building an intercollegiate athletics program from the ground up at the University of North Texas at Dallas. The UNTD Trail Blazers began competing in men's and women's basketball, cross country and track & field in 2020, and Allday says the university is moving toward the launch of additonal sports in the future. Allday has done a little bit of everything in his life -- won a Texas state football championship at Highland Park High School in 1957, toured as a musican and had a hit record in 1959, served his country in the Army during the Vietnam War in the 1960s, built a successful advertising business in Dallas, taught college courses and raised a family.

This is a story of determination, courage and faith. Corey Borner suffered a spinal cord injury playing high school football in 2009 that knocked him down, but not out. After multiple surgeries, Corey learned to function in a wheel chair and adopted the mantra “Find a way.” Indeed he has found a way – to graduate from high school, graduate from college and become a motivational speaker. And in August he walked for the first time in 12 years – across the stage to pick up his diploma from UNT Dallas.

Sarah Fuller became a national sensation at Vanderbilt last year when she became the first woman to score in a Power-5 college football game, just weeks after leading the Vandy soccer team to an SEC championship. Today she is a graduate student at UNT, as well as the Mean Green's starting goalkeeper. In this episode Sarah reflects on her past, while focusing on the present and future.

September is National Suicide Prevention Month and September 10, 2021 is International Suicide Prevention Day. As part of the University North Texas System’s efforts to spotlight mental health awareness and support suicide prevention, this special episode features a raw, open conversation with a UNT Health Science Center staff member who lost his son to suicide. John Sims, Director of SaferCare Texas at HSC, lost his son Clay four years ago and misses him every day. Today John has made it his personal mission to share how suicide can be prevented and he makes a return visit to the podcast to help educate others as part of UNT World’s suicide prevention efforts.

John Sims, Director of UNT Health Science Center’s Safercare institute, was serving as a medical volunteer for the Cowtown Marathon in Fort Worth last May when he spotted a potential tragedy. A runner nearing the finish line collapsed to the pavement due to heart failure. A trained nurse, Sims sprang into action alongside several HSC students and performed CPR on the runner, a 27-year old man. In this episode Sims tells his story of saving a man’s life and gaining a new friend.

Five years into his job as Director of Athletics for the University of North Texas, Wren Baker isn’t content. This spring his Mean Green program notched its first-ever NCAA tournament victory for men’s basketball, a conference championship in women’s golf and a perfect game in softball. But Baker says they key for UNT to get to the next level is sustained success.

April is “Celebrate Diversity Month” and UNT Dallas is perhaps the most diverse university in Texas. With that in mind, host Paul Corliss interviewed a diverse panel of UNT Dallas leaders to discuss this unique campus and the many ways it celebrates diversity.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted North Texas for more than a year and this special episode analyzes the long road traveled in our region’s fight against the virus. In the opening segment Rudy Bush of the Dallas Morning News joins the podcast to provide a journalistic perspective of how coronavirus has impacted Dallas. Later, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins and Public Health Director Dr. Philip Huang join the discussion to share what went well, what they’d do differently and where we are today in our community’s efforts to mitigate the virus and return to normal.

Jennifer Bartkowski, CEO for Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas, shares how the organization has evolved an continues to nurture young ladies through STEM and mental health initiatives (she also answers important questions about cookie sales during a pandemic).

As part of the UNT System’s Black History Month Series, Mean Green Hall of Famers Charles “Chuck” Beatty (UNT football 1966-68) and Willie Davis (UNT basketball 1964-68) share their experiences as Black athletes of the 1960s growing up in a largely segregated Texas. UNT was one of the few Division I universities in the state to include Black athletes in this era and the university helped Beatty and Davis make it to the pros, while also providing an education that equipped them for success in life after the game.