The UNT game against Arkansas this fall marked 50 years since I drove to a Mean Green game in Little Rock as a Yucca photographer with Si Dunn ('70), who was the Campus Chat photographer. The staff wanted to make sure we had "Mean" Joe Greene's senior season covered.

It was a night game, which was very difficult to shoot back then with no auto focus or motor drives for multiple frames per second.

Our film speeds were slow, so I couldn't shoot much side-to-side action. I had to focus on the hash mark and hope the play came my way.

I shot my very best sports photo that night while I was being pelted with ice (and other things) from those hog-hat-wearing crazies.

The photo won the national student journalism spot news award, and I went on to win several sports photography awards during my time at North Texas, shooting for the Yucca, the Campus Chat and then the North Texas Daily.

I met my wife, Linda, at the beginning of our junior year, we married in June 1971 and are still married 47 years later.

I never missed a home football game my entire four years at North Texas. My photo sponsor, Smith Kiker, and I went with the team to Wichita, Kansas, to see the Mean Green play the Wichita State Wheatshockers my junior year.

It was one of the very few day games we were able to shoot so it was a real treat to crank out the 400mm fixed-focus lens.

I worked as an intern at The Dallas Morning News between my junior and senior years and was runner-up for the W.R. Beaumar award.

They called me aside and said that they would have given me first place but it was supposed to be for writers only. I decided after that I would not pursue a photography career.

Sports is still my forte. I have upgraded my equipment to a Nikon D3 (the professional version) with several lenses. Now, I mostly shoot my granddaughters' lacrosse games.

Just thought you might enjoy a blast from the past. I still remember that hostile night like it was yesterday.

Cody Curry ('71)
Euless