On The UH-Downtown Campus Today...

For a screening of the 90 minute documentary Trans followed by a panel discussion at UH-Downtown..

The screening is taking place on the 4th floor of the North side of the UHD campus main building starting at 2:00 PM CDT. 

The UH-Downtown METRORail station provides easy access to it if you not feeling driving your own vehicle downtown to get to the campus on One Main Street.

Looking forward to seeing my fellow panelists and the discussion we'll be having after the film.

Moni's Heading Downtown On Wednesday

To UH-Downtown that is.

I get to spend a little time on the UHD campus April 17 as part of a panel discussion after a viewing of the documentary film Trans.

The screening is taking place on the 4th floor of the North side of the UHD campus main building starting at 2:00 PM CDT. The UH-Downtown METRORail station provides easy access to it.





After the 90 minute screening the panel discussion will take place.    Should be an interesting event so if you want to see me and my fellow panelists, UHD is the place to be on Wednesday.

Two Pronged Teahadist Attacks On Texas Collegiate TBLG Centers Terminated

The Texas Teahadists have had their water on for the LGBT centers on the Texas A&M, University of Houston and University of Texas campuses for some time and launched efforts to kill them in this 2013 legislative session. .  

It was a two pronged effort on the Texas A&M campus.  The homobigots on campus there have been trying for years to kill the GLBT center.   They launched another effort to take away its funding by authoring the 'GLBT Funding Opt Out Bill'  that would have given Aggie students the option to opt out of funding for the center if they have 'religious objections' to it.

Less than 24 hours before the April 3 vote they attempted to put lipstick on this pig of this unjust bill by renaming it the 'Religious Funding Exemption Bill' and removing all references to the GLBT center in a feeble attempt to mask the blatant anti-GLBT bigotry and deflect attention from the fact it was an attack upon the center. 

After 3 hours of contentious debate it passed on a 35-28 vote and the unjust bill was sent to Texas A&M student body president John L. Claybrook for his signature.   

Claybrook vetoed the unjust measure on April 5

News this week that some student senators had targeted the center thrust the traditionally conservative university into the national spotlight, and Claybrook said it was time to “stop the bleeding.”

“The damage must stop today,” Claybrook wrote in a letter announcing his intention to veto. “Texas A&M students represent our core value of respect exceptionally and I’m very proud of the family at this university. Now, more than ever, is the time to show great resolve and come together, treating each other like the family that we are.”

The future Teahadist student senators pushing this unjust measure can try to override Claybrook's veto, but it will take a 2/3 vote to do so.  It didn't have a 2/3 majority when it passed so it's likely the veto will stand.  Even if they were successful and it became A&M policy, it would almost certainly be struck down in court and expose the deafeningly silent senior Texas A&M administration officials to legal liability.  

Ken Upton, senior staff attorney for Lambda Legal’s Dallas office, said even if the bill were signed and adopted as university policy, it wouldn’t last long.

“The most likely result is that a court would step in and stop it before it even happened,” Upton said.   He said there was clear legal precedent on the issue as laid out in the Supreme Court’s ruling in Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System v. Southworth, where students sued their university because they opposed multicultural, environmental and GLBT groups.

“This issue is pretty well settled,” Upton said.

If somehow the measure did work its way through the courts, he said, top university officials could be held liable.

“… The people with decision making authority who allowed it to happen could be held liable full money damages,” Upton said. “But it would probably be struck down so quickly that money damages wouldn’t be an issue.”

Meanwhile, on the University of Houston campus their Student Government Association unanimously approved a resolution opposing the second prong of this attack on Texas collegiate LGBT centers  

Proud of my alma mater and their SGA!    


There was also victory on the Austin front as well.  State Rep Bill Zedler (R Teabagger-Arlington) proposed an unjust amendment to the state budget bill designed to eliminate LGBT resource centers on state university and college campuses. The amendment would also eliminate state funding for women's centers and all gender and sexuality centers at Texas universities.    Under pressure, he withdrew that amendment   

Hasta la vista, unjust bills.

So this two pronged attack on GLBT centers is terminated for now, but you know we Lone Star State progressives must be forever vigilant as long as the GOP has control of our state legislature and the governor's mansion because the homobigots will not stop until their mission is completed.

What Took Y'all So Long? UH Coach Guy V. Lewis Elected To Basketball Hall of Fame

On the 30th anniversary of a certain NCAA title game that makes me sick to my stomach to watch, the news that the voters pulled their heads out of their kiesters and finally elected legendary UH coach Guy V. Lewis to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame was welcome news for every Cougar fan and alum to hear on this day. 

It's past damned time it happened. 

During his 30 year career he led the UH men's b-ball squad to 592 wins and 27 consecutive winning seasons.   The Cougars went to 14 NCAA tournaments and advanced to the Final Four five times (1967, 1968, 1982, 1983, 1984) and played in back to back NCAA championship games in 1983 and 1984.

Guy V. Lewis (along with Don Haskins at UTEP) were responsible for integrating collegiate basketball in the South when he signed Elvin Hayes and Don Chaney as the first of many African-American players in UH history.

Lewis was the architect of the "Game of the Century" between Number 1 ranked UCLA and Number 2 UH at the Astrodome in 1968. The game was played in front of 52,693 fans and was the first-ever nationally televised college basketball game.  UH won it 71-69 to snap the Bruins' 47-game winning streak. 



And oh yeah, there was Phi Slama Jama.  I was at UH at the time and got to spend more than a few nights at Hofheinz Pavilion watching that high-flying fast breaking slam dunking basketball juggernaut and the game that epitomized that era was the 1983 NCAA semifinal between UH and Louisville.      

Three of Lewis' players, Elvin Hayes, Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon would go on to be selected among the 50 greatest players in NBA history.   Hayes (1990), Drexler (2004) and Olajuwon (2008) would go on to be elected to the Hall of Fame themselves.

Guy Lewis is responsible for the games you see every week, them being played in domed stadiums, integrating basketball in the South and coaching three Hall of Fame players over his career.   That alone should have gotten him elected to the Hall a long time ago.  He was a great coach on top of it even though he never won an NCAA title and one was cruelly snatched away from him by fate. .  

The official announcement will be made tomorrow before the NCAA title game and the induction ceremony will happen in Springfield, MA on September 8.

Now where's my Phi Slama Jama button?    Congrats Guy V. 

2012 Cougar Watch-Final C-USA Football Game A Victorious One

It's been a roller coaster season for my fave college football squad    They started with a shocking opening day loss to Texas State, stumbled to an 0-3 start, began climbing out of that hole with a Bayou Bucket retaining win against Rice only to go on another three game losing streak as the injuries mounted to key players such as running back Charles Sims and quarterback David Piland.

The Cougars also had the life and death drama of senior cornerback DJ Hayden nearly dying on the practice field.  He tore his inferior vena cava vein during a collision and had to be helicoptered to Memorial Hermann Hospital for immediate emergency surgery.   That vein carries blood from the lower body to the heart and tears like that are 95% fatal.  That type of injury is usually seen in auto accidents but rarely reported on a football field. 

The final game at Robertson Stadium versus the Tulane Green Wave was memorable for many reasons. It was Senior Day and every member of the team wore DJ Hayden's name on their jerseys in tribute to him as he arrived on a cart.   It was the last game at Robertson Stadium, which is being torn down so the new stadium can be built at its site.

It was also the last football game the Cougars would play as a C-USA member.  UH is moving to the Big East in 2013, so they wanted to win this game for all those reasons since as a result of the twin three game losing streaks they weren't bowl eligible.

This game was also a microcosm of their season.  The Cougars got off to a fast 14-0 start, lost freshman RB Kenneth Farrow to a season ending injury in the second quarter but had freshman RB Ryan Jackson step up to rush for 129 yards and two TD's with one of them being a 72 yarder in the third quarter that pushed the Cougar lead to 27-10.   Tulane fought to close within 10 points twice before the Cougars put the game away. 

Fifth year senior QB Crawford Jones threw for 368 yards and two more TD's as UH beat the Green Wave 40-17 to finish the season 5-7 and 4-4 in C-USA West Division play

They also closed out their run at Robertson Stadium with a 72-44-1 record and when they play their home games in their first Big East season next year it will be at a different to be determined stadium before they open up their new on campus digs in September 2014.. 


 

Double Birthday Shout Out To Josephine and Lowell!

Two of my fave people in our community are celebrating birthdays today, and I'm not letting this date pass without giving both of them the TransGriot birthday treatment they deserve

Since beauty and wisdom goes first, my first birthday shout out goes to Josephine Tittsworth.  

I've known her for over a decade, am proud to call this fellow Cougar my friend, and she has done much to help advance the cause of trans human rights in Texas and across the nation..

And oh yeah, happy birthday Jo!

She's the creative force behind the two day Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summits that I've been reporting from for the last three years.

The TTNS not only helps focus attention on getting trans friendly non-discrimination policies enacted at Texas colleges and universities and school districts, it also has trans related policy discussions, keynote speakers and programming about our lives.

And oh yeah, I can't forget to mention the TTNS chocolate break.

Since the Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit started in 2009 it has grown to become an event coveted by area universities to host.  Josephine has the vision and desire to not only take it statewide, but wants to host it someday on one of our Texas HBCU campuses.

The other person I'm giving a TransGriot birthday shoutout is Lowell Kane.  I met this handsome Aggie during the 2010 TTNS that was held on the Rice University campus along with a few of his Aggie students in his capacity as the coordinator of the LGBT Center on Texas A&M's campus that he helped found in 2007. 

The campus climate toward LGBT students improved dramatically on the A&M campus during his time there and he's now moved on to become the founding director of the new LGBTQ Center on the Purdue University campus.

He's now busy in the Hoosier state building their LGBTQ center and I have little doubt he'll have the same success up there that he did at Aggieland.

We already miss him in the Houston area (and so do I), but our loss was Purdue's gain.   At least they sell Blue Bell ice cream in West Lafayette to go with that cake he gets to eat for his big 3-0 birthday.

Happy birthday to both of you.   Love you both, thanks for all you do on behalf of our rainbow community, may you have continued success in your personal and professional lives and may you continue to celebrate many more birthdays to come. 

2012 UH Cougar Watch-Great Time For First Win

My fave college football team got their 2012 college football season off to a rocky start with a 30-13 upset loss to Texas State at Robertson Stadium.  

It got worse for UH on September 8 in a 56-49 shootout loss to Louisiana Tech to drop them to 0-2.

They were also battling the injury bug as they traveled to Pasadena,.CA to get spanked 37-7 by UCLA on September 15 to drop their record to 0-3 .

But the good news was they hadn't started conference play yet.   In addition to going through their bye week and getting healthy they would start and would start C-USA play against our crosstown rivals at Rice. 

Our campuses are separated by seven miles and this is the Coogs last season in C-USA before they move to the Big East next year.   This would be the last conference football game that we would play against the Owls and the Bayou Bucket and Houston bragging rights were also on the line at Reliant Stadium. 

Good thing since its been raining intermittently all day. 

The Coogs rolled to a 35-14 win versus the Owls thanks to Charles Sims rolling up 158 years on 24 carries and scoring three touchdowns to help keep the Bayou Bucket where it belongs on Cullen Blvd. for the second straight year.   It also gave us our first win of the season and most importantly made the Cougars 1-0 in C-USA West Division play

The Cougars get North Texas on Saturday at Robertson Stadium in their last non conference game of the season before they tackle the rest of their C-USA schedule.


Eat 'em up!   .You finally got that first win of the season. 

2012 UH Cougar Watch-Kicking Off Season Against Texas State

My fave collegiate football team kicks off their season in moments against the Texas State Bobcats at 'the 'Rob'.  It'll be the last season they play at Robertson Stadium before it is demolished and the new football stadium begins to be constructed on that site and completed by September 2014 .  

It's also the last season we'll play as a member of Conference USA before we move on to the challenge of playing football and other sports in the Big East in 2013.

After coming off a 13-1 campaign and a Ticket City Bowl win against Penn State,  the Coogs have a chip on their shoulders as usual because Case Keenum, Tyron Carrier, and Patrick Edwards have graduated and it's David Piland's chance to operate the potent UH Air Raid offensive attack and they are getting no media love once again.   

Well, they'll get their opportunity to prove everyone wrong tonight against Texas State 

Texas Stare is in its first season in the WAC and the FBS, but has a long history of competitive football at the FBS/Division I-AA level in the Southland Conference.  It won two NCAA Division II national championships in 1980-81 and made it to the FBS semfinals in 2005  before falling to eventual national runner up Northern Iowa. 

Translation: UH can't sleep on them especially since Texas State is anxious to prove they can play at this level and are playing this game in one of the top areas for high school football talent in Texas.

Should be fun to watch.  .  Eat 'em up!

UH's Last Season In C-USA And Robertson Stadium

One year from now the University of Houston will join the Big East Conference in all sports, but until then we'll be spending the 2012 season as a member of Conference USA for the final time.

The University of Houston has been a charter member of C-USA since the league was founded in 1995 but with the changing college conference landscape and UH campus leadership under president and chancellor Renu Khator pushing UH to be a Tier One institution in academics and its athletic programs, (and the Big 12 being 'scurred' to invite UH to join the conference) the move is being made the join the Big East in 2013.

Something else this will be is the final football season for Robertson Stadium.  The stadium was built in 1941 as an HISD high school football venue named Jeppesen Stadium and has a lot of history attached to it.   It hosted the Yates-Wheatley Thanksgiving Day game when both schools were in the old PVIL, Houston Oilers games in the early 60's, some Texas Southern University and HISD gridiron clashes and served as the home of the Houston Dynamo when thy moved here from San Jose until their new downtown stadium opened in May. 

It was bought by the University of Houston in the late 70's and renamed Robertson Stadium to provide an on campus facility for UH football games and was expanded in the 1990's to its current 32,000 seat capacity.

Once the final UH football game is concluded in December, demolition of Robertson will begin in order to clear room for the brand new 40,000 seat football stadium expandable to 50,000 to be erected on that spot of the campus and completed by September 2014. 

One cool thing is that the METRORail Southeast light rail line is currently being constructed on the Scott Street side of the new stadium and will be completed in late 2013-early 2014 which will make it easier to get there on Cougar game days if you don't feel like driving.  

But while I'm happy my alma mater is finally getting to work on that long talked about new on campus stadium and also renovating the Hofheinz Pavilion basketball arena across the street in the process, the one thing I'm sad about is that Robertson Stadium and the history attached to is going to be lost to the wrecking ball

But I'm also looking forward to seeing what happens in this final season of C-USA competition and how we fare in the Big East in 2013.


. 

2011 UH Cougar Watch- Great Day In Dallas

One of the irritating refrains spat out by UH Cougar haters the entire season when they want to denigrate the sporting accomplishments of the third largest university in the state is that 'UH doesn't play anybody'. 

It was a comment repeatedly regurgitated during this season on comment threads and one that got annoyingly louder as they opened up with 12 straight wins and came agonizingly close to becoming the first C-USA team to make it to a BCS bowl.

After the shocking loss to Southern Mississippi in the C-USA title game, we fans and the players heard the volume of that refrain turned up for the next month in the runup to the Ticket City Bowl in Dallas. 

Cougar players were also angered by the perceived disrespect in their (and UH fans eyes) of being dropped from number 6 in the nation all the way to number 19 in the rankings and being dissed by ESPN and national media college football analysts. 

They and coach Tony Levine who replaced Kevin Sumlin (who took the money and ran to College Station) were intent on proving that the Southern Miss game was a bad day of the office.  9-4 Penn State just happened to be in the way of a highly motivated UH Cougar team with a huge chip on its shoulder.  They were also playing this game in a stadium that has historical significance for the UH program in terms of the four Cotton Bowl the Cougar program contested there while they were members of the old Southwest Conference.

UH opened the game with an aerial assault that stunned the number 5 ranked Penn State defense and led to a 17-0 lead the Cougars never relinquished as the Cougars rolled to a 30-14 victory over the number 24 Nittany Lions. 

The underrated UH defense also stifled Penn State's vaunted running attack and picked off three passes to close out the dominating win.

Case Keenum was 45 for 69 for 532 yards and three TD's in his final game and finished his Cougar career with 20,114 yards passing while (ho hum) demolishing more NCAA records in his wake.

Keenum also became the first Cougar quarterback in the history of the program to have multiple bowl wins.

Coach Tony Levine also became the first UH head coach to open his career since Hal Lahar did so in 1957 by beating a ranked opponent in his inaugural game.

UH also became the first C-USA football squad to win 13 games and beat a ranked AQ conference team in a bowl game.

It's just too bad that didn't happen for the 13-1 Cougars in a BCS bowl.

This UH senior class of 17 players such as Keenum, Patrick Edwards, Tyron Carrier, Sammy Brown and Marcus McGraw just to name a few of them will leave Cullen Blvd with a lot of records and accomplishments in their wake.  While they didn't get the big prize of a C-USA title while they were there, they set the stage for something more important in terms of making UH football relevant again and getting us back into a major conference.

We Cougar fans and alums will always hold them in a special place in our hearts for what they accomplished, will love them for that and are looking forward to see what transpires in our last C-USA season in September as we prepare to move on to the Big East in July 2013. 

Eat 'em up!

2011 UH Cougar Watch- Fighting For Respect In Dallas

Being a University of Houston football player, student or alum is a constant battle for respect against the constant sneers of t-shirt wearing Longhorn and Aggie fans.  At times we feel we don't even get it from the hometown media who cover our team.

When UH was agonizingly close to becoming a BCS buster and reeling off 12 straight wins the detractors were sipping hateraid from 55 gallon drums as the Cougars rose to Number 6 in the polls and the BCS rankings before falling in a painful nationally televised 49-28 C-USA title game loss at home to Southern Mississippi.

The players aren't happy about what transpired in the last game they played and are looking for redemption respect and to change some minds about the UH football program.

“We want to show everybody that we can play with the best,” senior receiver Tyron Carrier said in a Chronicle interview. “The first thing people say is ‘Y’all don’t play anybody.’ Well now we’ve got somebody. We want to show everybody what we can do with this spread offense and the type of skilled players we have.”

They are in Dallas at the Ticket City Bowl with a chance for redemption against a number 20 ranked 9-3 Penn State squad that tied for the eighth toughest schedule in the country with Alabama, one of the teams they played, and is a member of the automatic AQ qualifying Big Ten..

It's also at the Cotton Bowl, a stadium with a mixed 2-2 record in Cougar football history.   In their previous wins in the stadium UH top five  football squads under Bill Yeoman knocked off number 5 ranked and unbeaten Maryland 30-21 in the 1977 Cotton Bowl to complete their successful run through their first SWC season and finish ranked number four in the nation.  In the 1980 Cotton Bowl the number 6 Cougars beat top five ranked Nebraska on a 6 yard Elston to Herring TD pass with 12 seconds to go for a 17-14 win and the number 5 ranking to conclude the season..

In 1979 number 9 ranked UH lost a heartbreaking 35-34 Cotton Bowl 'Ice Bowl' game to number 10 Notre Dame.  After building a 34-12 lead, a sick Joe Montana came off the bench to make the Cougars ill by leading a furious fourth quarter comeback over the last 7:32 of the quarter for the Fighting Irish victory.

In the 1985 Cotton Bowl an unranked UH fell 45-28 to number 8 ranked Doug Flutie led Boston College.

That was then, this is 2012.  Judging by what Tyron Carrier had to say, the Cougars are determined to erase the bad memories of that C-USA title game loss. 

“We said it amongst ourselves the whole season,” Carrier continued. “They were waiting for us to fall. As soon as we failed, we dropped from top 10 to (out of the top 15). We just want to show everybody that we can really play. It just so happened that we had an off game. We don’t plan on ending the season like that.” 

“I think it’s extremely important,” said coach Tony Levine. “We got to as high as No. 6 in the country and there were still people out there that were skeptics whether it was the schedule or the conference. I think having drawn an opponent like Penn State, the tradition is as good as any in the country. The season they’ve had, the success they’ve had, it’s a great stage for us to go out and show that the 12 wins were not the fluke but the one loss was the fluke. Our kids are looking forward to that.”

The game kicks off at 11 AM CST on Monday.   I'm hoping they have a better result in this game than the one back on December 1.

2011 UH Cougar Watch- Lots Of Stuff Going On

Since I last wrote a UH Cougar season update post in the wake of that crushingly disappointing C-USA championship game loss to Southern Mississippi that knocked us out of consideration for a BCS bowl berth there have been a lot of things happening on Cullen Blvd.

Former head coach Kevin Sumlin went for the money and bounced to Texas A&M.   UH got the official invitation to join the Big East Conference which they accepted and will begin play in the league starting in the 2013 season. 

Special teams coordinator Tony Levine was elevated to the head coaching spot to replace Sumlin and UH found out our number 20 ranked 12-1 footballers would be going bowling in Dallas' Cotton Bowl stadium to play in the 2nd annual Ticket City Bowl  on January 2 against number 24 and 9-3 Penn State.

So yep, been a rollercoaster of emotions and a lot of things happening for Cougar fans lately.

As for the C-USA title game loss, still disappointed that we're not going to New Orleans to play in the Sugar Bowl and what made it worse was hearing about it from all those nekulturny Harris County t-shirt wearing Longhorn and Aggie fans and UH haters.  Sumlin leaving was adding salt to the wound.

But getting the long rumored Big East invite made up for some of the drama.  It's a reward for all the effort put into President Khator's goal of in making UH Tier One in athletics just have we have strived for decades in academics.

Who cares if the Big East has questions about its AQ status?   We're finally in an AQ conference and still have the challenge of getting the recruits we need to get the basketball program ramped up to Big East level ball and keeping the forward momentum going in the football program and Cougar athletics in general.

That shouldn't be too hard for a Tier One level university smack dab in the middle of the largest city in the state and in the best recruiting turf for all sports in Texas.

The Big XII will regret the day they let UT AD DeLoss Dodds' grudge against UH cloud their thinking about admitting the third largest university in the state into the conference and I hope TCU kicks their behinds next year.

So looking forward to the new year,  the UH footballers and Case Keenum closing out a marvelous season with a bowl game win.   It's also going to be interesting to see what transpires in our last C-USA season starting in September enroute to Big East play in 2013.