[ESPN.com] Mattress Mack Demands UNT name facility after fired coach

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North Texas names new facility after axed coach

DALLAS -- A booster's unusual ultimatum has placed the University of North Texas in an awkward position: Rename its new athletic facility after the football coach who was just fired or have the donor's $1 million gift redirected to the music department.

To keep the peace, and perhaps keep open the big-money pipeline, school officials say they will honor the odd request from Houston furniture magnate Jim McIngvale -- known locally as "Mattress Mack" for his goofy TV and radio spots. A school spokeswoman cited the school naming policy, which states that a facility "may be named in keeping with the wishes of the donor."

Thus, the McIngvale Practice Facility will get renamed for Darrell Dickey, who was fired last week. No timeline for the renaming is set.

It was either rename it, McIngvale said, or redirect his money to the acclaimed One O'Clock Lab Band, the showpiece at one of the country's top music schools. Mattress Mack was serious enough to take out a one-page ad Sunday in the Denton Record-Chronicle explaining his demand.

"Right's right and wrong's wrong. It's the right thing to do," McIngvale said. "I don't think firing a guy three weeks after he had a heart attack was the right thing to do, either. Even Wall Street is not that callous."

Dickey suffered a heart attack Oct. 12.

McIngvale admits his demand is largely symbolic, as his donation was made two years ago and already spent. He made it out of frustration with Dickey's firing and what he said is a lack of adequate athletics funding from the school.

"If they want a big-time football program, then step up and spend big money," McIngvale said. "Wishing and hoping don't get you any toys on Christmas."

The school's capitulation underscores the influence held by boosters bearing checkbooks, such as T. Boone Pickens at Oklahoma State and the late Ralph Engelstad at the University of North Dakota. McIngvale's $1 million gift means a lot at North Texas, where the football program's budget is about $3.7 million and the music school's is about $8.7 million.

It has placed the school in the strange position of defending the record of the coach it just fired. Athletics Director Rick Villarreal talked about "the number of good things" accomplished by Dickey, including four straight Sun Belt championships and bowl appearances.

The Mean Green went 2-9 last season. The team is 3-7 in 2006. Dickey is 42-62 overall.

"You have to keep the boosters' best wishes in mind," Villarreal said. "But I would never put myself in a position as an A.D. to allow boosters to tell me who needs to be hired who needs to be fired."

Dickey, who was under contract through 2009 and will receive a $560,000 buyout, did not respond to telephone messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.

McIngvale's $1 million gift is the second-largest since Villarreal became athletics director in 2001. The school will soon announce a seven-figure deal that trumps the others, Villarreal said.

A university spokeswoman said the school remains appreciative of McIngvale's contributions.

"Donors may be influenced by the relationships they have with coaches, but it's how donations are put to work that really matters in the long run, " spokeswoman Deborah Leliaert said.

Last year at Oklahoma State, Pickens donated $165 million to the athletics department. At least publicly, Pickens' gift has come without conditions.

That wasn't the case when Engelstad built a $104 million hockey arena at North Dakota -- and then threatened to stop construction if the school gave into NCAA demands to change its mascot from the Fighting Sioux.

Money-hungry programs are rarely in a position to turn down boosters, said Rudy Davalos, the recently retired athletics director at the University of New Mexico. When Davalos ran the University of Houston athletics department 15 years ago, he received a $32 million, no-strings-attached donation from businessman John Moores.

"If he would have told me that he wasn't going to give the money unless we named something after him, rest assured we would have named something after him," Davalos said.

McIngvale has spent his furniture fortune as if he's the world's richest sports fan. The newspaper ad he paid for to express his displeasure about Dickey's firing echoed his antics earlier this year when he took out a two-page newspaper ad begging the Texans to draft Houston native Vince Young first in the NFL Draft.

He threw a giant victory party for the Houston Rockets after their NBA title in 1994 and later built them a $3.4 million practice facility near his world-class tennis center, which has clay, grass and hard-surface courts. His store was the title sponsor of the Galleryfurniture.com Bowl in Houston.

McIngvale's urging for North Texas to better fund the program hit home with Villarreal, who is trying to rebuild a program that played in Division I-AA from 1983-94.

Villarreal said he can take away at least one lesson from this incident: "We have to continue to build a wider base of support," he said.

Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press