Rick Spears has seen a lot of key moments in the history of North Texas football, from the emergence of Abner Haynes in the late 1950s to the height of the Hayden Fry era in the ’70s to the four straight Sun Belt Conference titles from 2001-04 — all from his seat at Fouts Field.

DRC/David Minton

Area officials take part in the groundbreaking ceremony for the University of North Texas’ new football stadium on Saturday in Denton.

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Spears was at UNT again on Saturday when the school reached another milestone by breaking ground for a new stadium that will replace the venue where he spent so many fall afternoons.

UNT representatives, including athletic director Rick Villarreal and school president Gretchen Bataille, were among a host of officials who participated in a ceremonial turning of dirt next to the Mean Green Athletic Center. About 1,000 fans turned out for the event, and many took home souvenir hard hats that UNT officials passed out.

The $78 million football stadium will seat about 30,000 and is expected to open in time for the 2011 season. Construction will begin in January.

“As far as I am concerned, this is as good as it gets — right here,” Spears said. “To all the naysayers who said it would never happen, all I have to say is they need to get on board pretty quick. I have chills up my back.”

UNT will be able to finance the project largely because its students approved an athletic fee of $10 per semester credit hour. The fee will go into effect when the stadium opens.

Sponsorships and private donations that Bataille says have already reached the $5 million mark are expected to cover the rest of the cost of the stadium.

“It really is a great day for North Texas,” said C. Dan Smith, president of UNT’s Board of Regents. “It has been a long run in some respects, and in others it has gone really fast. There have been a lot of people who have been involved in this from the very beginning. It will be a great experience for the fans and will be good for the university.”

For fans like Spears who have watched the program grow, seeing the project officially begin was particularly rewarding.

Spears was a UNT student from 1955-59 and was a classmate of Haynes, a running back who went on to a long professional football career and joined Leon King in breaking the color barrier at the school. Both were among the first black football players in the South.

For Spears, seeing the groundbreaking brought back memories of Haynes, Joe Greene and other great UNT players.

“My favorite memory is of seeing North Texas beat Cincinnati 55-34 on homecoming in 1968 in the pouring-down rain,” Spears said. “Steve Ramsey and Ron Shanklin — seeing them play made it a great time to be a North Texas fan.”

Several fans thought back on the good times they have enjoyed at Fouts while reveling in what is to come at the new stadium.

“This is the day I have been waiting for,” said Rick Ashwander, a 1976 UNT graduate and season ticket holder since 1977. “I didn’t think I was going to make it. I thought I would die before we got a stadium. It’s a great day. I am really happy about it.”

Ashwander was one of the hearty few who were at Fouts for the Mean Green’s 19-11 win over New Mexico State in 1998, a game that ranked among his most vivid UNT memories.

“I remember sitting in the stands with one of my friends in 1998 for the last game of the year against New Mexico State and there were not 500 people in the stands, and Frank asked me, ‘Where are all the people?’” Ashwander said. “This will make an incredible difference. You think about what other schools have with their stadiums. We will have something that will allow us to compete now.”

For Leah Hatfield, the groundbreaking was the continuation of a family tradition. Her great aunt Grace Woodruff was a regent during the construction of Fouts Field, which opened in 1952.

Hatfield graduated from UNT in 1977 and has been a season ticket holder since 1987.

“I can’t even tell you what this means to me,” Hatfield said. “I am speechless.”

UNT and its fans are hoping the new stadium will help turn the tide for the Mean Green, which hasn’t won more than three games in a season since 2004.

“It will help us tremendously with our visibility, with the location of it,” said Tom Klammer, a season ticket holder since 1970. “Hopefully, it will help us get a better football team.”

Villarreal expressed confidence in the future of the program during the morning’s festivities and thanked the school’s students and alumni for their contributions to the project.

“A lot of people have come up and congratulated me over the past few weeks,” Villarreal said recently. “I have told them, ‘No, congratulations to us,’ because it has taken everything from students to the university administration, the Board of Regents, our athletic community as well as our alumni base. That does make it special because when it is all said and done and we step inside on that first day, it is very much going to be our place, because it has taken all of us to make it happen.”

Seeing the project finally come to fruition was especially rewarding for longtime fans like Spears.

“I will be there in the new stadium,” Spears said. “I am 72 and have a few years left. I am excited that this project is finally going downhill.”

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com.