North Texas paid respect to its past on Saturday while looking forward to what the school hopes to be a milestone moment in the history of its football program.

UNT dedicated the T.D. Parks Hall of Fame that is located in the lobby of the Mean Green Athletic Center and then burned the loan note on the building, symbolizing that the school has paid off yet another of the athletic facilities it has built over the last five years.

That accomplishment cleared the way for UNT to officially kick off a campaign to build a new football stadium to replace Fouts Field. UNT has spoken of its desire to build a new football venue over the last five years and believes it is finally in position to begin a public push to make a new stadium a reality.

“We are going to get there,” said C. Dan Smith, a member of the UNT board of regents. “It’s a matter of when. We should have it done in two years, no later than three.”

UNT has rapidly improved its facilities during the tenure of athletic director Rick Villarreal, who arrived at the school in April, 2001.

UNT has new facilities for several of its programs, including its soccer and volleyball teams.

Villarreal said UNT will have less than a half a million dollars of outstanding debt on its new athletic facilities by the end of the school year.

The next step will be building a football field outside of the Mean Green Athletic Center, which was designed to sit just outside of one end zone.

“We have to have this,” Villarreal said. “The message has to be sent to the entire Mean Green nation. We need a stadium to move forward with the program.”

Fouts Field opened in 1952 and Villarreal said it no longer meets the school’s or the football program’s needs.

Renderings of a new stadium were pasted over the cement at the entrance to each section of Fouts Field before UNT’s game with Tulsa with the message “The time is now.”

UNT head coach Todd Dodge said earlier this year that he was told before he agreed to leave Southlake Carroll to become the Mean Green’s head coach that the school would have a new stadium built in time for the 2010 season.

A key to the Mean Green meeting that time frame will be the UNT student body approving a fee that could be used to finance a stadium. The UNT student government is expected to approve adding an item on the ballot for the student election in October that would authorize the addition of a student fee for a football stadium.

Villarreal and UNT president Gretchen Bataille both said it would be up to the students to put a referendum on the ballot, but Smith said it was his understanding that a vote would take place this fall.

UNT went forward with a public campaign to fund a new stadium on a day it honored a member of one of the best football teams in program history. Parks was a running back, kick returner, defensive back and wide receiver who completed his career at UNT in 1960.

Parks was a member of UNT’s 1959 team that posted a 9-2 record en route to an appearance in the Sun Bowl. UNT posted a 13-game home winning streak and was ranked No. 16 in the Associated Pres and UPI polls.

Parks was a second-team All-Missouri Valley Conference selection after his senior year at UNT.

Smith and legendary high school football coach G.A. Moore both played with Parks and spoke of his influence on their lives at the dedication ceremony when UNT looked to its future.

“The spirit of T.D. will carry us through this campaign and make sure that we have a new stadium,” Bataille said.

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