I must confess that, prior to today, I had no idea what DATCU was. Our online managing editor and intrepid UNT alum Matt Goodman informs me it is a Denton-based credit union, so it makes all sort of sense that they would be interested in partnering with the local university. That’s doubly true considering DATCU was founded by UNT faculty following the Great Depression as Denton County Teachers Federal Credit Union (which is known today as Denton Area Teachers Credit Union; here’s a video about it). And it’s triply true considering DATCU president Melanie Vest is a Mean Green alum and the new subject of this moderately disorienting GIF.
Alas, sometimes good intentions trump good ol’ common sense. Such is the case now that, in a new naming-rights agreement, UNT’s Apogee Stadium will now be called DATCU Stadium.
If you’re in the Denton community, this may not scan as odd to you. For the rest of us, I’ll pause as you read that name a time or three, then you inevitably arrive where I did: the University of North Texas will play its football games at a place people will clown as DA TCU Stadium.
And by “will,” I mean “already have.”
This is going to be awkward.
Presumably also lucrative: DATCU swooped in to replace Apogee, the Austin-based telecommunications company that recently backed out of a 20-year agreement that saw it paying $1 million annually to keep its name on the building. But definitely awkward, even if the vibes are undeniably better to bear the name of a local institution founded by teachers rather than out-of-town muckity mucks.
And especially if the Mean Green someday decide to schedule the Horned Frogs for their first matchup since 2002.
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