Bo’s Bowl Bits: Vol. 3

North Texas, Texas State Contest Brings Back Movie Memories

By Bo Carter, National Football Foundation Correspondent

The scene: national movie release of “Necessary Roughness” in 1991.

The film location: Denton, Texas, on the North Texas campus, and other DFW cities.

The premise: a fictional account of a school rising to national fame with an aspiring quarterback played by actor Scott Bakula and swimsuit model Kathy Ireland serving as the reliable first-ever placekicker.

Interestingly, the fictional school in the movie is named Texas State (nicknamed the Armadillos complete with a costumed mascot), some 12 years before Southwest Texas State University morphed into Texas State University.

Cast and crew had to fight off local collectors to keep the unique, “TSU” apparel and logoed items away from extras and those wishing to capitalize on the then-unique Texas State film birth.

And now in a strange juxtaposition of history, the supposed Texas State University filmed in and around the UNT campus is appearing in reality with Texas State tangling with North Texas at the 15th annual SERVPRO First Responder Bowl in the two universities’ 40th all-time meeting since 1914 and first-ever in a bowl setting.

The entertaining movie version of Texas State was loaded with an all-star cast besides Bakula (playing a 40-year-old freshman quarterback trying to make a comeback) and Ireland. Veteran actors Robert Loggia and Hector Elizondo played opposing college head coaches, future U.S. Senator and longtime football fan of his alma maters Memphis and Vanderbilt Fred Thompson portrayed the university president, up-and-coming young actors Jason Bateman, Rob Schneider, comic Sinbad, and Marcus Giamatti, and several NFL standouts such as Dick Butkus, Earl Campbell, Roger Craig, Ben Davidson, Ed “Too Tall” Jones, Jim Kelly, Herschel Walker, Jerry Rice, and Randy White, among others, had key cameo roles.

Even world boxing champion Evander Holyfield had some face time in the movie. Residents of Denton and the Denton Film Commission enjoyed the solid revenue stream entering the city during several months of on-site filming. 

Among the highlights in the film is Texas State (outfitted in North Texas Mean Green green and white colors) facing a team of convicts (played by the hilarious NFL standouts and Holyfield) in an exhibition game with the 17 non-scholarship TSU players allowed to compete by TSU president Dr. Carver Purcell (Thompson) just to keep the program going. The comic subplots lead to side-splitting antics and some interesting parodies (within reason – mostly) on some of the perils of college football.

And, of course (spoiler alert), in historic Hollywood style Ireland makes a key kick (we won’t say when or against whom) to highlight the comeback season for the Fightin’ Armadillos.

This actual revisitation of Texas State and North Texas on Jan. 3 promises even more authentic football activity and a ton of offense, but for sheer laughs, a quick Netflix or YouTube of :Necessary Roughness” might be worth an evening on the couch and a couple of bags of popcorn.

Little did the current squads know that they might reprise this football comedy cult classic in 2025, but it certainly shed some light on how fiction often may resemble reality.

For additional information, pregame pageantry and ticket purchases, please access Firstresponderbowl.com.

-www.firstresponderbowl.com-