Some of the top athletes in the American Conference will walk under a new sign and pass by another recent decorative addition on the North Texas campus this week.
The stadium that is home to the UNT women’s soccer team as well as its track and field program opened in 2019.
Bright green letters that read “Norma Knobel Hunt Stadium” over the entrance and the plaque on a brick wall nearby with Hunt’s photo and biography were added in the last few months.
UNT announced in January that it would honor the matriarch of the Hunt family by naming the venue in her honor nearly three years after her death in the summer of 2023. The Hunt family owns both the Kansas City Chiefs and FC Dallas.
What wasn’t clear when the announcement was made was how UNT arrived at the decision to bestow the honor, or what the school received from the deal — other than strengthening its ties to a family with deep pockets and significant influence in American professional sports.
The move was in works for months and did not come with a financial commitment from the Hunt family, the Denton Record-Chronicle has learned after receiving UNT’s response to a records request, reviewing university policy and conferring with school officials.
The Hunts “have not made a contribution to athletics at this point,” UNT athletic director Jared Mosley confirmed to the Record-Chronicle in an email on Monday.
Norma Knobel Hunt was a 1960 UNT honors graduate and married Lamar Hunt, the founder of the Kansas City Chiefs.
“Both Norma and Lamar had been engaged with the university over the decades,” Mosley said. “Following her passing, it was the university’s desire to celebrate the impact of Norma Hunt as a prominent alumna as part of a larger effort to better tell the story of impactful alumni in the region and the nation.”
UNT moved behind the scenes to reach that goal by naming the stadium, which came with a $13.6 million price tag in 2019, in Hunt’s honor.
Cathy Bryce, a member of the UNT Board of Regents, pushed the school’s plans forward in the group’s meeting on Oct. 20. Bryce moved that the group “authorize and approve honorific naming of the UNT soccer field and track and field stadium.”
Bryce chose her words carefully following a discussion of UNT’s plans in executive session. Other UNT officials have done the same since while talking about the “honorific naming” of Hunt Stadium.
The phrase points to a distinction in how the university goes about naming campus venues.
UNT has four naming rights categories in school policy: gift-related naming, gift-related corporate naming, corporate naming (sponsorship) and honorific naming.
The first three categories cover naming rights tied to a donation or marketing and advertising. UNT’s move to name its soccer and track venue after Hunt falls into the fourth category.
“Honorific naming may be bestowed in recognition of the philanthropy, dedication and/or meritorious dedication of a person to UNT,” school policy reads. “The individual being recognized by honorific naming must demonstrate values consistent with the mission and vision of the institution, must have an established relationship with the institution and must have contributed measurably to UNT.”
Mosley responded to an open-records request for financial records tied to the naming of the venue by confirming that “there is not a contract or agreement tied to this honorific naming.”
After graduating from UNT, Norma Hunt went on to teach American history in Richardson.
UNT cited Hunt as “a lifelong champion of soccer, supporting the sport’s growth nationally,” as well as her efforts in “mentoring students and supporting generations of young women as they pursued education, leadership and opportunity,” as reasons for naming the stadium after her.
John Hedlund, who has won 400 games and is retiring from his post as UNT women’s soccer coach after the upcoming season as the winningest coach in the history of UNT athletics, attended the ceremony celebrating the naming of the stadium, along with several of his players.
"It’s been so cool to learn about her and what she has done for soccer," UNT soccer player Mia Bernard said of Norma Hunt.
There are other venues on campus named after figures with ties to UNT’s athletics program, including the Ken Bahnsen Gym and the Pohl Recreation Center, which also fall under the honorific naming category.
Bahnsen is a former UNT football player and coach who is a member of the school’s Athletics Hall of Fame, while Norval Pohl was a champion for UNT athletics during his tenure as the school’s president from 2000-06.
The Waranch Tennis Complex and the Ernie Kuehne Basketball Practice Facility were both named after donors. Kuehne donated $1 million and helped raise $3 million in 30 days to bolster UNT’s basketball program in 2012, while Ronald Waranch gave $1 million toward construction of UNT’s tennis center, which opened in 2006.
UNT is set to break ground on an expansion of its athletic center on Wednesday. Tom and Kristy Weger of Coppell Construction Co. donated $4.6 million toward the project, which will add 15,000 square feet of space dedicated to strength and conditioning to the building that opened in 2005.
The space will be named the Weger Family Strength and Conditioning Center in recognition of their gift, which was announced in October.
UNT has recognized several significant gifts tied to facility naming rights over the years. The school came to a 15-year, $21.5 million naming rights agreement with Denton-based credit union DATCU in July 2023 for its football stadium, which is now known as DATCU Stadium.
Lamar Hunt's four children each hold a 25% stake in the franchise. Clark and Dan Hunt, two of those four children, also own FC Dallas. Forbes estimates the Hunt family’s net worth at just short of $25 billion.
Both Clark and Dan Hunt spoke at the dedication ceremony when UNT cut a ceremonial ribbon for Norma Knobel Hunt Stadium on March 25.
Neither brother nor Mosley took questions from media at the event.
An FC Dallas spokesperson responded to an interview request from the Record-Chronicle submitted on Thursday and said Dan Hunt would be willing to speak on the family’s support for UNT moving forward. A request to speak with Clark Hunt submitted to the Kansas City Chiefs media relations staff went unanswered.
The Record-Chronicle also submitted a series of written questions to FC Dallas media relations on Saturday. Neither brother has spoken to the Record-Chronicle. Dan Hunt has not responded to the written questions submitted to FC Dallas.
“She would be incredibly honored, very humble about this and a maybe a little embarrassed,” Dan Hunt said while speaking to hundreds of fans and school officials who gathered for the ceremony recognizing the naming of Hunt Stadium. “She loved this place. It had a special place in her heart.”
UNT has focused on cultivating new donors in recent years. Mosley pointed to UNT’s progress toward that goal last summer as the school closed on the $12 million fundraising threshold it needed to reach to break ground on its athletic center expansion.
“We’ve had a handful of donors toward the [athletic center] expansion project that our first time to engage them was less than 24 months ago,” Mosley said. “We’re having seven-figure givers who are moving in with their first commitment to North Texas athletics.”
UNT’s move to name its soccer and track stadium in honor of Norma Hunt wasn’t tied to a gift — at least not yet.
BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870 and bvito@dentonrc.com.
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