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NCAA Football History - College Football Team History -
TCU Horned Frogs - History
GENERAL
TCU is ready to embark upon its 107th year of Horned Frog
football. Through all the years, with the exception of 1900,
Purple ballclubs have competed on an organized basis. Even
during the war years, as well as through the depression,
each fall Horned Frog football squads have done battle on
the gridiron.
BEGINNINGS
The newfangled game of football, created in the East, made
a quiet and unofficial appearance on the TCU campus (AddRan
College as it was then known and located in Waco, Texas,
or nearby Thorp Spring) in the fall of 1896. It was then
that several of the college’s more robust students,
along with the enthusiastic support
of a couple of young “profs,” Addison Clark,
Jr., and A.C. Easley, banded together to form a team. Three
games were actually played that season ... all after Thanksgiving.
The first contest was an 8-6 victory over Toby’s Business
College of Waco and the other two games were with the Houston
Heavyweights, a town team.
By 1897 the new sport had progressed and AddRan enlisted
its first coach, Joe J. Field, to direct the team. Field’s
ballclub won three games that autumn, including a first
victory over Texas A&M. The only loss was to the University
of Texas, 18-10. Those games with the Aggies and Longhorns
launched football feuds that carried forth for 99 years.
In 1899, the first game with Baylor was played to launch
still another traditional rivalry. By 1902, the name of
the school had been changed to Texas Christian University.
The nickname, “Horned Frogs,” had been added
a few years earlier because “of the abundance of those
creatures around the
campus.”
TIAA ERA
In 1909, the university became a member of the old TIAA
(Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association). Several TCU
teams recorded outstanding records, including the 1912 Horned
Frog unit which had an eight and one mark with the lone
loss coming against Texas, a team that the Frogs did not
beat until 1929. In 1920, a post-World War I team produced
TCU’s best record to that date, winning nine straight
games in regular season. However, a post season bowl (the
Dixie Bowl) contest was booked in Fort Worth with the famed
“Prayin’ Colonels” of Centre College and
that proved to be a mistake. Centre trounced the Purples,
63-
7. L.R. (Dutch) Meyer was an end on that TCU grid leven.
SOUTHWEST CONFERENCE EARLY YEARS In 1923, TCU was admitted
to the still-infant Southwest Athletic Conference, a league
which was destined to become the major collegiate league
of the Southwest. In their initial season in the
SWC, the Horned Frogs played three games and psted a record
of two wins and one loss. Though a young member of the SWC,
over the next few years, the Horned Frogs still offered
some excellent results. In 1924 they
won one and lost five games to finish in the cellar (for
the only time until 1953), but a year later they vaulted
to third with a 2-1- 1 mark, and in 1928 tied for third
at 3-2-0. In 1929, under the late Francis Schmidt, TCU claimed
its first SWC title. Led by a brilliant young quarterback,
Howard Grubbs, later the executive secretary
of the Southwest Conference and the Horned Frogs’
first in a line of great passers, TCU won four straight
league games. The Frogs clinched their first title with
a 7-7 tie against SMU in the final contest of ‘29.
During Schmidt’s regime, which lasted
through the 1933 campaign, the Frogs were double tough.
The
finished third in 1930, second in ‘31 and won the
SWC title agan
in 1932 with a perfect 6-0 record. It was the first time
that one Southwest Conference team had defeated all the
others, since a round robin had not been played in any of
the previous seasons.
DUTCH MEYER ERA
In 1934, with Schmidt being lured to Ohio State, Leo R.
(Dutch) Meyer became the
Horned Frog grid coach. For the next 19 years, Meyer turned
out top teams and produced a bevy of individual standouts,
including
Sammy Baugh, Davey O’Brien, Ki Aldrich, Darrell Lester
and many others.
During Baugh’s college days, the Frogs won 12, lost
one in 1935; and won nine, lost two and tied a pair in 1936.
As a junior, Baugh led TCU to a 3-2 victory in the Sugar
Bowl and a national title but was never able to help the
Frogs claim a SWC title. His successor, Davey O’Brien,
took over leadership of the Frogs for the 1937 and 1938
seasons, and durng his senior year, paced the Purples to
their best record in histor. That magnificent ‘38
ballclub was considered one of the Southwst Conference’s
finest some 50 years later. That fall, Meyer’s Hrned
Frogs rolled
to 11 straight wins, including a 15-7 triumph oer Carnegie
Tech in the Sugar Bowl. The club outscored its oppoents
– 269 to 60 – and never found itself behind,
except brieflyin the Sugar Bowl encounter. After the Sugar
Bowl, the Frogs were crowned national champions. In 1941,
TCU finished a solid second place in the SWC and won another
championship in ‘44. The Dutchman’s final league
crown came in 1951, two years before he became full-time
athletics
director (Meyer would later retire as TCU’s A.D. in
1963).
ABE MARTIN ERA
When Meyer retired from coaching in 1953, his backfield
assistant, Othol (Abe) Martin, took over the coaching reins.
Abe installed the popular T-formation and in just three
short years had found the championship formula.
His 1955 TCU ballclub, led by All-American Jim Swink, waltzed
to nine victories in ten games, the only loss being to Texas
A&M. But, in 1958, Martin found the victory formula
again with good quarterbacking and defense. In 1959, the
Frogs disproved the critics to tie Texas and Arkansas for
the crown, posting a 5-win and
1-loss league record. During his 14-year regime, Martin
had compiled a 76-64-7
mark in Frogland, directed the Purples to five post season
bowl games, and produced seven All-Americans.
THE 1970S
The decade of the 1970s was, for the most part, one of disappointment
for the fans of TCU football. Fred Taylor, the successor
to Abe Martin in 1966, guided Horned Frog teams through
four seasons, with the best record being a modest 4-6. Jim
Pittman was hired from a successful bowl campaign at Tulane,
but tragedy
struck midway through the 1971 season when Pittman was felled
by a fatal heart attack during the Baylor game. His chief
aide, Billy Tohill, took over and piloted TCU through the
1973 season. Then another former Frog great, Jim Shofner,
returned from the NFL and led the Horned Frogs until 1977.
The coaching door then
swung open for F. A. Dry, who brought some impressive credentials
from Tulsa. Dry’s TCU teams became known for hard-ball
defense and impressive aerial displays, but a 3-8 mark in
1982 proved to be Dry’s best in six seasons and yet
another change of direction was mandated.
JIMWACKER ERA
From 1983 through 1991 Horned Frog grid fortunes were in
the hands of former NCAA Division II coaching legend Jim
Wacker, who
left opulent marks as well as two pairs of national championship
trophies at both Southwest Texas State and Texas Lutheran.
Wacker’s first campaign at TCU produced only 1-8-2
results, but he steered the Horned
Frogs to a dramatic 8-4 turnaround in 1984 en route to a
Bluebonnet
Bowl date. Several national, as well as Southwest Conference
Coach of the Year honors ultimately were awarded to the
bubbly Wacker. However, an NCAA probation for discovered
infractions in 1985 affected the Frogs’ rise over
the next several seasons.
PAT SULLIVAN ERA
On January 2, 1992, Pat Sullivan was introduced as the 27th
head coach in TCU football history. Sullivan probably is
best remembered
as a college quarterbacking great at Auburn where he won
the Heisman Trophy in 1971. Sullivan instilled confidence
along with an appreciation for self-discipline into the
TCU grid makeup during his initial campaign with the Horned
Frogs.
Though the Sullivan influence on TCU’s program was
obvious from the outset, tangible proof of his impact at
Frogland became somewhat pronounced during 1994. For the
Horned Frog faithful it was a campaign of sweet memories
and bona fide successes beginning in early fall with the
official dedication of TCU’s Walsh
Complex, an ultra-impressive athletic training and weight-conditioning
center. Powered by the most prolific offense in the Southwest
Conference, an attack spearheaded by quarterback Max Knake
and tailback Andre Davis, the Frogs fashioned a 7-4 regular-season
mark. En route they captured a share of the
school’s ninth SWC football championship, along with
an invitation to the Poulan/WeedEaster Independence Bowl
in Shreveport, Louisiana. Further, thanks largely to Fort
Worth’s Committee of 100, TCU’s home-game attendance
records were shattered. The pergame home average of 37,174
far exceeded any previous mark. Similarly, the increase
of 11,062 folks per game (a 42.5 percent increase) was one
of the nation’s best in 1994. Sullivan resigned in
November 1997 after six seasons at the Horned Frog grid
helm.
THE WAC YEARS
TCU Football in 1996 was almost a double-dose of euphoria.
Not only did it mark the 100th-year celebration for the
sport, but the University officially became a new member
of the expanded Western Athletic Conference as well. The
Horned Frog program joined teams from Rice, SMU and Tulsa
to form Quadrant 1 of the
Mountain Division. Quadrant 2 members were Air Force, UNLV,
Colorado State and Wyoming. Pacific Division members of
the WAC were New Mexico, UTEP, BYU, along with Fresno State,
San Jose State, Hawai’i and San Diego State.
DENNIS FRANCHIONE ERA
In three seasons under Dennis Franchione, the TCU football
program took a giant leap forward. In his first season,
Fran led the Frogs
to a 7-5 record, which included an upset win over USC in
the Sun Bowl.
The Frogs, who were 1-10 in 1997 under Pat Sullivan, tied
Louisville for the biggest
turnaround in the country with the six-win improvement in
1998. Although many believed the Frogs stood no chance,
Franchione guided the Frogs to a 28-19 win over the vaunted
Trojans. The win was the first bowl win since 1957, when
TCU defeated Syracuse in the Cotton Bowl. Then in 1999,
TCU claimed a share of the WAC title, earning a trip to
the inaugural Mobile Alabama Bowl where TCU knocked off
East Carolina, 28-14. Tailback LaDainian Tomlinson led the
country in rushing in 1999, averaging over 168 yards per
game for a season total of 1,850 yards. The Frogs came back
with one of the best seasons in school history
as the new millennium got underway. Moving as high in the
polls as No. 9 and carrying the nation’s longest winning
streak for a stretch, the Frogs put together a 10-2 campaign.
Tomlinson again led the nation in rushing en route to the
Doak Walker Award and the fifth player selected in the NFL
draft.
CONFERENCE USA
The Frogs took on a new look in 2001. With a new head coach
in Gary Patterson, TCU moved into Conference USA. Despite
the change in leagues, TCU has continued its recent strong
run with a school record six consecutive bowl games and
back-to-back top 25 finishes for the first time since the
1950s. The 2002 team tied for the conference title and represented
the league in the AXA Liberty Bowl where it defeated Colorado
State. The Frogs have posted 10 or more victories in three
of four seasons since moving into the new millennium.The
Horned Frog (actually a lizard) has been TCU's mascot longer
than TCU has been the university's name. Four students helped
make the decision in 1897, when AddRan Christian University
(renamed TCU in 1902) was located in Waco. Here are some
other facts about the horned frog, one of the country's
most distinctive mascots:
The scientific name for this Texas reptile is phrynosoma
cornutum; in Greek, phrynos means "a toad" and
soma means "body"; in Latin, cornutus means "horned."
Their primary diet is red harvester ants; they'd like 80
to 100 a day. Unfortunately, red ants are falling victim
to insecticides and to more aggressive fire ants in much
of Texas.
The typical Horned Frog is three to five inches long.
Horned Frogs are cold-blooded animals and have an unusual
pineal gland, resembling a "third eye" on the
top of the head, which zoologists believe is part of their
system of thermoregulation.
When angered or frightened, horned frogs can squirt a fine,
four-foot stream of blood from their eyes.
The Horned Frog was named the State Reptile of Texas in
1992.
In stories of Native Americans in the Southwest, horned
frogs are depicted as ancient, powerful and respected. Archaeologists
find horned frogs on petroglyphs, pottery and other crafts
painted hundreds of years before Columbus set sail for America.
In some parts of Mexico, folklore persists that these creatures
which weep tears of blood are sacred.
ALMA MATER
Hail all hail, TCU
Memories Sweet, Comrades True
Light of Faith, Follow Through
Praise to Thee, TCU
FIGHT SONG CHANT
F-R-O-G-S F-I-G-H-T
Purple, White, Horned Frogs Fight
Victory, Victory, Right, Right, Right
Rah, Rah TCU! Rah, Rah, TCU
F-R-O-G-S F-I-G-H-T
Go, Go, Horned Frogs Go
TCU Frogs Fight
FIGHT SONG
We'll raise a song, both loud and long
To cheer our team to victor
For TCU, so tried and true,
We pledge eternal loyalty.
Rah, Rah, TCU!
Fight on boys, fight, with all your might
Roll up the scores for TCU
Hail white and purple flag whose heroes never lag,
Horned Frog, we are all for you!
Rif Ram
Riff, Ram, Bah Zoo
Lickety, Lickety, Zoo, Zoo
Who, Wah, Wah, Who
Give ‘em hell, TCU
TCU
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