The TCU Horned Frogs football team is the intercollegiate football team at Texas Christian University. TCU competes as a member of the Mountain West Conference. The Frogs have won two national championships and fourteen conference championships. Additionally, the program has had a few legendary players, including Sammy Baugh, Davey O'Brien, and LaDainian Tomlinson.
The Horned Frogs play their home games in Amon G. Carter Stadium, which is located on campus in Fort Worth. The stadium opened in 1930 and holds 44,008. The current head coach of the program is Gary Patterson.
History
The Horned Frogs play their home games in Amon G. Carter Stadium, which is located on campus in Fort Worth. The stadium opened in 1930 and holds 44,008. The current head coach of the program is Gary Patterson.
History
The beginning
TCU's first year of football was 1896, when it still went by the name AddRan College. That year the team's record was 1–1–1. Its first win came against Toby’s Business College by the score of 8–6, apparently not having to use any substitutes. In the era prior to joining the Southwest Conference (SWC) in 1923, TCU amassed a record of 89–84–19. In 1912, TCU went 8–1–0 and scored 230 points while only allowing 53 points the whole season. The Frogs' one loss came against the University of Texas Longhorns, a team they would not beat until 1929. In 1920, TCU won its first conference title while it was a member of the Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association (TIAA). The Horned Frogs' 9–1–0 record earned them a spot in the Fort Worth Classic, also known as the Dixie Bowl, against Centre College. The game was played in Fort Worth, but TCU would lose the game 63–7.
Early Southwest Conference era
In 1923, TCU endured a 5-game losing streak during its first year in the SWC, but it earned a 2–1–0 conference record and a 4–5–0 overall record. One loss that year was a 40–0 decision against TCU's emerging rival, the Southern Methodist University (SMU) Mustangs, whose record was 9–0 that year. The Mustangs were the champions of the SWC that year. The next year, TCU would finish in last place with a 1-5 SWC record and another 4-5 overall record. The Horned Frogs would not hit last place again until 1953. Matty Bell, who began coaching the Frogs in 1923, had his best year in 1928, his last year as coach. That year's only losses came at home 7–6 to the Baylor University Bears and to Texas by a score of 6–0. That year the Frogs finished in third place in the conference at 8–2–0 overall and 3–2 in conference play.
The 1929 season saw the arrival of Coach Francis Schmidt and TCU's first SWC title. The title was won in the last game of the year on November 30, 1929 against SMU. Coming into the game TCU led SMU in the conference standings. TCU had 4 wins, while SMU's conference record was 3–0–1. Since this was the last conference game of the year for both teams, TCU could win its first SWC title with a win or a tie. The first half of the game was scoreless, but in the third quarter Weldon “Speedy” Mason tacked on 40 yards to a 16-yard pass from SMU quarterback Bob Gilbert. After the extra point, the Mustangs led 7–0. TCU would not score until its second time on the SMU] 1-yard line in the fourth quarter. That is when TCU quarterback Howard Grubbs ran behind All-SWC fullback Harlos Green and Mike Brumbelow for the game-tying score. The Frogs left plenty of time on the clock for SMU to answer their score, but Grubbs, now playing defense, intercepted Gilbert's pass. TCU then ran the clock out to force the tie and to win its first SWC title.
Dutch Meyer/Abe Martin era
1935 began the first year for TCU coach Noah Everett. That year TCU and SMU again met to decide not only the SWC title but the first trip to the Rose Bowl for a team from the SWC. Grantland Rice of the New York Sun called it the "Game of the Century" and reported the following:
In a TCU Stadium that seated 30,000 spectators, over 36,000 wildly excited Texans and visitors from every corner of the map packed, jammed, and fought their way into every square foot of standing and seating space to see one of the greatest football games ever played…this tense, keyed up crowd even leaped the wire fences from the top of automobiles…”
SMU scored the first 14 points of the game. TCU, led by All-American quarterback Sammy Baugh, tied the game at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Then, with seven minutes left in the game SMU, on a 4th and 4 on the Frogs' 37 yard-line, lined up to punt. Quarterback Robert Finley threw a 50-yard pass to running back Bobby Wilson who made what is described as a “jumping, twisting catch that swept him over the line for the touchdown.” TCU would lose the game 14–20, but would be invited to play the LSU Tigers in the 1936 Sugar Bowl, where the Frogs would be victorious 3–2 at messy and muddy Tulane Stadium.
Even with the loss to SMU, who later lost to Stanford in the 1936 Rose Bowl, TCU claims 1935 as a national championship year. Dan Jenkins states that one of the first statistical national polls was created by Frank G. Dickinson in 1924. By 1935 there were several other polls, and “…only one of them was big and caught on big and rivaled Dickinson. This was the Paul O. Williamson System out of New Orleans. It quickly gained nation-wide respect and a large syndicated circulation.” The Williamson System awarded TCU a shared championship with LSU in 1935, the year before the first sportswriter poll by the Associated Press. The Dickinson poll awarded SMU the national title, and several smaller polls designated the University of Minnesota and Princeton University as their champions TCU would go undefeated in 1938 under the tutelage of coach Dutch Meyer and behind TCU’s only Heisman Trophy winner—quarterback Davey O'Brien. That year the Frogs' closest game came against the University of Arkansas where they beat the Razorbacks 21–14 in Fort Worth. They were invited to the 1939 Sugar Bowl and beat the Carnegie Tech Tartans from Pittsburgh by a score of 15–7 in front of more than 50,000 spectators.
Dutch Meyer coached TCU from 1934 to 1952. His record of 109–79–13 is the highest amount of victories at TCU. He also is responsible for three SWC championships. Meyer coached and won the first Cotton Bowl game in 1937.
When Dutch Meyer retired, his backfield assistant, Abe Martin, became head coach at TCU. One of his three tries at a SWC title came in 1958. The Frogs only losses were to Iowa by a score of 0–17 and at #18 SMU, 13–20. The 1958 season ended in a scoreless tie against the Air Force Falcons in the 1959 Cotton Bowl. Martin-led TCU teams amased a 1–3–1 record in bowl games. The lone win came in the 1957 Cotton Bowl against a Jim Brown-led Syracuse team in front of 68,000 spectators. A blocked extra-point attempt was the difference in the game and allowed the Horned Frogs to win 28–27.
Small victories and probation
After TCU won the 1959 SWC championship, the Horned Frogs wouldn't earn another share of the conference title until 1994. During this time, TCU played the role of the underdog. In 1961, Bill Van Fleet of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram called the Horned Frogs' 6-0 win at then-No. 1 Texas, "the season's greatest upset of the year." In 1965, TCU traveled to El Paso to play in the Sun Bowl against UTEP; the Frogs lost 13-12. The state of football at TCU eventually got so bad that from 1974 to 1983 the Frogs never won more than two games in a season. TCU would have a successful year in 1984 in sports under coach Jim Wacker. That year TCU leaned on All-American running back Kenneth Davis. The Frogs would be invited to the Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston for their first bowl invitation in 19 years to play the West Virginia Mountaineers. The Frogs would lose to the Mountaineers 31-14. TCU wouldn't attend another bowl game until the 1994 Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana. Again, they would lose that game 20-10 to the Virginia Cavaliers.
In 1986, the NCAA placed TCU on three year probation. They found that 6 boosters provided football recruits and football players with cash and other forms of payment. The final penalty of the NCAA was to ban TCU from post-season play for one season, a forfeiture of TV revenue for the 1983 and 1984 seasons, only 10 scholarships for the 1987-88 academic year and only 15 scholarships for the 1988-1989 season. The NCAA said it would have given TCU a harsher penalty: a three-year ban from postseason play, a three-year television appearance ban and no new scholarships for two years. In the NCAA’s public release they imposed a reduced penalty because TCU self-reported the violations, suspended the players in question, full cooperation with the enforcement committee and a lack of previous infractions.
The renaissance
The breakup of the Southwest Conference (SWC) sent TCU to the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), along with Rice and SMU. Houston joined the newly formed Conference USA. TCU's first two years in the WAC were not good years. Coach Pat Sullivan went 4-7 (3-5 WAC) in 1996 and then only defeated SMU in the last game of the season for a 1-10 record in 1997.
The revival of TCU football began under the watch of Dennis Franchione when TCU defeated the Trojans of USC in the 1998 Sun Bowl. In the three years Coach Franchione was at TCU his bowl record was 2-0 and accumulated two WAC Championships. Franchione coached the entire 2000 regular season, but left for the head coaching position at the University of Alabama before the 2000 Mobile Alabama Bowl. In 2001 TCU left the WAC for Conference USA (C-USA). TCU would only stay in C-USA for four years before accepting an invitation to join their current conference, the Mountain West Conference (MWC). The current head coach, Gary Patterson, has won two conference championships. In 2002, TCU won a C-USA title, and in 2005, TCU won the MWC title their first year in the league. Coach Patterson has had a winning season every year but 2004 when the Frogs went 5-6. TCU has gone to a bowl game every year but one since that 1998 Sun Bowl. In the 2006 Poinsettia Bowl TCU defeated the Northern Illinois Huskies 37-7. In 2007 the Horned Frogs defeated the Iowa State Cyclones by a score of 20-13 in the 2007 Texas Bowl in Houston, Texas. In a return to the Poinsettia Bowl in 2008 the perpetually underrated #11 Frogs defeated unbeaten #9 Boise State 17-16 in what many described as the bowl that should have been a BCS game. Boise State was the second to last unbeaten team in the nation in 2008 besides the Utah Utes. TCU's Poinsettia Bowl victory helped them finish the 2008 season ranked #7 in the country.
Awards
TCU's first year of football was 1896, when it still went by the name AddRan College. That year the team's record was 1–1–1. Its first win came against Toby’s Business College by the score of 8–6, apparently not having to use any substitutes. In the era prior to joining the Southwest Conference (SWC) in 1923, TCU amassed a record of 89–84–19. In 1912, TCU went 8–1–0 and scored 230 points while only allowing 53 points the whole season. The Frogs' one loss came against the University of Texas Longhorns, a team they would not beat until 1929. In 1920, TCU won its first conference title while it was a member of the Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association (TIAA). The Horned Frogs' 9–1–0 record earned them a spot in the Fort Worth Classic, also known as the Dixie Bowl, against Centre College. The game was played in Fort Worth, but TCU would lose the game 63–7.
Early Southwest Conference era
In 1923, TCU endured a 5-game losing streak during its first year in the SWC, but it earned a 2–1–0 conference record and a 4–5–0 overall record. One loss that year was a 40–0 decision against TCU's emerging rival, the Southern Methodist University (SMU) Mustangs, whose record was 9–0 that year. The Mustangs were the champions of the SWC that year. The next year, TCU would finish in last place with a 1-5 SWC record and another 4-5 overall record. The Horned Frogs would not hit last place again until 1953. Matty Bell, who began coaching the Frogs in 1923, had his best year in 1928, his last year as coach. That year's only losses came at home 7–6 to the Baylor University Bears and to Texas by a score of 6–0. That year the Frogs finished in third place in the conference at 8–2–0 overall and 3–2 in conference play.
The 1929 season saw the arrival of Coach Francis Schmidt and TCU's first SWC title. The title was won in the last game of the year on November 30, 1929 against SMU. Coming into the game TCU led SMU in the conference standings. TCU had 4 wins, while SMU's conference record was 3–0–1. Since this was the last conference game of the year for both teams, TCU could win its first SWC title with a win or a tie. The first half of the game was scoreless, but in the third quarter Weldon “Speedy” Mason tacked on 40 yards to a 16-yard pass from SMU quarterback Bob Gilbert. After the extra point, the Mustangs led 7–0. TCU would not score until its second time on the SMU] 1-yard line in the fourth quarter. That is when TCU quarterback Howard Grubbs ran behind All-SWC fullback Harlos Green and Mike Brumbelow for the game-tying score. The Frogs left plenty of time on the clock for SMU to answer their score, but Grubbs, now playing defense, intercepted Gilbert's pass. TCU then ran the clock out to force the tie and to win its first SWC title.
Dutch Meyer/Abe Martin era
1935 began the first year for TCU coach Noah Everett. That year TCU and SMU again met to decide not only the SWC title but the first trip to the Rose Bowl for a team from the SWC. Grantland Rice of the New York Sun called it the "Game of the Century" and reported the following:
In a TCU Stadium that seated 30,000 spectators, over 36,000 wildly excited Texans and visitors from every corner of the map packed, jammed, and fought their way into every square foot of standing and seating space to see one of the greatest football games ever played…this tense, keyed up crowd even leaped the wire fences from the top of automobiles…”
SMU scored the first 14 points of the game. TCU, led by All-American quarterback Sammy Baugh, tied the game at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Then, with seven minutes left in the game SMU, on a 4th and 4 on the Frogs' 37 yard-line, lined up to punt. Quarterback Robert Finley threw a 50-yard pass to running back Bobby Wilson who made what is described as a “jumping, twisting catch that swept him over the line for the touchdown.” TCU would lose the game 14–20, but would be invited to play the LSU Tigers in the 1936 Sugar Bowl, where the Frogs would be victorious 3–2 at messy and muddy Tulane Stadium.
Even with the loss to SMU, who later lost to Stanford in the 1936 Rose Bowl, TCU claims 1935 as a national championship year. Dan Jenkins states that one of the first statistical national polls was created by Frank G. Dickinson in 1924. By 1935 there were several other polls, and “…only one of them was big and caught on big and rivaled Dickinson. This was the Paul O. Williamson System out of New Orleans. It quickly gained nation-wide respect and a large syndicated circulation.” The Williamson System awarded TCU a shared championship with LSU in 1935, the year before the first sportswriter poll by the Associated Press. The Dickinson poll awarded SMU the national title, and several smaller polls designated the University of Minnesota and Princeton University as their champions TCU would go undefeated in 1938 under the tutelage of coach Dutch Meyer and behind TCU’s only Heisman Trophy winner—quarterback Davey O'Brien. That year the Frogs' closest game came against the University of Arkansas where they beat the Razorbacks 21–14 in Fort Worth. They were invited to the 1939 Sugar Bowl and beat the Carnegie Tech Tartans from Pittsburgh by a score of 15–7 in front of more than 50,000 spectators.
Dutch Meyer coached TCU from 1934 to 1952. His record of 109–79–13 is the highest amount of victories at TCU. He also is responsible for three SWC championships. Meyer coached and won the first Cotton Bowl game in 1937.
When Dutch Meyer retired, his backfield assistant, Abe Martin, became head coach at TCU. One of his three tries at a SWC title came in 1958. The Frogs only losses were to Iowa by a score of 0–17 and at #18 SMU, 13–20. The 1958 season ended in a scoreless tie against the Air Force Falcons in the 1959 Cotton Bowl. Martin-led TCU teams amased a 1–3–1 record in bowl games. The lone win came in the 1957 Cotton Bowl against a Jim Brown-led Syracuse team in front of 68,000 spectators. A blocked extra-point attempt was the difference in the game and allowed the Horned Frogs to win 28–27.
Small victories and probation
After TCU won the 1959 SWC championship, the Horned Frogs wouldn't earn another share of the conference title until 1994. During this time, TCU played the role of the underdog. In 1961, Bill Van Fleet of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram called the Horned Frogs' 6-0 win at then-No. 1 Texas, "the season's greatest upset of the year." In 1965, TCU traveled to El Paso to play in the Sun Bowl against UTEP; the Frogs lost 13-12. The state of football at TCU eventually got so bad that from 1974 to 1983 the Frogs never won more than two games in a season. TCU would have a successful year in 1984 in sports under coach Jim Wacker. That year TCU leaned on All-American running back Kenneth Davis. The Frogs would be invited to the Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston for their first bowl invitation in 19 years to play the West Virginia Mountaineers. The Frogs would lose to the Mountaineers 31-14. TCU wouldn't attend another bowl game until the 1994 Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana. Again, they would lose that game 20-10 to the Virginia Cavaliers.
In 1986, the NCAA placed TCU on three year probation. They found that 6 boosters provided football recruits and football players with cash and other forms of payment. The final penalty of the NCAA was to ban TCU from post-season play for one season, a forfeiture of TV revenue for the 1983 and 1984 seasons, only 10 scholarships for the 1987-88 academic year and only 15 scholarships for the 1988-1989 season. The NCAA said it would have given TCU a harsher penalty: a three-year ban from postseason play, a three-year television appearance ban and no new scholarships for two years. In the NCAA’s public release they imposed a reduced penalty because TCU self-reported the violations, suspended the players in question, full cooperation with the enforcement committee and a lack of previous infractions.
The renaissance
The breakup of the Southwest Conference (SWC) sent TCU to the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), along with Rice and SMU. Houston joined the newly formed Conference USA. TCU's first two years in the WAC were not good years. Coach Pat Sullivan went 4-7 (3-5 WAC) in 1996 and then only defeated SMU in the last game of the season for a 1-10 record in 1997.
The revival of TCU football began under the watch of Dennis Franchione when TCU defeated the Trojans of USC in the 1998 Sun Bowl. In the three years Coach Franchione was at TCU his bowl record was 2-0 and accumulated two WAC Championships. Franchione coached the entire 2000 regular season, but left for the head coaching position at the University of Alabama before the 2000 Mobile Alabama Bowl. In 2001 TCU left the WAC for Conference USA (C-USA). TCU would only stay in C-USA for four years before accepting an invitation to join their current conference, the Mountain West Conference (MWC). The current head coach, Gary Patterson, has won two conference championships. In 2002, TCU won a C-USA title, and in 2005, TCU won the MWC title their first year in the league. Coach Patterson has had a winning season every year but 2004 when the Frogs went 5-6. TCU has gone to a bowl game every year but one since that 1998 Sun Bowl. In the 2006 Poinsettia Bowl TCU defeated the Northern Illinois Huskies 37-7. In 2007 the Horned Frogs defeated the Iowa State Cyclones by a score of 20-13 in the 2007 Texas Bowl in Houston, Texas. In a return to the Poinsettia Bowl in 2008 the perpetually underrated #11 Frogs defeated unbeaten #9 Boise State 17-16 in what many described as the bowl that should have been a BCS game. Boise State was the second to last unbeaten team in the nation in 2008 besides the Utah Utes. TCU's Poinsettia Bowl victory helped them finish the 2008 season ranked #7 in the country.
Awards
Team Awards
National Championships
TCU recognizes two national championships one from 1935 and the other awarded in 1938. In 1935, TCU lost in their last game of the year to SMU who then lost to Stanford in the Rose Bowl. That same year TCU defeated LSU in the Sugar Bowl. Since the wire services didn't award national championships until 1936, TCU recognizes a statistical poll created by Paul O. Williamson who awarded his national title to LSU and TCU for the 1935 season. The 1938 team was undefeated and was the #1 team according to the Associated Press poll.
Bowl Games
TCU competed in and won the first Cotton Bowl Classic under Coach Dutch Meyer. TCU has won two Sugar Bowl games. After the Frogs last Sugar Bowl game, they underwent an 11 bowl game winless streak from 1942 to 1998. Since the '98 season the frogs are 5-3 in bowl games. In addition to the first Cotton Bowl Classic, TCU has had the honor of playing in several other inaugural bowls, including the Bluebonnet, Mobile Alabama, and both the Fort Worth Classic and Fort Worth Bowl games.
Rivalries
Because TCU was a member of the Southwest Conference for 72 years, they remain rivals with all of the schools in that conference, most of whom are located within the state of Texas. In the years since the SWC's demise, TCU has added a few minor rivals in both Conference USA and the Mountain West, including Louisville, Southern Miss, BYU and Utah. Their three main rivals, however, remain:
Southern Methodist University
TCU leads the football series with SMU, 43-39-7., including the result of the October 3, 2009 game. When these two schools play each other in football, it is called "The Battle for the Iron Skillet", with the winning team gaining possession of the skillet. Since 1915 when SMU was founded and subsequently started playing football, there have been only three seasons that the two schools didn't meet on the football field (1919, 1920 and 2006) and in which both universities fielded a football team. The schools are scheduled to meet through at least 2016.
Last meeting: 3rd October, 2009 at TCU's Amon G. Carter Stadium. Final Score: TCU - 39 SMU - 14. [23]
Baylor University
The series with Baylor is tied 49-49-7. This rivalry hearkens back to 1899 in the early days of TCU football when TCU was know as AddRan Christian University. When the series started TCU and Baylor were both located in Waco, Texas. It is one of the most played rivalries in all of NCAA College Football. The two schools concluded a home-and-home series in 2007, with another home-and-home to be held in 2010 and 2011.
Last meeting: 2007 TCU 27 - Baylor 0
Texas Tech University
Texas Tech leads the football series dating back to 1926, 28-23-3.[24] Texas Tech was the first of the 4 Southwest Conference schools that left to form the Big 12 Conference to schedule a game with TCU in the regular season in 2004. That game, which the Red Raiders won by a large margin in Lubbock and TCU's win in Fort Worth in 2006 have revitalized this rivalry. The two schools are next scheduled to meet in the 2010-2011 season.
Last meeting: 2006 TCU 12 - Texas Tech 3
TCU recognizes two national championships one from 1935 and the other awarded in 1938. In 1935, TCU lost in their last game of the year to SMU who then lost to Stanford in the Rose Bowl. That same year TCU defeated LSU in the Sugar Bowl. Since the wire services didn't award national championships until 1936, TCU recognizes a statistical poll created by Paul O. Williamson who awarded his national title to LSU and TCU for the 1935 season. The 1938 team was undefeated and was the #1 team according to the Associated Press poll.
Bowl Games
TCU competed in and won the first Cotton Bowl Classic under Coach Dutch Meyer. TCU has won two Sugar Bowl games. After the Frogs last Sugar Bowl game, they underwent an 11 bowl game winless streak from 1942 to 1998. Since the '98 season the frogs are 5-3 in bowl games. In addition to the first Cotton Bowl Classic, TCU has had the honor of playing in several other inaugural bowls, including the Bluebonnet, Mobile Alabama, and both the Fort Worth Classic and Fort Worth Bowl games.
Rivalries
Because TCU was a member of the Southwest Conference for 72 years, they remain rivals with all of the schools in that conference, most of whom are located within the state of Texas. In the years since the SWC's demise, TCU has added a few minor rivals in both Conference USA and the Mountain West, including Louisville, Southern Miss, BYU and Utah. Their three main rivals, however, remain:
Southern Methodist University
TCU leads the football series with SMU, 43-39-7., including the result of the October 3, 2009 game. When these two schools play each other in football, it is called "The Battle for the Iron Skillet", with the winning team gaining possession of the skillet. Since 1915 when SMU was founded and subsequently started playing football, there have been only three seasons that the two schools didn't meet on the football field (1919, 1920 and 2006) and in which both universities fielded a football team. The schools are scheduled to meet through at least 2016.
Last meeting: 3rd October, 2009 at TCU's Amon G. Carter Stadium. Final Score: TCU - 39 SMU - 14. [23]
Baylor University
The series with Baylor is tied 49-49-7. This rivalry hearkens back to 1899 in the early days of TCU football when TCU was know as AddRan Christian University. When the series started TCU and Baylor were both located in Waco, Texas. It is one of the most played rivalries in all of NCAA College Football. The two schools concluded a home-and-home series in 2007, with another home-and-home to be held in 2010 and 2011.
Last meeting: 2007 TCU 27 - Baylor 0
Texas Tech University
Texas Tech leads the football series dating back to 1926, 28-23-3.[24] Texas Tech was the first of the 4 Southwest Conference schools that left to form the Big 12 Conference to schedule a game with TCU in the regular season in 2004. That game, which the Red Raiders won by a large margin in Lubbock and TCU's win in Fort Worth in 2006 have revitalized this rivalry. The two schools are next scheduled to meet in the 2010-2011 season.
Last meeting: 2006 TCU 12 - Texas Tech 3
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