Tcu-Smu Series

FROG HISTORY 2008 TCU FOOTBALL TCU FOOTBALL THROUGH THE AGES 4General TCU is ready to embark upon its 112th year of Horned Frog football. Through all the years, with the ex cep tion of 1900, Purple ballclubs have com pet ed on an or ga nized basis. Even during the war years, as well as through the Great Depres sion, each fall Horned Frog football squads have done bat tle on the gridiron each fall. 4BEGINNINGS The newfangled game of foot ball, created in the East, made a quiet and un offcial ap pear ance on the TCU campus (AddRan College as it was then known and lo cat ed in Waco, Tex as, or nearby Thorp Spring) in the fall of 1896. It was then that sev er al of the col lege’s more ro bust stu dents, along with the en thu si as tic sup port of a cou ple of young “profs,” Addison Clark, Jr., and A.C. Easley, band ed to gether to form a team. Three games were ac tu al ly played that season ... all af ter Thanks giv ing. The first con test was an 86 vic to ry over Toby’s Busi ness College of Waco and the other two games were with the Houston Heavy weights, 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 Univer si ty of Tex as, 1810. Those games with the Aggies and Longhorns launched foot ball feuds that car ried forth for 99 years. In 1899, the first game with Baylor was played to launch still anoth er tra di tion al ri val ry. By 1902, the name Dutch Meyer (left) and Abe Martin helped deliver seven of TCU’s 15 conference titles and 12 of the program’s 23 all-time bowl appearances. of the school had been changed to Texas Chris tian Uni ver si ty. The nick name, “Horned Frogs,” had been added a few member of the expanded Western Athletic Conference 4The 1970s as well. The Horned Frog program joined teams from years earlier because “of the abundance of those crea tures The decade of the 1970s was, for the most part, one of Rice, SMU and Tulsa to form Quadrant 1 of the Mountain around campus.” disappointment for the fans of TCU football. Fred Taylor, Division. Quadrant 2 members were Air Force, UNLV, the suc ces sor to Abe Martin in 1966, guided Horned Frog Colorado State and Wyoming. Pacific Division members of teams through four seasons, with the best record being a 4TIAA Era the WAC were New Mexico, UTEP, BYU, along with Fresno modest 46. Jim Pittman was hired from a successful bowl In 1909, the uni ver si ty be came a member of the old TIAA State, San Jose State, Hawai’i and San Diego State. (Tex as In ter col le giate Ath let ic As so ci a tion). Sev er al TCU campaign at Tulane, but tragedy struck mid way through teams re cord ed outstanding records, in clud ing the 1912 the 1971 season when Pittman was felled by a fatal heart Horned Frog unit, which had an 81 mark with the lone attack during the Baylor game. His chief aide, Billy Tohill, 4CONFERENCE USA loss coming against Tex as, a team that the Frogs did not took over and pi lot ed TCU through the 1973 sea son. Then The Frogs took on a new look in 2001 as they made the beat until 1929. another former Frog great, Jim Shofner, returned from move into Conference USA. The 11member football the NFL and led the Horned Frogs until 1977. The coach league included Army, Cincinnati, East Carolina, Houston, In 1920, a postWorld War I team produced TCU’s best ing door then swung open for F. A. Dry, who brought Louisville, Memphis, Southern Miss, South Florida, Tulane record to date, winning nine straight games in the regular some impressive credentials from Tulsa. Dry’s TCU teams and UAB. Despite the change in leagues, TCU continued its sea son. How ev er, a post season bowl (the Dixie Bowl) became known for hardball defense and im pres sive aerial strong run with a school record six consecutive bowl game con test was booked in Fort Worth with the famed “Prayin’ dis plays, but a 38 mark in 1982 proved to be Dry’s best appearances and backtoback top 25 finishes for the first Colonels” of Centre College. That proved to be a mistake as in six seasons and yet another change of direction was time since the 1950s. Centre trounced the Pur ples, 637. L.R. (Dutch) Meyer was mandated. an end on that TCU grid elev en. Similarly, the increase of 11,062 folks per game (a 42.5 4Mountain WEST CONFERENCE percent increase) was one of the nation’s best in 1994. TCU began Mountain West Conference play in 2005 4SWC Early YEARS Sullivan resigned in November 1997 after six seasons at and immediately posted a recordbreaking campaign. In 1923, TCU was ad mit ted to the stillin fant Southwest the Horned Frog grid helm. The Frogs, picked to finish sixth, went 80 in their debut Ath let ic Con fer ence, a league which was destined to be season to claim their first outright conference title since come the ma jor collegiate league of the South west. In their 1958. TCU became just the third team in MWC history to ini tial sea son in the SWC, the Horned Frogs played three 4THE WAC YEARS go undefeated and the first to be 80. The Frogs are 186 games and posted a record of two wins and one loss. TCU Football in 1996 was almost a doubledose of in their opening three seasons of MWC play, which ranks euphoria. Not only did it mark the 100thyear celebration second among all league teams. Though a young mem ber of the SWC, over the next few for the sport, but the University ofcially became a new years the Horned Frogs still of ered some ex cel lent re sults. In 1924, they won one and lost five games to finish in the cel lar for the only time until 1953. In 1929, under the late Francis Schmidt, TCU claimed its first SWC title. Led by a bril liant young quar ter back, Howard Grubbs, who later became the ex ec u tive sec re tary of the South west Con ference and the Horned Frogs’ first in a line of great passers, TCU won four straight league games. The Frogs clinched their first ti tle with a 77 tie against SMU in the final contest of ‘29. During Schmidt’s re gime, which last ed through the 1933 campaign, the Frogs were double tough. They finished third in 1930, sec ond in ‘31 and won the SWC title again in 1932 with a perfect 60 record. It was the first time that one Southwest Con fer ence team had de feat ed all the oth ers, since a round robin had not been played in any of the previous seasons. Slingin’ Sammy Baugh (No. 45) led TCU to its first of two national championships in the 1930s under Head Coach Dutch Meyer. 160 NINE BOWL GAMES LAST 10 YEARS 2008 TCU FOOTBALL FROG HISTORY ALL-TIME COACHES 4Dutch Meyer Era 4JIM Wacker Era 4 In 1934, with Schmidt being lured to Ohio State, Leo R. From 1983 through 1991, Horned Frog grid fortunes were COACHING HISTORY (Dutch) Meyer be came the Horned Frog grid coach. For the in the hands of former NCAA Division II coaching leg end Years* Coach Record Pct. next 19 years, Meyer turned out top teams and pro duced Jim Wacker, who left opulent marks as well as two pairs of 1897 Joe Field 310 .750 a bevy of indi vid u al standouts, includ ing Sammy Baugh, national cham pi on ship trophies at both South west Texas 1898 James Morrison 131 .300 Davey O’Brien, Ki Aldrich, Darrell Lester and many oth ers. State and Texas Lutheran. Wacker’s first cam paign at TCU During Baugh’s college days, the Frogs won 12, lost one produced only 182 results, but he steered the Horned 1902 H. E. Hildebrand 051 .083 in 1935; and won nine, lost two and tied a pair in 1936. As Frogs to a dramatic 84 turn around in 1984 en route to a 1904 C. E. Cronk 141 .250 a junior, Baugh led TCU to a 32 victory in the Sugar Bowl Blue b on net Bowl date. Several na tion al, as well as South 1905–1907 E. J. Hyde 10112 .478 and a national title, but was never able to help the Frogs west Conference Coach of the Year honors, ul ti mate ly 1908–1909 J. R. Langley 1151 .676 claim a SWC title. were awarded to the bubbly Wacker. However, an NCAA 1910 Kemp Lewis 261 .278 probation for discovered infractions in 1985 afected the 1911 Henry W. Lever 450 .444 His successor, Davey O’Brien, took over lead er ship of the Frogs’ rise over the next several sea sons.

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