The TCU Horned Frogs football team represents Texas Christian University (TCU) in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The Horned Frogs play their home games in Amon G. Carter Stadium, which is located on the TCU campus in Fort Worth. TCU began playing football in 1896 and has been a member of the Big 12 Conference since 2012.
The Horned Frogs claim national championships in 1935 and 1938, when they were led by Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Sammy Baugh and Heisman Trophy winner Davey O'Brien, respectively. TCU has had six other Heisman finalists. In addition to Baugh and O'Brien, TCU has had six other former players inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Following decades of futility during the late 20th century, TCU returned to national prominence under head coach Dennis Franchione (1998–2000). Franchione led the Horned Frogs to their first bowl game win and AP poll finish since the 1950s. TCU enjoyed further success under Franchione's successor, Gary Patterson (2001–2021). Patterson led the Horned Frogs to ten seasons of 11 or more wins, including a perfect 2010 season, six AP top 10 finishes, and a share of the 2014 Big 12 conference championship. Sonny Dykes would replace Patterson in 2022 and lead TCU to their first College Football Playoff berth. They defeated Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl semifinal and advanced to the national championship, where they lost to Georgia.
TCU ranks 4th all time in final AP poll points among private schools, behind Notre Dame, USC, and Miami-FL. The Horned Frogs are also one of only four FBS teams to have played in all six College Football Playoff Bowls, winning all but the Orange.
History
Early history (1896–1982) TCU's first year of football started on December 7, 1896, when it went by the name AddRan Christian University until 1902. TCU won its first game ever played by beating Toby's Business College to the score of 8–6, without having to use any substitutes. TCU finished the 1896 season with a record of 1–1–1, before improving to 3–1 the following year. During this time, the university was located in Waco, Texas, until they returned to Fort Worth in 1910 where the school was founded. Prior to joining the Southwest Conference in 1923, TCU amassed a record of 165–15–0. In 1912, TCU went 8–1–0 and scored 230 points while only allowing 53 points the whole season. In 1920, TCU won its first conference title as 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. Although the game was played in Fort Worth, Centre won the game 63–7. In 1923, during TCU's first year in the SWC, it earned a 2–1–0 conference record and a 5–4–0 overall record. One loss that year was a 40–21 decision against TCU's emerging rival, the SMU Mustangs, who went 9–0 en route to a conference championship. The next year, TCU finished second place in the conference with a 5–1 SWC record and another 5–2 overall record. After two great seasons, the Horned Frogs righted the ship. Prior to 1923 TCU had had a revolving door of coaches, with no one coaching the football team for more than two years. Following entrance to the SWC, the school established a high degree of stability, employing just four coaches over the next 43 years, and would not hit last place again until 1953. Under those four coaches (Bell, Schmidt, Meyer, and Martin), the Frogs accumulated a record of 262–165–30. 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 Bears and to Texas by a score of 6–0. That year the Frogs finished in second 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.
1935 began the first year for TCU coach Dutch Meyer. 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 Bob 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 20–14, 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 Meyer led TCU to a win in the inaugural Cotton Bowl Classic in 1937. A year later, TCU would go undefeated in 1938 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. Meyer coached TCU from 1934 to 1952, compiling a record of 109–79–13. He also won seven Southwest Conference titles. During Meyer's tenure, TCU played in the first nationally televised regular season game against Kansas.
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 No. 18 SMU, 13–20.2006 TCU Football Media Guide p. 150 The 1958 season ended in a scoreless tie against the Air Force Falcons in the 1959 Cotton Bowl Classic. Martin-led TCU teams amassed a 1–3–1 record in bowl games. The lone win came in the 1957 Cotton Bowl Classic 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. After TCU won the 1959 SWC championship, the Horned Frogs did not earn another share of the conference title for 20 years. 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 subpar results of Martin's last eight seasons would become the norm for TCU for most of the next quarter century. Martin retired in 1966 to focus on his role as athletic director, and the state of football at TCU declined in the late 1960s and into the 1970s. Coaches Fred Taylor, Jim Pittman, and Billy Tohill showed limited success from 1967 until 1973. Pittman had a .500 (3–3–1) record in his lone season when he succumbed to a sideline heart attack at Baylor in game eight of 1971. The Horned Frogs bottomed out in the second half of the 1970s. Under Coach Jim Shofner (1974–76) the Frogs struggled mightily to a 2–31 record that included a winless 1976 campaign. F.A. Dry's coaching administration commenced in 1977 and reveled in a 2–9 record after the previous poor seasons. In his six seasons, Dry's Frog teams mustered only 12 wins total and no seasons with more than three wins. During the nine year stretch from 1974 to 1982, TCU won just 14 games overall while losing 82 (and tying three), one of the worst showings for any Division I(-A) team during this period. Only Northwestern had a worse record (12–86–1) during this stretch among "power conference" teams (at the time, the ACC, Big 8, Big 10, Pac-8/Pac-10, SEC and SWC) and major independents.
Jim Wacker era (1983–1991) TCU would have a successful year in 1984 under coach Jim Wacker. That year TCU leaned on All-American running back Kenneth Davis. The squad started the season 8–0 finishing the regular season with three losses. The Frogs were invited to the Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston that year to play the West Virginia Mountaineers, their first bowl appearance in twenty years. The Frogs would lose to the Mountaineers 31–14 and finish with a record of 8–4. TCU would not attend another bowl game until the 1994 Independence Bowl.