First 50 Years of TCU Horned Frog Football
History of Football at Texas Christian University, 1896-1946
May 28, 2009
The first college football league in America, the Western Conference, was officially established in Chicago, Illinois in November of 1895. Within a few weeks, Add-Ran Christian University in Waco, Texas played its first game, against Toby’s Business College of Waco. They won the game 8-6 and launched themselves into history.
Add-Ran Christian University Formed First TCU Football Team
Add-Ran was a small private school in partnership with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Professors Addison Clark, Jr. and A.Campbell Easley helped a group of students form the football team and find some opponents. Three games were played the first year. Joe J. Field was hired in 1897 as the school’s first paid football coach. In the next few years, a succession of coaches took the team to victories over other Texas teams, such as Baylor, Texas A&M and the University of Texas. This was the beginning of rivalries that endured for many decades..
Add-Ran Becomes Texas Christian University, Football Continues
Texas Christian University was born in 1902 when Add-Ran Christian University was re-named. The football team was dubbed the Horned Frogs when the Waco campus was overrun with the small reptiles. In 1910 a fire destroyed the main building on campus and the university moved to Fort Worth, Texas. For the next two decades the purple-clad Frogs chalked up some impressive wins, including the 1912 unit that had a 8-1 season with its only loss being to Texas, and the 1920 team that won nine straight games in regular season. One of the ends on the TCU team was Leo R. “Dutch” Meyer.
TCU Admitted to Southwest Conference, Hires Coach Francis Schmidt
The young Southwest Conference, which had been formed in 1914, admitted TCU to the league in 1923. In their initial season, the Horned Frogs were coached by Madison “Matty” Bell.. They played three games and posted a record of two wins and one loss. In 1924 they finished the season in the cellar, but they bounced back and had winning seasons for another thirty-odd years.
One of the most memorable years of this early SWC era was 1929, when new head coach Francis Schmidt led the Frogs to its first Southwest Conference Championship. Schmidt was new to TCU and had developed his team in a short period of time. Howard Grubbs was his star quarterback. During this season the team reached a milestone by defeating Daniel Baker College by a score of 61-0.
Coach Dutch Meyer Leads the Horned Frogs From 1934 to 1953
When Coach Francis Schmidt was lured to Ohio State in 1934, Leo Meyer became head coach. For nearly two decades, Coach Meyer developed outstanding college athletes such as Sammy Baugh, Robert David “Davey” O’Brien (who won the Heisman Trophy in 1938), Ki Aldrich and Darrell Lester to name just a few. By the time World War II started and TCU celebrated its 50th anniversary, Dutch Meyer had led the Purples to two SWC championship titles in 1938 and 1944.
Texas Christian University celebrated the 50th anniversary of its football program in 1946. America had weathered World War II and was entering into an era of prosperity. Collegiate football had survived the war and Dutch Meyer and his Horned Frogs were poised to make even more football history. The next fifty years of TCU football would bring many changes to the sport, but the foundation laid by the early Horned Frogs would serve it well during the coming decades.
Sources:
Stone, Glen and Trey Carmichael, Horned Frog Football 1998, the TCU Football Media Guide
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