Know your enemy: TCU edition

Probably the biggest home game since 2009 will take place this Saturday afternoon and it should could be a doozy. OBNUG has covered all the angles on the first and likely last in-conference tussle between Boise State and TCU, but don't think you're getting off that easily—there are trivialities to attend to. It's time again to know your enemy, Bronco Nation. Let's get started.

Ten things you probably didn't know about TCU or their humble horned frog haven

10) Texas Christian University was founded by brothers Addison and Randolph Clark in 1873. The brothers, using the contraction of their first names, called the school AddRan Male and Female College—incidentally, Ad-Rock College sprung up in Brooklyn shortly after the release of the Beastie Boys first album. Anyhoo, Addison, being the wordsmith that he was, actually named his first son AddRan as well; either because he really loved his brother or really hated his son.

9) The TCU mascot, the "horned frog" is actually a Texas horned lizard and not a frog at all. These fearsome creatures eat mainly harvester ants, termites, and grasshoppers and have the ability to puff up their bodies or shoot blood out of their eyes(!) to dissuade predators. Given the right tools, however, I imagine anyone of us could shoot blood out of our eyes too (a mallet and an awl, for example). Still, I find that less unappealing than having a Gusher™ for an eye...

8) The Horned Frogs play their home football games at Amon Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, TX. The Stadium, which seats 44,000, is named for Amon G. Carter, the founder and publisher of the Fort-Worth Star Telegram newspaper. Carter had a well-publicized disdain for Fort Worth's neighbor-city Dallas, and when taking business trips to the city would bring a sack lunch so he didn't have to spend any money there. I strongly encourage people to do this when visiting Garden City.

"Screw you, Dallas"

7) The Professor from Gilligan's Island was said to have a PhD from TCU, among his six degrees. Now that it has been established that fictional degrees can be handed out, I propose that Boise State immediately award Darrin Stevens an MBA (the first Darrin, not the second one).

6) Slingin' Sammy Baugh is one of TCU's most famous alumni. Baugh was a two-time All-American for the Horned Frogs playing quarterback, defensive back and punter and played 15 years in the NFL for the Washington Redskins. Baugh was among the first inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and even did a little acting on the side, starring in King of the Texas Rangers in 1941. Of course, we all know that Walker is the real king of the Texas Rangers...but come on—in 1941 they still thought Pluto was a planet. Rubes.

5) TCU won the national championship in 1938, only one year after finishing 4-4-2. On their way to the title and an 11-0 record that year, TCU defeated the likes of Arkansas, Temple, Texas A&M, Texas, Rice and SMU and eventually downed powerhouse(?) Carnegie Mellon in the Sugar Bowl. The very next year, TCU went 3-7. Weird.

4) The longest tenured coach in TCU history was Leo "Dutch" Meyer who coached for 19 years while posting a 109-79-13 record. A model of inconsistency, Meyer only posted 9 winning seasons in his 19 year career, but made them count...winning the aforementioned national championship in 1938 and posting a 12-1 record in 1935. Also, Meyer's 1936 squad could've given the modern day Horned Frog defense a run for their money...they posted 7 shutouts that year. Active in a time when it was unlawful to not have multiple nicknames, Meyer was also known as "Old Iron Pants" around the program either due to his well-pressed slacks or highly-magnetized slacks. 

A heart of gold with pants of iron.

3) The TCU head coach with the highest career winning percentage was Francis A. Schmidt, who won nearly 85% of his games in his 5 years at the helm. Schmidt seemed to drop off a bit after moving on from TCU, winning only 70% of his games at Ohio State and then completely lost it at Idaho, winning only 36%...but we'll give him the requisite "Idaho Mulligan" for that stint.

2) The namesake of the award for the nation's best college quarterback, the Davey O'Brien Award, is named for...you guessed it...Davey O'Brien—a TCU quarterback who won the Heisman trophy, Maxwell award and the Walter Camp award in 1938. O'Brien was only 5'7" and weighed but 150 lbs. when he won the awards (and the national championship) with the Frogs. Size was less of a roadblock for success back then anyway, as evidenced by the fact that Audie Murphy won World War II singlehandedly and he used a thimble for a combat helmet.

Toldja.

1) In 2009, Gary Patterson won the Woody Hayes Trophy from the Touchdown Club of Columbus. The recipient of the award must be a Division 1 football coach and must have at some point punched Charlie Bauman in the face, or at the very least, strongly considered doing so.