Name-a-Day Calendar, August 21: TCU Horned Frogs
Page 288 of 365
Chosen in: 1897
Chosen by: The staff of what then became The Horned Frog yearbook
Addison and Randolph Clark founded the Add-Ran Male & Female College in 1873. They’d originally planned to locate it in Fort Worth, but external factors caused them to abandon this plan and relocate to the small community of Thorp Spring, about 35 miles southwest.1 This college grew quickly, partnering with the Christian Church in 1889 and renaming itself Add-Ran Christian University at the same time. By 1895, they’d long since outgrown their small, rural campus, so they relocated to Waco.
It was in Waco where this university first fielded a football team in 1896.2 The inaugural team had no nickname, and in fact the origin of the athletics nickname only barely has to do with sports at all. The following spring, the student staff of the school yearbook, which had begun publication in 1895, sought a title for their publication. They decided on The Horned Frog on account of actual horned frogs often making their homes on the football field. This moniker quickly became applied to the football team and all future sports teams at the university.
The name “Texas Christian University” didn’t debut until 1902, meaning that this university has been known as the Horned Frogs since before it’s been known as TCU. A fire destroyed the primary administrative building on campus in 1910. University administration had planned on rebuilding it, but before they got started, a few Fort Worth businessmen swooped in and offered to bankroll a return to Fort Worth. The university accepted, and so TCU finally had its Fort Worth campus, where the TCU Horned Frogs have played ever since.
TCU’s mascot is a costumed horned frog named SuperFrog. It, like all other horned frogs, is actually a lizard.
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In short, in the time between when they purchased the land for the campus and when they intended to open the school, Fort Worth boomed and the area around the campus became too rowdy for their liking.
A lot of outsiders are unaware that this is the root of the TCU-Baylor rivalry. Baylor started playing football three years later, leading to standard crosstown animosity.
Horned Forg