TCU Horned Frogs football The TCU Horned Frogs football team is the intercollegiate football team of Texas Christian University . TCU played as a member of the Mountain West Conference in the NCAA ' s Division I Football Bowl Subdivision , but has moved to the Big 12 Conference for the 2012 season . TCU began playing football in 1896 and has a share in the split national championship of 1935 and were outright national champions in 1938 . TCU has one Heisman Trophy winner , Davey O ' Brien , and has had seven former players inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame . TCU was reckoned as a major power in college football throughout the 1930s , 1940s , and 1950s , when it was a member of the now - defunct Southwest Conference . TCU suffered setbacks in the program in the 1960s , but has seen a recent resurgence under current head coach Gary Patterson . TCU has finished in the AP Poll ' s Top 10 seven times in the past ten years . The Horned Frogs play their home games in Amon G . Carter Stadium , which is located on campus in Fort Worth . History . Early Years ( 1897 – 1922 ) . TCU ' s first year of football was 1896 , when it still went by the name AddRan Male & Female College . TCU won its first game ever played by beating Toby ’ s Business College to the score of 8 – 6 , apparently not having to use any substitutes . TCU finished its first ever season with a record of 12 – 0 – 0 . 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 . Early Southwest Conference years ( 1923 – 1933 ) . In 1923 , TCU endured a 5 - game winning streak during its first year in the SWC , but 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 coaching the football 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 . The Dutch Meyer era ( 1934 – 1952 ) . 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 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 . The Abe Martin era ( 1953 – 1966 ) . 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 # 18 SMU , 13 – 20 . 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 4 – 1 – 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 . Pittman / F . A . Dry Era ( 1967 – 1982 ) . After TCU won the 1959 SWC championship , the Horned Frogs did not earn another share of the conference title for twenty 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 won 13 – 12 . The state of football at TCU eventually declined and in the 1980s to 1983 the Frogs never won more than two games in three seasons . Jim Wacker ( 1983 – 1991 ) and NCAA Probation . TCU would have a successful year in 1984 under coach Jim Wacker . That year TCU leaned on All - American running back Kenneth Davis . The Frogs would be invited to the Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston for their bowl invitation in 1984 to play the West Virginia Mountaineers . The Frogs would lose against the Mountaineers 31 – 14 . TCU wouldn ' t attend another bowl game until the 1994 Independence Bowl in Shreveport , Louisiana , which they lost , 20 – 10 , to the Virginia Cavaliers . In 1986 , the NCAA placed TCU on three year probation . They found that 6 boosters provided football recruits and football players with cash and other forms of payment . The final penalty of the NCAA was to ban TCU from post - season play for one season , a forfeiture of TV revenue for the 1983 and 1984 seasons , only 10 scholarships for the 1987 – 88 academic year and only 15 scholarships for the 1988 – 89 season . The NCAA said it would have given TCU a harsher penalty : a three - year ban from postseason play , a three - year television appearance ban and no new scholarships for two years . In the NCAA ' s public release they imposed a reduced penalty because TCU self - reported the violations , suspended the players in question , fully cooperated with the enforcement committee and presented a lack of previous infractions . The Pat Sullivan era ( 1992 - 1997 ) . In 1992 , TCU hired Pat Sullivan , the 1971 Heisman Trophy winner from Auburn , as head coach . His tenure at TCU was plagued with inconsistency , but marked the beginning of the new TCU renaissance . In 1992 , his first year as head coach , Sullivan introduced a new arched TCU logo . This change to the uniforms was part of a broader plan by Sullivan and the school to replace the expectation of losing with a new look and attitude . Since its introduction the arched TCU has become the preferred and most popular of the school ' s logos . In 1992 Sullivan ' s team finished 2 - 8 - 1 , but one of their victories was a 28 - 14 triumph over the Texas Longhorns , which was a major accomplishment for the program at that time . The 1993 team continued to show signs of improvement , finishing 4 - 7 . 1994 was Sullivan ' s best year . In the final game of that season , Sullivan led TCU to a 24 - 17 victory over Texas Tech before a crowd of 43 , 000 at Amon Carter Stadium . That victory propelled the Frogs to a 7 - 5 record and a share of the Southwest Conference title . It was the first the Southwest Conference title for TCU since 1959 . After 1994 , the team regressed : the Frogs went 6 - 5 in 1995 , the last year of the Southwest Conference . TCU struggled even more during Sullivan ' s final two seasons , when the team competed in the Western Athletic Conference . They finished 4 - 7 in 1996 , and a disastrous 1 - 10 campaign in 1997 led to Sullivan ' s firing . One of Coach Sullivan ' s greatest contributions to TCU was the recruitment of future NFL star running back LaDainian Tomlinson to Fort Worth . Dennis Franchione ( 1998 – 2000 ) . Under Dennis Franchione , and with the help of Tomlinson , TCU defeated the USC Trojans in the 1998 Sun Bowl . In the three years Coach Franchione was at TCU , his bowl record was 2 – 0 and he accumulated three WAC Championships . Franchione coached the entire 2000 regular season , but left for the head coaching position at the University of Alabama before the 2000 Mobile Alabama Bowl . The Gary Patterson era ( 2000 – present ) . Defensive Coordinator Gary Patterson took over as head coach for the bowl game in 2000 . In 2001 TCU left the WAC for Conference USA ( C - USA ) . TCU would only stay in C - USA for four years before accepting an invitation to join the newly formed Mountain West Conference ( MWC ) . Patterson led the Horned Frogs to five conference championships . In 2002 , TCU shared the C - USA title with Cincinnati . In 2005 , TCU won the MWC title their first year in the league , and the Frogs claimed additional conference crowns in 2009 , 2010 and 2011 . Patterson has had a winning season every year except 2004 , and TCU has gone to a bowl game every year except 2004 . In the 2005 Houston Bowl , played at Reliant Stadium in Houston , Texas , the Horned Frogs defeated the Iowa State Cyclones by a score of 27 – 24 . In the 2006 Poinsettia Bowl TCU defeated the Northern Illinois Huskies 37 – 7 . In 2007 , the Horned Frogs returned to play in the 2007 Texas Bowl , a revival of the old Houston Bowl , and defeated the University of Houston Cougars , 20 – 13 . In a return to the Poinsettia Bowl in 2008 the perpetually underrated # 11 Frogs defeated unbeaten # 9 Boise State 17 – 16 . Boise State was the second to last unbeaten team in the nation in 2008 besides the Utah Utes . TCU ' s Poinsettia Bowl victory helped them finish the 2008 season ranked # 7 in the country . In 2009 , TCU again attained national prominence with its second undefeated regular season ( 12 – 0 ) since Dutch Meyer led the Frogs to perfection in 1938 . They lost in the 2010 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl , 17 – 10 , to the Boise State Broncos , on January 4 , 2010 — their first major - bowl appearance since the 1959 Cotton Bowl . In the following year , the Horned Frogs capped their second consecutive perfect regular season with a win in their first Rose Bowl , a 21 – 19 victory over Big 10 co - champion Wisconsin on New Year ' s Day , 2011 . This capped off only the second undefeated and untied season in school history . After going 11 - 2 and winning the Mountain West title again in 2011 , the Horned Frogs played Louisiana Tech in the Poinsettia Bowl . TCU won 31 - 24 in a somewhat lackluster performance after narrowly ( and somewhat controversially ) missing their third BCS Bowl bid in a row . TCU finished 16th in the final BCS rankings , two slots below the cutoff for a non - AQ team to get a BCS bid . The win allowed Patterson to tie Meyer as the winningest coach in TCU history . On October 10 , 2011 , the TCU Board of Trustees approved an invitation to join the Big 12 Conference , and entered that conference on July 1 , 2012 . The move to the Big 12 is a return " home " in a sense for the Horned Frogs , as they renew many of their in - state rivalries from the old Southwest Conference . Before the move to the Big 12 , the Horned Frogs had been reckoned as one of the closest things to a major football power in a mid - major conference . Amon G . Carter Stadium , the Horned Frogs ' home field since 1929 , concluded large renovations prior to the 2012 season . It features a new press box , suites , club seats and improved fan amenities in many areas – new and more comfortable seating , wider concourses , new and improved restrooms and concessions areas , handicap accessible accommodations , elevators and escalators to move patrons among levels , and new lighting . The stadium was used during the 2011 season while being renovated . The Horned Frogs played their first game in the renovated stadium on September 8 , 2012 and routed Grambling 56 - 0 . The win was also Patterson ' s 110th win with the Horned Frogs , making him the winningest coach in TCU history . Home Stadium . The Horned Frogs have played their home football games at Amon G . Carter Stadium , located on the campus of TCU , since 1930 . Named for the famous Fort Worth newspaper magnate who made the original donation to finance the stadium , Amon Carter opened in 1930 with an original seating capacity of 22 , 000 . The first game played in the stadium was in October , a 70 - 6 TCU victory over the Arkansas Razorbacks . Renovations in 1947 and 1955 added additional seating and an upper deck , which increased capacity to roughly 45 , 000 . The stadium remained in this configuration until 2010 , when a major renovation reduced the entire stadium to its original lower bowl , before erecting a new stadium on the same site . The design of the current Amon Carter stadium was influenced heavily by the surrounding architecture of Fort Worth , with emphasis on Art Deco style . The Frogs will open the new stadium in time for the 2012 season . Amon Carter stadium features a natural grass field and a seating capacity of roughly 45 , 000 . Standing - room only concourses allow capacity to exceed this number when ticket demand exceeds seating availability . The 2012 - 2012 renovation added a 54 ft . video board over the North endzone , with a smaller videoboard located in the Southeast corner . The attendance record at Amon Carter stadium was set on November 14 , 2009 , when the No . 4 ranked Horned Frogs beat the No . 16 ranked University of Utah Utes 55 - 28 . Before Amon Carter stadium , the Horned Frogs played their home games on campus at Clark Field , located at the current site of Mary Couts Burnett Library . Uniforms . Colors . TCU ' s school colors are purple and white . Historically , black has also featured prominently in the school ' s uniforms . As early as 1935 the football team wore black leather helmets with a purple stripe , or occasionally purple helmets with a black stripe . Jerseys were purple with white numbers were , worn with beige or khaki pants . Beginning with the introduction of plastic helmets in the 1946 TCU dropped black from their uniforms and introduced a new purple helmet with a white stripe . The team ' s pants remained khaki colored until the 1950s , when they were changed to white . During this period the exact shade of TCU purple varied wildly depending on the uniforms worn , though a royal purple was most common . In 1971 the school hired Jim Pittman as its head coach . Pittman had been an assistant at the University of Texas when the Longhorns had changed their color from orange to burnt orange , and wanted to do something similar at TCU . Pittman chose to introduce a very pale shade of lilac into the TCU uniforms , and the team quickly became known as the " Lavender Hill Mob . " These uniforms are often regarded as the worst in TCU ' s history . TCU returned to a royal purple in 1974 following Pittman ' s premature and tragic death on the sidelines . Beginning in 1998 , TCU began once again incorporating black into the uniforms . The practice was started by Coach Franchione , who introduced a new helmet with black facemask , and purple jerseys with black pants . In 2012 the school debuted helmets which featured a black stripe in addition to the black facemask , reflecting the helmets worn during the TCU championship years of the 1930s . Helmets . TCU was the last school in college football to wear leather helmets , switching to hard plastic helmets in 1946 . Prior to 1946 the TCU football team wore either black helmets with a purple stripe , or purple helmets with a black stripe . Since the introduction of plastic TCU helmet has gone through a number of designs . In the 1950s TCU wore a purple helmet with white stripe down the middle . In 1954 a gray facemask was introduced , and in 1958 white numbers were added to the sides of the helmet . In 1965 a new helmet was introduced featuring a purple shell and a white stylized Horned Frog on the side . A different , fiercer Horned Frog design was used for the 1966 helmets , featuring just the Frog ' s head . In 1967 the school used a pattern similar to that of Texas A & M . In 1977 the school introduced a " Flying TCU " logo , which remained on the helmets until 1991 , and remains popular with the school and especially students today . In 1992 Head Coach Pat Sullivan introduced an arched TCU design , which eventually became the official logo of the school . This logo has been featured on every TCU helmet , with slight variations , ever since .