Dutch Meyer Leo R . " Dutch " Meyer ( January 15 , 1898 – December 3 , 1982 ) was an American football , basketball , and baseball player and coach . He served as the head football coach at Texas Christian University from 1934 to 1952 , compiling a record of 109 – 79 – 13 . His TCU Horned Frogs football teams of 1935 and 1938 have been recognized as national champions . Meyer was also the head basketball coach at TCU from 1934 to 1937 , tallying a mark of 10 – 37 , and the head baseball coach at TCU ( 1926 – 1934 , 1945 , 1956 – 1957 ) , amassing a record of 111 – 83 – 1 . He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1956 . Biography . A native of Ellinger , Texas , Meyer prepped at Waco High School under coach Paul Tyson . He went on to play football , baseball and basketball at TCU , earning 11 varsity letters overall . Upon graduation in 1922 with a degree in geology , Meyer played one summer in the minor leagues for the Cleveland Indians organization . That fall , he coached at Polytechnic High School in Fort Worth , Texas before becoming the freshman coach at TCU in 1923 . He was promoted to head coach in 1934 . In 19 years as the Horned Frogs ' coach , Meyer amassed a record of 109 – 79 – 13 . His 109 wins were the most in school history until Gary Patterson passed him in 2012 . He led TCU to an undisputed national championship in 1938 , and his 1935 team was named national champion by mathematician Paul Williamson . His teams won Southwest Conference championships in 1938 , 1944 and 1951 . TCU played in seven bowl games under his tenure , and he coached twelve All - Americans at TCU , including Sammy Baugh , Heisman Trophy winner Davey O ' Brien , Darrell Lester and Ki Aldrich . Meyer helped invent the modern passing game after he saw Baugh playing in a sandlot league and enrolled him at TCU . Because of Baugh ' s great arm , Coach Meyer created the " Meyer Spread " which is what is now known as the Double - Wing formation . This was a formation where the ends and wingback spread wider than was common for the time . Sammy Baugh told " The Washington Post " : " Dutch Meyer taught us . All the coaches I had in the pros , I didn ' t learn a damn thing from any of ` em compared with what Dutch Meyer taught me . He taught the short pass . The first day we go into a room and he has three S ' s up on a blackboard ; nobody knew what that meant . Then he gives us a little talk and he says , ` This is our passing game . ' He goes up to the blackboard and he writes three words that complete the S ' s : ` Short , Sure and Safe . ' That was his philosophy — the short pass . " Everybody loved to throw the long pass . But the point Dutch Meyer made was , ` Look at what the short pass can do for you . ' You could throw it for seven yards on first down , then run a play or two for a first down , do it all over again and control the ball . That way you could beat a better team . " Meyer ' s overall coaching style and philosophy is best summed up in a quote still given to TCU athletes before they go out to compete - " Fight ' em until hell freezes over . Then fight ' em on the ice ! " Meyer wrote a book entitled " Spread Formations " which detailed his ideas about football formations . He retired from coaching in 1952 , and became the Athletic Director at TCU until 1963 . He also briefly served as the baseball coach at TCU in 1956 , winning an SWC Championship . The same year , he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame . He was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in Waco in 1957 . In 1961 the university named the recently constructed basketball facility , Daniel - Meyer Coliseum , in honor of Coach Meyer and Milton E . Daniel , a TCU trustee . Meyer earned a number of nicknames through the years , including " Mr . Football , " " The Saturday Fox , " " Old Iron Pants " and " Old Dutch , " in reference to his nephew , L . D . Meyer , who played for him at TCU and was known at " Little Dutch . " There is currently an up - scale burger joint on University Drive right next to campus called " Dutch ' s " that is dedicated to the former TCU coach .