Texas Christian

For the fourth week in a row, the challenger for the UCFC is a school from Texas that used to belong to the Southwest Conference.  Founded in 1873 as AddRan Male & Female College -- it was named for brothers Addison and Randolph Clark -- this week's challenger was the first coeducational institution of higher education in Texas.  It was in Thorp Spring, Texas from 1873 to 1895, after which it moved to Waco, where it was renamed Texas Christian University in 1902.  In 1910, the University's main building was destroyed by a fire, and a group of Fort Worth businessmen offered TCU $200,000 in rebuilding money and a 50-acre campus if it would relocate to that city.  It's been there ever since.

The history of TCU football goes back to 1896.  The Horned Frogs joined the Southwest Conference in 1923, and since then they have had one of the more dramatic histories in the NCAA.  They won the national championship in 1938, and they were competitive for several decades thereafter.  But while TCU alumnus Dan Jenkins practically invented modern sportswriting while covering college football for Sports Illustrated in the 1960's and 1970's, the Horned Frogs were suffering through decades of defeat.  Finally, the Southwest Conference itself imploded in 1995, and TCU was left out in the cold as SWC members Texas, Texas A & M, Texas Tech and Baylor jumped into the Big XII.

That should have been the virtual end of TCU as a serious football contender.  But remarkably, the Horned Frogs started to improve.  Under the leadership of Gary Patterson, TCU went from the Western Athletic Conference to Conference USA to the Mountain West Conference, getting better all the time.  In 2009 and 2010 they had back to back perfect regular seasons, winning the 2011 Rose Bowl over Wisconsin.  By this point, the Big XII was in trouble, as Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, and Texas A & M had decamped for other conferences.  Looking to save the league, the Big XII members invited two new members:  West Virginia and TCU.  So after almost 20 years in the wilderness, the Horned Frogs are once again a major conference member.

As we have mentioned on several recent occasions, almost every UCFC game in the 1930's featured a team from Texas.  Given that these were TCU's greatest years, it is hardly surprising that they built up a remarkable record during that stretch.  They held the title from November 16, 1929 to November 15, 1930; held it again for four weeks in 1933; and held it again from November 13, 1937 until September 29, 1939 on their way to the 1938 National Championship.

TCU won the title again in late 1941, and held it for a few weeks before losing to Georgia in the 1942 Orange Bowl.  Since then they have gone 1-7 in the UCFC, with their only win coming in 1991 over Rice.  But their all-time record of 30-16-6 ranks them number 11 on the UCFC list, just ahead of Alabama (29-13).