TCU IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS 1929 (No. 7)
TCU’s first Southwest Conference championship team, led by halfback Cy Leland, quarterback Howard Grubbs and All-America guard Mike Brumbelow, finished the season undefeated (9-0-1) and was placed No. 7 in the nation in an unofficial AP ranking. The familiar AP poll of today was not originated until 1936.
1932 (No. 4)
The undefeated Horned Frogs (10-0-1) rose to true national prominence in ‘32 as they romped through the Southwest Conference race with ease and wound up No. 4 in the country in the final rankings of Illustrated Football magazine, the game’s leading authority of the era. Six members of the starting line, anchored by All-America guard Johnny Vaught, were named all-conference, as were both halfbacks, Blanard Spearman and Red Oliver. When Pittsburgh was invited to the Rose Bowl over TCU, the Frogs tried to arrange a postseason game against Tulane, another highly regarded team, but nothing came of it.
1933 (No. 9)
Coach Francis Schmidt produced three teams in the nation’s Top 10 during his five seasons at TCU. The 1933 squad was the third. Paced by halfback Charlie Casper, the Frogs rolled to a 9-2-1 record but closed fast with stunning victories over Texas (30-0), Rice (26-3) and SMU (26-6). This finish impressed the syndicated sportswriter Grantland Rice so much he put TCU No. 9 in the final national rankings of his popular annual ratings service known as Grantland Rice’s Cities Service Football Guide.
1935 (No. 1 • National Champions)
As a TCU lineup produced two All-Americans for the first time – quarterback Sammy Baugh and center Darrell Lester – the Frogs reached the zenith of a national championship in the thrilling season of ‘35. The Frogs were tabbed No. 1 after the bowl games by the Williamson Rating System, the most authoritative poll in the land at the time. TCU wound up No. 1 after its 3-2 victory over powerful LSU in the Sugar Bowl. The Frogs’ only loss had been a narrow one (20-14) to SMU in “The Game of the Century.” But when the Mustangs were upset by Stanford 7-0 in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day, the same afternoon that TCU whipped LSU in New Orleans, Williamson crowned TCU No. 1.
1936 (No. 5)
Injuries, freaky upsets and a couple of foul-weather scoreless ties couldn’t keep Sammy Baugh from repeating as an AllAmerican and leading the Frogs to No. 5 in the nation in the final Williamson Rating System. Along the way, Baugh knocked off conference champion Arkansas, rudely upset the nation’s last remaining perfect-record team, Santa Clara, and then won a duel with Marquette in the inaugural Cotton Bowl Classic. All of that left the Frogs with a 9-2-2 record.
1938 (No. 1 • National Champions)
A dream season. This incredible Frog team handily went 11-0, including the 15-7 victory over No. 5 Carnegie Tech in the Sugar Bowl. TCU captured every meaningful No. 1 ranking – AP, Williamson, Helms – turned out eight allconference players on various selections, and three AllAmericans, quarterback Davey O’Brien, center Ki Aldrich, and tackle I.B. Hale. O’Brien received the Heisman, Maxwell and Camp trophies. As the true national champions, the Frogs outpolled three other undefeated elevens in ‘38 – Tennessee, Oklahoma and Duke.
1941 (No. 10)
Quarterback cohorts Kyle Gillespie and Emery Nix led the Frogs to a 7-2-1 record with the aid of All-America tackle Derrell Palmer and all-conference end Bruce Alford. Their only losses were to top-10 teams, No. 6 Fordham and No. 9 Texas A&M. But later, Nix sparked TCU to a memorable 14-7 upset of No. 1-ranked Texas. Ultimately, at the end of the regular season, the Williamson Rating System thought highly enough of the Frogs to rank them No. 10 in the nation. They became the first Southwest Conference team to play in the Orange Bowl, where they lost a wild one to Georgia, 40-26.
1951 (No. 10)
Sophomore Ray McKown, running and passing out of the old Dutch Meyer spread formation, carried the Frogs to their most surprising conference title with only a 6-4 record. Still, these Frogs were ranked No. 10 in the nation in the UPI poll at the season’s end. In so doing, McKown earned All-America honors, as did Keith Flowers and tackle Doug Conaway. In the Cotton Bowl game, TCU outgained Bear Bryant’s Kentucky team by a huge margin, but saw no fewer than five drives stall inside Kentucky’s 10-yard line, and were outscored, 20-7.
1955 (No. 5)
Jim Swink set rushing and scoring records galore as the Frogs loitered the whole season among the nation’s elite and won the Southwest Conference championship. In the end, with a 9-1 regular season record, they were ranked No. 3 by the Litkenhouse System, No. 5 by UPI, and No. 6 by AP. Swink was a unanimous All-America halfback and runner-up for the Heisman Trophy and center Hugh Pitts also made AllAmerica.
1958 (No. 9)
The Frogs breezed to an 8-2 record and the conference crown behind the passing of Hunter Enis, the running of Jack Spikes and Marvin Lasater, and the line play of All-America tackle Don Floyd. TCU was ranked No. 9 in the final UPI poll and No. 10 by the AP. In the Cotton Bowl game they fought undefeated and No. 6-ranked Air Force to a 0-0 tie.
1959 (No. 7)
These Frogs basically put three All-Americas on the field with fullback Jack Spikes and tackles Don Floyd, a repeat selection, and Bob Lilly, who would be a unanimous choice in ‘60. They bruised their way to another 8-2 record, tying Texas and Arkansas for the conference title. When all the votes were in from the final polls, TCU was ranked No. 7 by AP and No. 8 by UPI.
2000 (No. 18 ESPN/USA Today; No. 21 AP)
LaDainian Tomlinson became one of college football’s greatest ball carriers – only the second player in history to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season and more than 5,000 in a career. Behind “LT,” the Frogs sped to a 10-2 season record and the WAC championship. This performance enticed the Dunkel Index, one of the eight selectors for the Bowl Championship Series, to rate the Frogs No. 7 in the nation, their highest ranking in 40 seasons.
2002 (No. 22 ESPN/USA Today; No. 23 AP)
After a season-opening overtime loss at Cincinnati, the Frogs reeled off 10 wins in their next 11 games. The Frogs gained a share of the Conference USA title and posted an AXA Liberty Bowl win over Colorado State. Linebacker LaMarcus McDonald, the league’s Defensive Player of the Year, led a squad that ranked first in the nation in both total defense and in stopping the run.
2003 (No. 24 ESPN/USA Today; No. 25 AP)
The Frogs reeled off 10 straight wins to open the season, climbing as high as No. 10 in the national rankings. Their success, which included five three-point wins, caught the attention of the nation, as they moved to sixth in the BCS standings, the highest ranking ever for a school from a nonBCS conference. A late season loss at Southern Miss kept the Frogs from winning their second-straight conference title. The Horned Frogs hosted nationally-ranked Boise State in the inaugural PlainsCapital Fort Worth Bowl and dropped an exciting 34-31 contest. Nick Browne was the Conference USA Special Teams Player of the Year and earned All-America accolades. Defensive end Bo Schobel set a school record for sacks while earning second-team All-America honors from the Associated Press. Head coach Gary Patterson was one of three finalists for the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year honors.
2005 (No. 9 USA Today; No. 11 AP)
TCU (11-1, 8-0) closed the season ranked ninth by USA Today for its highest appearance in a final poll since finishing seventh in the 1959 campaign. The Frogs, one of just seven teams in the nation with 11 wins, concluded the year with 10 straight victories. It was the second-longest winning streak in the nation behind only national champion Texas (20). TCU opened and closed 2005 with victories over Big 12 bowl teams, winning at Oklahoma and then defeating Iowa State. Overall, the Frogs were 5-0 against bowl teams. TCU led the nation in interceptions (26), takeaways (40) and turnover margin (1.75, +21). TCU set a single-season school record with 50 touchdowns, while its 398 points scored ranked second in Frog history. TCU, in its first season of Mountain West Conference play, became just the third team in league history to post an undefeated record (8-0). In the process, TCU captured its first outright league championship since sweeping through the Southwest Conference en route to the 1938 national title. TCU paced the Mountain West Conference with 18 all-conference selections with Cory Rodgers a consensus All-American at kick returner. Gary Patterson was the MWC Coach of the Year with tailback Aaron Brown named Freshman of the Year. Linebacker Jason Phillips and defensive end Tommy Blake were Freshman and Sophomore All-Americans, respectively. Phillips, a secondteam selection, became the first freshman defensive player in league history to be first or second-team All-MWC.
HORNED FROG HISTORY
2009 HORNED FROG FOOTBALL
2006 (No. 21 USA Today; No. 22 AP) TCU (11-2, 6-2) posted its fourth 10-win season in the last five years. The Frogs became one of only five teams in the nation to reach 11 victories three times in the last four campaigns. With victories over Baylor and Texas Tech, TCU improved to 4-0 against Big 12 opponents in the last two seasons and 8-1 in its past nine games against teams from BCS conferences. The Frogs closed the year by winning their final eight games for the fourth-longest current streak in the nation. Earlier in the season, in a carryover from 2005, TCU won 13 in a row for the longest winning streak in the country. The Frogs finished the campaign ranked 21st by the Associated Press and 22nd in the USA Today poll. It represented the fifth time in the past seven years that TCU closed the season in the top 25. The Frogs ranked second nationally in total defense (234.9 yards per game) and run defense (60.8 yards per game) while placing third in scoring defense (12.3 points per game). TCU was one of three teams nationally to not allow a 100-yard rushing game by an opposing running back. Offensively, the Frogs were ninth nationally in rushing (194.6 yards per game) and 17th in total offense (408.5 yards per game). Thirteen Frogs combined for a total of 14 All-MWC selections. Safety Brian Bonner was a first-team pick as a return specialist and a second-team choice on defense. TCU placed four players on the first-team defense, including unanimous selection Tommy Blake at defensive end. 2008 (No. 7 USA Today; No. 7 AP) TCU finished with its highest national ranking in half a century when it appeared at No. 7 in the final release of the Associated Press and USA Today polls. The Frogs reached 10 wins for the fifth time in seven years with an 11-2 record. The only losses came at the hands of then-No. 2 Oklahoma, which played in the BCS Championship Game, and Utah, the nation’s only undefeated team at 13-0. A Poinsettia Bowl win over previously-unbeaten Boise State capped off the program’s most successful season of the modern era. The Horned Frogs featured the nation’s top-ranked defensive unit in 2008. TCU led the nation in total defense for the third time in nine seasons, surrendering just 217.8 yards per game, in addition to topping the country in run defense (47.1 ypg). Only six opponents surpassed 28 yards rushing against the Frogs, while just six teams reached 200 yards of total offense. Junior defensive end Jerry Hughes was a consensus first-team All-America selection after leading the nation with 15 sacks and six forced fumbles. He was also a finalist for the Bronko Nagurski Award, which honors the nation’s top defensive player. Hughes was one of a schoolrecord 18 Frogs who were selected All-MWC, including four defensive first-teamers.
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