2012 TCU FOOTBALL
ALL-TIME LEGENDS
JIM SWINK (1954-56)
Few players in the history of college football have enjoyed as much success against one team as Jim Swink did against the rival Texas Longhorns during his threeyear stint of 19545556. During that threegame series, Swink did practically everything to the Longhorns except barbecue Bevo, rushing for an average of 168 yards per game while scoring 19 points per contest. He averaged 13.3 yards every time he carried the pigskin from scrimmage against the Horns. The “Rusk Rambler” is still regarded as one of the greatest running backs ever to play for TCU and in the SWC; his great games were numerous, with his gliding, sidestepping running style. As a junior in 1955, he was the nation’s leading scorer and secondleading ground gainer, totaling 125 points and rushing for 1,283 net yards. A twotime AllAmerican, Swink finished runnerup for the Heisman Trophy for his performance that season and was later named to the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame in 2000. Half a century later, Jim Swink’s legend still surrounds TCU.
BOB LILLY (1958-60)
It is somewhat debatable whether Bob Lilly’s collegiate football career or his professional one was more impressive since both were absolutely superb tenures of Hall of Fame proportions. A member of the alltime SWC Dream Team, this great from Throckmorton was the main thrust behind the 19585960 Horned Frog teams which captured two Southwest Conference titles, plus appeared in the 1959 Cotton Bowl, as well as the Bluebonnet Bowl the following season. Lilly was a consensus AllAmerica choice in 1960. And in the spring of 1961 he became the Dallas Cowboys’ firstever draft choice. He would later go on to earn the nickname “Mr. Cowboy.” For 14 seasons, nine times as an AllPro, Lilly terrorized the National Football League as a dominating defensive tackle. He became Dallas’ first member of the “Cowboy Ring of Honor” and was inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame in 1980. Lilly was named to the NFL’s 75th Anniversary AllTime Team in 1994.
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DON FLOYD (1957-59)
The fabulouslygifted Don Floyd was the stalwart of TCU’s stellar forward walls of the 1958 and 1959 campaigns. By clearing massive paths for such standouts as AllAmerican Jack Spikes and allSWC Marvin Lasater on offense, and while supplying some punish ing stops on the other side, Floyd helped the Horned Frog gridders to a pair of conference crowns and two consecutive bowl showings. Floyd, a product of Midlothian, Texas, captured allSouthwest Conference and AllAmerica honors at tackle in both his junior and senior campaigns, including consensus AllAmerica credentials in 1959. Floyd’s impressive twoway performance versus Texas in 1958, clearing a major hurdle in TCU’s drive to the Cotton Bowl, earned him Associated Press National LinemanoftheWeek honors. Floyd helped captain the ‘59 team.Although not overly large for his position (he played college ball at 63 and 220 pounds), Floyd played for eight NFL seasons (196067) with the Houston Oilers.
MICHAEL REEDER (1994-97)
The top place kicker in TCU history, Michael Reeder set a new standard for Frogs in the department from 1994 through 1997. The 1995 Lou Groza Award winner as the nation’s top kicker, Reeder led the NCAA in field goals as a sophomore, drilling 23 field goals on 25 attempts to claim consensus firstteam AllAmerica honors. He concluded his TCU career owning school records for points by a kicker (259), field goal attempts in a season (25) and a career (76), field goals made in a season (23) and a career (57) and consecutive PATs made (79). Reeder drilled a schoolrecord 57yard field goal in 1996 against UTEP that still ranks as the longest in TCU history and overall owns three of the seven longest kicks ever made by a Horned Frog. He was named to the TCU Letterman’s Association Hall of Fame in 2009.