• The KillerFrogs

How did we get here?

B

bronco

Active Member
This I am sure has been discussed many times but I would like to hear thoughts and opinions on how TCU athletics has reached this level of success. Surely there will be a book someday because it really is an incredible story. Obviously the story begins with the hiring of Dennis Franchione and the numerous successful hires that followed.

I think we have also capitalized on special moments and special players. The Sun Bowl win followed by Tomlinson and a near BCS appearance followed by Patterson and his rise to the Rose Bowl (which included the Utah game) followed by baseball and the numerous CWS appearances followed by the CFP snub followed by the CFP win over Michigan.

These moments have captivated the sports world to some respect. Now we seem to be hitting on all cylinders in both men and women's sports. Other schools have had success but it seems like we capitalize on the big moments.

Would love to hear some thoughts.
 
TopFrog

TopFrog

Lifelong Frog
With the long-overdue departures of Windegger and Tucker, a group of TCU admins and backers came together and said TCU was going to commit to successful athletics and whatever it took to make it happen. They targeted Franchione. He was actually hired before Hyman. Hyman came in and signed off on Franchione's hire. We already had Tubbs and was really a basketball school at the time. But the success that started under Fran, then under GP invigorated the entire school, injected dollars, allowed for growth in all areas of TCU. New visionaries came in, fund raising and capital campaigns were successful, people made generous gifts. But for me it all points to the small group of people who seized on the opportunity to enact change and made a great hire. It all took off from there.
 
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tyler durden

tyler durden

Tyler Durden
You guys are neglecting the rich traditions from TCU’s early days. The fact that TCU has a history of national championships and legends who went on to greatness in the pros plays a role. When Franchione arrived, it wasn’t like he was starting from scratch. It was ancient history for sure — but still it existed.
 
TopFrog

TopFrog

Lifelong Frog
tyler durden said:
You guys are neglecting the rich traditions from TCU’s early days. The fact that TCU has a history of national championships and legends who went on to greatness in the pros plays a role. When Franchione arrived, it wasn’t like he was starting from scratch. It was ancient history for sure — but still it existed.
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Not true. The 1970s were so horrendous there was talk of dropping down to Division II or dropping football altogether. The 1980s was a whole different set of issues and again we got bad enough in the 1990s that some questioned TCU staying in Div. 1. The 1930s-1950s successes in football were long gone. Baseball was average. Basketball was decent beginning with Killer.
 
N

NORMLFROG

Full Member
Witchcraft GIF by BAFTA

NF
 
TopFrog

TopFrog

Lifelong Frog
Dr. Koehler and a couple of guys happened to sit behind myself and dad at the last game of the 1997 season against SMU (thankfully a win to lift us to 1-10 on the year.) We could hear them talking about how they were taking the bull by the horns and they knew who they were going to get.
 
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M

Mean Purple

Active Member
tyler durden said:
You guys are neglecting the rich traditions from TCU’s early days. The fact that TCU has a history of national championships and legends who went on to greatness in the pros plays a role. When Franchione arrived, it wasn’t like he was starting from scratch. It was ancient history for sure — but still it existed.
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This is a good point. Add in some money, boom! Kudos to the leadership who decided it was time to invest.
 
TopFrog

TopFrog

Lifelong Frog
TopFrog said:
Dr. Koehler and a couple of guys happened to sit behind myself and dad at the last game of the 1997 season against SMU (thankfully a win to lift us to 1-10 on the year.) We could hear them talking about how they were taking the bull by the horns and they knew who they were going to get.
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In mentioning the SMU game let's not forget what happened after the game on the field.
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East Coast

East Coast

Tier 1
bronco said:
Hyman probably got a lot of credit but he didn't hire Fran and he ran off Tubbs but he was different from Windegger and he knew he had to do more than count money and make schedules.
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Hyman's job was to put together a professional AD department and he was given resources to do it that FW never received (I have my doubts what Frank would have done with such resources but still). Hyman did a good job of it and moved on. Unfortunately, he didn't like Tubbs' antics and did run him off, sending our men's basketball program into a tailspin it is just recovering from.
 
T

TCU2002

Active Member
East Coast said:
Hyman's job was to put together a professional AD department and he was given resources to do it that FW never received (I have my doubts what Frank would have done with such resources but still). Hyman did a good job of it and moved on. Unfortunately, he didn't like Tubbs' antics and did run him off, sending our men's basketball program into a tailspin it is just recovering from.
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Not sure late career Tubbs would have been all that great. Probably would have turned into a Boeheim situation like Syracuse has gone through (without the same historical highs, of course). Tubbs would have won more than Neil Dougherty, of course, but the real bad hire was Jim Christian, who never won much anywhere even after TCU. I'm still amazed he converted two moderately winning seasons at Ohio into the Boston College job (where he won at about a 37% clip across SIX seasons and part of a seventh...hoo boy). Trent Johnson did his best, and then the circumstances that led to Dixon’s hire fell into place.
 
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Big Frog II

Big Frog II

Active Member
The difference is the administration valuing sports. Tucker did a great job of building up our endowment and growing our enrollment after the disaster that was Moudy. However it took Ferrari and Boschini to really get things headed in the right direction. If the administration does not buy into sports, you are going to be mediocre at best.

Sports has brought national recognition to our University. Our enrollment and endowment have grown because of it. People like to be associated with winners. I lived through those bad days, and I love getting to see us succeed across the board.
 
ShadowFrog

ShadowFrog

Moderators
TopFrog said:
Dr. Koehler and a couple of guys happened to sit behind myself and dad at the last game of the 1997 season against SMU (thankfully a win to lift us to 1-10 on the year.) We could hear them talking about how they were taking the bull by the horns and they knew who they were going to get.
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Exactly!!
TCU's first provost William H. Koehler
 
Deep Purple

Deep Purple

Full Member
East Coast said:
Hyman's job was to put together a professional AD department and he was given resources to do it that FW never received (I have my doubts what Frank would have done with such resources but still). Hyman did a good job of it and moved on. Unfortunately, he didn't like Tubbs' antics and did run him off, sending our men's basketball program into a tailspin it is just recovering from.
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Tubbs' antics wore thin on a LOT more TCU people than just Hyman. You really had to see it from the inside -- the nonstop carping and whining, demands for special privileges and exemptions, embarrassing statements and actions, and generally just the continual pain-in-the-arse wheedling and obnoxious sense of entitlement. By the time Tubbs was canned, the number of people relieved and rejoicing at his departure was Legion.
 

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