Email from Block T Association:
Frank Windegger '57
TCU Football & Baseball | TCU Athletics Director
It is with a heavy heart that the TCU Block T Association announces the passing of former TCU Football and Baseball Letterwinner, Coach, Athletic Director, Hall of Famer, and lifelong Horned Frog, Frank Windegger. Windegger passed away peacefully this past Friday, March 8. He was 88 years old.
Windegger played football and baseball for the Horned Frogs, excelling in baseball where he became the program’s first player to have his number retired. Windegger graduated from TCU in 1957 and following a two-year stint in the U.S. Army, he came back to Fort Worth to serve as an assistant ticket manager and assistant baseball coach. Three years later in 1962, at age 28, he was named the baseball team’s head coach, where he helped lead the Horned Frogs to four Southwest Conference Championships – including the conference title in 1963 as the youngest head coach to win a SWC championship.
In addition to his head coaching duties, Windegger would go on to become somewhat of a Jack-of-all-Trades within the athletic department, also serving as the ticket manager, athletics business manager and assistant athletics director. After stepping down as baseball head coach in 1975 following a career record of 298-166-1 (.641), he became TCU’s full-time athletic director. He served as TCU’s longest tenured AD all-time, retiring in 1998 after 23 years on the job.
According to TCU archives, while serving as AD, Windegger was instrumental in guiding TCU through Title IX by starting seven different women’s sports programs (basketball – 1977, golf – 1978, swim & dive – 1979, rifle – women began competing on men’s team in 1980, track & field/cross country – 1983, soccer – 1986, and volleyball – 1996) and a pair of men’s programs (soccer – 1978, swim & dive – 1979).
Windegger accumulated many honors over his career, including being inducted into the TCU Athletics Hall of Fame in 1982, a class that also included Dr. James Cash, Ronald Clinkscale, Drew Ellis and Johnny Hall. He was also inducted into the NACDA Athletic Directors Hall of Fame and the Southwest Conference Hall of Fame.
In 2013, Windegger was named the 46th recipient of the James J. Corbett Memorial Award, the highest honor and accomplishment that someone can achieve in athletics administration.
He is survived by his wife Barbara, daughters Sherry Mitchell and Dana Dirksen, their husbands and several grandchildren.
SERVICES FOR FRANK WINDEGGER
Funeral Service
Tuesday, March 19 at 2 p.m.
University Christian Church
2720 S University Dr.
Fort Worth, TX 76109