TopFrog
Lifelong Frog
From The Desk of #ADJD - TCU Athletics
The spring semester might have ended, but it is no time to rest! On the heels of seeing one of our largest classes ever of student-athletes graduate this past weekend,
GoFrogs: From The Desk of #ADJD
Dear Horned Frogs Fans:
We hope everyone has enjoyed a terrific summer! As our new academic and athletics year commences, we are very excited about our 22 sports and the opportunities that await them!
We will look to continue the momentum from this past season that saw us win an NCAA Air Rifle National Championship and Men's Tennis ITA National Indoor Team Championship. We also had track and field's Du Mapaya capture his second NCAA Outdoor Championship in the triple jump. It capped a phenomenal career for Du as he will leave TCU as a five-time Big 12 Conference Champion, nine-time All-American and with a TCU degree in hand. We won conference championships in women's soccer, baseball, beach volleyball and men's tennis while 14 sports were represented in postseason play by either teams or individuals.
The success in competition was mirrored in the classroom. We totaled one of our largest graduating classes ever with 74 student-athletes donning the cap and gown during the Spring 2022 semester. This group also recorded one of the top aggregate grade-point averages since we began tracking.
You can feel a tremendous source of pride in what we were able to accomplish this past year. It is a direct result of your investment in our student-athletes. With our football and women's soccer programs having started their respective fall camps and volleyball next week, we now turn the page to the fall semester.
WELCOME HOME
Last week, we were thrilled to announce Khadevis Robinson as our new director of track and field!
A Fort Worth native, Khadevis was an NCAA champion at TCU and represented us twice at the Olympic Games, in 2004 in Athens and 2012 in London. He had served the last five seasons as Ohio State's assistant track and field coach and head cross country coach. Khadevis is a phenomenal fit on so many fronts for our track and field program and campus. From his time as an active athlete to now as a coach, he is well respected and known in the sport. He has a trust factor with all the athletes he has trained. Khadevis is also a relationship builder who will develop a positive culture in our program, make an immediate impact in recruiting and engage our alumni and local community.
Welcome home, Khadevis!
NEW BIG 12 COMMISSIONER
Please join me in welcoming Brett Yormark as our new commissioner of the Big 12 Conference. Brett is an innovative leader. With his background in sports, entertainment and business, he is a perfect fit for our new era of collegiate athletics. We are looking forward to hosting Commissioner Yormark on Monday when he makes his first visit to TCU.
I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to retiring commissioner Bob Bowlsby. Bob has been an unbelievable friend to me, professionally and personally. Our conference will miss his leadership, but we know he will always be there as a resource for us.
Looking forward, there is a lot to be excited about in our conference. In May, for the first time in three years, we gathered in person as a collective group for our annual spring meetings. It also came with a new wrinkle. In addition to the current 10 members, we were joined by incoming institutions BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF. Each school was represented by its director of athletics, senior woman administrator and head coaches in football and men's and women's basketball. We had a very productive session in discussing everything on the table in the current landscape of collegiate athletics. Future scheduling was also a key topic as our 10-team conference becomes a 14-school league before settling into 12 members.
A PROUD 50 YEARS
It is an honor to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of Title IX. Through the continual addition of women's sports, we are very proud of being able to increase opportunities for women at TCU. In just the last 15 years, we have added three women's sports with the latest being triathlon which begins competition in Fall 2023. We have also seen our women's programs thrive. Rifle has won multiple national championships with golf and equestrian also capturing national titles. Soccer is back-to-back Big 12 Conference champions with beach volleyball, one of our newer sports, being ranked No. 2 in the nation this season. Click HERE for a complete review of women's sports at TCU over the last 50 years.
NCAA WOMAN OF THE YEAR
Congratulations to rifle's Kristen Hemphill and women's golfer Sabrina Iqbal on representing us as our 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year nominees!
Kristen closed her career as a 12-time All-American. She was a key part of our air rifle national championships the last two seasons and our 2019 overall NCAA title. En route to earning All-Big 12 recognition, Sabrina had a career-low 71.8 stroke average to break her own school record from two years ago. She also set a TCU mark with an 8-under 63 to win The Bruzzy this spring.
Kristen and Sabrina also excelled in the classroom and meet the requirements of the award when it comes to academics, athletics, service and leadership.
CONTINUING EDUCATION
Congratulations also go to equestrian's Jacey Albaugh and baseball's Augie Mihlbauer on being named recipients of the Big 12 Conference's Dr. Prentice Gautt Postgraduate Scholarship. Jacey and Augie enjoyed great careers at TCU, and I am excited to see what the future holds for them.
DR. JAMES CASH STATUE DEDICATION
Please mark your calendar for Friday, November 11, when we dedicate a statue for Dr. James Cash in front of Schollmaier Arena.
Dr. Cash was TCU's first black student-athlete and the first black basketball player in the Southwest Conference. Following his time at TCU, he earned master's and doctorate degrees at Purdue. He then returned to the classroom in 1976 as a faculty member at the Harvard Business School, teaching in each of the major HBS programs. He eventually became Harvard's first tenured black faculty member. In 2020, Dr. Cash was the first black person at Harvard to have a building, Cash House, named for him. He currently holds the position of James E. Robinson Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus at the Harvard Business School.
Dr. Cash is a trailblazer for us. Upon his arrival as our head men's basketball coach, Jamie Dixon made a concerted effort to have Dr. Cash involved as much as he could with our program. We very much look forward to seeing Dr. Cash recognized in this most appropriate manner with a campus monument.
(cont. below)
