TCU Horned Frogs

A History of TCU
(Written in 1995 by Emeritus Dean of Students, Libby Proffer)

When the Civil War ended in the United States in 1865, General Robert E. Lee was invited to lend his name to several business enterprises for money. Instead of accepting the lucrative offers, General Lee decided to give the remainder of his life to education. In explanation, he wrote, "The best thing that any man can do for the South is to build it with citizens.

Addison Clark, another former Confederate Army officer, made a similar statement about the same time without knowing that Lee had taken such a stand.

Addison and his brother, Randolph (also a former Confederate officer) came home to Fort Worth determined to educate young men and women as Christian citizens who would help rebuild the shattered nation. Their initial plans to teach in a public school were thwarted when the federal government passed a law that came to be called the "Iron Bound Oath" which prohibited any individual who had ever fought against the federal government from ever holding any position of honor or trust in the public sector. The law essentially disenfranchised every confederate veteran from ever holding office - including teaching in public schools.

The two brothers decided to open a private school and began teaching classes in 1868 on a site located in downtown Fort Worth where the First Christian Church now stands.

By 1869, their father, Joseph Clark, was so encouraged by their endeavors that he bought a plot of land on which to build a school near the site of the present convention center.

Unfortunately, the site he chose was soon to be called "Hell's Half Acre" because of the saloons, gambling halls and houses of prostitution that were located nearby.

Shortly after that purchase, the city got word that the long awaited railroad would be coming into Dallas and then on to Fort Worth. While most of the city's leaders were overjoyed with the news, the Clark brothers were devastated. They took their religion seriously and they believed that the increased population the railroad would bring would mean the death knell for the young school.

In his memoirs, Randolph would write, "The town boys, the boys from farms and ranches, rough but clean, were dazzled by the glitter of vice and caught up like insects around a street light. It might have been the better part of valor to have remained and fought the flames in an effort to prevent the fire from spreading, but we thought more of saving those who could be kept out of the burning, and of building a place to prevent others from being caught.

Searching for a new site away from Fort Worth, Randolph Clark visited a location 40 miles southwest of Fort Worth that was offered for sale by 'Old Man Thorp" who had land certificates for nearly all of that region. There was a perennial spring of clear cold water and a sulfur water spring. Thorp and his partner thought they could make a profitable health resort out of the area if they could attract enough people.

They built what was then considered a commodious building and offered it and several acres of land to the Clarks for $9,000. The Clarks accepted the offer and in September, 1873, Addran Male and Female Academy (the forerunner of TCU) opened with 13 students. Since there was no date for late registration, the session closed with an enrollment of 75. The Clarks obtained a charter from the state of Texas that first year and the student body had grown to 117 by 1884.

Virtually all of the schools that were started after the Civil War were for men only or for women only and the establishment of a coed school was a remarkably progressive step for the two brothers.

Although both Addison and Randolph were ministers in the Christian faith and were determined to build a school where young men and women would be able to study "under Christian influence," Addison would not consent to its being called a "Christian College." If it became Christian, he said, "it would be so by the Christian teachers who taught there and would be known by the fruit of their labors."

During the first year, however, the Clarks secured the endorsement of a convention of delegates from the congregations of Christian churches in Texas, and every member of the faculty was required to be a member of the Christian Church.

Rules concerning student behavior were strict, as they were in most schools in those days and school policies would horrify students today. The school catalog of 1883-84 included this statement" "There will be two holidays during the session, Christmas day and one in April. Parents will please not encourage nor expect their children to return home for Christmas, or any time until the close of school. It is impossible to have children do good work when they lose time from their studies.'

Four years after the move to Thorp Springs, the Clarks were in dire financial straits and could not keep up their payments on the property. Mr. Thorp decided to take back his building. Before the first building was vacated, the Clarks raised $650 and bought six and a half acres near the original site and began to build their own building. The money for the first payment came from the sale of the family homes of Addison and Randolph in Fort Worth and the sale of 320 acres that belonged to Randolph's wife in Collin County.

Even with these sacrifices, the Clark's had money problems and in 1889 the Clarks turned the young college over to the Brotherhood of the Christian Church. The new charter changed the name to AddRan Christian University.

Financial difficulties continued and in 1895, the executive committee from the Christian Church in Waco submitted a proposal to move the school to Waco. They agreed to deed over to the University the defunct Waco Female College, 15 acres of land and to build a dormitory for boys - provided it did not cost more than $5,000 (Today it costs more than $5,000 to replace the carpeting in a residence hall). The offer of the Waco church was accepted and in 1896, students and faculty moved bag and baggage to Waco.

In 1902, the Board of Trustees appointed a new president to replace Addison and changed the name of the school to Texas Christian University. At the same time, the trustees decreed that the college of science, literature and art would be called thereafter AddRan College of Arts and Sciences. It bears that name today.

At 8:30 am on March 22, 1910, a fire of unproven origin destroyed the magnificent 'fireproof' main building in Waco. Insurance money was small and made only a modest contribution toward paying the debts against the building. The prospect of Waco's providing funds for the rebuilding was so doubtful that several Texas cities, including Dallas, sent invitations for the school to move.

Wise trustees accepted an offer from Fort Worth which provided for a campus of 50 acres (far removed from the center of the growing city), $200,000 in money, and assurance of connections with city utilities and the street car.

For the 1910-11 school year, trustees leased several two story buildings at the comer of Weatherford and Commerce for classes, and TCU students used the lawn of the Tarrant County Court House for their first Fort Worth campus.

On September 6, 1911, the University opened on its new campus with three new buildings: a class room and administration building known then as Main but now known as Reed Hall, a dormitory for women called Jarvis, and a dormitory for men called Goode which stood where the present Clark Hall stands.

Because Goode was designated for "preacher boys" only, other male students complained and work on the original Clark Hall was started almost immediately. It stood where Sadler Hall stands today.

There were no paved roads to the school, no houses in the area, and only one scraggly little tree which shows up in a photo of that early campus.

Since then TCU has become a university of the first rank with a national reputation. It is small enough (approximately 7,000 students) to treat people as individuals and large enough to have nice facilities and a great faculty and staff.

The school was integrated in 1964 and the student body now includes a diverse student population, caring faculty, and a solid reputation. Countless faculty, staff, students and benefactors have given their time, talents, wisdom, and money to make this university what it is today. Those of us who have benefited from their love of TCU now have an obligation to make sure that TCU continues as a great university that is dedicated to its student body.

TCU At-A-Glance
FY 2002-2003

TCU is located five miles from the heart of downtown Fort Worth, a city with a vibrant mix of historic character, commerce, culture and entertainment all accentuated by its warm, friendly people. TCU offers 82 undergraduate majors and 16 graduate degrees in 50 areas, including nine doctoral fields of study. As an independent, self-governing university, TCU exercises the freedom to set the goals and objectives that best serve its students and community in a constantly changing world.

Academic Divisions
Add Ran College of Humanities and Social Sciences
College of Communication
School of Education
College of Fine Arts
M.J. Neeley School of Business
College of Health and Human Sciences
College of Science and Engineering
Brite Divinity School (an affiliated theological school)

Campus
The TCU campus encompasses 260 acres in residential Fort Worth and programs of study in off-campus locations, including Internet courses.

TCU is conveniently located 25 miles from D/FW International Airport.

Church Affiliation
TCU is historically related to, but not governed by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a Protestant denomination that encourages a reasoned faith, commitment to ecumenism and understanding among the world’s religions.

More than 45 religious groups are represented in the student body, with some of the larger affiliations being Roman Catholic, United Methodist and Southern Baptist. There are 18 recognized religious organizations, including groups for Jewish and Muslim students, faculty and staff.

Enrollment
TCU strives for a student population of optimum size and ability through selective admissions. Total enrollment is approximately 8,200 graduate and undergraduate students representing 48 states and 81 countries.

Undergraduate Tuition and Fees
Listed in the U.S. News & World Report as a “Best College Value,” TCU remains one of the best buys in American Higher education with costs substantially below the national average for private schools.

Average annual cost, including housing, books and fees, is $22,322.

Faculty and Staff
Of the 392 full-time faculty, 61% are tenured.

Full-time equivalent student:faculty ratio is 15:1.

Total number of faculty and staff is approximately 1,460.

Research

Eighty different agencies, including federal and state governments, corporations, and foundations, sponsor research and creative activities at TCU.

Centers and institutes, such as the Institute of Behavioral Research, receive millions of dollars a year in extramural funding.

Research programs conducted on campus since 1961 on drug abuse treatment continue to influence federal policy and human understanding both nationally and internationally.

Scholarly articles and books produced by faculty members conducting research contribute to the dissemination of new knowledge – nationally and internationally.

With funding from local agencies, the Institute for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education brings together faculty from different disciplines to discover new and innovative ways of teaching and learning quantitative skills and abilities.

Athletics
An NCAA Division I-A member, TCU currently holds membership in Conference USA, and sponsors twenty intercollegiate sports, ten each for men and women.

TCU football played in the galleryfurniture.com Bowl against Texas A&M. The game marked the fourth straight bowl appearance for the Frogs, a school record.

Taking the helm for the men’s basketball program is Head Coach Neil Dougherty. Coach Dougherty is the 18th head coach in TCU basketball history.

Women’s basketball advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row and netted the Conference USA regular season title.

The TCU women’s tennis team captured the Conference USA Championship, which was held on the TCU campus. Both the men’s and women’s tennis squads advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

The TCU men’s and women’s golf teams swept the Conference USA Championships. It marked the first time that one school has swept the C-USA golf titles in the same season. The TCU men’s team advanced to the NCAA Championships where they placed 11th in the country.

The TCU men’s track team swept the Conference USA Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

In TCU’s inaugural season in Conference USA, the Frogs finished as the most successful program in the conference with six championships.

Visit GoFrogs.com, the official source for TCU athletics information.

Library
The more than 1,900,000 items physically housed in the TCU library are greatly augmented by online electronic resources including thousands of electronic books, electronic journals and full-text databases. Most of these electronic resources are readily accessible from offices, dorm rooms and computer labs all across the campus – even when the library is not open.

The library staff provides expert assistance and guidance for student and faculty research and information needs.

The Library has recently established an Information Commons, a concept which brings together reference and research services and technical computer help services in one central location.
The Library’s TTI, Inc. Computer Lab affords students a modern and convenient place to do research, surf the Web, complete assignments, and check e-mail.

Several outstanding special collections reside in the TCU Library including the William Luther Lewis Collection of English and American Literature, the Speaker Jim Wright Archives, and the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition Archives.

Visit the Mary Couts Burnett Library Web site at www.lib.tcu.edu.

Operating Budget (2002-2003)
Approximately $213.5 million.

Endowment
Endowment in excess of $910 million.

Fund Raising
Since TCU is an independent university, strong support from alumni, friends, parents, corporations and foundations is vital. Contributions topped $26.4 million for the 2002 fiscal year, making it the University's second best fund-raising year ever. Gifts to the Annual Fund exceeded $4 million. The alumni participation rate was 30 percent — a significant figure, since rating services such as U.S. News & World Report use this statistic as a measure of alumni satisfaction.

The Commission on the Future of TCU, a yearlong strategic planning effort, has challenged the University with an impressive agenda for the next decade. Among the many fund-raising priorities that have grown from the Commission’s findings are renovation and expansion of the University Recreation Center and construction of Smith Entrepreneurs Hall at the M.J. Neeley School of Business, a School of Education/Starpoint-Rise School complex, Lupton Baseball Stadium and new basketball facilities.

In Business
The M.J. Neeley School of Business maintains exchange relationships with universities in Mexico, France, Germany and Scotland.

Business students manage an Educational Investment Fund of more than $1.7 million.
The newly established E-Business program, the James A. Ryffel Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, the Luther King Capital Management Center for Financial Studies, and the Value and Supply Chain Center put the Neeley School on the cutting edge of business education.

Charles Tandy American Enterprise Center provides educational programs and services to TCU’s corporate partners.

In Fine Arts
The first university in the country to offer a fine arts degree in ballet, the dance department features international exchanges for students and faculty artists.

Fernando Bujones, hailed as the "Greatest American male dancer of his generation," is Choreographer-in-Residence in the dance department. Each semester he creates new dances or restages one of the ballet classics.

TCU is a co-founder and serves as the official archives for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The TCU/Cliburn Piano Institute is one of the top summer institutes for college age students in the world.

The TCU orchestra/string program offers unique opportunities to students including the biennial Latin American Arts Festival and the Mimir Chamber Music Festival.

The TCU Wind/Jazz program, as well as the TCU Choir/Voice/Opera program, performs in prestigious venues around the nation and world. Recent appearances were in Montreux, Hawaii, New York, Houston, San Antonio, Kansas City, Vienna, Budapest, Trento (Italy), and Chicago.
Opportunities for international study are available to students through cooperative programs in South America, Europe, and Mexico.

Half of TCU’s art majors specialize in graphic design, enhancing and drawing on the area’s growing reputation as an innovative hub of graphic design in the United States.

The Theatre Department serves as host to the regional Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.

The Art History program includes study at three internationally recognized art museums in Fort Worth.

Faculty and students from the art program at TCU and Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru completed the first international collaborative portfolio of prints in the department's history.

In Education
All teacher education programs at TCU are fully accredited and the pass rate on the Texas ExCET exam for TCU students is 95% … and our graduates are highly recruited with a 100% rate of employment for three years in a row.

Education majors have the unique opportunity to student teach in a growing number of countries outside the U.S., including Canada, Mexico, England, Holland and Denmark.

Starpoint School, a unique laboratory school at TCU, serves as a training site for teachers and prospective teachers of children with learning differences. The Rise School, another innovative laboratory school in the School of Education, is an early childhood and preschool program serving children with Down syndrome.

The TCU Science/Math/Technology Institute brings science, math, and technology to life for prospective and active teachers. Sets of exciting programs also are offered for school children who come to the TCU campus for classes.

The Center for Urban Education emphasizes educational improvements for students in urban schools and collaborates with teachers to promote good practices in teaching students of diverse socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds.

In Information Technology
TCU’s information network provides every TCU student, faculty, and staff with access to information resources, including the Internet, that are needed to navigate and work in the cyberworld of the new millennium.

In Student Activities
Freshman Seminars provide an intensive, personalized learning experience that helps the student develop a sense of belonging and the skills and self-confidence needed for academic success at TCU.

KTCU-FM is the University’s federally licensed and student-run radio station.

More than 70% of entering students attend one of 10 Frog Camps in 5 different venues. Frog Camp is an off-campus transition program that transmits the spirit and traditions of TCU while fostering friendships among students, faculty and staff.

The TCU Daily Skiff is the award-winning student newspaper.

Image is the award-winning student quarterly magazine.

The TCU Leadership Program hosts a Leadership Institute where recognized leaders interact with students.

Over 140 organizations and committees and 29 fraternities and sororities offer involvement and leadership opportunities to students.

More than 55% of students participate in intramural sports.

In Special Academic Programs
TCU is a Biosphere 2 Center Partner with Columbia University. TCU students from a variety of majors are eligible to earn 16 hours of TCU residence credit in science and social science while studying on-site in the Biosphere Earth Semester.

The William L. Adams Writing Center is a nationally recognized program for writing proficiency.
The Honors Program, with admission by invitation, offers a challenging inter-disciplinary curriculum in a wide variety of classes, as well as opportunities for traditional and experiential learning and co-curricular activities.

The Washington Internship Program provides students with a working experience in our nation’s capital.

The Ranch Management Program is a unique, internationally recognized agribusiness program that combines technology with field-based instruction.

Non-credit community and professional courses serve approximately 5,000 people annually.

In the Community
TCU students contribute more than 60,000 hours of community service each year to local schools and social service agencies.

TCU’s annual response to hunger – with programs in education, local service and fund raising – has raised more than $195,000 in 15 years.

Student-run TCU CAN (Community Action Network) coordinates volunteer activities among campus organizations and provides links with more than 350 community service agencies.

In International and Site-Enhanced Studies
TCU ranks among the top 15 doctoral degree granting institutions in the number of students studying abroad.

The TCU London Centre offers students a unique opportunity to learn and gain TCU credit while studying in a major international capital.

Institutional affiliations with universities in Mexico, Japan, Hungary, Germany, Argentina, and elsewhere offer exchange opportunities for students and faculty.

International students at TCU come from 81 countries, greatly enhancing the University community.

What the Heck is a Horned Frog?

The Horned Frog (actually a lizard) has been TCU's mascot longer than TCU has been the university's name. Four students helped make the decision in 1897, when AddRan Christian University (renamed TCU in 1902) was located in Waco. Here are some other facts about the horned frog, one of the country's most unique mascots:

The scientific name for this Texas reptile is phrynosoma cornutum; in Greek, phrynos means "a toad" and soma means "body";in Latin, cornutus means "horned."

Their primary diet is red harvester ants; they'd like 80 to 100 a day. Unfortunately, red ants are falling victim to insecticides and to more aggressive fire ants in much of Texas.

The typical Horned Frog is three to five inches long.

Horned Frogs are cold-blooded animals and have an unusual pineal gland, resembling a "third eye" on the top of the head, which zoologists believe is part of their system of thermoregulation.

When angered or frightened, horned frogs can squirt a fine,
four-foot stream of blood from their eyes.

The Horned Frog was named the State Reptile of Texas in 1992.

In stories of Native Americans in the Southwest, horned frogs are depicted as ancient, powerful and respected. Archaeologists find horned frogs on petroglyphs, pottery and other crafts painted hundreds of years before Columbus set sail for America. In some parts of Mexico, folklore persists that these creatures which weep tears of blood are sacred.

TCU Spirit