Fun with Frogs

Texas 32, TCU 27

October 2, 2021 • Fort Worth

Finally, finally, finally my Horns were able to beat the Frogs in Fort Worth. Apparently, Brett was my lucky charm! Even though he supports my football fandom, to that point he had attended very few games with me. Since my usual companions were otherwise occupied that Saturday, he agreed to come with. And whadyaknow, we WON for the first time in a while!

P.S. – I did attempt to cook those frog legs, btw, but they were NASTY with a capital N! Several years prior when I had breaded and baked the frog legs, they were pretty darn tasty, but not this time around. Yuck! Good thing that W tasted great!

 

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Pattied Down

TCU 33, Texas 31

October 3, 2020 • DKR

After the big win in Lubbock, this loss was a tough one, pal. It always stink to lose to the Frogs, but to have such a lackluster performance after the previous week’s fireworks was hard to watch. Of course, because of the Tech game heroics, we didn’t give up until the bitter end, but that end was indeed bitter. Gary Patterson, the inspiration for the peppermint-patty-spelled Texas, did it again.

I didn’t take many pix this time around, but I did photograph Clark Field on our way to the stadium. That space was the football practice field back in the Royal days.

 

 

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Pumpkin Power Down

TCU 37, Texas 27 

October 26, 2019 • Amon G. Carter Stadium, Fort Worth, Texas

Years ago my mom surprised Dede and me at a football game with some mallowcreme pumpkins. She called them “pumpkin power” and credited them with our Horns’ success that day. Since then, Dede and I pack some pumpkin power for random October games.

Alas, even the pumpkins couldn’t save our team from losing to the Horned Frogs. Our offense racked up a ton of yards, but four turnovers? Yikes.

Breakfast at Snooze in Fort Worth

Yummy!

Back at Frog Alley! I remember our first Frog Alley visit when I wished we could have something similar at DKR. We get TCU’s AD, and now we DO have our own Bevo Blvd. Thanks, CDC!

Great to see two of my besties together again, first time since a kid’s birthday party years ago.

Postgame solace.

Texas Sports recap

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Rockin’ the Rickel

Texas Volleyball 3 sets, TCU 2 

Oct. 3, 2018 • The Rickel, TCU, Fort Worth

Getting to attend a volleyball match on a school night is exactly why I was thrilled when TCU joined the Big 12. 

The Horns won the first two sets 25-23 and 25-22. After those close sets, it wasn’t that surprising when TCU won sets 3 and 4 25-20 and 25-18. The Horns took the fifth set 15-12, and the burnt orange faithful went home happy. 

All that—and Brett and I were on TV!

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A Leg to Stand On

Texas 31, TCU 16 

Sept. 22, 2018 • DKR

The grilled frog legs at the tailgate were pretty darn tasty, but beating the Frogs was even more delicious!

Texas Sports recap

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Bugged Out

TCU 24, Texas 7 

Nov. 4, 2017 • Amon G. Carter Stadium, Fort Worth, Texas

Back in DKR’s day, the Frogs were “cockroaches”—just messing it up for everyone else. Not so much anymore! They’ve been messin’ with Texas lately, and that just ain’t right.

At least this “road game” is a local one for us Fort Worth residents!

Happy to have a road game in our hometown!

It was great to see my college friend Scott and his son pregame!

Lovely downtown FW

What great seats our band has!

I think those little white lines are Texas players.

❤ ACL

❤ Austin

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Frog-tied

TCU 31, Texas 9

Nov. 25, 2016 • DKR

I had the cutest little gummy frogs for this TEXAS, and I was optimistic that our team would really show up for Coach Strong.

But instead, our team was shown up. The gummies were extra-chewy, too.

 

Gummy frogs for the Horned Frogs

Waiting for the team in the rain

Love Hook ’Em’s coach attire

Still waiting for the team

Nice hats

Bevo’s 100th anniversary card

The front of Bevo’s card

The back of Bevo’s card

LOTS of well wishes…

…including one from me!

Longhorn legends

And the legend whose name is on the stadium

LHB

Bertha

TCU band

We’ll miss you!

SWOOOOOOOPES!

Hi, Matthew

LHB’s Bevo

I spy my signature!

Mighty Fine comfort food (while mourning Florence Henderson)

So that’s all she wrote on the Strong era, D’Onta’s Heisman that could’ve been, the loss of all that promise we felt on opening night after beating Notre Dame.

Here’s to fresh starts, stud recruits, and WINS.

Hook ’em.

Bloody Mess

TCU 50, Texas 7 

Oct. 3, 2015 • Amon G. Carter Stadium, Fort Worth

 

After two close contests that could’ve gone our way, I called it. Mark it down: We’ll win one of our next two “impossible” games.

Then this game happened.

That’s what I get for giving a first-of-its-kind guarantee. What a mess! A strong defensive possession to start the game seemed to give us hope, but an early injury to our speed demon, Daje Johnson, foreshadowed our demise.

This week’s “TEXAS” is spelled with blood because of the horned frog’s odd defense mechanism. Horned frogs can “spit” blood out of their eyes! The TCU version of frogs uses a red line on the helmet to represent this weird biological trick. As I squirted that fake blood all over my plate, I had no idea how appropriate that stuff would be for this bloodbath.

How bad was it?

It was so bad, we started celebrating first downs—and even then, we rarely had cause to high-five. It was so bad, the refs didn’t even have to call bogus calls for us to move backwards. It was so bad, “fans” practically ran from their seats once we were down by 21. It was so bad, my naysayer friends ran out of negative things to add to our group text.

The Frogs hadn’t quite hit half-a-hundred when I posted this on Facebook:

Even though the game was lame, when my Horns are on the field, there’s no place I’d rather be than in the stands.

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Last Leg

TCU 48, Texas 10

Nov. 27, 2014 • DKR

 

One would think that THIS:

would be the grossest thing I’d see this week. While shopping for frog legs, I came across these poor popsicles (or would that be HOPsicles?) in our local Asian market. I’ve spelled Texas with lots of things, but I draw the line at frozen whole frog. Ew.

I did summon the courage to take home these babies, though.

I even cooked these frog legs myself (as opposed to watching friends grill them or buying them pre-cooked). The slimy guys were pretty nasty (and vein-y), but nothing prepared me for the really icky things we were to see Thursday night in DKR.

What an awful game.

It was just one gut-punch after another: dropped passes, bad play-calling, wrong routes, turnovers (holy COW, the turnovers!), rotten officiating, even a few defensive miscues. Yes, our D was again stellar for most of the game, and Swoopes (bless his heart), when he held onto the ball, managed a few really good plays. But even our good plays were followed by momentum-busting officials’ reviews or injuries. Ugh. The lowest moment came with 10 minutes to go when we faced 4th down at midfield. Losing by 17, it seemed like a given we’d go for it. But no. We punted—punted away any chance for getting back in this thing. Certainly, it would’ve been a long shot, but it was better than—oh, I don’t know—quitting with so much time left on the clock! Our coaches gave up, but TCU didn’t. The Frogs went on to score THREE MORE TOUCHDOWNS. Whadyaknow, it IS possible to score three times in 10 minutes. Hmmm…

Last year, I referenced Coach Royal’s famous “cockroach” quote when I spelled Texas. After this year’s game, I posted this to Facebook:

My friend and I also took a postgame selfie to show how we felt about the outcome:

Full disclosure: We had way too much fun trying to look mad for this photo! We laughed until we cried and our sides hurt. Delirium had definitely set in.

What a lame way to end this crazy, mixed bag of a season. We started with high hopes, settled in for a rebuilding year, then found ourselves on a three-game winning streak and bowl eligible. We went from “We’re going to be bad so let’s just ride it out” to “These guys are really starting to get it together.” I knew TCU was good this year, but I let myself believe that our guys could pull the upset.

Sure enough, here we are. Upset.

I’d hate for this roller coaster of a season to end this way. Here’s hoping that we can send off these seniors with a bowl win and spend the long, hot off-season relishing a victory instead of trying to forget another bitter defeat.

Scenes from the big tailgate, pregame, game and halftime:

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Of Roaches and Rain Delays

Texas 30, TCU 7

Oct. 26, 2013 • Fort Worth, Texas

 

For our last two games against the Horned Frogs, we went the authentic route and spelled Texas with actual frog legs. Alas, this gameday was a crazy-busy one, so there was no time to hunt down some of the tasty amphibians.  Besides, I’m sure real horned frog legs would taste nothing like chicken! Instead, we went with the ol’ Darrell K Royal quote about TCU after the Frogs spoiled Texas’ perfect 1961 season: “They’re like a bunch of cockroaches. It’s not what they eat and tote off, it’s what they fall into and mess up that hurts.”

Disclaimer: As a DFW resident, I know tons of wonderful TCU fans, and I am in no way trying to say their team is a bunch of roaches. I also acknowledge that TCU has held its own of late, including that big 2011 Rose Bowl win. Still, this is a little nod to Texas history—not to mention an easy spelling medium to find this close to Halloween.

Last Thanksgiving, the Frogs managed to ruin our turkey dinners, embarrassing our woefully unprepared team in front of a national audience. This time around, with us all coming off the high of beating our arch-rival, it was easy to imagine our guys crashing back to reality right there in Amon G. Carter. TCU was even favored by 2! And honestly, until TCU fumbled deep in their own territory, it looked like we could be in big trouble. Fortunately, we managed to build a 10-point lead in the second quarter and my heart rate was starting to chill a little. But then the weather diverted our attention—and our plans for an early bedtime.

Kra-POW!

Watching the lightning streak across the sky to our left, we were optimistic that the storm would stay north of us. We checked and rechecked the radar forecasts on our phones, hoping against hope that the rain we’d been promised would just stay the heck away. With 6 minutes to go in the first half, though, officials cleared the field and the wait was on.

Rain, rain, go away…

Ever so patient

At first the delay seemed like a good thing, giving us a chance to use the restroom and grab something to eat. But then the lightning just kept on coming. We knew that each close strike meant another 30-45 minutes of waiting, so with each crash, we cringed. By the time the game resumed 3 hours and 6 minutes later, most of the sell-out crowd had headed home. The more hardy of us were able to upgrade our seats, opting for the nice chairbacks in our case.

We’re back!

Our reward for sticking it out? Seeing a dominating Longhorn performance on both sides of the ball! After the delay, the game was never in doubt. That would’ve been plenty of “payment” for our loyalty, but Mack had another surprise up his sleeve: He burned Tyrone Swoopes’ redshirt! With David Ash still out and Case our only QB, Mack must’ve wanted to give Swoopes some snaps in a low-stress situation. Apparently Swoopes and the staff were OK with putting him in, and this late in a game with a 23-point lead seemed pretty darn low-stress! We certainly hope Tyrone will turn into the world-beater he seems destined to be, and when he does, we’ll be able to say we saw his first snap as a Longhorn.

Swoopes under center. The redshirt’s gone!

It’s crazy to think that this Longhorn team is the same one that lost to BYU and Ole Miss. But here we are, 4-0 in the Big 12 and after 42 days, finally—FINALLY!—heading back home to DKR. With the defensive improvements and the stronger running game, who knows what our team can accomplish? Hook ’em!

Some highlights:

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