TCU Horned Frogs baseball


The TCU Horned Frogs baseball team represents Texas Christian University in NCAA Division I baseball. The Frogs have competed in the Big 12 Conference since 2013 and previously competed in the Mountain West, Conference USA, Western Athletic Conference and Southwest Conference. Since February 2003, the Horned Frogs have played their home games at Lupton Stadium, located on the TCU campus in Fort Worth, Texas. The Frogs are led by head coach Jim Schlossnagle, the winningest coach in TCU baseball history, whose many coaching accolades include 8 conference coach of the year awards and being named the 2010 National Coach of the Year by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and 2016 National Coach of the Year by Baseball America.

History

The early years

TCU has fielded a baseball team since 1896, before the university found its permanent home in Fort Worth. The Horned Frog baseball team began playing baseball in the Southwest Conference when it became a member of the conference in 1923. In their inaugural SWC season, the Frogs finished the year with a 13–11 overall record and a 2–10 conference record.

The Southwest Conference years

In 1933 Dutch Meyer, most noted for his tenure as head coach of the two-time national champion football team, led TCU to its first SWC title with a 9–1 record. The Horned Frogs went on to win 4 more SWC titles in 1956, 1966, 1967 and 1994. The SWC Baseball Tournament began in 1977, but the Horned Frogs never earned a conference tournament title before the SWC dissolved following the 1996 baseball season.

The wandering years

The dissolution of the SWC in 1996 touched off a period of instability for the Horned Frogs that lasted nearly two decades, during which they made stops in six conferences. Following the dissolution of the SWC, the TCU Horned Frogs first joined the Western Athletic Conference. During the 1997 and 1998 seasons, TCU competed in the WAC South Division with the New Mexico Lobos, UNLV Rebels, and former SWC member Rice Owls. The Horned Frogs made two appearances in the WAC Baseball Tournament in the team's five seasons as a member of the WAC. Eight WAC member schools joined with schools from several other conferences to form the new Mountain West Conference in 2000. Two seasons later, TCU joined the Houston Cougars, another former SWC member, in entering Conference USA for the 2002 season.
Long time TCU Head Coach Lance Brown, a SWC hall-of-famer as both a TCU player and TCU coach, retired after the 2003 season. Through his career as TCU's skipper, Brown notched a school-record 517 wins. After Brown's departure, TCU would go on to make several more conference moves in the early 2000s and see an emergence of its baseball program as a perennial national power.

TCU's emergence under Jim Schlossnagle

was hired as TCU's head coach in 2003 and coached his first season at TCU in Spring 2004. His impact was immediate. Former Head Coach Lance Brown had recruited several exceptional classes, which allowed Schlossnagle to coach his first TCU team to the program's first regular season conference championship in a decade, its first conference tournament championship in history, and its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1994. Under Schlossnagle, conference championships began piling up year after year, in conference after conference. Schlossnagle's Horned Frogs repeated as C-USA regular season and tournament champions in 2005, and once again earned a berth to the NCAA Tournament.
Prior to the 2006 season, conference realignment again led TCU to change conferences as eight other C-USA members changed conference homes. The Horned Frogs joined the Mountain West Conference, where the Frogs competed for seven years. In each season in the MWC, TCU advanced to the NCAA Tournament and won at least a share of the Mountain West regular season title. In those seven years, TCU also won four MWC Tournament championships. During this era, TCU won its first-ever NCAA Regional Championship in 2009, and repeated the feat in 2010 and 2012. In 2009, the Horned Frogs advanced to its first NCAA Super Regional, where the Texas Longhorns eliminated TCU from the Tournament. In 2010, TCU and Texas met again in an NCAA Super Regional, but the Horned Frogs emerged from the rematch—advancing to the College World Series for the first time in school history. TCU compiled a 3–2 record in its first CWS appearance, eventually falling in the national semifinal to UCLA.
In 2011, the MWC Champion Horned Frogs were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament in the Fort Worth Regional, but TCU came storming back in 2012 by winning the College Station Regional over host Texas A&M. TCU advanced to the 2012 Los Angeles Super Regional, where they were again eliminated from NCAA Tournament play by the Bruins.

The Big 12 Conference era

After 16 combined seasons wandering through the Western Athletic Conference, Conference USA and Mountain West Conference, the Horned Frogs rejoined three former SWC rivals, the Baylor Bears, Texas Longhorns, and Texas Tech Red Raiders, as members of the Big 12 Conference. Pre-season expectations for the Horned Frogs were high after the 2012 Super Regional run, but TCU finished their inaugural season in the Big 12 with a 29–28 record. This season marked the first and only time under Jim Schlossnagle that the Horned Frogs failed to make the NCAA Tournament and win a conference title.
The Horned Frogs showed tremendous improvement in their second year in the Big 12. TCU finished the 2014 regular season in second place and swept through the 2014 Big 12 tournament, 4–0, to earn the Big 12 Tournament title. This was the first Big 12 championship won by any TCU team since joining the league on July 1, 2012. The late-season surge earned TCU a coveted National Seed for the first time in the program's long history. TCU hosted and won the 2014 Fort Worth NCAA Regional. Then, as a National Seed, TCU earned the right to host its first Super Regional. The 2014 Fort Worth NCAA Super Regional matched the TCU Horned Frogs against the Pepperdine Waves, winners of the 2014 San Luis Obispo NCAA Regional. The Horned Frogs took 2 of 3 in the Super Regional series to advance to the 2014 College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. In this, their second CWS appearance in program history, TCU notched a 1–2 record after winning its opening games versus Texas Tech, then falling to Virginia and Ole Miss.
In 2015, TCU earned its first Big 12 Regular Season Baseball Championship. The Horned Frogs were the fifth different team in as many years to win the conference title, and their victory marked the ninth time in Big 12 history that the prior year's Tournament champion went on to win the following year's regular season crown. During the regular season, head coach Jim Schlossnagle notched his 200th conference win and 500th total win as TCU's head coach. The Frogs won their second NCAA Regional of the Big 12 era by defeating North Carolina State, and then hosted and defeated Texas A&M in the 2015 Fort Worth Super Regional to advance to the 2015 College World Series. This season marked the 11th season in 12 years that TCU won either a regular season or conference tournament championship, the fifth time in seven years that the Horned Frogs advanced to a Super Regional, and the third time in six years that TCU advanced to the College World Series.
After significant roster turnover due to graduation and the MLB Draft, 2016 was expected to be a rebuilding year for the Horned Frogs, yet TCU won the 2016 Big 12 Tournament and was selected to host and won their third consecutive NCAA Regional. The Frogs advanced to the College Station Super Regional, where they defeated Texas A&M to advance to the College World Series for the third consecutive year.
The "Woo Bird" chant as many TCU fans like to do at Luptop was originally coined by an Alumni, Eric Davis. The chant has been adopted by many teams, both collegiate and professional.

Attendance

Since Lupton Stadium opened in 2003, annual total and average attendance for TCU baseball has steadily increased from approximately 1,500 fans per game to over 4,000 fans per game. The increase in attendance has coincided with the Horned Frogs’ 2010, 2014, 2015 and 2016 College World Series appearances and the 2010 Lupton Stadium seating expansion.
Total and average attendance at Lupton Stadium has ranked in the top 15 for NCAA home games since TCU's 2011 season. In 2015, TCU and Lupton ranked 8th nationally in total attendance, 10th national in average attendance, and led all private schools in the nation in total and average attendance.
YearHome
Games		Total
Attendance		Natl. Rank
by Total		Private School
Rank by Total		Average
Attendance		Natl. Rank
by Average		Private School
Rank by Average
20032838,5813471,378349
20042834,6574491,238449
20053046,8483591,562337
20062640,15843111,545388
20072951,3733791,771357
20083363,9592661,938296
20093271,0542652,220274
20102990,6872243,127192
201136149,3331114,148102
201232131,6101114,112112
201330107,1171323,570112
201434121,9571213,587131
201536147,335814,092101
201631132,7961314,284111

The record attendance of 7,383 was set in 2015 when TCU hosted Texas A&M in a 3-game NCAA Super Regional, with each game's total attendance exceeding 7,000.

Season-by-season results

People

TCU Baseball All-Americans

Other baseball awards

AwardYearPositionName
Academic All-Americans19921BScott Malone
Freshman All-Americans1996DHRoyce Huffman
Freshman All-Americans2004OFChad Huffman
Freshman All-Americans20043BShelby Ford
Freshman All-Americans2004SSGermán Durán
Freshman All-Americans2005DHMatt McGuirk
Freshman All-Americans2005CAndrew Walker
Freshman All-Americans2008PSean Hoelscher
Freshman All-Americans2010PMatt Purke
SWC Player of the Year1963PLance Brown
SWC Player of the Year19662BJimmy Duffy
SWC Freshman of the Year1996DHRoyce Huffman
WAC Player of the Year19993BRoyce Huffman
C-USA Pitcher of the year2003PClayton Jerome
C-USA Pitcher of the year2005PLance Broadway
C-USA Player of the Year2004OFChad Huffman
MWC Pitcher of the Year2006PJake Arrieta
MWC Freshman of the Year2010PMatt Purke
MWC Pitcher of the Year2010PSteven Maxwell
Big12 Freshman of the Year20151BConner Wanhanen
Big12 Freshman of the Year2016DH/PLuken Baker
Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Collegiate Baseball Freshman Pitcher of the Year2010PMatt Purke
Johnny Bench Award2010CBryan Holaday
Big 12 Conference Baseball Player of the Year2017CEvan Skoug

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Horned Frogs in Major League Baseball

NameTeamYears on Team
Louis DruckeNew York Giants1909–1912
Ona DoddPittsburgh Pirates1912
Jim HaislipPhiladelphia Phillies1913
Claude CooperNew York Giants1913
Claude CooperPhiladelphia Phillies1916–1917
Pete DonahueCincinnati Reds1921–1930
Pete DonahueNew York Giants1930–1931
Pete DonahueCleveland Indians1931
Pete DonahueBoston Red Sox1932
A.S. DouglassCincinnati Reds1921–1925
Boob FowlerCincinnati Reds1932–1925
Boob FowlerBoston Red Sox1926
Leo TankersleyChicago White Sox1925
Bear WolfCincinnati Reds1927
Tex CarletonSt. Louis Cardinals1932–1934
Tex CarletonChicago Cubs1935–1938
Tex CarletonBrooklyn Dodgers1940
Slim KinzyChicago White Sox1934
L. D. MeyerChicago Cubs1937
L. D. MeyerDetroit Tigers1940–1942
L. D. MeyerCleveland Indians1945–1946
Randy JacksonChicago Cubs1950–1955
Randy JacksonChicago Cubs1959
Randy JacksonBrooklyn Dodgers1956–1957
Randy JacksonLos Angeles Dodgers1958
Randy JacksonCleveland Indians1958–1959
Jim BusbyChicago White Sox1950–1952
Jim BusbyChicago White Sox1955
Jim BusbyWashington Senators1952–1955
Jim BusbyCleveland Indians1956–1957
Jim BusbyBaltimore Orioles1957–1958
Jim BusbyBaltimore Orioles1960–1961
Jim BusbyBoston Red Sox1959–1960
Jim BusbyHouston Colt.45s1962
Carl WarwickLos Angeles Dodgers1961
Carl WarwickSt. Louis Cardinals1961–1962
Carl WarwickSt. Louis Cardinals1964–1965
Carl WarwickHouston Colt.45s1962–1963
Carl WarwickBaltimore Orioles1965
Carl WarwickChicago Cubs1966
Tommy GramlyCleveland Indians1968
Chuck MachemehlCleveland Indians1971
Jeff NewmanOakland Athletics1976–1982
Jeff NewmanBoston Red Sox1983–1984
Freddie BenavidesCincinnati Reds1991–1992
Freddie BenavidesColorado Rockies1993
Freddie BenavidesMontreal Expos1994
Tim MauserPhiladelphia Phillies1991,1993
Tim MauserSan Diego Padres1993–1995
John BriscoeOakland A's1991–1996
Chris EddyOakland A's1995
Glenn DishmanSan Diego Padres1995–1996
Glenn DishmanPhiladelphia Phillies1996
Glenn DishmanDetroit Tigers1997
Jeff ZimmermanTexas Rangers1999–2001
Scott AtchisonSeattle Mariners2004–2005
Scott AtchisonSan Francisco Giants2007
Scott AtchisonBoston Red Sox2010-2012
Scott AtchisonNew York Mets2013
Scott AtchisonCleveland Indians2014-2015
Lance BroadwayChicago White Sox2007–2009
Lance BroadwayNew York Mets2009
Geno EspineliSan Francisco Giants2008
Andrew CashnerChicago Cubs2010–2011
Andrew CashnerSan Diego Padres2012-
Jake ArrietaBaltimore Orioles2010–2013
Jake ArrietaChicago Cubs2013-
Chad HuffmanNew York Yankees2010
Sam DemelArizona Diamondbacks2010–2012
Matt CarpenterSt. Louis Cardinals2011-
Bryan HoladayDetroit Tigers2012-2015
Bryan HoladayTexas Rangers2016
Brandon FinneganKansas City Royals2014-2015
Brandon FinneganCincinnati Reds2015-2016
Taylor FeatherstonLos Angeles Angels2015
Matt PurkeChicago White Sox2016
Jason CoatsChicago White Sox2016

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