Origins in Fort Worth, 1869–1873

Statue of TCU founders Addison and Randolph Clark

The East Texas brothers Addison and Randolph Clark, with the support of their father Joseph A. Clark, first founded Texas Christian University. The Clarks were scholar-preacher/teachers associated with the Restoration Movement. These early leaders of the Restoration Movement were the spiritual ancestors of the modern Disciples of Christ and the Churches of Christ, as well as being major proponents of education.

Upon their return from service in the Confederacy during the Civil War, brothers Addison and Randolph embarked on a mission to establish a children's preparatory school in Fort Worth. This educational institution, known as the Male & Female Seminary of Fort Worth, was in operation from 1869 to 1874. The Clarks shared a collective vision of creating a higher education institution that would embody Christian values while maintaining a non-sectarian and intellectually open-minded spirit. To realize this vision, they procured five city blocks in downtown Fort Worth in 1869.

But from 1867 to 1874, the character of Fort Worth changed substantially due to the commercial influence of the Chisholm Trail, the principal route for moving Texas cattle to the Kansas rail heads. A huge influx of cattle, men, and money transformed the sleepy frontier village into a booming, brawling cowtown. The area around the property purchased by the Clarks for their college soon became the town's vice district, an unrelieved stretch of saloons, gambling halls, dance parlors, and bawdy houses catering to the rough tastes of the Chisholm Trail cowboys. Its rough and rowdy reputation had, by 1872, acquired it the nickname of "Hell's Half Acre" (the heart of which is today occupied by the Fort Worth Convention Center and the Fort Worth Water Gardens).

The Clarks feared that this negative environment undermined the fledgling university's mission. They began to look for an alternative site for their college, and they found it at Thorp Spring, a small community and stagecoach stop 40 miles (60 km) in Hood County to the southwest near the frontier of Comanche and Kiowa territory.

Move to Thorp Spring, 1873–1895

Thorp Spring, Texas, campus

Part of TCU's Campus

Sadler Hall, TCU's Administrative Building

In 1873 the Clark brothers moved South to Thorp Spring and founded Add-Ran Male & Female College.^[12] TCU recognizes 1873 as its founding year, as it continues to preserve the original college through the AddRan College of Liberal Arts.

Add-Ran College was one of the first coeducational institutions of higher education west of the Mississippi River, and the very first in Texas. This was a progressive step at a time when only 15% of the national college enrollment was female and almost all were enrolled at women's colleges.

At Thorp Spring the fledgling college expanded quickly. The inaugural enrollment in Fall 1873 was 13 students, though this number rose to 123 by the end of the first term. Shortly thereafter, annual enrollment ranged from 200 to 400. At one time more than 100 counties of Texas were represented in the student body. The Clark brothers also recruited prestigious professors from all over the South to join them at Thorp Spring. The standards of the school and the efficiency of its work came to be recognized throughout the United States, and many graduates were welcomed at universities throughout the country.^[13]

In 1889 Add-Ran College formed an official partnership with what would become the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). This relationship with the church was a partnership of heritage and values, though the church never enjoyed any administrative role at TCU. Later that year the Clark brothers handed over all land, buildings, and assets and allowed the growing university to continue as a private institution; their only compensation was a request that their descendants should have free tuition (though this stipulation was never enforced).

In keeping with the transition, in 1889 the school was renamed Add-Ran Christian University, though by this time it had quite outgrown the property.

Move to Waco, roots of rivalry, 1895–1910

The need for a larger population and transportation base prompted the university to relocate to Waco from 1895 to 1910; it purchased the campus of the defunct Waco Female College.^[14] The institution was renamed Texas Christian University in 1902, and almost immediately became known as TCU. It was during this 15-year sojourn in Waco that TCU in 1896 entered the ranks of intercollegiate football and adopted its school colors of purple and white, as well as its distinctive Horned Frog mascot. This also laid the groundwork for the rivalry between TCU and cross-town school in Waco, Baylor University. "The Revivalry" – as the rivalry is known on both sides – is the most even rivalry in collegiate football at any level, with the series currently led by TCU 55–52–7, and with neither school ever enjoying more than an eight-game win streak; TCU won the eight consecutive games from 1964 to 1971 and Baylor won eight consecutive from 1974 from 1981.

Return to Fort Worth, 1910–present

Early image of the TCU campus in Fort Worth

In 1910 a fire of unknown origin destroyed the university's Main Administration building. A rebuilding project was planned, but before reconstruction could begin, a group of enterprising Fort Worth businessmen offered the university $200,000 in rebuilding money ($5,114,505.00 in 2018 currency) and a 50-acre (200,000 m²) campus as an inducement to return to Fort Worth. This move brought TCU home to the source of its institutional roots and completed its 40-year transition from a frontier college to an urban university.

The TCU campus at its present location in Fort Worth in 1910–11 consisted of four buildings: Clark Hall and Goode Hall, the men's dormitories; Jarvis Hall, the women's dormitory; and the Main Administration building (now Reed Hall).

Two of these four original buildings still remain: Reed Hall (originally the Main Administration building) and Jarvis Hall (originally a women's dormitory, but since renovated as an administrative building). Goode Hall was demolished in 1958 and replaced by the new Clark Hall, originally a men's dormitory. It was renovated in 2008 as a coed residence hall. The original Clark Hall was demolished in 1959 and replaced by Sadler Hall, the current main administration building.

TCU students inside a dorm room at Jarvis Hall.

The university received its first and a huge charitable endowment in 1923, from Mary Couts Burnett, the recent widow of Samuel Burk Burnett, a rancher, banker, and oilman. Married in 1892, Mary Couts came to believe that her husband was trying to kill her and she sought a divorce. Instead, Burk Burnett had his wife committed to a mental asylum, where she struggled for more than 10 years to regain her freedom. With the help of her physician, she eventually succeeded and was released in 1922, only to find that her husband had recently died and left her nothing.

She challenged the will and eventually secured half of her late husband's estate ($4 million, worth $80.3 million in 2018 currency). The long years of incarceration had taken a toll on Couts Burnett and people worried about her health. In her 1923 will, she bequeathed her entire estate, including a half-interest in the gigantic 6666 ("Four Sixes") Ranch, to TCU. She died in 1924, and about 100 female students from TCU attended her funeral in honor of her gift. She lived long enough to see construction begin on the TCU building that today bears her name, the Mary Couts Burnett Library.^[15]

The Mary Couts Burnett Library was built on the site of the school's first athletic field, Clark Field, a cinder track with a baseball diamond. Clark Field was moved to the west of the Library. Since their first season of play in 1896, the TCU football team had gained increasing attention and success every year and joined the Southwest Conference in 1923. In 1928 the school received a private donation from local newspaper magnate and philanthropist Amon G. Carter, and in 1930 the school opened Amon G. Carter Stadium, where the TCU football team still plays.

Admissions

Undergraduate

Undergraduate admissions statistics
2023 entering class[19]Change vs. 2018
Admit rate	53.6 ( +16)
Yield rate	24.1 ( −1.1)
Test scores middle 50%
SAT Total	1140–1345
ACT Composite	26–31

The 2022 annual ranking of U.S. News & World Report categorizes TCU as "more selective".^[20] For the Class of 2025 (enrolled fall 2021), TCU received 19,782 applications and accepted 10,606 (53.6%). Of those accepted, 2,560 enrolled, a yield rate (the percentage of accepted students who choose to attend the university) of 24.1%. TCU's freshman retention rate is 91.3%, with 83% going on to graduate within six years.^[19]

TCU also enrolls a high percentage of transfer students. Roughly 20 percent of TCU's annual incoming undergraduate class consists of transfer students.

The enrolled first-year class of 2025 had the following standardized test scores: the middle 50% range (25th–75th percentile) of SAT scores was 1140–1345, while the middle 50% range of ACT scores was 26–31.^[19]

The university experienced a record number of applicants in 2011, when over 19,000 students applied (a 5,000-student increase from 2010). The applicant pool also set a record with 60% applicants from out of state, whereas usually 1/3 of applicants were from out-of-state. While heightened national recognition due to TCU's victory in the 2011 Rose Bowl is one contributing factor, the university has experienced a steady growth for some time. In 2000, only 4,500 students applied.

High school seniors who have been accepted must maintain solid academic performance senior year during the spring and not show signs of senioritis; in 2012, the admissions dean sent letters to 100 college-bound seniors asking them to explain poor performance senior year, and threatening to rescind offers of admission without satisfactory letters of explanation for the slump.^[21]

Fall First-Time Freshman Statistics ^{[19] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26]}

	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016
Applicants	19,782	21,145	19,028	20,156	19,740	19,972
Admits	10,606	10,155	8,966	8,210	8,110	7,506
Admit rate	53.6	48.0	47.1	40.7	41.1	37.6
Enrolled	2,560	2,287	2,159	2,194	1,955	1,888
Yield rate	24.1	22.5	24.1	26.7	24.1	25.2
ACT composite* (out of 36)	26–31	25–31	25–31	26–30	25–30	25–30
SAT composite* (out of 1600)	1140–1345	1120–1310	1150–1340	1150–1343	1130–1330	—
* middle 50% range

Rankings

Veteran's Plaza

TCU is classified as a Doctoral University: Higher Research Activity by the Carnegie Foundation. TCU is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.^[33] As of 2023, TCU is ranked by U.S. News & World Report as No. 98 (tied) among National Universities.^[34]

Academic divisions

The university offers 117 undergraduate majors, 62 master's programs, and 25 doctoral programs. Among the university's most popular majors are Business, which accounts for roughly 25% of TCU undergraduates, and Journalism/Strategic Communications, which accounts for roughly 20% of TCU undergraduates. Nursing and Education are also popular majors, and many students choose to major in more than one field.^[35]

The Neeley School of Business is among the nation's most respected business schools. The Neeley School was recently ranked as the No. 28 best undergraduate business school in the country by Bloomberg Businessweek.^[36] It continues to expand following a $500,000 donation from Alumni Abe Issa for the construction the Abe Issa Field Sales Lab which will be located within the future Neeley Sales and Consumer Insights Center in the Spencer and Marlene Hays Business Commons.^[37]

TCU has always been an educational partner to the US military and serves host to reserve officer training corps (ROTC) programs for two different service branches, the US Air Force ROTC's Detachment 845 "Flying Frogs" and the US Army ROTC's "Horned Frog Battalion". Each year, approximately 3% of TCU's graduating seniors go on to serve as commissioned officers in the US armed forces.

Archway

During World War II, TCU was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a Navy commission.^[38]

• AddRan College of Liberal Arts
• Bob Schieffer College of Communication
• College of Education
• College of Fine Arts
• College of Science and Engineering
• Harris College of Nursing and Health Sciences
• M. J. Neeley School of Business
• Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine^[39]
• School of Interdisciplinary Studies
• John V. Roach Honors College^[40][41]

In addition, TCU hosts the Brite Divinity School, a separate institution run by the Disciples of Christ that is housed on TCU's campus and whose students have full access and use of TCU facilities. In 2015, TCU and the University of North Texas Health Science Center announced the creation of an MD-granting medical school jointly administered by the two institutions. The school accepted its first class of 60 students in 2019 with plans for 240 students when fully enrolled.

This university operates the 450-acre southern white rhinoceros preserve, African Rhino Protection Initiative.^[42] Doctor Michael Slattery established it in 2014.^[43]

Student body

The student population at TCU in 2020–2021 was 11,379, with 9,704 undergraduates and 1,675 graduate students. Women make up about 58% of the student population, while men make up about 42%.^[45] Undergraduates matriculate from all fifty states led by Texas at 54%. The fields of nursing, education, and advertising-public relations tend to be the majors that attract the most women, while business, political science, and a host of liberal arts majors are more balanced. A few areas of study at TCU, such as engineering and the sciences, are typically disproportionate with men, though even in those areas the percentage of female students tends to be higher than those of other comparable universities.

The student and faculty populations are overwhelmingly non-Hispanic white, but the minority population has seen increased rates over the past few years, especially for Hispanics. The school has also tried to achieve stronger diversity by hosting "Black Senior Weekend", "Hispanic Senior Experience", and offering full scholarships to a select number of exceptional minority high school students in North Texas with economically disadvantaged backgrounds.^[46][47]

Student organizations and events

TCU sponsors over 200 official student organizations including Amnesty International, Habitat for Humanity, Invisible Children and others. Students may also compete in intramural sports including basketball and shuffleboard, or join various other sport-hobby groups, such as the TCU Quidditch League.

Many students involve themselves in various campus ministries, such as Disciples on Campus, a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) student group. Other groups include Ignite, a nondenominational campus ministry; Catholic Community, a large and active group; TCU Wesley, a Methodist group; the Latter-Day Saint Student Association (LDSSA); and Cru, a nondenominational evangelical student ministry. Most religious groups on campus are Christian-based, although TCU also sponsors Hillel, a Jewish student group, and the Muslim Students Association (MSA). Additionally, each year TCU Housing and Residential Life allows students to apply to live in the Interfaith Living Learning Community (LLC), in which the residents spend the year living alongside neighbors of various religious beliefs.

TCU Commons

At the beginning of each fall semester, TCU's student government holds a large concert on the Campus Commons. In 2008, TCU celebrated completion of the Brown-Lupton Union by hosting popular country artist Pat Green. In Fall of 2009, it held a concert by OneRepublic following a football victory over Texas State. Lady Antebellum performed in 2010, and The Fray in 2011. Blake Shelton performed in 2012, Little Big Town in 2013 and Jason Derulo performed in the campus commons in 2014. These fall concerts are free to all students.

Student media

The Bob Schieffer College of Communication circulates a number of student-run publications:

• "Skiff x 360"^[48] (Skiff by 360), previously The Daily Skiff, is TCU's weekly newspaper founded in 2013 in association with tcu360. The original daily was published since 1902. The weekly publication is published on Thursdays.
• TCU360.com,^[49] founded in July 2011, is the online news platform that hosts original 360 content as well as content from all the other student media platforms.
• Image Magazine is TCU's student magazine, published once a semester and focuses on investigative, in-depth campus issues.
• The Horned Frog is the school yearbook.
• TCU broadcasts its own radio station, KTCU-FM 88.7, "The Choice." KTCU can be heard throughout much of Fort Worth/Dallas, and offers programming which includes music, talk, and live broadcasts Horned Frog football, basketball, and baseball games.

Other student-run media include:

• eleven40seven^[50] is TCU's student-run, undergraduate journal of the arts. Originally started by the Bryson Literary Society in 2005, the journal now operates independently, run by an undergraduate staff and one faculty advisor. The journal is published biannually.
• The Skiffler^[51] is an independent satire newspaper begun by TCU students in 2010 which parodies the Daily Skiff. Since it began publishing online The Skiffler has developed a popular following on the TCU campus, though contributors to The Skiffler remain mostly anonymous. Previously, the satirical paper on campus was "The Sniff", that disappeared in the early 2000s.

Greek life

Approximately 50% of undergraduate students are active in TCU's Greek system:^[52][53]

• 12 social fraternities which are members of the Interfraternity Council (Beta Theta Pi, Delta Tau Delta, Kappa Sigma, Lambda Chi Alpha, Phi Delta Theta, Phi Gamma Delta, Phi Kappa Sigma, Pi Kappa Phi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Chi, Sigma Nu and Sigma Phi Epsilon)
• 12 social sororities which are members of the Panhellenic Council (Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Delta Pi, Chi Omega, Delta Delta Delta, Delta Gamma, Gamma Phi Beta, Kappa Alpha Theta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Phi Mu, Pi Beta Phi, Sigma Kappa and Zeta Tau Alpha)

TCU is also home to the following Fraternities/Sororities:

• One Christian fraternity, Beta Upsilon Chi, and one Christian sorority, Sigma Phi Lambda.
• One national, co-ed, service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega.
• Seven members of the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) (Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, Zeta Phi Beta, Alpha Phi Alpha, Omega Psi Phi, Kappa Alpha Psi, Phi Beta Sigma)
• Six members of the Multi-cultural Greek Council (Lambda Theta Alpha, Lambda Theta Phi, Chi Upsilon Sigma, Sigma Lambda Alpha, Kappa Lambda Delta, Omega Delta Phi)
• Dozens of professional and academic organizations, including Phi Beta Kappa and Delta Sigma Pi
• Music Fraternities including Mu Phi Epsilon, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Tau Beta Sigma, and Kappa Kappa Psi.

Sustainability

A "Purple Bike" program was instituted to allow students to use purple bicycles free of charge as an alternative to motor vehicles. Scharbauer Hall, which opened for classes in 2010, is a Gold US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified facility.

In 2010 TCU faculty and staff held a conference for Service-Learning for Sustainability and Social Justice with keynote speaker Robert Egger, founder of D.C. Central Kitchen. Also, sustainability and social justice are emphasized areas in the curriculum and programs offered by the Department of Sociology and Anthropology located in Scharbauer Hall.

Recreation Center

Football

The Horned Frogs have won two national championships, one in 1935^[56] and the other in 1938.^[57] Additionally, the team has captured eighteen conference championships. Many notable football players have played for TCU, including Sammy Baugh, Davey O'Brien, Jim Swink, Bob Lilly, LaDainian Tomlinson, and Andy Dalton.

The Horned Frogs play their home games in Amon G. Carter Stadium. Gary Patterson has coached the team since December 2000, twice winning the AP Coach of the Year Award (2009, 2014) and leading the Horned Frogs to a 178–74 record (.706), including 11 bowl wins in 17 appearances. Under Patterson, the Horned Frogs have owned the No. 1 ranked defense in the country five times (2000, 2002, 2008, 2009, 2010), the second most top defenses by any team since the NCAA began keeping records in 1937 (Alabama has had seven No. 1 defensive rankings since 1937).

TCU finished the 2010 season as the consensus No. 2 ranked team in the nation after beating the Wisconsin Badgers in the 2011 Rose Bowl and finishing an undefeated 13–0. The Horned Frogs were the first school from a non-automatic qualifying conference to play in the Rose Bowl since the creation of the Bowl Championship Series. The 2010 team topped the Congrove Computer Rankings, though the school does not claim this national title.^[58] The Frogs most recent bowl win was against Michigan in the first round of the College Football Playoff in the Fiesta Bowl on December 31, 2022. The Frogs lost to the Georgia Bulldogs in the CFP National Championship 65-7.

Rivalries

The oldest rivalry, which has become nationally famous since TCU joined the Big 12 Conference, is The Revivalry with Baylor University.^[59] The Revivalry is unique in that it is a major FBS rivalry between two church affiliated schools. It is also one of the oldest rivalries in the nation, with the series currently led by TCU 54-52-7 since 1899.^[60][61] Since resumption of the annual rivalry in 2010, the series is close, with TCU leading 7–4. Since TCU joined Baylor in the Big 12 in 2012, the Big 12 series record is 6–3 in favor of TCU.

The TCU Horned Frogs also share a historic rivalry with the Southern Methodist University Mustangs, located in Fort Worth's sister (and rival) city, Dallas. In football, teams from TCU and SMU have competed annually in the Battle for the Iron Skillet since 1946 when, during pre-game festivities, an SMU fan was frying Frog Legs as a joke before the game. A TCU fan, seeing this as a desecration of their "Horned Frog", told him that eating the frog legs was going well beyond the rivalry and that they should let the game decide who would get the skillet and the frog legs. SMU won the game, and the skillet and frog legs went to SMU that year. The tradition spilled over into the actual game and the Iron Skillet is now passed to the winner as the rivalry's traveling trophy.^[62] TCU leads the all-time series 47–40–7. TCU recently beat SMU 42–34 on September 24, 2022.

Traditionally, TCU's other biggest rivals were also members of the now-defunct Southwest Conference which disbanded in 1996. These rivalries, played only sporadically after 1996 as out of conference games, were renewed when TCU moved to the Big 12 Conference for the 2012 season. After a couple of decades of membership in various other conferences around the U.S. (Western Athletic Conference, Conference USA, the Mountain West Conference and the Big East Conference), TCU now plays regularly with these rivals that, along with Baylor University and Southern Methodist University discussed above, also include The West Texas Championship with Texas Tech University and a long-standing rivalry with The University of Texas at Austin.

TCU has also developed new rivalries. West Virginia University has become a rival largely due to the schools' cohort entry into the Big 12 Conference together in 2012, combined with a toggle of extremely close, dramatic, last-minute wins in their football match ups to date. The rivalry with Boise State University, with which TCU competed on the national stage in the 2000s as the two most prominent "BCS Busters", and which also shared one year together as members of the Mountain West Conference, has also become a major, if periodic, rival. TCU and Boise State competed as the most effective BCS Busters before the demise of the BCS system. In 2011, as members of the Mountain West, TCU won the only in-conference game between the two schools, winning with no time left on a missed Boise State field goal. The rivalry with Boise State will be played only sporadically in the future due to TCU's move to the "Power Conference" Big 12 and Boise State's remaining status as the consensus leader of the "mid-major" programs in the "Group of Five" Conferences.

TCU also maintains a cross-town baseball rivalry with fellow Division I competitor The University of Texas at Arlington.