Horned Frogs have hit hard times

Tim Graham

Thursday, Oct. 9, 1997 | 8:32 a.m.

There's a little thing Texas Christian football players and fans like to do when they get excited.

It's a Horned Frog hand salute of sorts, resembling the sign for No. 2 with the fore and middle fingers bent at the knuckle.

But the gesture has not been of much use in recent years, except when checking the program's pulse.

Through the past four decades, the Horned Frogs have been mediocre at best. Since their last title in 1959 as a member of the Southwest Conference, they have mustered only seven winning seasons. Their record in that span is 135-257.

And as TCU prepares to play UNLV Saturday at 1:05 p.m. in a Western Athletic Conference game at Sam Boyd Stadium, it is winless through four games.

"There is not much tradition anymore at TCU," said head coach Pat Sullivan. "I mean, we just had back-to-back winning seasons (1994-95) for the first time since the late '50s."

The Rebels (2-3 overall, 1-1 Pacific Division) could be the easiest team the Horned Frogs (0-4, 0-1 Mountain Division) have faced thus far. TCU lost by seven points at Kansas, 14 to Utah, 24 at Vanderbilt and 21 to fifth-ranked North Carolina.

"We played one of the premier teams in the country in North Carolina," said Sullivan, in his sixth year at TCU's helm. "We knew coming in we were mismatched. I thought our kids hung in there.

"We just didn't have enough firepower to get it done."

While TCU came from behind to beat UNLV 42-34 in Fort Worth last year, it has lacked the firepower to beat most teams lately.

Two years removed from the Independence Bowl, TCU went 4-7 in 1996, a season marred by an off-the-field incident in which four Horned Frogs were indicted for the beating of a TCU student outside a Fort Worth bar. Sullivan was highly criticized for letting the offenders play.

"It was a frustrating year in a lot of areas," Sullivan said. "We had some injuries. We had some other distractions. I'm glad it's over with."

It took bad football and situations such as those to erase Sullivan's thoughts of TCU's past.

The Horned Frogs won a national championship in 1938, three years after finishing as the No. 1-ranked team by the now-obsolete Williamson System, then the only poll to rate teams after the bowl season. The Horned Frogs have also been represented by all-time gridiron greats such as Sammy Baugh, Davey O'Brien and Bob Lilly.

And Sullivan certainly understands the importance of tradition. He won the 1971 Heisman Trophy as a quarterback at Auburn before moving on to a five-year NFL career with the Atlanta Falcons and Washington Redskins.

Because Sullivan is used to success, he refuses to change his approach despite recent results.

"I know what we're doing here is right," Sullivan said. "Nobody wants this program to succeed more than I do."

Extra points

* BUMPS & BRUISES: UNLV backup defensive end Jean-Hans Stallsmith has been downgraded from questionable to out for Saturday's game against Texas Christian. Stallsmith suffered a sprained ankle against Hawaii and missed the Illinois State and Southern Cal games. He practiced this week but was pulled Wednesday by head coach Jeff Horton. For TCU, guard Robert Wallace (ankle), linebacker Scott Taft (ankle, quadriceps) and defensive tackle J.W. Wilson (knee) are probable.