TCU Wins 1929 Southwest Conference!

I thought I'd add a little bit to Frog Fever by putting up a clip from the front page of an October, 1930 newsletter printed by the local printing house of Turrentine & Thompson who were located at 508 Commerce Street.

The 1929 TCU team had accomplished two huge goals during their season:

With their first-ever victory of Texas they were on a roll and in contention.  The final game of the season with SMU would decide the SWC championship.  Even then the sportswriters were filling the Fort Worth-Star-Telegram and the Dallas Morning News with column inches of predictions and interviews. Everyone predicted a hard fought game between two equally matched teams. Here's a description of the game from a Wikipedia entry found by Jack White:

The 1929 season saw the arrival of Coach Francis Schmidt and TCU's first SWC title. The title was won in the last game of the year on November 30, 1929 against SMU. Coming into the game TCU led SMU in the conference standings. TCU had 4 wins, while SMU's conference record was 3–0–1. Since this was the last conference game of the year for both teams, TCU could win its first SWC title with a win or a tie. The first half of the game was scoreless, but in the third quarter Weldon “Speedy” Mason tacked on 40 yards to a 16-yard pass from SMU quarterback Bob Gilbert. After the extra point, the Mustangs led 7–0. TCU would not score until its second time on the SMU 1-yard line in the fourth quarter. That is when TCU quarterback Howard Grubbs ran behind All-SWC fullback Harlos Green and Mike Brumbelow for the game-tying score. The Frogs left plenty of time on the clock for SMU to answer their score, but Grubbs, now playing defense, intercepted Gilbert's pass. TCU then ran the clock out to force the tie and to win its first SWC title.

While the TCU illustration is from the fall of 1930, it's obvious that the fever was still burning..

News clips from the December 1, 1930, Dallas Morning News