When You Know, You Know

Alumni answer: When did you first know you wanted to be a TCU Horned Frog?

By TCU Magazine

August 9^th, 2022

Compiled by Trisha Spence

Being from Colorado, I first learned about TCU my sophomore year of high school, but from that moment on, I was all about TCU. When I finally came to visit the summer before my senior year, I told my parents to cancel all our other trips and college tours because I was going to TCU. There was not a doubt in my mind that TCU was the place for me, and I was right.

— Erin Oman Patterson ’96

I knew I wanted to be a Horned Frog the minute my dad drove me up the drive to the old student center. Before I even got out of the car to get a brochure (back in 1990), I said this is where I want to go. The feel, the brick buildings, the beautiful trees, Frog Fountain. I grew up in Dallas and had never been to TCU or Fort Worth. I knew, when I literally stepped foot on campus, this was going to be home.

— Cari Eubanks Parr ’94

It was either go to grad school or get drafted. Guess which I chose.

— James Kent Cox ’69 MBA

When I arrived on the TCU campus to visit with my dad, it became obvious very quickly that TCU would soon be my home.

In 1968 when my dad (Rollin Roberts ’50) put me on a homecoming float for a Polaroid moment as we headed to the TCU football game.

— Ken Roberts ’85

During my junior year in high school, I came from California for a tour. I liked the university, but what really convinced me that I belonged at TCU was the grand piano in the lobby of Colby. If the freshman dorm had a piano, that meant I could continue playing even away from home. Ironically, I did not live in Colby and never played that piano. But I would often play the spinet in Jarvis and in many a practice room in Ed Landreth. TCU definitely proved to be the right place for me!

— Jennifer Parmley Bennett ’97

When I first visited campus. I loved the look and feel of it.

I always wanted to attend the University of Texas because my parents and a large number of relatives had gone there. We were/are big fans. On a whim my senior year of high school, I decided to visit the TCU campus as a friend had been after me to come see her. I immediately fell in love with the campus and the students I met. I went home and told my parents I was going to TCU for two years and then transfer to Texas. I did just exactly that, BUT I only stayed at UT for three days before I returned to TCU.

— Barbara Claire Schmidt Heinen ’61

We lived in New Jersey but would come to visit family in Texas every summer. My aunt, Joan Parker Kinney ’62, would take my sister, Carol Bond Baulch ’73, and I for walks and shopping in the TCU area. When Joan graduated from high school she enrolled at TCU and took Carol and I on campus tours. Even as a child I knew I wanted to go to TCU. As the years passed and TCU grew, so did my desire to attend TCU.

— Susan Bond Butsch ’71

In 1983, when I began lifting weights for seventh grade football, my parents took me to campus to meet with Mr. Elmer Brown, the longtime (and Hall-of-Fame) head athletic trainer for TCU Athletics. He helped us determine what lifts were safe and which were not. Afterward, I got a tour of the main athletic training room and also met Mr. T. Ross Bailey ’76 (MEd ’77), who I remember calling me a future Frog. After that experience, I was hooked. My high school athletic trainer, Brian Conway ’84, was Ross’ former student. I’m still in the athletic trainer profession today — and all because of the influence of world-class TCU alumni!

— Lance Wilke ’94

When I saw how many people were at UT. I would do it all over again.

— Mark Baudin ’85

I had already been accepted at UT Austin and found out the dorm I was going to be living in had its very own postal ZIP code! I thought, “How am I ever going to stand out in a place that big?” That’s when I turned my sights to TCU and its far better teacher-to-student ratio, and I’ve never regretted my decision. I received a scholarship from TCU, studied under some great professors who really cared (especially Dr. A.A.J. Hoffman of the computer science department, may he rest in peace) and I met some lifelong friends. I thrived at TCU, and I stood out.

— Kevin Millstid ’82

Going to games as a kid. I knew I wouldn’t be happy going anywhere else.

I first knew I wanted to go to TCU in about 1962. We had moved to Pennsylvania and the winters were dreary. We watched College Bowl on the weekends. TCU played against several other universities and trounced them all, returning week after week. When I saw them getting all the questions right, I knew that was where I would go to college. I didn’t know then that this would make me a Horned Frog; it was the quality of the education that mattered.

— Sally Wilshire ’81

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