What the TCU Horned Frogs were reminded about snow and ice

The coldest air of the season is rolling into Ames, Iowa, this week, possibly bringing snow and ice in time for TCU’s game against Iowa State on Saturday.

But the Horned Frogs ought to be OK with that.

Kelsey Patterson reminded them on Twitter this week that snow and ice “don’t scare the FROGS, it’s our LEGACY.”

Her tweet included a photo of a sign with that said, “Fight ‘em til Hell freezes over, then fight ‘em on the ice.”

It’s Dutch Meyer’s most famous saying, and the words are hung on the entrace to the football locker room at TCU.

Meyer coached the Frogs to their two national championships, in 1935 and 1938, also winning Southwest Conference titles in 1938, 1944 and 1951. He was TCU’s winningest coach with 109 victories until Gary Patterson, who won his 110th game in 2012.

But Meyer’s quote is among the most memorable in college football lore and has even spun off a social media tag for the Frogs, #TooColdU”

Since 2009, TCU has played five games when the temperature at kickoff was close to freezing — and won four of them.

The coldest victory was a 19-degree day at Air Force in October 2009, when the Frogs held out for a 20-17 win to remain unbeaten on the way to a BCS bowl.

Twice the Frogs have won when the game started in 31-degree weather, at Wyoming in 2009 and Kansas in 2014.

In 2015, the Frogs kicked off on a 36-degree night at Oklahoma and barely lost when a two-point conversion pass failed in the final minute.

The next week, it was 38 and raining when TCU kicked off at home against Baylor and finally sloshed to a bone-chilled 28-21 victory in double overtime.

What will Saturday in Ames bring?

Nothing the Frogs haven’t seen.

This story was originally published October 26, 2017 at 12:21 AM with the headline "What the TCU Horned Frogs were reminded about snow and ice."