Fans welcome Horned Frogs back after TCU defeat in football national championship game
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TCU in the title game
The TCU Horned Frogs will face off against the Georgia Bulldogs in the College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday in Los Angeles.
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Patricia Cook Smith stood alongside more than 200 other TCU fans and students Tuesday night, wearing a letter jacket and carrying a cutout of a player from the 1938 championship team.
That player was her father, Bob Cook, a left tackle for the team when they claimed that 1938 championship title. She proudly held up the cutout of her father in his football uniform emblazoned with the number 43 and showed off the Horned Frog pin she wore on her father’s old TCU letter jacket while waiting for the team to arrive back from the national championship game.
The Horned Frogs lost Monday night’s game 65-7 against the Georgia Bulldogs, but echoing the sentiment of the other fans awaiting the team’s return, Smith said she was proud of them. That’s why she decided to go and help welcome them home.
“Today they’re just as important as they were 48 hours ago and I want to help make sure they know that,” Smith said.
Smith said she was thrilled to watch the Horned Frogs in the championship game, even while they were losing, because it was a reminder of her father’s legacy with the school.
“Much like the ‘38 team, they played as a team and not as individuals,” Smith said.
The mob of purple-dressed fans cheered the return of their football team, chanting “TCU” and “Riff, ram, bah zoo,” as the players exited their buses.
The team’s return was a mostly jovial event, but some including the players teared up at points throughout.
