TCU football pays tribute to lives lost in Texas Hill Country tragedy
Over the past two months, Texans have used green ribbons with bows to commemorate the lives lost in the July 4 Hill Country flooding, which killed more than 100 people, including more than two dozen girls and counselors from Camp Mystic in Hunt.
Green is significant because it’s Camp Mystic’s official color, and it’s not uncommon to find the green ribbons tied around trees across the state, a stark reminder of the tragedy, yet also a way of keeping the victims’ memories alive.
For last weekend’s season-opening slate of games, several Texas college football teams sported ribbons of their own, in the form of a special decal on players’ helmets depicting an outline of the state of Texas with a green bow at its center. Among the schools was TCU, whose players and coaches also wore green ribbons on their lapels at Big 12 Media Days back in July, less than a week after the flood. Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, Texas Tech, SMU, Rice and others also sported the decals.
TCU players will again wear the helmet decals at their home opener against Abilene Christian University on Sept. 13, as will the ACU Wildcats players. It’s still up in the air whether the Horned Frogs will wear them beyond that.
When asked what message he wanted that gesture to convey to people impacted by the flooding, head coach Sonny Dykes said, “I’d hope it shows that they’re important to all of us, their memories are important and they’re going to continue to be in our thoughts.”
Origins of the TCU tribute
TCU’s initial show of solidarity with victims and their loved ones originated with Dykes’ wife, Kate. She’s the one who went to a craft store and bought the ribbons and stick pins to give the players and coaching staff to wear as they were being interviewed at Big 12 Media Days.
“It wasn’t a very professional job,” Kate said, “but we kind of felt like it was in some small way a chance to honor them by bringing more attention to what was happening.”
The tragedy was especially close to Mrs. Dykes’ heart because her parents served as camp directors in Central Texas when she was growing up. Kate said she was with her family on July 4 as the events unfolded.
“As a mother, it just wrecked your heart to see what was happening,” she said. “You think about the magnitude of it all — children in the middle of the night, what they must have gone through.”
In the midst of feeling helpless, Kate said an idea took shape to commemorate the victims. She saw media days as the perfect platform for that, and she was happy to see the idea taken a step further with the helmet decals.
“It means so much,” said Kate. “I’ve had a lot of people reach out and say how much they enjoy that all the Texas schools are doing it. I think the biggest thing when you lose someone, and especially in a tragic way like that, you just want to make sure that they weren’t forgotten and that their memory somehow lives on.”
Dykes said his team was on board from the get-go, and that his players were happy to join other schools’ players in a show of compassion.
“Our players were aware of the flooding in Central Texas and the young people, in particular, who lost their lives,” said Dykes. “We just talked to them about that and asked them if this was something they were interested in doing, and they said, ‘Yes, 100%.’ They wanted to do everything they could to remember everybody that lost loved ones and recognize the impact it had on us, our state and, in particular, the DFW community.”
Rice steps up for statewide commemoration
Eric George, a deputy athletic director at Rice University, started a conversation about doing something to recognize the flood victims. According to a Rice news article, the university worked with folks at Texas Tech to come up with the design for the decal that adorned football helmets.
George said he then worked to get statewide buy-in.
“I reached out to friends at different schools, and everyone was on board,” he’s quoted as saying in the Rice article. “We sent a note to every single Division I school in Texas — from Houston Christian to (Texas) A&M — and everyone said, ‘Yep, we’re in.’ The company that made the stickers even donated them for a lot of schools, which was really cool.”