From NCAA probation to suggesting Gary Patterson, he’s TCU’s most interesting man ever

Dick Lowe was given two choices: on or off.

“It can be on the record,” he said. “That’s fine.”

When you’re nearly 90 and have generational wealth, you’re no longer afraid of the truth, and tend not to care what others think.

Few men in the history of TCU have ever loved the place as much as Lowe, who in his time on earth had more to do with its slow march to irrelevance and its impact on its return to prominence.

Lowe is one of the biggest reasons TCU was put on the “Walking Death Penalty” by the NCAA in 1986.

Lowe is one of the biggest reasons why TCU is on ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday when it plays No. 4 Ohio State.

Gary Patterson is not the head coach at TCU without Dick Lowe. TCU is not where it is today without Gary Patterson.

TCU was this close to hiring Watson Brown or Phil Bennett.

One decision, made by former TCU athletics director Eric Hyman but consented by others above his head, specifically then Vice Chancellor Dr. William Koehler, put TCU in the position its in today, which is one of the most enviable of any private school in the nation.

Good and bad, none of it happens without Lowe, The Most Interesting Man in the history of TCU.

“The (paying of players in the ‘80s) was the dumbest thing I ever did. The most unethical thing I ever did,” he said. “I hate that I did it. TCU shouldn’t have to do it. How the hell do we think we are going to compete with buying players with Texas or Oklahoma? They can drown us. I was just totally frustrated.”

‘I’ll be damned. Your offer is the most. I’m coming to TCU.’

Shortly after Dennis Franchione was hired in 1998, he encouraged Lowe to re-join the TCU family.

Lowe, a wildly successful oilman who previously played at TCU, removed himself from the school and football program after the team was put on a crippling NCAA three-year probation from which the program had not truly recovered. The school was put on probation partly because of Lowe’s prominent role in “recruiting” and paying players.

Lowe played football at TCU, graduated in 1951, and has been fiercely loyal of the place ever since. Sometimes blindly so.

His presence made Hyman uneasy. Lowe, who had built, lost and re-built his oil empire, was friends with so many of the TCU administrators that Hyman was not in a position to ban him from the school, or department.

Fran’ had the power, and he was the one who was trying to solicit as much support as assistance for his program that was short on support, and money.

Lowe has so many stories from the paydays of the Southwest Conference he could be a documentary.

“I remember we had (Temple running back) Kenneth Davis all locked up and he called me and said, ‘(head coach) Fred Akers is here from Texas.’ I said, ‘You tell Coach Akers you had an appointment with me.’ So he showed up. I asked him what Nebraska and Texas Tech were offering. Well, he added it all up and said, ‘I’ll be damned. Your offer is the most. I’m coming to TCU.’

“Then he backed out again. He said, ‘I have to have one more thing. I have to have a single shot .22 rifle and another one for my little brother.’ I said, ‘Meet me at the hardware store in West.’ He said, ‘When?’ I said, ‘Right now. I got them two single shot .22 rifles.’”

The knock on Patterson was that he “did not interview well.”

Shortly after Fran’ left TCU to take the Alabama job, Hyman compiled a list of candidates.

The candidates were: UAB head coach Watson Brown; Kansas State defensive coordinator Phil Bennett; Arizona Cardinals linebackers coach Dave McGinnis; Iowa State head coach Dan McCarney; and Patterson.

After Bennett completed his interview with Hyman he asked,“Have you talked to Dick Lowe and (former TCU player and influential TCU booster) Hunter Enis about this yet?”’

Hyman said no, that he wasn’t going to do that. Bennett suggested he might want to talk to them.

Hyman presented three names to his boss, Koehler. The names - Brown, Bennett and Patterson.

The knock on Patterson was that he “did not interview well.”

“Koehler said, ‘I don’t care if he interviews well. I care if he can coach a football team,’” Lowe said.

Koehler made it clear this was not his decision, but asked two questions of Hyman about the “finalists.”

How was he going to present to the media the hiring of Brown, who is the older brother of former Texas coach Mack Brown and is close to a prominent TCU booster, and specifically his career losing record at UAB? At that point, Brown had been a head coach for four schools - Cincinnati Rice, Vanderbilt and UAB - in 13 seasons and in ‘00 had posted his first winning record.

Koehler also asked of Hyman why he would select a career defensive coordinator in Bennett, who had also worked at TCU, when he had a perfectly good candidate in Patterson, who was Franchione’s top assistant?

Lowe said when Koehler asked him who he would hire, he said Patterson. Koehler agreed.

At the time, Koehler had been overseeing the athletic department for several years, and any time a major decision was made he had to approve the move.

Hyman preferred to hire coaches who, as he said, “had worn the whistle,” meaning they had previously been a head coach.

Patterson and Bennett had never been head coaches previously.

The decision to hire Patterson was Hyman’s, but there is no doubt that Koehler influenced the move, and Lowe’s advice affected Koehler.

In the end, all three can, and do, rightfully claim a win.

Brown concluded his 43-year coaching career in 2015. His career record was 136-211-1.

Bennett was named the head coach at SMU in 2002 and lasted six years there. A widely respected defensive coach, he was the only member of Art Briles’ staff at Baylor to land a Power 5 job immediately after leaving Waco. He’s currently taking a year off but plans to coach again.

McGinnis was named the head coach of the Cardinals in 2000 when he replaced Vince Tobin. The former TCU player was fired after the ‘03 season. He spent 31 years in the NFL as a coach, and currently is a broadcaster for the Tennessee Titans.

McCarney left Iowa State after the 2006 season, and was named the head coach at North Texas in 2006. He was at UNT until 2015; he had winning record in Denton.

Patterson’s record and resume is one of the most impressive in the history of college football.

“The rules are still broken, just as much as ever.”

Every time TCU has hired a new athletic director, Lowe has approached the administrator to lay out his history. If they don’t want him around, he’s gone.

He said one of the ADs wanted him to sign an affidavit that he wouldn’t cheat.

Former TCU director of athletics Chris Del Conte, who is now at Texas, told Lowe, “I don’t care what you did 20 years ago. Everyone was cheating. You were doing what everyone else was doing; you just weren’t doing it as well.’”

Lowe said he had an agreement with Patterson.

“If he sees me cheating he’s going to turn me in; If I see him cheating, I’m going to turn him in,” he said. “I felt terrible about it when it all happened. I had been totally stupid and had done something wrong. When you do something wrong, you pay the price.

“The rules are still broken, just as much as ever. There are schools in Texas doing it, too. The SEC is terrible about it.”

When TCU rebuilt Amon G. Carter Stadium, Lowe’s support was instrumental to complete the project. Lowe and Enis, who co-founded the Four Sevens Oil Co. in Fort Worth, are one of the few honored with bronze likenesses as “Founders” of the entire stadium.

They attend games in the select “Founder’s Suites,” often with noted TCU alum and legendary sports writer Dan Jenkins as their guest.

“I’m 90 now and never in my life did I think I’d see what TCU would become what it is today,” Lowe said. “To see where it was and now, I never thought it would happen. I thought Gary was a good coach, and he could win, but I didn’t think he would be one of the best in the country.”