The story behind TCU Football’s Graveyard: A father, his son, and a dead patch of grass
Bill Wood has a major problem, and his decision could affect the entire TCU community, and its football team.
An innocent, fun creation born from a dead patch in his front yard turned into a tourist spot for TCU fans, and curious drivers, is now starting to feel like a bit much.
“How do we back out of this thing gracefully?” he asked. “I really don’t want another month of this; Christmas is coming around and this is starting to look kinda weird.”
And ...?
Anyone can have a green yard. That’s cliche.
Anyone can put up Christmas junk in their yard. Again, cliche.
A yard that serves as a graveyard to your alma mater’s football opponents is amazing.
The house that he bought in 1977 sits directly across from the TCU track, and a short walk from the football stadium.
In October, the 75-year-old retired attorney from Fort Worth wanted to fix a large patch of dead grass in his front yard. It had become a bit of a mess after a tree was removed, and a stump grinder damaged pipes.
A professional yard man told him not to plant grass until the spring. There is nothing more gratifying than being told by a professional to wait months before starting a home project.
Wood’s son, Walker, who is also a TCU alum, had an idea. The idea turned into one of those organic creations that go viral, and make everyone stop to take a picture.
The two turned one half of the dead yard into a Halloween-style graveyard featuring coffin plots with a goal post serving as the head stone of TCU’s 2022 opponents.
“We didn’t make one for Colorado or Tarleton State, but when we beat SMU we started to move down the line (of opponents),” Wood said.
It has become the TCU Graveyard.
At first, the graveyard featured three crosses: SMU, Oklahoma and Kansas. The tombstone is a cross painted purple, in white lettering is RIP, and in red is the name of the opponent.
“We wanted red for the color of the blood that a Horned Frog spits out of its eye,” Wood said.
By the time that third cross was finished, TCU won another game. So Billy and Walker “dug” another plot.
“We agreed that we had a streak going but we could not buy any materials or do any preparation for the next win until we know they won,” said Wood, who, played for the TCU golf team from 1965 to ‘68, is part of a family that has been TCU season-ticket holders since the mid 1930s.
“We didn’t want to jinx ourselves.”
The materials.
This little DIY isn’t free.
The rocks actually came from a ditch that had be dug when a plumbing problem at the house occurred months ago. The tree limbs, which look appropriate for an actual graveyard, came from a tree that had to be removed from their yard.
The wood for the goalpost tombstones are “Hobby Boards” from Home Depot.
“It’s the spray paint; we kept having to buy more purple spray paint,” Wood said.
Then there are the solar powered lights in front of each plot.
Wood figures this project has cost about $125. Ish.
As with any great home project, there were multiple steps to “that should only take 30 minutes,” which routinely turned into 2 hours and 30 minutes. Multiple trips to the hardware store.
Countless questions of, “Why did we do this again?”
“After Halloween came and went it really took off and we had people telling us we couldn’t take it down,” Wood said.
Wood’s wife, Donna, was flooded with text messages from friends imploring her not to change it.
People routinely stop their walks, their runs, their bike rides, or their cars, to take pictures of the TCU Graveyard.
“People want to stop and talk while I was trying to work and I’m trying to get it done to beat the rain,” he said.
After TCU defeated Baylor on Nov. 19 on Griffin Kell’s walk-off field goal, Walker’s creativity went into full playoff mode.
The Baylor tombstone includes a purple-painted Nerf football between goal posts rather than a cross.
The father-son duo added one more tombstone, for Iowa State, and hoped that a TCU win over Kansas State in the Big 12 title game would give them the chance to “get out of this.”
Of course, that didn’t quite work out.
But, TCU made the playoffs and could potentially play two more games.
Wood plans not to end bulldoze his TCU Graveyard just yet. He does plan to make an adjustment; think of it as a downsizing while accommodating the Fiesta Bowl and potentially the national title game.
“My son has worked with me, side-by-side, so that’s been great,” Bill said. “But I keep thinking this looks a little weird.”
A graveyard in a front yard is a little weird.
Considering the circumstances, and the season, it’s also absolutely awesome.
This story was originally published December 8, 2022 at 12:00 AM.
