The reunion angle to Saturday's game in Fort Worth, Texas, between No. 15 TCU and Arkansas is lost on the players. None was alive the last time the schools met 25 years ago as Southwest Conference rivals.
"I don't know anything about that, to tell you the truth," said TCU receiver Desmon White when quizzed about the schools' shared SWC past. "I'm sure I'm not the only one."
But the memory banks are working overtime this week for longtime TCU fans and graduates who can remember a dark stretch in Horned Frogs' football history when a victory over Arkansas seemed like an impossible dream. For 22 consecutive seasons, that's exactly what it proved to be.
Finally, against long odds and in dramatic fashion, the dream became reality on an October night 35 years ago. The Horned Frogs rallied from an 11-point deficit in the final five minutes to secure a 28-24 upset that triggered the most raucous victory celebration that Frank Windegger, TCU's former athletic director, could recall during his 45 seasons at the school.
Windegger, who retired in 1998, was the school's athletic director on Oct. 3, 1981. But the AD's box that night at Amon G. Carter Stadium contained only long-faced guests until some late-game heroics from quarterback Steve Stamp, receiver Stanley Washington, safety Byron Linwood and others altered the mood.
"You'd better believe it," Windegger said. "That was a long 22 years. Everybody was just going nuts during that rally. That was the loudest press box and the most jumping up and down of my tenure."
The joy was unbridled because many in the stadium that night, including most of the Frogs' players, never had seen TCU beat Arkansas in a football game in their lifetimes. As a 21-year-old college senior watching from the stands, I had not. Neither had Jack Hesselbrock, TCU's associate athletics director who graduated from the school in 1982. Neither had John Denton, TCU's longtime color analyst for football broadcasts who was a kicker for the Frogs that season.
Largely because of conference realignment, that triumph 35 years ago remains the only time TCU has defeated Arkansas in a football game in Fort Worth since 1958. The Horned Frogs seek to update that list Saturday as a 7-point favorite and the only Top 25 team taking the field.
Denton, now the director of major gifts for TCU athletics, acknowledged most Frogs' fans would be stunned to learn that historical footnote about the rivalry. TCU, during the past 16 seasons under coach Gary Patterson, has a 144-47 record. But none of those games has come against Arkansas, which won the last meeting between the schools by a 22-21 count in 1991.
"To think these days in terms of TCU losing to someone 22 times in a row is unthinkable," Denton said. "But that's the way it was back then ... Arkansas was rolling. They were a legitimate, card-carrying, big boy of college football. TCU was struggling. It was a huge milestone for TCU just to break that streak."
Dan Jenkins remembers. The renowned author and TCU graduate was part of the crowd that night, hoping to see the Frogs end their long run of futility against the Razorbacks.
"I was just hoping it would happen in my lifetime," Jenkins said.
As it turned out, the wait proved short for Jenkins and the rest of the crowd of 30,313 who saw the Frogs topple the 18th-ranked Razorbacks. To those in attendance in 1981, the historic nature of the upset was magnified by the rally that made it happen.
TCU trailed, 24-13, with 5:20 to play when the offense took possession at its own 1-yard line. Washington, the Frogs' heralded receiver, had zero catches. Denton, Washington's friend since their childhood days in Dallas, grabbed his teammate by the arm.
"I told him, 'Hey, get open. Get those hands working. We need you. You can do this,' " Denton said. "I kind of gave him a swat on the rear end and said, 'Let's get going. We need those hands of yours.' And he went out and made some plays."
Specifically, he grabbed three passes, including two for touchdowns, during the next two drives. After Washington's second catch, a 22-yard scoring strike to cap a 99-yard march, TCU coach F.A. Dry opted to go for a 2-point conversion. But Stamp's toss to tight end Bob Fields was off-target.
"It was off his left hip and Bob reaches back and somehow pulls it in with one hand against his hip in the end zone," Denton said. "All of a sudden, it's 24-21 and the bench went nuts. Bob's catch got everybody fired up as much as the touchdown did."
A fumble recovery by Linwood got the ball back for TCU and brightened the outlook of Hesselbrock, who was watching in the TCU student section.
"You thought, 'Maybe this is it.' And sure enough, it was," Hesselbrock said. "When it ended, a lot of people were crying in the stands. They were ecstatic. To finally defeat them was amazing. That party went on forever."
Denton recalled a locker room celebration that was "absolute hysteria." Jenkins, alas, had to be informed of the result by his son at a Fort Worth nightclub where the two reconvened after the contest. Dad left with TCU facing a 24-13 deficit.
"My kid showed up later to tell me the Frogs won. I thought he was kidding," Jenkins said. "But I went ahead and had an extra scotch. That's all I remember."
Reached for comment about the upset by a Star-Telegram reporter in 1981, Jenkins said the victory was "like V-J Day, the war is over." Other TCU graduates shared similar sentiments that evening.
Longtime TCU coach Dutch Meyer, who held the school's record for career victories (109) before it was broken by Patterson, called the triumph over the Razorbacks "the greatest thing to happen in many a day" to the TCU football program. Legendary TCU quarterback Sam Baugh, namesake of the school's indoor practice facility, said he was "happy and tickled" that his alma mater ended its 22-year losing streak against Arkansas.
At Windegger's edict, the scoreboard remained lit until Monday with the 28-24 final score. Hesselbrock recalled players and students making adjustments to the gray T-shirts popular before the game and emblazoned with the motto: "22 is enough." Over the purple lettering, students crossed out the word "is" and wrote in the word "was." Because 22 was enough.
"If you were there that night, you'd never forget it," Hesselbrock said.
