The SMU–TCU football rivalry is an American college football

rivalry A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant ...

between the

SMU Mustangs football The SMU Mustangs football program is a college football team representing Southern Methodist University (SMU) in University Park in Dallas County, Texas. The team competes in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) as a member of the American ...

team of

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , ...

(SMU) and

TCU Horned Frogs football The TCU Horned Frogs football team represents Texas Christian University (TCU) in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The Horned Frogs play their home games in Amon G. Carter Stadium, which is located on the ...

of Texas Christian University (TCU). The winner of the game receives an iron skillet as a trophy.

History

The teams have played all but six years since their first meeting in 1915. They did not face each other in 1919, 1920, 1925,

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

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, 2006 or 2020. Although no longer in the same conference, SMU and TCU have agreed to play each season through 2025 on an alternating home-and-away basis. The 2020 game originally scheduled for September 11 was canceled due to TCU team members testing positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

. On November 29, 2021, SMU head coach Sonny Dykes was hired for the same position at TCU.

Iron Skillet

Two different versions of the story. In recent years SMU's website has claimed the following. TCU and SMU fans began the tradition back in 1946. During pre-game festivities, an SMU fan was frying frog legs as a joke before the game. A TCU fan, seeing this desecration of the "frog", went over and told him that eating the frog legs was going well beyond the rivalry and that they should let the game decide who would get the skillet and the frog legs. SMU won the game, and the skillet and frog legs went to SMU. The tradition eventually spilled over into the actual game and the Iron Skillet is now passed to the winner. An article from TCU magazine tells the following story. "The first "Battle for the Iron Skillet" occurred on November 30, 1946, as college football boomed after World War II. Weeks prior to the game, SMU’s Student Council proposed the idea of presenting a trophy to the winning team. TCU accepted the idea, and the two schools' governing bodies met in Dallas to set up the rules of the traveling trophy, which became the Iron Skillet." The TCU magazine article has this to say about the other story "One mystery remains: Why a skillet? History books provide scant details. Some claim that an SMU fan in the 1950s was caught frying frogs legs in a skillet at a tailgate before the game, and a TCU fan wagered that the winner should take the pan home, but that conflicts with a published report of the skillet originating with the councils."

Notable games

1935: For the Rose Bowl

TCU and SMU again met to decide not only the SWC title but the first trip to the Rose Bowl for a team from the SWC. Grantland Rice of the

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called it the "Game of the Century" and reported the following:

In a TCU Stadium that seated 30,000 spectators, over 36,000 wildly excited Texans and visitors from every corner of the map packed, jammed, and fought their way into every square foot of standing and seating space to see one of the greatest football games ever played…this tense, keyed up crowd even leaped the wire fences from the top of automobiles…"

SMU scored the first 14 points. TCU, led by All-American quarterback

Sammy Baugh Samuel Adrian Baugh (March 17, 1914 – December 17, 2008) was an American professional football player and coach. During his college and professional careers, he most notably played quarterback, but also played as a safety and punter. He ...

, tied the game at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Then, with seven minutes left in the game SMU, on 4th and 4 on the Frogs' 37 yard-line, lined up to punt. Quarterback

Bob Finley Robert Edward Finley (November 25, 1915 – January 2, 1986) was an American professional baseball catcher, who was an SMU back drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1943 and ...

threw a 50-yard pass to running back Bobby Wilson who made what is described as a "jumping, twisting catch that swept him over the line for the touchdown."

Game results

References