The Frog Horn hits the road ...

The 3,000 pound purple noisemaker will be seen and heard around the Rose Bowl

Fort Worth, TX

12/26/2010

If you’re in Pasadena for the Rose Bowl or watching the weekend’s events on TV, you might catch a glimpse of TCU’s iconic, 3,000 pound noisemaker, the Frog Horn. Sadly, it can’t be on the sidelines at the game and it won’t be rolling down Colorado Blvd. in the Rose Parade (it’s not covered in flowers obviously and is, therefore, disqualified).

BUT, if you listen you’ll probably hear it blasting its train whistle decibels all around town.  It’s the sound the TCU faithful expect to hear every time their team puts points on the scoreboard.

The Frog Horn was given to TCU in 1994 by Burlington Northern Railroad. A small group of men at Burlington’s Springfield, Mo., maintenance shop had less than four weeks to complete the horn, but the challenge energized them, says Dale Propp, who, as then-general superintendent of locomotive operations at Burlington, oversaw the project.

“They were very skilled craftsmen,” Propp says. “We had a lot of creative folks work on it, and they just fell in love with the project. Never at the railroad had they ever built something like that. I think they put about 14 coats of paint on it.”

During conversations between Propp and TCU supporters guiding the project, the “trailer with a horn” expanded to include marquee lights for TCU logos, green flashing eyes and theatrical smoke that poured from two chrome “horns” on top.
Those extras, of course, meant additional equipment under the cowling, so it overheated during a test drive. Vents were added to the body, which was all hand machined in the Springfield shop. A local artist was hired to paint the face after agreeing to give the beast a ferocious look.

Propp rolled the cost of the horn into a locomotive rebuild project. When charges quickly passed the original estimate of $5,000, he stopped asking. If he knows, he’s not telling, but some say 10 times more, others say as much as $65,000. The shiny new Frog Horn was loaded onto a C-47 and flown to Fort Worth.

Fort Worth businessman and a TCU trustee at the time Bill Steele was stunned by the finished product. “I was just electrified,” he says. “This was something else — way beyond our expectations. Nobody else will ever have one of these. No other school.”

Since 2002, former roommates and Horned Frog Marching Band members Justin Garvin and Jason Lesikar, along with Justin’s dad Jim Garvin, have lovingly cared for the horn, keeping it in running condition and managing it at games. It takes all three: One to watch the game and cue a second handler to ring the bell or blow the horn at the right time (a very important task since blasts at the wrong time can violate NCAA rules), and one to keep others at an appropriate distance.

“Even at a game, there are photographers and other people down on the field who want to blow it or ask us questions, so one of us has to manage that,” Justin Garvin says. “During other appearances, all three of us are there to answer questions and handle the crowds that gather around it.” Lesikar keeps it in a secure facility on his ranch west of town and handles all the maintenance and repair — mostly out of his own pocket.

Today the link between the Frog Horn’s blast and a TCU score is so strong that EA Sports incorporated the sound into recent versions of their NCAA Football video game — when TCU scores, you hear the horn blow. “I’m sure TCU fans of the game told the company, ‘Hey! Where’s our horn?’ ” says Jack Hesselbrock, associate athletic director for internal relations. “So that’s where it’s gotten to. It’s so powerful.”

And incredibly visceral. It intimidates opponents and pumps up the Frogs so much that administrators do everything they can to get the horn to bowl games and other athletic events.

There was a wave of disappointment when the horn wasn’t allowed on the field at last year’s Fiesta Bowl, but Hesselbrock says TCU pushed hard for it. In the end, small sidelines and the horn’s weight kept it off the raised field. The horn made a huge splash at the Arizona game anyway, says Justin Garvin.

“About three years ago people began referring it an icon. In Phoenix I discovered it was a rock star. People were following exactly where it was at any moment,” he says. “They want to touch it, set their kids on it, get their picture with it. There were even hundreds of Boise State fans who came to pose for pictures with it.” It didn’t hurt that the three horn blowers handed out purple koozies and mini footballs printed with Go Frogs!, which they purchased on their own.

For this year’s season opener against Oregon State, which was played at the Cowboy’s stadium in Arlington, Hesselbrock made sure the contract stipulated the horn would be on the field. “They knew what it was and said, “Bring it on. We’ll find a place for it,” he says.

How appropriate: The world’s loudest college noisemaker at the world’s largest football stadium.

 

(The above feature is taken from an article written by Nancy Bartosek for the Fall 2010 TCU alumni magazine.)