Traditions

TCU is a place of spirited belonging where Horned Frogs have long found connection through our culture and traditions.

Fireworks display over the TCU Campus Commons

The Go Frogs Hand Sign

Cheerleader Chad Schrotel ’82 helped our gesture of unity catch on with the crowds in 1980. Appropriately, it’s like a peace sign with slightly curled fingers, symbolizing the horns of our tiny, mighty mascot, the horned frog.

A large group of students — all with purple Go Frogs shirts and each with a lit candle — gather during the Chancellor's Assembly

A group TCU students walks across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. They hold a TCU flag and several students make the wo-fingered Go Frogs hand gesture.

A group of five female TCU students studying abroad make the two-fingered Go Frogs hand sign while standing together on a street in London.

A smiling TCU Showgirl makes the two-fingered "Go Frogs" hand sign at a crowded football game.

A close up of a young woman's hand making two-fingered "Go Frogs" hand sign.

Visiting author and television host Bill Nye holds up both hands in the two-fingered Go Frogs hand gesture.

Three diverse students showing the frog hand sign

A happy, cheering student in striped overall and purple sunglasses makes the two-fingered "Go Frogs" hand sign at a crowded football game.

Seven TCU students studying abroad stand in front of a brightly spray-painted graffitti wall on a cobblestone street in Prague.

Dozens of cheering TCU fans raise their arm in a two-fingered "Go Frogs" hand sign at a crowded football game.

A male TCU student in Honors regalia makes the two-fingered "Go Frogs" hand sign in front of a bronze statue

A Century-Old Cheer

At more than 100 years old, “Riff Ram” is rumored to be the oldest chant in the Southwest Conference, where we rose to popularity in the early days of intercollegiate sports. Riff, Ram, Bah, Zoo!

Three 1934 TCU male Yell Leaders smile holding megaphones

SuperFrog

TCU has featured costumed mascots on the sidelines of football games since the 1930s. SuperFrog, created in 1979, had to evolve a bit before being named a Top 25 College Mascot by Sports Illustrated.

Frog Statue

Don’t Just Pass This Lucky Frog

Stressed by a test? Rub the nose of the pointy horned frog statue between Sadler and Reed halls for extra luck. No one knows exactly who started this, but it’s a thing. (And hey, it couldn’t hurt.)

Explore More Of Our Great Traditions

Horned lizard that looks more like a frog sprawled out on a white background

Our mascot, the Horned Frog—actually a lizard—was also the name of our 1886 yearbook.

A TCU graduate wears purple cowboy boots with her commencement gown

TCU boots have been seen since the 1940s. Stadium namesake Amon G. Carter had a pair.

The smoking 3,000-pound Frog Horn announces touchdowns with a blaring train horn.

Incoming first-year students are welcomed into private homes for dinner as part of “Frogs First.”

A group of TCU students raise their celebratory purple margaritas at a festive round table

New graduates raise purple margaritas at the Senior Toast and fajita dinner with the chancellor.

A large fresh tree is unveiled on the TCU campus with lights, crowds, revelers and fireworks

The community loves the annual Christmas Tree Lighting in the TCU Commons.

Overhead view of TCU nursing graduates' decorated caps at Commencement

Crazy graduation caps make Commencement fun, thanks mostly to crafty nursing majors.

Fireworks fill the sky over TCU Frog Fountain

Celebrations mean fireworks. And each time the Frogs score at home football games, we celebrate.

Dressed like cowboys, the TCU Rangers run with large flags at a football game

The spirited Rangers run the flags and the Frog Horn at games.

Back of female TCU student sitting in a metal swing with a cluster of trees and the TCU chapel in the background.

The Jarvis Hall swing has been a romantic campus spot for years, but its origin is a mystery.

The yellowed manuscript of handwritten sheet music of the TCU Alma Mater Hymn, attributed to Glenn Canfield, 1928.

Our Fight Song and Alma Mater are from the 1920s. And our football team knows them both.

A group of young children holding Easter baskets run across a lawn covered with plastic eggs while their parents cheer behind them.

For generations, the TCU Alumni Easter Egg Hunt has been a mad scramble.

Cover of a TCU yearbook featuring an embossed illustration of a campus building and the words The Horned Frog and 1926.

After more than a century, our TCU Yearbook still documents the TCU experience.

A group of graduating TCU seniors sits together in the high stadium bleachers as they watch the sun rise behind the lights of Fort Worth.

Graduating seniors meet before dawn at Senior Sunrise for breakfast together.

Illuminated by handheld candles, two female TCU students listen to a Christmas service in the TCU Chapel.

For 40+ years, Carols by Candlelight has brought the community to our campus chapel.

A young women wearing a protective rock-climbing helmet reaches up to the waiting hands of teammates as she scales a wooden outdoor obstacle course wall, surrounded by friends.

At Frog Camp, incoming first-year students bond with new peers. Camps are held all over the globe.