Seventy years and more than 500 Sports Illustrated articles and 24 books later, Dan Jenkins’ legacy found a fitting showcase Tuesday, when TCU formally named it’s football football stadium press box after the legendary writer.
CLICK HERE to read the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s story.
DALLAS — Even with their football season over, Gary Patterson and TCU continue to score points.
Patterson accepted the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award from the Football Writers Association of America on Saturday night at the Renaissance Hotel, headquarters for the national championship game.
It gave him a chance, since a national media audience was asking, to talk about why he took the “high road” and avoided politicking for a spot in the four-team playoff or complaining when the one-loss Horned Frogs were left out.
“I just felt there’s never going to be a perfect system, and I just watch, whether it’s politics or it’s football, nowadays all we do is cut everybody down,” he said. “I felt like I had a great opportunity to do something right for a change. That’s why I did it.”
TCU Coach Gary Patterson received the FWAA Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award on Saturday Jan. 10 in Dallas. Photos by Melissa Macatee.
Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award
DALLAS – Texas Christian University’s Gary Patterson has been named the winner of the 2014 FWAA/Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award in the first year of the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s presenting sponsorship. Patterson is the eighth coach to claim the writers’ award at least twice. Two-time winners are Nick Saban (LSU, Alabama), Lou Holtz (Arkansas, Notre Dame), Darrell Royal (Texas), John McKay (USC) and Johnny Majors (Pittsburgh) as two-time winners of the 58-year-old National Coach of the Year Award. Woody Hayes (Ohio State) and Joe Paterno (Penn State) each won the award three times.
“I’d like to thank the Football Writers Association of America,” said Patterson, the winningest football coach in TCU history (131-45). “I’m very honored and humbled to be a part of such a great award and the man it represents.”
TCU Coach Gary Patterson
Patterson’s 2014 TCU team, after being picked to finish seventh by the media before the season, claimed a share of the Big 12 Conference football title in only its third season in the league. Rebounding from a 4-8 record in the 2013 season, the Horned Frogs (11-1 overall, 8-1 in the Big 12) finished sixth in the final College Football Playoff rankings. TCU will meet No. 9 Ole Miss in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on Dec. 31 in Atlanta.
The Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award will be highlighted during a reception at the Renaissance Hotel on Jan. 10, 2015, in Dallas, where Patterson will accept the Eddie Robinson bust at the College Football Playoff National Championship Game media hotel. He will place it alongside the bust he won five seasons ago.
Patterson, in his 14th season as the Horned Frogs’ head coach, also claimed the Eddie Robinson Award in 2009 when TCU won a Mountain West Conference championship, played in the Fiesta Bowl and finished with a 12-1 record and No. 6 ranking. Patterson was also a finalist for the award in 2003 and 2010. Previous to Patterson, the last Big 12 coach to win the award was Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy in 2011.
The Fifth Down 