Friday, May 3, 2024

TCU Athletics 2024 Hall of Fame Class Features Seven Horned Frogs

 

The TCU Athletics 2024 Hall of Fame class features seven Horned Frogs. They are: Marcus Cannon '10 (football); Jason Coats '12 (baseball); Lisa Ford '90 (track & field); Tom Hoge '11 (men's golf); Helena Sverrisdottir '11 (women's basketball); David Walker '83 (track & field); and former men's tennis coach Bernard James "Tut" Bartzen.

The 57th TCU Athletics Hall of Fame class will be inducted on the evening of Thursday, October 3, and will be honored at TCU's home football game against Houston on Friday, October 4.
 
Marcus Cannon, Football: Cannon helped guide the Horned Frogs to a 25-1 record in his final two seasons, which led to TCU defeating Wisconsin in the 2011 Rose Bowl – the final game Cannon would play in as a Horned Frog. He was a three-time All-Mountain West Conference selection from 2008-10 and was named to three different All-America Teams following his senior campaign in 2010. Cannon also excelled in track & field, earning runner-up honors in the shot-put event at the 2009 MWC Championships.
 
Cannon was selected in the 5th Round, 138th overall, by the New England Patriots in the 2011 NFL Draft. He played 12 years in the NFL. He was named All-Pro in 2016 and helped guide New England to three Super Bowl Titles (XLIX, LI, LII).
 
Cannon will be the 159th TCU football player inducted into the Hall of Fame.
 
Jason Coats, Baseball: Coats helped guide the TCU Baseball team to 177 wins and four-consecutive Mountain West Conference Championships from 2009-12. His game-winning hit against Oregon State in 2009 propelled TCU to its first-ever NCAA Super Regional appearance. One year later, he helped the Horned Frogs earn the program's first College World Series appearance in 2010.
 
A three-time All-MWC selection from 2010-12, Coats' TCU career included 234 games played, 909 at-bats, 304 hits, 202 RBI, and 12 triples. He ranks among the program's all-time top-five players in eight career offensive categories. He is TCU's all-time leader with 69 career doubles.
 
Coats was drafted in the 12th Round of the MLB Draft by the Baltimore Orioles in 2011, but declined and returned to TCU. He was drafted the following year by the Chicago White Sox in the 29th Round of the 2012 MLB Draft. He made his MLB debut with the White Sox on June 4, 2016.
 
Coats will be the 62nd TCU baseball player inducted into the Hall of Fame.
 
Lisa Ford, Women's Track & Field: Ford set numerous NCAA qualifying marks in the Indoor 55m and 200m events, as well as the Outdoor 100m and 200m events during a four-year career at TCU. She earned All-American honors in the Indoor 200m in 1988.
 
Ford set the Indoor 200m school record with a time of 24.03 in 1988, and the record remained for nearly 10 years before it was broken by Giesla Jackson in 1998 (23.57). She also established the school record in the Indoor 55m event with a time of 6.91 seconds that year – a time that still ranks seventh-fastest in school history today.
 
Ford set the school record in the Outdoor 200m event with a time of 23.01 in 1988 – a mark that was broken by TCU Hall of Famer Beverly McDonald in 1993 (22.67). Ford was a track and field Team MVP and also was named the school's Athlete of the Year.
 
Ford will be the eighth women's track and field inductee into the TCU Hall of Fame.
 
Tom Hoge, Men's Golf: Hoge was a four-year letterwinner for the Horned Frogs from 2007-11. He won a pair of tournament individual medalist honors (2008, 2011) during the regular season, notched a pair of top-five finishes at the 2009 (T-3rd) and 2011 (T-5th) MWC Championships and was an All-MWC selection his senior year in 2011.
 
Hoge was named a PING Honorable Mention All-American in 2009 after finishing in a tie for third-place with a score of 3-under par at the NCAA National Championships. He was the first Horned Frog in school history to finish top-5 at the NCAA Championships.
 
Hoge, who finished his career at TCU with a 73.82 career scoring average, was a three-time Academic All-MWC (2009-11) honoree, and a two-time Cleveland Golf/SRIXON Academic All-American (2010-11). He ranks No. 9 all-time in school history with 11 eagles and No. 10 all-time with 356 career birdies.
 
Hoge joined the PGA Tour in 2015. He won his first event, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, on February 6, 2022. He has made 158 cuts in 269 tournament appearances, compiling two runner-up finishes, four top-three finishes and 15 top-five finishes overall. His best finish in a Major came in 2022 when he finished in a tie for ninth-place at the PGA Championship.
 
Hoge will be the eighth men's golf athlete inducted into the TCU Hall of Fame.
 
Helena Sverrisdottir, Women's Basketball: Sverrisdottir was a four-time All-Mountain West Conference selection for the Horned Frogs from 2007-11, becoming the first women's basketball player in school history to earn three-straight First Team honors. Only Zahna Medley (2014-16) has matched back-to-back-to-back All-Conference First Team selections.
 
Sverrisdottir was named the MWC Freshman of the Year in 2007-08. She was named the league's Player of the Year following her junior campaign in 2009-10. She remains TCU's all-time leader in Player of the Week awards, earning the honor nine different times in her career.
 
Sverrisdottir, who hails from Hafnarfjordur, Iceland, is the only player in school history to score at least 1,700 points, post at least 800 rebounds and tally 500 assists in a career. She currently ranks No. 1 all-time in career assists (546) and games started (127), while ranking No. 3 all-time with 826 career rebounds. She is No. 4 all-time in points scored (1,764) and No. 5 all-time in steals (227).
 
Sverrisdottir continued her playing career as a professional in Europe, where she helped lead Haukar to a national championship in 2018. She also played for Valur, where she was named Player of the Year and led the team to a national championship in 2019. She continues to play and coach in her native Iceland today.
 
Sverrisdottir will be the fifth women's basketball athlete inducted into the TCU Hall of Fame.
 
David Walker, Men's Track & Field: Walker was a 1983 All-American, where he ran the anchor leg for TCU's National Champion 4x400m relay team. He was also a member of the 4x100m relay team that finished in fourth-place that same year.
 
Walker's 4x400m relay team ran a time of 3:02.09 to win the National Championship and set a school record in the event – a record that remains today.
 
An All-Southwest Conference honoree for the Horned Frogs from 1979-83, Walker was invited to the Olympic Trials in 1980, where he qualified for the team, but his Olympic dream fell short as the games were boycotted by the USA.
 
Walker will be inducted into the Hall of Fame as this year's Vintage Honoree. He will be the 35th men's track and field athlete inducted into the TCU Hall of Fame.
 
Bernard James "Tut" Bartzen: Bartzen served as TCU's head men's tennis coach from 1974-1998. He led the Horned Frogs to five regular-season conference titles and eight conference tournament championships between the Southwest and Western Athletic Conferences.
 
Bartzen compiled a career record of 528-203 (.722). He posted 12 20-win seasons and guided the Horned Frogs to the NCAA Final Four twice (1989 and 1996), and the National Indoor Team Finals in 1992. He was a five-time Region VI Coach of the Year honoree and was named SWC Coach of the Year six times. He was named the ITCA National Coach of the Year in 1982.
 
Bartzen's teams were ranked nationally 19 times during a 20-year stretch, while making a total of 13 NCCA Championship appearances. He coached David Pate and Karl Richter to the NCAA Doubles National title, and later helped guide Paul Robinson and David Roditi to three NCAA National Doubles titles. He mentored 18 different players who garnered 49 all-conference honors, 16 players that earned 37 ITA All-American honors and was instrumental in seven former players becoming TCU Hall of Famers (Esteban Carril, Randy Crawford, Pate, Richter, Robinson, Julius Truelson and Roditi).
 
Roditi, TCU's current head men's tennis coach, was a part of Bartzen's 1996 Final Four team. Devin Brown, who is TCU men's tennis assistant coach, was part of four straight NCAA Tournament teams under Bartzen from 1991-94.
 
Bartzen, who passed away on July 10, 2019, is a 1982 Texas Tennis Hall of Fame inductee and a 1992 Texas Sports Hall of Fame inductee. In 1995, while head coach at TCU, the TCU Board of Trustees named the six stadium courts at Bayard H. Freidman Tennis Center the "Bernard J. "Tut" Bartzen Varsity Tennis Courts.
 
Bartzen, who will be inducted as a Special Contributor, will be the first head coach that did not play a sport at TCU to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

 

 

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