Frogs To Honor Wacker at Halftime Saturday
10/15/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 15, 2003
Former TCU head football coach Jim Wacker will be honored during a halftime ceremony at the TCU-UAB football game, set for Saturday, October 18, at Amon G. Carter Stadium.
Members of the Wacker family, including his wife, Lillian, will be in attendance for the ceremony, which will include a tribute on the videoboard.
Wacker lost a courageous battle to cancer on August 26 at the age of 66.
From 1983 through 1991, Horned Frog grid fortunes were in the hands of Wacker, who was a Texas college coaching legend after logging a pair of national championships at Division II Southwest Texas State and at Texas Lutheran, an NAIA school. Wacker's first campaign at TCU produced only a 1-8-2 record, but he steered the Horned Frogs to a dramatic 8-4 turnaround in 1984 en route to a Bluebonnet Bowl date. TCU's bowl appearance was the school's first since the 1965 season.
Several national, as well as Southwest Conference Coach of the Year honors ultimately were awarded to the bubbly coach. He posted a 40-58-2 record during his nine-year stint with the Horned Frogs. Wacker ranks third on the school's all-time list in games coached and fourth in career victories.
UN-BELEEEVABLE!
Wacker will forever be known for coining the phrase "Un-beleeevable!" after one of the all-time sensational comebacks in TCU and Southwest Conference football history.
TCU's never-say-die Horned Frogs stunned Arkansas, 32-31, scoring two touchdowns and a two-point conversion in the final 10 minutes despite battling a fierce fourth-quarter wind. Trailing 31-17 with only 10:19 to play and operating with two gimpy quarterbacks, the gritty Purples mounted back-to-back 80-yard scoring drives and capped the second with a monumental two-point conversion with only 15 seconds left on the scoreboard clock.
The victory, the first in Fayetteville for TCU in 29 years, was only the second win over the Razorbacks during the past 25 years for any Frog eleven. Running back Kenneth Davis, quarterbacks Anthony Gulley and Anthony Sciaraffa, tight end Dan Sharp and wide receiver James Maness took turns providing the comeback heroics for the Horned Frogs.
JIM WACKER PROFILE
Full Name: James Herbert Wacker
Date of Birth: April 28, 1937
Place of Birth: Detroit, Mich.
High School: Lutheran High of Detroit.
Alma Mater: Valparaiso (1959)
Master's Degree - Wayne State (1961)
Doctorate in Education - Nebraska (1970)
College Playing Career: Three-year letterman on the offensive line for Valparaiso
TCU record: 40-58-2 (nine years)
TCU ranks: 3rd in games coached; 4th in victories
