By Andy Lohman

The year 1915 saw the birth of Frank Sinatra, the death of Booker T. Washington, and the one-millionth automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. And while World War I was waging on the western front of France on Oct. 8, SMU was playing TCU in its first football game in program history.

Fast-forward 103 years later and the Dallas-Fort Worth rivals will meet for the 98th time on Friday, Sept. 7 at 7 p.m. The clash between the Mustangs and Horned Frogs, who played each other nine times before television was even invented, will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2.

TCU holds a slight 50-40-7 advantage in the all-time series, but the rivalry has produced plenty of memorable moments for SMU fans.

In 1935, in what legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice considered the game of the century, SMU faced Southwest Conference rival TCU in a matchup of unbeaten teams. Facing a fourth and seven with the game knotted at 14-14, SMU quarterback Bobby Finley, who also served as the punter, dropped back as if to punt the ball away. Instead he hit running back Bobby Wilson for a long touchdown pass.



A 24-0 win over Texas A&M the following week completed a perfect 12-0 regular season and sealed the Mustangs' first national championship, awarded by the Dickinson System. SMU's perfect season also earned the Ponies an appearance in the 1936 Rose Bowl against Stanford.



It wasn't until SMU's 30-13 victory in 1946 that the teams started competing for the Iron Skillet. The trophy's origin story is disputed. Some say that in the boom of college football after World War II, the school's student governing bodies agreed on a trophy to play for in hopes to cut down on the property damage done to each campus from vandalism. Other accounts say that an SMU fan was frying frog legs as a joke before the game. A TCU fan proposed that the game decide who gets the skillet and frog legs, and the tradition stuck.

The skillet was lost as the tradition died out, but in 1993 the SMU student body president revived the rivalry by painting the TCU student body president's face red and blue after the Mustangs' 21-15 victory. The engraved skillet is once again passed to the winner of each game.



In 2005, the rivalry produced one of SMU's best wins of the 21st century. TCU came to Gerald J. Ford Stadium ranked No. 22 in the country after a 17-10 win at Oklahoma. DeMyron Martin ran for two touchdowns and caught a TD pass to lead the Mustangs to a 21-10 victory, SMU's first win over a ranked opponent since 1986. Six years later, SMU would once again defeat a ranked TCU squad, this time beating the No. 20 Horned Frogs 40-33 in overtime in Fort Worth in 2011.



Rivalry games are always important, but Friday's Iron Skillet matchup has an added importance for SMU. After a loss at North Texas last Saturday night, the home opener provides SMU a tremendous opportunity.

"Any time you play TCU, a top 15 team, that gets you excited," Dykes said. "Playing on national TV, that gets you excited. When you play a rivalry game, that's got to get you excited. One of the oldest rivalries in college football. So if you look at all those factors, if you can't get excited to play this game, you probably shouldn't be playing football."

For the players, the shortened week has tightened the focus on preparation. As big as this week's game is, they want to perform no matter the opponent.

"My teammates keep reminding me how big this game is," junior grad transfer safety Patrick Nelson said. "We're just trying to prepare very well."

Playing under the lights on national TV against a longtime rival, Friday should be yet another heated battle for the Iron Skillet.