The story goes that long ago an SMU fan fried frog legs before a game to taunt TCU fans. The Horned Frogs defeated the Mustangs that day and got to keep the iron skillet.

That was 96 years ago. The rivalry still exists, but these days it’s about more than just football.

This year, SMU challenged TCU to a fundraising competition to see which university would be the first to raise 1,000 donations from young alumni in the three weeks leading up to the Iron Skillet game on Oct. 1.  SMU came through in the competition to beat TCU for a second time on Saturday.

Director of Student and Alumni Programs Harmonie Farrow said that after polling about 50 young alumni they came up with the name “Pound The Ponies” for the campaign.

Interactive Account Manager at Balcom Agency  and TCU Class of 2006  graduate Chip Hanna  said he wasn’t sure if he would participate in the challenge.

“There are a lot of TCU grads here at the agency and we were all like man, we don’t want to give more money to TCU, we all just graduated not too long ago,” Hanna said.

But Farrow said that donating to your alma mater is extremely important and can even impact the value of your degree.

“The number of alumni who support TCU is used as a measure of alumni satisfaction by college-ranking systems such as U.S. News and World Report,” she said. “The size of the gift doesn’t matter, but participating every year does.”

Class of 2011 graduate Brittany Todare  said that was the reason she made a donation and although it was a small gift, it was worth more than not donating at all.

“I think it’s important, because it really shows that you loved your school and you can do things in the community to get yourself involved and I think that’s a good thing,” she said.

Young alumni had until Sept. 29  to get their donations in. The winner was announced at the game on Oct. 1.  SMU received 1,067 donations while TCU received 934. SMU did not announce how much money its alumni had raised, but TCU’s donations totaled to $117,939.