This football season, there have been celebrations on and off the field, especially with the TCU Dutchmen.

Ten years ago, a group of TCU students started the Dutchmen – a close-knit group of friends and passionate TCU sports fans eager to show their Horned Frog spirit. A decade later, the Dutchmen remain well-known at sporting games. 

They are seen in the first row of the student section in Amon G. Carter Stadium, hyping the crowd at every home game. 

“They didn’t have any sort of athletic support. They weren’t in an organization. It was just a group of friends,” said Lucas Turner, a senior nursing major. “They were originally called the ‘Amp-It-Upers’ who amped up the crowd and wasn’t anything TCU related.”

The Dutchmen were later named after former TCU head coach Dutch Meyer. Meyer played tight end on the football team from 1916-1917 and again from 1920-1921. He coached TCU football from 1934 to 1952. 

“He gave a great quote, which is, ‘We’ll fight ’em till hell freezes over and then fight them on the ice.’ That’s kind of what we are in the student section,” Turner said. “We need to be able to fight through the whole game.”

Cheers and traditions are central to the Dutchmen, who aim to energize the crowd and boost excitement for every game. 

“We do the Frog Walk. So every two to three hours before the game starts, all the players come on buses and then walk through up to the stadium,” Andrew Meier, a senior musical theater major, said. “We have lots of parents, students and alumni all lined up with the band, cheerleaders, Showgirls and Rangers. We just get super hyped and hand out stickers before the game. You can’t also forget the iconic ‘Riff Ram’ during touchdowns.” 

Besides being well-known for their spirit at the games, the Dutchmen are also well-known for the outfits they wear: overalls with white and purple stripes. The white stripes represent the knowledge TCU seeks to instill in the students and their time at college, and the purple stripes represent the rich traditions TCU has.

“You can just go to GameBibs and order purple overalls, but ours are a little special,” Turner said. “They say TCU on them and the brand name, and on the back, they say ‘Dutchman’ with our names on them, and this was something that was gifted to us. We didn’t have to purchase them or anything. It’s the main staple of the uniform.”

“The student section is so important in all sporting events, especially football. And TCU being the only school in the Big 12 to have the student section sit right behind the opposing team bench, we have an important job to do more than other students,” Turner said. “The name Dutchmen comes from a TCU coach from a while back, so there’s historical excellence in there.”

Meier said that one of his favorite memories from being a Dutchman was TCU’s historic 2022 season, which featured an incredible run to the Fiesta Bowl and a national championship game against Georgia.

“It was my first year being a Dutchman, and to be able to lead the team in the student section in a season that was so historic for our university was a huge blessing,” Meier said. 

Turner and Meier encourage students who are big sports fans and want to help lead the student section in cheers to join the Dutchmen.

“If you’ve got some hype in you, if you bleed purple and love the Frogs, as well as enjoy dancing on the big screen, you should consider joining the TCU Dutchmen,” Meier said. “It’s a very small organization, very select. We usually take about five to six Dutchmen, depending on how many graduating students we have.”

For those interested in becoming part of this spirited tradition, Dutchmen applications open during the spring semester. Students can find more details about the application process on the organization’s Instagram.