By Jackson Posey | Sports Writer
In 1899, four years after AddRan Christian University moved to town, a battle for Waco erupted on the gridiron. The inaugural football game between AddRan and Baylor University ended in a bitter 0-0 tie.
Three years after that first football game, AddRan rebranded as “Texas Christian University.” Eight years after that, in 1910, a devastating fire forced the school to pack up shop and head to Fort Worth, 40 miles from their original campus in Thorp Spring. But the ties established during those 15 years of adjacent living would not soon dissolve. Today, the rivalry is as heated as ever.
“I think that rivalry’s already pretty strong,” TCU head coach Sonny Dykes said in July after the Bears hired legendary Horned Frogs coach Gary Patterson as a consultant this offseason. (The sides mutually parted ways in August.)
It’s been 125 years since that first game, with sweeping ups and downs throughout. TCU won eight straight starting in 1964; Baylor returned the favor a decade later. More recently, in 2021, the Horned Frogs jolted the Bears out of the playoff race in a 30-28 upset victory — seven years after Baylor shocked the world to rally back from a 21-point fourth-quarter deficit to (eventually) ruin the Frogs’ playoff hopes on a walk-off field goal in a 61-58 classic.
“When I think about this game, I personally think about 61-58,” said Waco junior Mikey Condon, who serves as Baylor’s student body external vice president. “We’re about to hit the 10-year mark this weekend, I was at that game, that was also the first year McLane opened … Truly, that’s one of the biggest memories in my childhood, I would say. So it has a deep meaning in my heart.”
All of that history happened without an official name or trophy. Texas and Oklahoma play the “Red River Rivalry;” Washington and Washington State hoist the “Apple Cup.” Minnesota and Wisconsin duke it out for Paul Bunyan’s Axe. Until 2023, the Baylor-TCU rivalry had no officially recognized title.
“I was honestly surprised that we didn’t have a formal rivalry with Baylor,” said TCU student government Speaker of the House Reagan Stephens, who noted that the school had pre-existing official rivalry games with SMU (“The Battle of the Iron Skillet”) and Texas Tech (“The Battle of the Saddle”). “When people ask, ‘Who’s your biggest rivals?’ [I say], ‘Oh, it’s obviously Baylor.’ I mean, we’re only an hour away from each other, we have a mutual respect between the institutions … You always put Baylor and TCU as the rivals right up front.”
For years, fans of both schools called the game the “Revivalry,” a name referenced in promotional material on Baylor’s university website as recently as 2022.
“Known as The Revivalry, football between TCU and Baylor is marked by change and resilience having been revived and rebuilt throughout the centuries,” the university’s press release read, beneath a logo bearing the inscription “Revivalry Week.” “The Revivalry … is the only rivalry game among the nation’s elite programs to match two private institutions and, even more unique, two schools with historical faith backgrounds.”
Still, in the strictest sense, the name was informal, and there was no trophy to honor the winner. Baylor’s student government officially broached the idea of formalizing the rivalry — and creating an official name —near the end of the summer of 2023. Discussions commenced immediately.
“All of this fell into place somewhat on accident,” then-TCU student body president Joe Winick said in 2023. “I got a phone call from the Baylor SGA president [Nick Madincea], and they wanted to see this happen in time for this year’s game.”
Several names were discussed, but the moniker Bluebonnet Battle was chosen to signify the schools’ deep Texas ties. Baylor, chartered by the Republic of Texas in 1845, is the state’s oldest continually operating university. TCU (née AddRan), chartered in 1873, was one of the first co-ed institutions west of the Mississippi River.
“It’s just rooted in a lot of Texas tradition too, especially with the Bluebonnets” Stephens said. “I just absolutely loved it. Being someone not from Texas and not growing up in this environment, I thought it was an amazing way that both of our student governments could be productive in making real change that hopefully can continue for a while with this rivalry.”
In Sept. 2023, Baylor’s student government passed a legislative proposal entitled “BU vs TCU: A Rivalry of Respect,” outlining a series of measures intended to strengthen and protect the rivalry. Among the resolutions: officially recognizing the annual football game as a rivalry, designating it as a “protected rivalry” for scheduling or realignment purposes and declaring that “this rivalry will be one of respect, dictating the conduct of all involved, as it has been established as a celebration of our shared history.”
Student body internal vice president Landon Self, who co-authored the legislation, was also quick to shut down any rumors that the name change was related to any attempts on TCU’s part to shift away from its Christian heritage. The university has stirred some discussion in recent years by preferring to go by “TCU” in marketing materials, leading one writer to remark at The Athletic that, based on a recent commercial in which the school’s full name is never spelled out, “one might assume TCU had no religious affiliation at all.”
“The focus was, that this is a rivalry in Texas,” Self said. “This is a celebrated Texas tradition. The Bluebonnet Battle symbolizes that.”
The new name and trophy were immediately ridiculed by many online, who widely called for the universities to rethink the decision. TCU’s announcement video was flooded with comments calling for the schools to return to the name “Revivalry.” For many involved in the process, the backlash came as a shock.
“I was super surprised that it got a lot of backlash,” Stephens said. “I would think people would be encouraged that student governments would want to take initiative on projects like these, and kind of be at the forefront of this rivalry that can go on for a long time. So, even members of the community that were so critical of kinda the name change I thought was surprising.”
Still, with the amount of work that went into the process, there was never any thought of revisiting it.
“I definitely think with anything new, there’s going to be [backlash],” Condon said. “When the Sic’Em, when that first came out here at Baylor, people hated it for a couple years. And then we started winning, and now it’s something that every person does who works on this campus.”
Self echoed Condon’s sentiment, preaching patience and reiterating that there was never any conversation about reversing the decision. Rain or shine, backlash or praise, the Bluebonnet Battle is here to stay.
“Like Mikey said with the Sic’Em, it took time for that to become an embedded, well-known tradition amongst the cultures here at Baylor,” Self said. “I think with this, with time, we will get there. But as far as reconsidering, there’s not been that, because this was a monumental piece of legislation, a monumental project.
“So as far as reconsidering, I cannot say that there has been that conversation, because this is a time to celebrate this game, celebrate what’s been accomplished and ensure that it stays there for the future of Baylor students.”
For the schools’ respective student governments, the Bluebonnet Battle’s roots are all in line with the middle third of Baylor’s motto: “Pro Ecclesia, Pro Texana, Pro Mundo.”
“From an outsider perspective, I think [then-student body presidents Winick and Madincea] really wanted to root it with that Texas tradition,” said Stephens, who served as TCU’s campus affairs committee chair during the rebranding process. “Even though it was informally called the ‘Revivalry,’ they wanted to make this competition between Baylor and TCU something that can go on for a long time in this rivalry, that can continue and make it secured every single year. And I truly think the Bluebonnet Battle and that shield was the perfect way to do that.”
Baylor football will kick off its 2024 Bluebonnet Battle with TCU at 7 p.m. Saturday at McLane Stadium.
