“This new space is on the ground floor of Moudy South, giving us agency visibility and an opportunity to showcase our work in a way that we couldn’t do before,” said Sarah Angle, Instructor of Strategic Communication and Faculty Director of Roxo. “Thanks to a grant from Roy and Jeannine Eaton, we can now expand our agency’s reach even further into the community and create partnerships that make Fort Worth stronger, healthier, and more supportive — all the while giving our students the ability to do real work that really matters.” 

Photo courtesy of Roxo

During the past five years, Roxo has doubled in size, now teaching, employing, and preparing 45 students for the real world each semester. It’s worked with nearly 150 clients and provided experiential learning opportunities to more than 450 students since opening its doors 13 years ago. The move to a larger space aligns with the university’s emphasis on experiential learning and community engagement. 

“Roxo’s new front-of-house space is a vital bridge between classroom and community, offering students real-world experience in developing innovative, effective, and responsible strategies and solving communication challenges for clients — a reflection of the Department of Strategic Communication’s commitment to our student-centered mission,” said Dr. Catherine Coleman, professor and department chair of strategic communication. 

Founded in 2011 through a corporate partnership with BNSF, Roxo gives students in the TCU Bob Schieffer College of Communication hands-on experience in a professional setting. The agency operates as a social enterprise, with all revenue reinvested into student learning opportunities.

Photo courtesy of Roxo

“Roxo is in its second decade of giving students hands-on, real-world experience, so it’s fitting that we’re moving into a new, dedicated space that reflects our continued growth,” said Russell Mack, Instructor of Strategic Communication and Faculty Advisor to Roxo. “It’s one of the crown jewels of our communication program.” 

Since its founding, Roxo has contributed an estimated $65,000 in donated services to local nonprofit organizations. In particular, the agency has supported initiatives focused on mental health awareness and suicide prevention among young people.

Roxo’s past clients include Cook Children’s, Fort Worth Report, MHMR of Tarrant County, Once Upon A Room, North Texas LEAD, TCU Harris College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Greater Impact, the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, GM Arlington, Project 4031, Righteous Foods, Empower Fort Worth, Leadership Fort Worth, and the Lake Worth and Flower Mound Police Departments.

“Roxo’s expansion is a powerful reflection of TCU’s strategic commitment to student-centered growth and community engagement,” Chancellor Daniel W. Pullin said. “Roxo not only supports experiential learning at its highest level but also deepens our students’ ability to serve Fort Worth through meaningful, community-driven work.”

Photo courtesy of Roxo

The ribbon-cutting ceremony takes place on Friday, Sept. 12, 11 a.m. in the Moudy South atrium located in the Bob Schieffer College of Communication building on TCU’s campus.  Award-winning journalist and author Bob Schieffer, namesake of the Bob Schieffer College of Communication at TCU, will attend.

About Roxo

Roxo Agency is a student-run full-service advertising and public relations agency located within the Bob Schieffer College of Communication at Texas Christian University. Since 2011, Roxo has served over 100 organizations and businesses across North Texas, winning numerous awards for creative work and innovative strategies. More than 400 students have been employed by the agency as “Roxstars,” gaining hands-on industry experience, portfolio pieces, and experience that goes beyond the classroom. We are “creativity for good.” Find us on Instagram @tcuroxo

The post TCU’s Student-Driven Roxo Agency Opens New Workspace Designed for Growth first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Hosting the full-house event were Chancellor Victor J. Boschini and the TCU board of trustees. Attendees included other TCU officials; Fort Worth and Tarrant County community leaders; representatives of other local colleges and Big 12 Conference universities; and TCU students, faculty and staff.

In addition to formally conferring the responsibilities of president, the ceremony commemorated the first year of Pullin’s presidency – a year that coincided with TCU’s 150th anniversary.

“I am honored to have been entrusted with the role of helping lead TCU into its next 150 years,” Pullin said. “TCU’s vision of academic excellence and unrivaled student experience is a shared goal to which the entire Horned Frog community contributes. I look forward to working alongside Chancellor Boschini and all TCU leaders to ensure we reach our next level of distinction.”

TCU President Daniel W. Pullin at investiture (Photo courtesy TCU)

Boschini said TCU is “grateful for and strengthened by President Pullin’s dynamic leadership, innovative spirit and dedicated service. In a season of milestone celebrations, the investiture further celebrates our tradition of excellence and underscores the importance of our shared values as a community that strives for impact and the greater good.”

“Texas Christian University has a history of excellence and innovation,” said Kit Moncrief, chair of the board of trustees. “We are excited to welcome President Pullin as a leader who embodies these qualities and look forward to working with him and Chancellor Boschini to envision the next 150 years of TCU.”

TCU announced Pullin’s selection as the university’s president in December 2022 and he began his tenure in February 2023.

In addition to operational management, TCU said in a news release, Pullin’s “executive leadership and experience support and expand TCU’s focus on key goals, including academic excellence and reputation, student engagement and a culture of belonging.”

This article originally appeared in the Fort Worth Business Press and is shared with permission. 

The post TCU Celebrates New President first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

The design by Trevor Scott, a 2022 graduate of the graphic design program at TCU, will feature the message, “Fort Worth, Home of the Horned Frogs.” Campus icons are showcased, including Frog Fountain and SuperFrog, alongside hallmark Fort Worth locations such as Bass Performance Hall, the West 7th Street bridge and the downtown skyline.

The mural is a gift from TCU to the city in celebration of its historical and integral relationship with Fort Worth as TCU closes out its Sesquicentennial.

TCU Downtown Mural Rendering; Designed by Trevor Scott

“As we set our sights on the next 150 years, it’s fitting to celebrate our deep connection with our city that has done so much for and with TCU,” Chancellor Victor J. Boschini, Jr. said. “We are pleased to leave this tangible mark on downtown Fort Worth, just as Horned Frogs leave a lasting positive impact in our community.”

According to the Princeton Review, TCU ranks among the top 10 for “Town and Gown Relations,” an honor bestowed upon universities that maintain a strong and meaningful relationship between their campus and the community. This bond traces back to the early days of TCU’s founding when, in 1869, before founders Addison and Randolph Clark established what would become TCU in Thorp Spring, Texas, the first physical location for TCU in Fort Worth was in downtown Fort Worth. In 1923, during TCU’s Jubilee Year, university students and others gathered downtown for the TCU Jubilee Parade outside First Christian Church, located just a block away from the newest mural site.

Today, the ties between TCU and the city it calls home are stronger than ever. In addition to the mural near Sundance Square, visitors and locals can experience more exciting elements of TCU’s 150th-anniversary finale in the city of Fort Worth, including Frogs on Fourth: A Purple Pop-Up, Sonny Dykes as grand marshal of the downtown Parade of Lights, the annual TCU tree lighting, Botanic Garden’s Lightscape and more.

The post A Gift to the City first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Storytelling is at the heart of every culture. It is the original art form. It’s through stories that we communicate our histories, our morals, and our rituals. Stories give us a feeling of belonging. Stories turn individuals into a community.

When you sit with Duke Greenhill, you can tell immediately that you are in the presence of a master storyteller. He’s headed national ad campaigns for Tiffany & Co., MasterCard, and L’oreal, just to name a few. He’s written screenplays. He and Red Sanders helped found the Fort Worth Film Commission. He’s currently teaching strategic communications at the Bob Schieffer College of Communications at TCU while using his considerable talents to help nonprofits like Rogue Water and The Gladney Center for Adoption. Before bringing him back home, his adventures have taken him from Fort Worth to Austin to Washington, DC. to New York City to Savannah.

And storytelling is the thread that ties it all together.

photo credit: Andre Le

I met Duke at the TCU bookstore before he had to go teach a class. It was a chilly afternoon, and Starbucks was packed with students. I assume they were all diligently studying.

Duke is an eye-smiler with a contagious laugh and a way of leaning in while he’s both talking and listening, making you feel like you’re the only person in the room. He not only cares about the stories he’s telling, he cares about the stories he hears. We talked about our sound-bite society and about how we have lost the ability to listen to other people’s stories. I asked how a storyteller can overcome a shortened attention span and a lack of empathy.

“It may seem overly Pollyanna-ish, but if you are a good storyteller, and you tell stories well, people will listen,” Duke said. “I have to believe, and I’ve seen it play out anecdotally in my work, that if you have a good story, it will find an audience…You see this in the short documentaries that win Academy Awards – they are hyper-specific, hyper-simple. They’re a tiny little story, but they’re so well-told. And by giving them awards, by buying tickets to see them, we’re celebrating the craft of storytelling.”

Duke learned how to tell a story from his parents. The oldest of three boys, Duke is a proud Gladney baby, as is his middle brother, Frank. “My youngest brother, Joe, was a very happy surprise,” Duke grinned. Every night, instead of asking his parents to read Green Eggs and Ham or The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Duke would ask for another story.

“We call it ‘the Gladney Story,’ and it was my bedtime story. It was how I came from Gladney,” Duke remembered. “My dad and my mom told it differently, of course, and I don’t remember a time when I didn’t hear it. It was my very favorite story. Maybe they didn’t realize the impact it would have on me, but the choice they made to tell me that story the way they did most nights was just genius parenting.”

Origins, belonging, and love, all wrapped up in a bedtime story.

“That’s the kind of storytelling I like. Where do we come from? What’s our heritage? How did we become what we are?” Duke said.

photo credit: Andre Le

Carrying this love of stories with him through college and grad school, Duke, like many of us, worked in a variety of fields. During college at the University of Texas, he was an editor and producer at Austin’s CBS affiliate. He worked in politics. He worked in film production and wrote screenplays. “My graduate degree is in film, and I worked in film for a while,” Duke said, “But I knew myself well enough to know that I needed something faster-paced. When you’re on a film set, it’s 20 hours a day, and that’s plenty fast, but the breaks in between were intolerable.”

This need for something faster paced with fewer breaks led to producing television ads. At the time, Madison Avenue was transitioning. The tried-and-true method of advertising was selling the latest and greatest. It was about creating a want. Not a need. A want. But as the Millennial generation grew up and began buying, advertising began to change.

Duke said, “At the agency I was at in New York [R/GA], there was an understanding – it wasn’t conscious or even articulable – that there was a need for more heart. We can’t continue to sell things based only on features and benefits. We have to understand what a brand stands for, what does a brand believe in… for lack of a better phrase, who are they? People want to support brands whose values align with their own.”

This change in the way goods and services are advertised played right into Duke’s strengths. Going from creating a want to selling the brand behind the goods required stories. Good stories.

One campaign that Duke headed was a social media campaign for Tiffany & Co. that changed the way advertising utilizes social media. By updating Tiffany & Co.’s mobile app to include social sharing, couples were able to share their love stories and photos. “They [Tiffany & Co.] were willing to expand their vision of what true love is beyond the traditional,” Duke said. “It was so exciting to be part of that.”

Duke also worked with MasterCard in a campaign that recognized the emergence of a class of very affluent young people while evolving the classic “Priceless” campaign. Duke harnessed the power of the hashtag; by using #PricelessSurprises, MasterCard users could receive surprise gifts – from a pair of headphones to spending the day with Justin Timberlake.

“But while MasterCard was recognizing the opportunities that came from the emerging affluent young people, they were devising programs that prevented them from incurring burdensome credit card debt,” Duke said.

I asked Duke why he left the corporate world to jump into academia. After all, teaching is widely considered to be antithetical to the American Dream of making as much money as you can. Teachers aren’t valued in our society – remember that hoary old chestnut, “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach?” Duke can clearly do. So why teach?

photo credit: Andre Le

“The short answer is, and I don’t mean this in any sort of negative way, is that I don’t care,” Duke grinned. “It took me a long time to learn not to care about what other people think, but I finally did, thank God.”

“The longer answer is that in the industries I’ve worked in – film, advertising, coaching, writing – once you’ve reached a certain level, it’s about teaching. It’s about mentorship. It’s about leading a group of people toward a singular idea, a singular vision, whether that’s the classroom or an ad campaign.”

Duke began to warm to his subject. “The impact you have on a set of students is direct; you can see it and feel it, and the reward for that is far greater than any amount of money. With film or advertising, you can look at the data and say, ‘Yes, we made a change.’ But data is inert. I started in film. I’ve worked in politics. I’ve worked in news and advertising and coaching, but it was the storytelling that was the thread that kept me going. Teaching is storytelling and storytelling is teaching. It’s not a diversion or departure. It’s a return to the craft that maybe I should have been doing all along.”

After a stint at Savannah College of Art and Design where he was a multi-department chair (“I loved the kids, I loved the school, but I knew that three years was about all I could do without sacrificing my health and sanity”), he missed the direct impact of teaching. So Duke decided to come home to Fort Worth and TCU. When I asked what drew him back, his answer was immediate.

“Family.”

All of Duke’s family, with the exception of his middle brother who lives in Montana, are here in Fort Worth. “My youngest brother has twin eight-year-old sons… I’ve gotten to a point where I realized that family is one of the most important things to me, and I wanted to come home.”

While teaching is his “real” job, Duke lends his considerable talents (or in corporate speak “consults”) for nonprofits like Rogue Water and Gladney. According to their website, Rogue Water “builds bridges between the water industry and the people they serve.”

When asked what about Rogue Water intrigued him, you can hear the passion in Duke’s voice and see it in his bearing. “I was aware water was going to be an issue. I was aware that half a globe away, people didn’t have access to clean, healthy water, but I was ignorant to the realities and the immediacy of the problem”

photo credit: Andre Le

“I met Stephanie [Corso, the founder of Rogue Water] about five years ago… Water is a problem that’s not in the future, it’s a problem that’s right now. It’s not Africa’s problem. It’s not Australia’s problem. There are 2.2 million Americans who don’t have access to clean, healthy water, which to me is a basic human right… If people don’t have access to clean water, their story should be told. If their story is told, empathy and hopefully solutions will follow. Water isn’t just about a commodity. It’s about life and death. I just hope it’s not too late.”

Duke’s other passion is Gladney. “The folks at Gladney laugh when I say this, but I feel a sense of duty here. Without them, who knows where I would be, so to me, the opportunity to assist them is a gift.”

Leaning forward to make his point, Duke said, “Gladney and adoption is at a crossroads. Domestic infant adoption is on a steep decline worldwide for a number of reasons, and international foster adoptions seem to be what is in demand. Gladney has heretofore been focused on domestic infant adoption, but they had the foresight to begin expanding, and now they have a very robust international program and foster program. They built out this suite of services but don’t really know how best to integrate them into the singular Gladney brand.”

“In advertising, we talk about brand persona. Gladney approaches their brand persona from a place of unconditional love and unconditional duty to the child. When you think about Mrs. Gladney, and you think about the families each adopted child impacts, and then the number of people they [the families] impact, then you’re looking at the impact that one single person made across the world. One person can’t do that. But she did.”

While it may seem that our interview was neat and linear, in reality, it was anything but. Like any good storyteller, Duke understands the value of tangents to underscore a point. We talked about the controversy surrounding Stephen Ambrose. Duke asked, “What was Ambrose’s bullseye? Was it to be literally precise, or was it to be emotionally precise? I think he was close enough to both, and he’s a big hero of mine.”

Taking a deep breath, Duke said, “I never ascertained from my grandfather what caused the shift in him, but after reading it [Band of Brothers, Ambrose’s 1992 books that was the basis for the 2001 miniseries], he sat down and wrote out his war stories. He printed them out and gave them to all of us. It was a vehicle for asking questions.”

“Some of that stuff in that little narrative was more revealing to who he was and who he became after than any of the 20-something years I knew him as his grandson. And because of that little narrative, I realize that I want to capture my parents’ stories before it’s too late.”

photo credit: Andre Le

In this world of soundbites and noise, we need storytellers more than ever to make connections for us to widen our world. And that’s the power of what Duke does. He brings his listeners out of their stories and gives them the opportunities to learn about someone else. And when you learn about someone else, you begin to empathize with them. When you empathize with someone, you begin to break down the walls that divide us.

All by simply listening to a story.

The post Recognizing the Power of Stories first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Holidays generally revolve around long-established traditions and family. But what if your situation doesn’t reflect convention, or you have to work during the holidays? Therein lies the challenge TCU women’s basketball team dribbles against every holiday season, as they grind towards their goals in practice or travel to games and tournaments.

Coach Raegan Pebley (Photo/Sharon Ellman)

I asked Coach Raegan Pebley, in her ninth season as Head Hardwood Frog, how she and her players celebrate the holidays. “[I grew up in] a group of six children, so resources as a kid were limited.” The former University of Colorado star and inaugural WNBA draft selection said her family values togetherness, and gifting was done with small gestures. Pebley’s childhood inspired her team’s Secret-Santa tradition. Patricia Morris, TCU’s senior center, excitedly described the team’s gifting extravaganza: “We usually buy three small gifts that are given leading up to Christmas, and then one larger gift at the end.” Coach Pebley said the exchange is so popular among the players they start planning for next year as soon as Christmas is over.

Every family is eclectic in their own way, but a roster of Division I athletes competing in a popular international sport are more eclectic than most. Tara Manumaleuga, a senior shooting guard from Queensland, Australia, is unable to visit her family during Frog basketball’s longest break during the winter holidays, a whopping three consecutive days. “If I did, I’d probably be home for about 20 minutes with the time changes.” Manumaleuga has a Stateside uncle who played football for the University of Arizona, but most of her family is Down Under. She said Australians don’t have a Thanksgiving-equivalent holiday, but her Christmas back home is quite the event thanks to her extended family. “We’ll have full on basketball or volleyball tournaments at my house [where they have their own courts] or go and cookout on the beach.” (Christmas in Queensland is in the height of summer.)

Patricia Morris
(Photo by/Sharon Ellman)

For most of us, holidays are about food as well as family. Pebley had a mobile childhood. The daughter of a coach, her family moved across the country, from North Texas to St. Louis to Utah, where she played high-school basketball. (She started her head-coaching career at Utah State.) Her mom, in addition to raising six children, is a talented cook and would assign holiday cooking duties to Raegan and her siblings. “Baking was my area, and I’d most often make buckeye peanut butter chocolate balls, or sugar cookies.” Cooking with her siblings in her mother’s kitchen led to preparing meals for her athlete family. Pebley usually hosts her players for holiday meals and cooks, giving her players a little taste of home. Manumaleuga recalled last year’s dinner of Chipotle, Coach’s cranberry salsa, Pebley’s mother’s famous rolls, as well as traditional African cuisine ordered from Mama B’s International Kitchen in Grand Prairie.

When asked her holiday must-have, Morris says it’s all about the dressing (or stuffing, depending on how you identify it). Her dad’s cornbread-based recipe with celery and onions is non-negotiable for her. Growing up, Morris helped cook her family’s holiday meal as her father’s sous-chef. The WNBA hopeful’s plate typically includes turkey, ham, greens, and mac and cheese. The dessert of choice is her aunt’s incredible fruitcake.

Tara Manumaleuga
(Photo/Gregg Ellman)

Manumaleuga’s Christmas meal has a Polynesian flair, thanks to her Samoan roots. The psychology major, who plans to continue her career back in Australia or possibly Europe, explained that pavlova, a dessert of baked meringue, whipped cream, and toppings which can include fruits or chocolate, is the food that means the holidays to her. Unfortunately, it isn’t something you see in America much.

Coach Pebley, who has children of her own, said that no matter where her family is on Christmas Eve – which can be just about anywhere – they’re going to make s’mores. Her family modifies them to their liking: graham crackers and marshmallows are the mainstays, but the Pebley kids have been known to get creative, doctoring them with peanut butter, Nutella, sprinkles… The combinations are almost endless.

Regardless of where they are, for TCU’s ladies of the court, holidays are special because of the people they are with. Family can take many forms, and it’s obvious that these women are just that, with their own traditions as they make Fort Worth their home. The rest is just dressing, so to speak.

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Both men’s and women’s Frog hoops have tipped off their stacked non-conference schedules and are hopping past their opponents in Schollmaier Arena. There are other options for attending live sports, but none as convenient or affordable as supporting your local Frogs. Just in time for the holidays are special ticket packages with unbeatable values for your super Frog fans or aspiring athletes.

Show up and support head men’s coach Jamie Dixon – already a member of the Horned Frog Block T Association Hall of Fame – as he strives for his fifth national coach of the year award and TCU’s second NCAA tournament invitation. Fresh from leading the U19 USA men’s team to a Gold Medal in the FIBA World Cup (including star Frog point-guard Mike Miles Jr.), Dixon brews upsets as deftly as hot chocolate. Miles, who leads Dixon’s squad in scoring, is a pre-season All Big-12 honorable mention amongst a stacked conference which has four squads in the top-25 rankings. The best way to gift Frog hoops for the fanatics in your life is with the Keep It Purple Mini Plan. This package is the only way for non-season ticket holders to guarantee a seat to witness the TCU men rebound with the defending national champion Baylor Bears, the LSU Tigers during the annual BIG 12/SEC Challenge, top-20 ranked Iowa State, or the top-10 ranked Kansas Jayhawks.

If you’re looking for more flexibility, or perhaps to entertain a larger group, the Frog Flex Pack is just what Santa prescribed. Women’s hoops coach Reagan Pebley is leading the Frogs during her eighth season as head coach. Pebley’s Frogs – who finished second in one of the best conferences in the country in 2019-20 – is armed with fifth-year point guard and team leader Lauren Heard, the pre-season all-conference selection is leading the team by example with the most points, assists, rebounds, and steals on the roster. Watch as Heard, who is now a graduate student in her final season, wraps up one of the most decorated and record-book rewriting careers in TCU women’s hoops history. $40 guarantees you 10 vouchers, each redeemable for a ticket to a game of your choice; attend 10 games by yourself or take nine friends or family along to one game, the Frog Flex Pack gives you the freedom to choose. Each customer is limited to four packs, so act fast for the ability to make it rain gifts all-season long.

Even with all of the festivities and obligations that come with the holiday season, parents are often befuddled by entertaining their little miracles during their school break. TCU hoops has you covered there, too. Holiday Hoops runs the entirety of TCU’s student holiday break and offers $10 general admission tickets for men’s home games, and $5 general admission for women’s home games. In addition to copping your pictures with Santa, add a photo-op with SuperFrog that’ll become the family’s newest and most anticipated tradition. Follow this link to find the single-game or promotional package that will keep making memories all year long.

Buck Elliott is a DFW native and graduate of TCU and UTA. He’s also an alumnus of Joe T. Garcias. During the day, he’s a full-time teacher and varsity tennis coach at Denton’s Billy Ryan High School. After hours, he’s usually at home spending quality time with his wife, Madeworthy’s own Jackie Elliott, or his three rambunctious children. Otherwise, he’s acquiring a new injury at a local CrossFit affiliate, or writing his sports column for The Fort Worth Weekly. His love for TCU and educational policies fuel his passion for writing about sports, social justice, and everything in between.

The post Skip the Shopping Stress! first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

TCU baseball coach Kirk Saarloos in Fort Worth, Texas on June 15, 2021. Photo courtesy of TCU Athletics.

Just in time for summer, Fort Worth has crowned a new king of baseball. TCU announced Kirk Saarloos as the new head baseball coach on June 15. Despite numerous demands from media outlets and a full recruiting season ahead, Saarloos spent the weekend following the announcement celebrating his 19^th anniversary with his wife Kristen by vacationing at Barton Creek outside of Austin.

The Father’s Day holiday is a no-recruiting weekend for the NCAA, but rest is in short supply for the couple who met thanks to a blind date contrived by the coach’s cousin during their college days. In addition to raising three children – Brady (14), Emery (11), and Lane (7) – their extended family of more than 35 adopted college-aged sons keeps life moving fast.

An All-American pitcher for Cal State Fullerton, Saarloos is a relief pitching specialist who spent seven years with Major League Baseball playing for the Astros, the Athletics, and the Reds. Saarloos might be new to the role of head coach, but his talents for coaching and recruiting have been appreciated by Frog fans since he joined the staff as an assistant back in 2013.

Friends wishing to congratulate the new first family of baseball will have to wait; July’s recruiting obligations demand Saarloos hit the road to find the next generation of TCU players to take the diamond. While Kirk is on the road in the summer, Kristen uses the time to return to her hometown of Seattle to connect with family and enjoy a reprieve from Fort Worth’s trademark heat.

“She’s a single mom most of the time; a lot of times she’s good cop, bad cop, everything,” Saarloos said of his wife. “[She’s] phenomenal in terms of being supportive, and [she does] a great job raising our kids.”

TCU baseball coach Kirk Saarloos in Fort Worth, Texas on June 15, 2021. Photo courtesy of TCU Athletics.

When home, Saarloos’ tries to be as present as possible. The cell phone, which Saarloos called his best friend and his worst enemy, is something he avoids during quality time. Family nights and unscheduled evenings, when possible, are a must for the Saarloos crew.

Even with his demanding job, the new head coach believes in dedicating individual time to each of his children. Lane, who Saarloos calls his Texas Tornado (and the only native Texan in the bunch), will sometimes join her dad on team road trips without Mom or siblings in tow. “She doesn’t lack confidence and [she] loves being around the players,” Saarloos said of his youngest.

When he is asked by parents how to best prepare their children for a shot at collegiate or professional athletics, Saarloos has two words of wisdom: “Play everything.” As a former three-sport high school athlete, Saarloos understands that parents want to give their children to excel, but he remains adamant about the value of letting kids try anything they’re interested in without finding a single focus too early. “That way when you do want to specialize, maybe late in high school, you’re already a really good athlete.”

“Play everything” is especially important considering the meteoric rise of overuse injuries in teen athletes who have played only one sport or position through several consecutive seasons. The former major leaguer credits part of his career to his experience in a variety of sports; playing different sports and positions gave him a competitive edge. “You can get hurt doing anything. Play it all, have fun, be a kid.”

The coach also cautioned parents against expensive national travel leagues and applauded the quality of Texas’ in-state tournaments. “If [they’re] good, your kid is going to be found,” Saarloos asserted. Due to the accessibility of social media and HUDL (a sports-specific scouting and recruiting software), “there are no hidden gems; everybody knows about everybody.”

When asked about his coaching style, Coach Saarloos said that he approaches coaching the same way he tries to be a husband and a father.

“You have to be firm, but you have to be fair.” Sarloos said. “Instead of raising three kids of my own, I’m raising 35 to 40 kids. I have to be fair and firm sometimes, and I have to be soft sometimes. There’s not going to be a one-stop shop on how to do things.”

Buck Elliott is a DFW native and graduate of TCU and UTA. He’s also an alumnus of Joe T. Garcias. During the day, he’s a full-time teacher and varsity tennis coach at Denton’s Billy Ryan High School. After hours, he’s usually at home spending quality time with his wife, TWM’s own Jackie Elliott, or his three rambunctious children. Otherwise, he’s acquiring a new injury at a local CrossFit affiliate, or writing his sports column for The Fort Worth Weekly. His love for TCU and educational policies fuel his passion for writing about sports, social justice, and everything in between.

The post The Father of Frogball first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

The chaplain for Texas Christian University’s football team, Franks also oversees the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) ministry at TCU. He began serving with FCA in 2004 and came to TCU in 2010. Franks’ role at TCU is to guide his athletes not only on the field but also in their lives outside the locker room. He serves as a mentor in the process of finding students’ identity which be quite daunting. College students often have a hard time adjusting and finding their purpose on campus, and Franks is there to be a voice of encouragement and to teach them to trust that God is there for them. 

photo credit: Karris Pharris

A native Texan originally from Lockhart, Franks knows all about great barbeque, fishing, and sports. He played football at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls where he also earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. His wife Danika is the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs at the TCU & UNTHSC School of Medicine. They have three children: son Eli and daughters Eden and Elle.  

As a veteran player, a collegiate character coach, and a Black man, Franks has gathered what he calls “Lessons from the Locker Room.” He shows his athletes how engaging with teammates and hearing their life experiences can build a healthy environment for tackling complex and deep-rooted issues like systemic racism.  

Chauncey’s impact on his students may start in the locker room, but it goes far beyond the field and stretches all throughout their lives. The lessons these students are learning are valuable and could help us all in learning to love, embrace, and build relationships with everyone around us.  

Lesson One: Learn 

Learning history is critical. Understanding how we got here helps us to better understand why we are where we are. Use every resource available. Books, articles, podcasts, and movies can impart a historical understanding. These resources are crucial to have an appreciation of what people of all colors and races have contributed to this country.  

Lesson Two: Listen 

When we hear a political debate, it’s easy to jump into our political “lanes” and start talking without listening. If an individual is telling you their story, it may not be your experience and it may be difficult relate to, but it is their reality. While these stories might be uncomfortable to hear, the importance of listening to someone talk about their story is crucial to understanding where they are coming from and what they have been through. 

Lesson Three: Love and Build Relationships 

Franks says, “I’ve been telling people if you can love an individual on the football field or sports field for three hours, you can also love… and fight with them for issues that are affecting them throughout the rest of your life.” He relates how a white student once reached out to him in tears. She told him that outside her parents, Franks, a Black man, was the person who had the greatest impact on her life. She wanted Franks to know that she loved him and his family and that she wanted to be part of the solution to systemic racism.  

Franks says to reach out to people who are different than you and build relationships with them. Listen and learn about their lives. Form a genuine bond with someone whose life has been different from yours. This will help you better understand and love them.  

Lesson Four: Lead Out 

On the field, the leader is the one in the huddle who not only gives the play but gives encouragement to make sure that the plays are executed well. In life, leaders look for chances to serve and encourage others. Look for opportunities to volunteer and get involved in your community. Find ways to connect with people of different ethnicities in Fort Worth. Franks believes food, music, and sports bring people together and suggests finding ethnic restaurants, concerts, and sport events to expand your horizons. Don’t be scared to ask respectful questions.  

Franks shares a quote from the late Representative John Lewis: “What is the purpose of a nation if not to empower human beings to live better together than they could individually?” We live in a collective reality but have built enormous barriers between ourselves and our fellow human beings. Every small interaction we have with another person, if we engage with an intent to listen, hear, and accept their lived experiences, breaks down these walls and moves us forward.  

Angela Weaver is a native Texan, raised in Keller, but she got to Fort Worth as soon as she could. At 17, she joined the Marine Corps and served four years active duty. After her military service ended, she went to work for a hedge fund and then a whiskey distillery, both in Fort Worth. Her most important role started in 2009 when she became a mom. She loves to spend her time with her boys outdoors getting the full Boy Mom experience, even if that means being covered in dirt, catching fish, or shooting BB guns. She loves the sense of community she has found in Fort Worth and can’t wait share that with our readers.

The post Lessons from the Locker Room first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Aside from being dean of the Michael F. Price College of Business at the University of Oklahoma since 2014, he previously had worked for global consultancy McKinsey & Co. and the private equity firm Hicks Muse Tate & Furst and its portfolio companies.

“The Neeley School of Business is continuously recognized for its outstanding educational programs and high-quality graduates, and Daniel’s proven track record, leadership style and financial aptitude are the perfect complements,” said Teresa Abi-Nader Dahlberg, provost and vice chancellor for Academic Affairs at Texas Christian University, who announced the appointment of Pullin as the John V. Roach Dean and Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation for the Neeley School of Business in April.

Pullin earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Oklahoma and MBA from Harvard Business School before returning to Oklahoma to earn a Juris Doctor.

Among his many successes, he is credited with growing the college’s graduate program enrollment by 50 percent in five years and delivering high impact and cross-disciplinary degree options.

As dean, Pullin’s primary responsibilities will encompass enhancing the profile of undergraduate and graduate programs to maintain the school’s upward trajectory, according to a TCU news release. Erekson is remaining at the school to teach some classes.

FWBP Editor Robert Francis spoke with Pullin a few weeks into the fall semester.

What got you interested in leading the Neeley School of Business?

We’re [Daniel and his wife, Tamara] both from Texas, so it helps that we have a sense for the culture. I grew up in Plano and she grew up out in East Texas. And Tamera’s parents have lived in Fort Worth for the last 15 years.

And so, we know the town a bit and it made the adjustment for our two boys [10 and 6] straightforward because they had been coming down here to see their grandparents for the whole lives.

I think people would say that the school has been, for a while, and still is, sort of on its way up. I think that’d be a common sentiment.

That’s what attracted us. I’ve been a dean at another business school that is in the direct competitive set of Neeley Business School. I was fighting for the top faculty and the top graduate students, and I know how strong a place this was outside looking in.

If you just start with the marketplace, the economic miracle that is Fort Worth and the broader Fort Worth-Dallas metro area is really the envy of many schools of business. If you think about the number of headquarters for Fortune 500 companies if you tapped into what I think is a growing spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation in and around Fort Worth and the Dallas area.

If you do what I do, which is to run business schools, in many ways you’re a kid in a candy store. You’ve got great companies, you’ve got a growing population, positive demographic trends that are going to provide aspirational students for your school for decades to come.

We want to provide experiential learning opportunities for them to go beyond the classroom, to not just learn about the theory of business, but to practice business for themselves and be battle-tested by the time they graduate, so they can add value immediately to the great companies – the ones that exist here today, or the ones that need to exist, that our students have the chance to start.

From a marketplace perspective, I couldn’t imagine a better place to be a dean of a business school, particularly as to be successful, to stay relevant, you have to operate at the intersection of the academy and industry.

And TCU and Fort Worth make that a very straight forward proposition. As long as we hold up our end of the bargain, and we connect, and we listen, and we are responsive and position this business school to move at the pace of business, then I think we’ll do something very, very powerful for the community, and the students, and our graduates.

And so, that’s a real big draw for sure.

And certainly, the rapport that I’ve built with my peers across other schools and colleges here at TCU, the great leadership and continuity of leadership from the chancellor’s office.

I’d challenge you to find another comprehensive institution of higher education that’s come as far and as fast over the last 15 years or so as TCU. It’s been really a golden age in the history of this place.

When you see that level of ascendance, when you map that against the energy, and enthusiasm, and commitment of any stakeholder that is surrounding this place, it becomes one of the, I think, most attractive universities in the country to work for.

What are some of your ideas for the school going forward?

I believe that the most dynamic organizations are the ones that don’t just focus on the day-to-day activities, the what they do, but they’re really the ones that take the time to ask what is their promise that they’re making to their stakeholders? Why do they exist to begin with?

I need to be able to answer and anybody, any faculty member or staff member here in the Neeley School needs to be able to answer the question, why do you exist?

Why does a student choose the Neeley School of Business to earn her degree over any brand X institution in a competitive marketplace?

Why would a family put their balance sheet on the line to send their young person to school?

Why would an employer offer up its precious few starting jobs to graduates of this institution versus another one?

Why would an alumnus feel so strong about the transformative experience she had as a student that she would direct her philanthropy through scholarships and giving to keep higher education affordable and accessible to learners of all backgrounds?

You really have to have a good answer for that.

And for us, it’s really encapsulated in not some long or unwieldy mission statement that nobody knows or can remember, but really in a beautiful, inspiring promise. A promise that we make to everyone that that chooses to affiliate with Neeley, including the surrounding business community.

And it’s just this, it’s one sentence and it’s simple. It is that the Neeley School of Business unleashes human potential with leadership at the core and innovation in our spirit.

That’s not something I wrote. That’s something that a committee of Neeley stakeholders put together a few years ago and it’s a very aspirational promise. But it’s one that lends itself to supporting. …

If that’s the why we exist, we need to then make that real and actionable as to how we’re going to fulfill that promise. And what we’re going to do every day to make sure that it’s true, because ultimately that’s our brand.

If we say we unleash human potential then we have to do all we can to recruit, and retain, and propel talent wherever we find it.

Whether that’s student talent, regardless of what starting point, whether that’s the best and brightest faculty, who we motivate to invest the next chapter of their careers here. Whether that is to partner with the private sector to provide great graduates to build their workforce, to meet their growth objectives. Whether that is to continuously educate the existing workforce through lifelong learning programs, that make sure that the personnel at the companies and organizations in this community are relevant, and sharp, and ready to add value in a dynamic economy, a changing economy.

So, a relentless focus on how we unleash human potential makes a great deal of sense for a business school.

But we do it with leadership at the core. And that’s exciting to me because when you start thinking about our stakeholders as not the students that we trade tuition and fees for credit hours and diplomas. I mean functionally that happens. That’s the what.

But why we do that is to prepare them as leaders, who have the courage to challenge the status quo, who aren’t afraid to tackle the biggest business issues of our time, who will think critically and move society forward. Thinking of business as a lever to move society forward.

Business can be inherently good. Sometimes it gets a bad rap, but the fact that the creation and delivery of products and services that can benefit humanity while providing financial sustainability to support jobs and the families, those jobs allow for, in the communities that are comprised of those jobs and families.

And it’s an important thing to focus on.

It’s not just how many students we graduate or whatever metric of historic performance, it’s the broader impact we can make. And so, by keeping leadership at our core, I think we position ourselves to prepare the whole individual for a lifetime of impact in the communities they serve.

And then the last bucket is the notion of keeping innovation in our spirit.

Jobs today are changing dramatically. All members of our workforce, whether you’re fresh out of undergrad or you’re in the final chapters of your career, the marketplace is compelling different types of skills and outcomes, and at a pace that hasn’t ever really before been seen.

And so, we have to think about not just our students, but our faculty and our staff, and what we do to serve our alums and business partners, as the innovators who by virtue of their association with the Neeley School, develop the career agility to adjust and react and maintain their relevance in a complex changing world.

It compels us to think a little differently, to listen a little more intently, to stay on the cutting edge of what business and society need. And if we do that, then I think we will address the needs and opportunities of our stakeholders. And if we deliver that value, then I think they will reinvest and co-invest in our progress and success.

This article originally appeared in the Fort Worth Business Press. It was written by Robert Francis (rfrancis@bizpress.net).

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No one has ever accused me of having a green thumb so I will leave the details to you. However, I am going to let you know about something you may not have heard of yet. Silver Creek Materials, a proud Fort Worth company that has been around since 1983, has developed a new landscaping material that, if you live in Fort Worth, might intrigue you.

Purple Mulch. Yep, you heard that right. Purple mulch. It’s environmentally safe, it’s affordable, you can get it at Silver Creek Materials or other local independent garden centers, hardware and feed stores, and it’s called, appropriately, “Go Frog Go!”

You have a Horned Frog flag flying proudly at your front door. You have purple street numbers painted on your curb. You have Horned Frog decals on your back windshield, and you may even have a TCU license plate frame. But you don’t have purple mulch. Yet.

Even if you didn’t go to TCU, maybe you’re a Paschal alum. It still works. Maybe you went to Arlington Heights and The University of Texas; you’re still a Fort Worthian who supports hometown teams, right? Well, maybe not. But, if you did go to TCU, or Paschal, or James Madison University, or Northwestern, you need to show the colors, and this is definitely the coolest, most unique way to do it.

For more info and pricing, and for all of your soil, compost, mulch, and landscape needs, please call Silver Creek Materials at 817-246-2426, or visit their website at www.SilverCreekMaterials.com

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