Every time the football team scores a touchdown, Horned Frog fans cover their ears from the roaring blast of the Frog Horn. However, many fans might not know the four men behind all the noise.
Jim Garvin, his son Justin Garvin, and Jason Lesikar have maintained and operated the Frog Horn for the past eight football seasons. Both Lesikar and Justin Garvin are TCU alumni.
This season the team added Colby Cagle, who met the men through his father.
“It’s an opportunity of a lifetime,” Justin Garvin said.
When the horn is not making noise at football games, the men store it at Lesikar’s construction warehouse outside of Fort Worth. Lesikar said it was an honor to take care of the horn.
“They’ve let me keep working on it,” he said. “And they have given me the opportunity to keep it maintained, to house it, to protect it, which has actually worked out really well in the long run for the horn itself.”
Lesikar puts the horn through a process called winterizing, he said. The process includes draining the horn of all fuel and oil, running stabilizers through it to clean it and checking the compressor and coolant system.
The horn is then tucked away in the warehouse to protect it from the elements. Lesikar said he thought all of the hard work was worth it.
“I would say what makes it worth it is seeing and hearing the alumni when they talk about how great it is,” Lesikar said.
Jim Garvin felt the Frog Horn had become an icon for fans, alumni and students at TCU, he said.
“The Frog Horn has had its amount of contribution to the success of the TCU football program,” he said.
He thought the magic of the horn made it special to fans, he said.
“It’s about seeing the little kid light up,” Justin Garvin said. “It’s about seeing the 75-year-old man light up and the look on their face.”
All of the men said they hoped to continue to take care of the Frog Horn. Justin Garvin said eventually he wanted to write a book about the horn and all of the stories and people behind it.
“We do it for the love of the university,” he said. “I do bleed purple very deep. We’d like to keep doing it.”
