Forty minutes. That’sall head coach Mark Campbell promised his team. So he put the number on their jerseys — front and back, in practice all week — and let it do the talking.
On Friday morning at Schollmaier Arena, TCU made every one of those minutes count, routing UC San Diego 86-40 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. In what Campbell would call her best game as a Horned Frog, three-time All-American Olivia Miles delivered her sixth triple-double this season — 12 points, 14 assists and a career-high 16 rebounds — becoming the first player in NCAA history to record at least 14 rebounds and 14 assists in a tournament game. For good measure, she pulled even with former Horned Frog Hailey Van Lith atop the program’s single-season scoring list, finishing with 680 points.
Senior guard Taylor Bigby torched the Tritons for a career-high 27 points on 7-of-9 shooting from three. TCU never trailed. The result pushed TCU to a 43rd straight home win, the longest streak in the country, and kept the program perfect at Schollmaier Arena in postseason play at 11-0.
Taylor Bigby went 7-for-9 from three-point range en route to a career-high 27 points during TCU’s 86-40 win against UC San Diego in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday. Courtesy of TCU Athletics
The tone was set before UCSD could catch its breath. Graduate forward Marta Suárez went 3-for-3 from three-point range in the opening quarter, hitting from 23, 25 and 24 feet, as TCU bolted to a 24-12 lead after the first period. The Horned Frogs shot 50 percent from three for the game, finishing 13-of-26 from deep.
Then came Bigby. In a second quarter that put the game away, she erupted for four consecutive three-pointers, three of them fed by Miles, extending TCU’s lead to 29. When her fourth straight three dropped through the net, her teammates sprinted to half court to meet her. She finished 8-of-10 from the field.
“Seeing Taylor in the gym every day, working on those shots, those very shots,” Miles said, “to see it come out when it actually matters, you can’t help but be happy for that person.”
Campbell called it earned. “It’s been two years now. … Her teammates have seen her grind, and she’s amazing. Her and Dono[Donovyn Hunter] are the backbone and the staples of the last two years.”
Miles, meanwhile, wasn’t playing for the box score. “I literally told Mark, I was like, ‘If I go out there and I have zero points and 20 assists, I’ll be just as happy,’ ” she said. “That’s just what I love to do.” But then: “Once I heard that I had 10 rebounds early on, I was like, ‘Okay. I have to complete it now.’ ”
She did. “To break our all-time single-game assist record while having a triple-double during March Madness,” Campbell said. “Holy cow.”
Olivia Miles’ historic triple-double Friday included 12 points, a career-high 16 rebounds and 14 assists. Courtesy of TCU Athletics
Miles set the physical tone from the opening tip. “I promised myself that I’d help my team out in any way that I can, and I know that it starts with me,” she said.
The defensive wall TCU erected was equally formidable. Sophomore center Clara Silva and senior center Kennedy Basham combined for five blocks, anchoring a scheme built around the program’s extraordinary length. “Those two have become just an incredible two-headed monster,” Campbell said. “When you have two 6-7 kids like that, it’s really hard to score over them.” Campbell believes that size advantage only grows in March. “You got to defend and rebound to win,” he said.
Also Friday, Washington defeated South Dakota State 72-54 in the first round. Guard Avery Howell connected on 7-of-13 three-point attempts for a game-high 30 points. The Huskies will face TCU on Sunday at Schollmaier Arena at 9 p.m. CT.
For Miles and Suárez, playing out their final seasons in Fort Worth, Sunday’s matchup will be their last chance to suit up at Schollmaier — a TCU victory would send the Horned Frogs to Sacramento for the next two rounds. “That’s 40 down,” Campbell said. “We got 40 left.”
“We haven’t put together a full 40 minutes of TCU basketball this season,” Miles said, “and even though Mark may say we did today, I do think there’s a whole other level we can get to.”
TCU women’s basketball is going dancing again, and once again, it is doing it at home.
When the bracket was unveiled Sunday, 14th-ranked TCU learned it had been awarded a No. 3 national seed, the second-highest in program history, and earned hosting rights for the opening two rounds of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship. The occasion marks TCU’s 11th appearance in the Big Dance and, more significantly, the program’s second in a row, the first time the Horned Frogs have strung together consecutive berths since 2009 and 2010.
TCU’s Schollmaier Arena, which hosted the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament in 2025, will do so again in 2026 after the Horned Frogs earned a No. 3 seed. Courtesy of TCU Athletics | Zach Campbell
“Anyone that gets the chance to play in March knows the advantage that you have playing at your home site,” said junior guard Donovyn Hunter. “The fans, the community, they all showed up for us last year. So, I’m super excited that we’re able to do it again. Obviously, it’s a testament to the work that our team has done.”
The Horned Frogs (29-5, 15-3 Big 12) will open the tournament Friday at Schollmaier Arena against No. 14 seed UC San Diego (24-8, 17-3 Big West). Last year’s TCU squad was a No. 2 seed and reached the Elite Eight, the program’s first trip to the second weekend of March Madness. This year, the women returned, and brought the men’s program along for the ride, the first time in school history both teams have qualified for the NCAA Tournament in the same season.
Nothing about that was accidental.
“Over the course of 34 games, we put together a résumé that the committee felt we were worthy of hosting,” said head coach Mark Campbell. “That’s really, really hard to do. And it was one of those things that in June, we set as a team goal. And this group has been chasing that this whole year.”
With a win in Round 1, TCU would become one of six programs nationally to have assembled back-to-back 30-win seasons, joining No. 1 seeds UConn, UCLA, Texas and South Carolina, plus Fairleigh Dickinson, whom the Frogs defeated in the first round of last season’s tournament. Since the current coaching staff arrived in March of 2023, the Horned Frogs have accumulated 84 victories, seventh-most in the country over that stretch, and rank fifth nationally in both win percentage (.875) and total wins (63) across the past two seasons. They enter the tournament as the only program in the 68-team field to have claimed consecutive outright Power Conference regular-season titles.
Cal transfer Marta Suárez is averaging a career-high 17.2 points per game in her first season with the Frogs. The stretch forward and 2026 all-conference first-teamer is among the newcomers who’ve helped push TCU to the brink of a second consecutive 30-win campaign. Courtesy of TCU Athletics | Amanda Transou
“Elite programs are consistent,” Campbell said. “And so, for us to do this … I think it shows how special TCU is, our athletic department, and our staff’s ability to build these teams, really from scratch.”
Despite a heavy roster overhaul from the 2024-25 team, nine players on this year’s roster have NCAA Tournament experience, combining for 37 appearances across their careers.
That veteran presence matters in a month when every possession carries heightened weight.
“It’s just an aspect of desperation,” said graduate guard and recently named Big 12 Player of the Year Olivia Miles. “You know your season’s on the line, your journey’s on the line with a group of people you really care about. So, that’s the difference between March and the regular season. It ultimately just comes down to preparation and detail-driven focus. That’skind of what the margin of error is, and how slim it is, that decides these games.”
Friday’s opener, set for an 11 a.m. CST tipoff, presents a genuine test. UC San Diego’s Erin Condron, who has spent all three of her college seasons with the Tritons in an era when that kind of constancy is increasingly rare, is one of the more complete players in the bracket, the 6-foot-4 junior forward leading the Tritons in scoring at 15.7 points per game, rebounding at 8.6 per game and blocks at 1.3 per game while converting 53.6 percent of her field goal attempts. Senior guard Makayla Rose adds 12.8 points and a team-high 3.2 steals per game.
A TCU victory would set up a Sunday matchup at Schollmaier against the winner of No. 6 Washington and No. 11 South Dakota State. The Huskies, last year making only their second NCAA Tournament since 2017, are anchored by guards SayviaSellers, who averages 18.5 points and 3.7 assists per game, and Avery Howell, who contributes 13.7 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. South Dakota State counters with senior forward Brooklyn Meyer, a three-time All-Summit player for the Jackrabbits, who leads her team in scoring at 22.4 points per game, rebounds at 8.0, assistsat 2.7 and blocks at 1.9 while shooting 64.6 percent from the floor.
TCU infielder Jack Bell made an immediate impact for the Frogs last year, hitting a grand slam in his first at-bat in purple. The Corpus Christi, Texas, native was particularly good in the 2025 Big 12 Tournament, earning All-Tournament Team honors.
Bell is a third baseman who has the versatility to play all of the infield positions. He appeared in 55 games in his first season with the Frogs, hitting .259 with a .376 on-base percentage and slugging .453. Bell swatted five home runs as part of his 14 total extra-base hits last season.
TCU Magazine sat down with Bell to talk about his move from College Station to Cowtown, his unforgettable first at bat and why he wants to be a baseball agent.
Infielder Jack Bell earned All-Big 12 Tournament honors in his first season as a Horned Frog in 2025. Courtesy of TCU Athletics
How did you get into baseball?
I don’t really come from a baseball family. I began playing at the age of 3. I had a great support system growing up. When I was 5, I started playing travel ball. I took it seriously enough that I played all the way through high school, played my freshman year of college at Texas A&M and then transferred over here last season. It was the best decision of my life coming to TCU.
You appeared in 19 games in your freshman season at Texas A&M, hitting .250 while drawing eight walks to just five strikeouts. How was the transition of playing under Jim Schlossnagle — who previously coached at TCU — to eventually coming to Fort Worth yourself?
After we lost the national championship game, our coach left to go to Texas. As soon as that happened, I entered the portal, and TCU was one of my first calls. I stepped on campus here, and I knew it was home.
Last season, you recorded six hits and five RBIs in the Big 12 Tournament. How do you take that experience in a playoff environment and carry it into this season?
It’s all about confidence. The coaches have confidence in me, and I have confidence in them. That allows me to go out there and play freely. So, rolling into my junior year, I’m a veteran now. I’m confident in myself; I’m relaxed. I know what’s going on. I don’t feel like the game is sped up anymore, and so I’m just having fun.
In the opening series last year against San Diego, you came to the plate with the bases loaded. What was it like having your first-ever at-bat for the Frogs to be a pinch-hit grand slam?
It was surreal. I saw the fastball low and away and knew I was going to be able to put a good swing on it, and watched it fly over the left-centerfield wall.
Bell, a communication studies major, hopes to parlay his TCU education into a career as a sports agent after his playing days are done. Courtesy of TCU Athletics
What are your plans for the future after baseball at TCU?
I hope to get my name called in the MLB Draft, but you never know. So, outside of that,I’d want to be an agent. I love baseball and would love to help players get better and reach their full potential.
What will this year’s TCU team emphasize to reach its goals?
A lot of things, but I think it comes down to simply playing winning baseball. It’s as simple as our pitchers throwing strikes, our hitters hitting the strikes, and taking the balls. Going out there trying to play winning baseball is the most important thing we can do.
Editor’s Note: The questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Cole Cramer, second baseman for the TCU Horned Frogs, has been a steady presence in the lineup and the clubhouse since transferring from Washington State in 2024. From a junior college field in Oregon to All-Pac-12 recognition in 2024, Cramer has now carved out his place as the reliable leadoff batter for Frogball.
Starting all 59 games in his first season at TCU, he drew the most walks on the team and hit .320 on the year with 14 extra-base hits. He earned 2025 Big 12 All-Tournament Team honors for his postseason performance.
Now he’s a seniorand a leader in the clubhouse.
TCU Magazinespoke to Cramer about his journey from Arlington, Wash. to Fort Worth, the grind of a 60-game season and his mentorship of the young 2026 Horned Frog roster.
You spent your entire life living in the Pacific Northwest before coming to TCU.How was that transition?
It was really smooth; it is a lot different over here, a different lifestyle. I love the weather. Growing up and playing baseball when it’s 32 degrees out, I appreciate coming to the field in the middle of February whenit’s 75 and sunny.
Cole Cramer was sold on TCU after coming to campus as a visiting player in 2024. “When you’re playing a midweek game on a Tuesday, and you show up and there’s 5,000 people in a place that’s rocking, that’s really cool.” Courtesy of TCU Athletics
What was something about TCU that made you want to transfer here?
When I was atWashington State, we played TCU in a midweek game, and they sold out. I remember coming down thinking this place is really cool.When you’re playing a midweek game on a Tuesday, and you show up and there’s 5,000 people in a place that’s rocking, that’s really cool.You’re like, “Man I want to go play at a place where they get a bunch of fans to come to games and the people are passionate about baseball.”
You’re the only returning starter to play all 59 games last season. How do you maintain that level of consistency both physically and mentally throughout the season?
Just staying consistent with the habits. Getting in the training room, doing what you have to do in lift and just not trying to overdo things. If something’s not feeling great, make sure you get in treatment to get it worked on. The more you play, the more you get used to it.
Those first couple weeks usually are the toughest. I think we do a good job in the fall and this early spring of really playing a lot of baseball so you can get used to that. Once you get back into the swing of things by that third or fourth week you can get your legs back under you, and it’spretty smooth from there.
You led the team in walks last year with 43. Is that patient approach something that comes naturally, or is that something you’ve had to develop over your years of college baseball?
When I was in junior college, I was like, “How quickly can I see the first pitch, or how quickly can I get on base?” As I’ve developed more as a hitter, I’ve learned that if we can make that guy on the mound work more and I can have a long at bat and we can get the pitchers out early, that can help us not only in that game but help us in the rest of the weekend series.
In my book, a walk is a hit. I know what my role is:There are bigger dudes who hit balls a little farther than me that hit behind me, so if I can get on base for those guys, I can let them do their job.
Cramer notched career hit No. 150 during a 20-1 win over New Haven on March 1. Courtesy of TCU Athletics
Off the field, what do you do to rewind and reset throughout a long season?
I have great teammates. If I’m not on the field, I’m with them. We play a lot of golf, we mix in some fishing, we go play basketball. Friendly competition keeps us busy. We go to the football games. We went to the basketball game against Iowa State. Soccer in the fall is very fun; we go to quite a few soccer games.Just being able to support other athletes is really cool. I enjoy watching all the other sports. Looking back, I would love to be a soccer player. I’d also love to be a football player, but I chose baseball, and I’m glad I did.
You’re one of the veterans on this team. How has your role in the clubhouse changed?
Last year it was tough being a transfer and trying to play a vocal role, but you slowly work your way into it. Being in my fifth year, I’ve played enough college games to pick up on little cues from the other team. I always try to be a vocal leader for the guys and lead by example.
Editor’s Note: The questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Buoyed by five consecutive Big 12 wins, the Horned Frogs are rediscovering their rhythm at the right timebecause the NCAA Tournament is less than three weeks away.
Following road losses to No. 20 Texas Tech and Colorado on Feb. 1 and 8, 11th-ranked TCU has knocked off a pair of top-20 opponents in Baylor and West Virginia, winning by an average of 13.4 points per game.
Olivia Miles recorded her 11th career triple-double in a Feb. 22 home win over Iowa State, now ranking third all-time in NCAA women’s basketball history. Only Sabrina Ionescu (23) and Caitlin Clark (17) have more. Courtesy of TCU Athletics
At Schollmaier Arena last Sunday, Olivia Miles delivered a heroic fourth quarter, pouring in 17 points to rally TCU from a 13-point deficit and past Iowa State 80-73, marking the Frogs’ 41st consecutive victory when reaching the 80-point mark. The defense did its part, too, holding the Cyclones’ All-American center Audi Crooks to four points in the final frame before she fouled out.
Three days later in Cincinnati, TCU was trailing by six at halftime. Marta Suárez — who closed the game with a career-high 32 points, 26 of which came after the break — helped ignite a 60-point second-half eruption, and the Frogs pulled away 83-70 to clinch at least a share of the Big 12 regular-season title going into Sunday’s finale against 18th-ranked Baylor.
“To win another league title, I’m so proud of this group,” Campbell said. “They’ve been grinding for the last nine months. Had this goal since June, and today we accomplished that. And we still got one more really big game coming up on Sunday.”
Themilestone was worth savoring. With the clinch, TCU became the first program in Big 12 history to win back-to-back regular-season championships within three seasons of finishing last in the conference — and the first in the school’s 49-year women’s basketball existence to claim consecutive league titles of any kind.
The history isn’t lost on Campbell.
“It shows you what we’re building is special, that the way we’re doing this is elite. Last year wasn’t a fluke,” he said of TCU’s 2025 Elite Eight run. “The players have changed, but the standard’s the same.”
Lights, Camera, Baylor
ESPN’s College GameDay will be coming to Fort Worth, with the live broadcast set to kick off from Schollmaier Arena at 10 a.m. Sunday. Both TCU and Baylor are first-timers on the nationally televised pregame show, and the stakes couldn’t be much higher: an undisputed Big 12 title on the line, senior night and an NCAA-leading 41-game home winning streak to protect.
Baylor will roll into Fort Worth winners of five of its last seven, with both losses over that stretch against ranked opponents, at Texas Tech on Feb. 18 and at home against the Frogs on Feb. 12.
Scoring has been balanced for the Bears, with four different players reaching double figures in recent wins over Arizona and Kansas State.
The Frogs picked up an 83-67 win at Baylor the last time the rivals met on Feb. 12. TCU has taken the last four games in the series. Courtesy of TCU Athletics
Taliah Scott is the clear go-to player for Baylor on the offensive end; the junior guard’s 20.3 points per game is almost twice as many as the team’s second-leading scorer and second in the conference behind only Crooks’s 25.1. A prolific scorer since Day 1 of her college career, Scott has been held to single digits just four times in 52 games.
Otherwise, the Bears will rely heavily on graduate guard Jana Van Gytenbeek, a National Champion from her time at Stanford whose 6.4 assists per game lead the team, and senior guard-forward DariannaLittlepage-Buggs, whose 10.2 rebounds per game are nearly two more than any other player in the Big 12.
It’s a formidable group for TCU to close out against, and, from Campbell’s perspective, exactly the kind of opponent and occasion this program deserves.
“The stage and how everything’s unfolded, where Baylor happens to be Baylor and there’s a league title that we’re playing for. And we have seven incredible seniors that get to play at the Scholl one last time, and so, you know, the script couldn’t be any better.”
In this series, TCU Magazine visits with alumni in the food and beverage industry. Send recommendations to tcumagazine@tcu.edu.
Molly Wilkinson’09 once considered baking to be a fun hobby — until she completed her pastry studies at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and made it her career. Today, she owns and operatesMolly J. Wilk Pastry, where she offers baking classes in person, live online and through video tutorials from her home base in Versailles, France. Wilkinson also spends time creating social media content and developing new recipes, such as tigre cake, an almond cake filled with chocolate ganache. Bakers will find more of Wilkinson’s takes on local specialties in her cookbook, French Pastry Made Simple.Ondaysoff, Wilkinson and her husband, François, enjoy traveling or entertaining friends and family.
Since her studies at Le Cordon Bleu, Wilkinson has continued creatingFrench pastries with masterful baking and presentation skills. Photo by Krystal Kenney
What prompted you to leave your marketing career in the U.S. to study pastryin Paris?
I was at a crossroads because I could see with my career that if I just continued to put more effort in it, then I would climb the ladder. But if I wanted to try something else, this is a good time because I’m still really young. I was like, “Let’s go, let’s do it.”
Receiving my acceptance was very surreal because I got a huge envelope in the mail, white with the Cordon Bleu logo on it, and then handwritten ‘Mademoiselle Molly Wilkinson.’
For the exams, you were memorizing 10 recipes —so I’d have to know 100 grams of butter, 255 grams of flour, and then how it would allgo together. You’d have a little multiple-choice test, but then you’dactually have to cook it, and the chefs would judge your performance on how well you knew the recipe, how it tasted and how it looked.
You built your career working in bakeries, at a cooking school and even at a chateau. What inspired you to create your own business teaching people how to bake?
For me, it was like the best of both worlds. It means that I can be really creative in terms of developing recipes, but alsoI’m working with people a lot.
A lot of my jobs — when I was working in bakeries and gaining my skills —it’s behind the counter in the kitchen. You don’t see anyone, it’s long hours, it’s very repetitive. I worked in a bakery where I made macarons for six months. And you get very good at macarons, very good at piping, but it’s very lonely, and it’s a hard job.
And so for me, it was like, “How can I bring together people and what I know and also that passion that I have for developing new things?” A lot of my recipes —they’re like French classics but bringing a twist of American flavor or style.
You began teaching online during the pandemic. How did that experience impact your business?
I’d set up the interface that I needed to do online, and I was taking advantage of it —I was like, “OK, this is the time people are at home, we’ve got to do this.” And for me, it’s also a way to reach people that won’t be coming to France. A huge part of my business is a baking membership — it’s called Le Baking Club. We have a really wonderful group. It’s all about community, trying new recipes, challenging yourself in the kitchen and just having fun.
Are there aspects of your marketing background that still help you?
I use everything that I learned when I was working in that digital marketing job and bring that into my business now, which has become very successful because of it.
For me, it’s thinking about the customer journey, which is something that you learn in advertising — the least amount of clicks that someone has to take in order topurchase something, the better.
Wilkinson regularly hosts in-person baking classes at her bakery as well as offering live online instruction and video tutorials.Photo by Krystal Kenney
Whatdo you miss most from the U.S. or Texas?
Friends and family. Besides that, Mexican food and customer service. My first stop whenever I come home is going to Chuy’s with my parents because they love it.I bring about 10 packs of H-E-B tortillas when I come back,salsa, barbecuesauce and certain things like Libby’s pumpkin — you can’t find it here.
What are your favorite parts about living in France?
For me, it’s the culture. I have a very American work mentality, and I think that’s where I’ve seen a lot of success in my business. But I really do appreciate the French culture in terms of the language, but also the way of being. They’re working to live instead of living to work.
Editor’s Note: The questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.
The quarterback legend known as the “Graham Giant” is gone.
TCU Trustee Trey Moore, who grew up seeing Sonny Gibbs at TCU tailgates, called him “a big personality” who naturally drew people into his orbit. Courtesy of TCU Library Special Collections.
At 6-foot-7, Guy Gilbert “Sonny” Gibbs Jr. ’68 was known nationally as the tallest signal-caller in major college football at the time. He was a TCU Athletics Hall of Famer, a former Dallas Cowboy and, for decades after his playing days ended, one of the most recognizable Horned Frogs in any room he entered.
From 1960 to 1962, Gibbs served as a three-year starter for TCU, becoming one of the Southwest Conference’s marquee players and a frequent preseason All-America mention. He led the conference in passing attempts and yards during his breakout junior season in 1961, finishing just under 1,000 yards in an era when offenses leaned heavily on the run. By the end of his TCU career, he had thrown for more than 2,400 yards and 18 touchdowns.
One of the defining moments of his career came in 1961, when TCU stunned the then-No. 1 University of Texas as 22.5-point underdogs. Gibbs played a central role in the upset, tossing the winning touchdown to Buddy Iles ’62 for a victory that still lives in Horned Frog lore. That season, he received the Dan Rogers Award as the Frogs’ mostvaluable player. In 1992, he was inducted into the TCU Athletics Hall of Fame.
The publicity that followed Gibbsaround campus — the Sports Illustrated cover story, the preseason All-America mentions, the nickname that preceded him everywhere — never quite translated to the NFL. Drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the second round of the 1962 NFL Draft, Gibbs entered the league in 1963 as the tallest quarterback in NFL history at the time. He was waived in 1964 and later signed with the Detroit Lions before playing in the United Football League. He left professional football in the mid-1960s.
Those who knew him remember more than the statistics or the headlines.
“He loved TCU with a purple passion,” said longtime friend Bob Blakeman ’62, who met Gibbs in 1960 in the Student Union and remained close to him for more than six decades.
Blakeman was sitting beside Gibbs the day Sports Illustrated interviewed him on campus.
Gibbs’ loyalty to his university endured long after his playing days. He attended games when he could and followed the team closely, Blakeman said. “He wanted TCU to win.”
After football, Gibbs moved through several business ventures, including operating a golf club repair and manufacturing shop in Dallas, where future Hall of Famer Lee Trevino was among his customers, and working in the oilfield industry, including time in Singapore. He later joined Blakeman’s transportation and logistics business in Fort Worth.
“We had customers call and say, ‘We want Sonny to play golf with us. We want Sonny to go fishing with us.’ He was so likable.” Bob Blakeman ’62
“We had customers call and say, ‘We want Sonny to play golf with us. We want Sonny to go fishing with us,’ ” Blakeman said. “He was so likable.”
TCU Trustee Trey Moore ’87, whose childhood nickname was “Sonny” after the famous Frog,grew up seeing Gibbs at TCU tailgates, remembered him as “a big personality” who naturally drew people into his orbit. “He was just a very good natural leader,” said his father, Frank Moore ’63.
Born in Graham, Texas, the only child of a welder and a devoted mother, Gibbs carried his rural roots through an adventurous life. “Good West Texas people,” Blakeman said. “Salt of the earth.”
Gibbs remained fiercely loyal to his friends and to TCU. His height and athletic prominence first made him famous. His personality — big, opinionated and deeply attached to the university that shaped him — kept him memorable.
The lioness appeared just before dawn, a ripple of muscle and shadow slinking down the dry dirt track, close enough to touch. No glass, no fence, no warning. Just us and the wild.
In a calm, hushed voice, our Botswanan driver told us not to be afraid.
Someone behind me in the open-air jeep gasped, a faint disruption in the quiet winter chill.
The big cat padded toward the Chobe River and paused. It turned its amber eyes toward us — 16 U.S. travelers frozen in awe.
We had come to southern Africa for moments like this. But none of us expected how much more we’d find.
THE JOURNEY BEGINS
The Traveling Frogs stopped at the entrance to the Soweto neighborhood in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Two weeks earlier, most of us were strangers — alumni and friends of TCU assembled by the university’s Traveling Frogs program. Our July trip, Africa’s Wildlife, which also included six adventurers affiliated with Arizona State University, had been expertly mapped by the travel company Odysseys Unlimited.
Over 14 days, we would crisscross southern Africa: from Johannesburg’s streets of resistance to the roaring curtain of Victoria Falls, across Botswana’s elephant-dense Chobe River region and into the leopard dens of Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park.
A century and a half before any of us saw a giraffe crane its neck over our midmorning coffee, British imperialist Cecil Rhodes had settled in the region to establish the world’s largest diamond company.
Our tony hotel in Johannesburg’s upscale Rosebank neighborhood was a monument to the treasures and luxury of South Africa. Johannesburg, Africa’s wealthiest city, sprang into existence on account of being the epicenter of the largest gold rush known to humankind. The Dutch and then the English set sail to capitalize on the riches. The Africans who left traditional villages for the lure of economic opportunity were eventually relegated to the shantytowns of apartheid.
In Johannesburg, we visited the Soweto neighborhood, the beating heart of South Africa’s movement against the apartheid segregation system. At the Hector Pieterson Memorial, we learned that in 1976, students marched against a mandate to learn in the imposed language of Afrikaans, a regional hodgepodge derived primarily from Dutch.
TCU alumni take in Victoria Falls during the Traveling Frogs’ Africa’s Wildlife trip.
Charles and Jan Norton, mother and son, shared the Africa’s Wildlife adventure. Travel, Jan said, is “all about intellectual curiosity.”
Scott O’Glee befriended Zambezi river guides during a boat tour, including Constantine from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
Eddie and Wilson, river guides for the Chobe Bush Lodge in Botswana, navigated through shallow river bottoms.
For Colleen Kleuser, “it was emotional being with the elephants at sundown, watching them roll in the water and in the mud.”
Many of those young people, including 12-year-old Hector, never came home. His sister, Antoinette Sithole, who lost him almost 50 years ago, met us outside the museum and explained how life’s essential fragility became sacrosanct as time marched on. Hector was an ordinary, peaceable boy, she told us in a voice blending song and speech, asking us to ponder why his death had eclipsed his life.
That first day signaled that this trip would stretch us — emotionally, physically, intellectually. Subsequent days would see us also stretch toward deep connections with the land, the animals, the people and one another.
MIST AND MEMORY
In Zimbabwe, we were initiated by mist. Victoria Falls — Mosioa-Tunya, “the smoke that thunders” — drenched us.
Though one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World rises spectacularly behind it, Zimbabwe faces challenges that are impossible to miss. Because of ongoing political turmoil, its currency is so unstable that all prices are listed in U.S. dollars. This land boasts one of the highest literacy rates in Africa, but the unemployment rate is above 8 percent, and poverty is pervasive.
That contradiction hit home when we visited Chamabondo Primary School in the town of Victoria Falls.
The school was overflowing. Students attended in half-day shifts because of overcrowding. The library held just three rows of shelves. When a poised 11-year-old, selected by her teachers to welcome us because of her leadership and excellent grades, confessed she’d never heard of Harry Potter — the best-selling book series in the world’s history, translated into almost 90 languages — a hush fell over our group.
Jan Norton ’76, a retired international financial manager visiting her 43rd country, later said, “I’ve traveled a lot, but this struck me. It’s hard to reconcile so much promise with so few resources.
THE LAND OF THE RHINOS
South Africa-based Keith Martyn, who grew up next to Victoria Falls, was the expert guide for the Traveling Frogs adventure.
Our first game drive in Zimbabwe began before dawn. We rose at 5 a.m. and clambered into open-air vehicles. Keith Martyn, our Cape Town, South Africa-based tour director, had warned us: “If you’re late, you get left.”
Keith is a man who carries southern Africa in his bones. Born in today’s Zambia, what was then Northern Rhodesia (yes, named after Cecil Rhodes), he camped under stars as a child, mapping the bush with his England-born father, a game warden. His British mother led tours of Victoria Falls. Their home was so close to the falls, he said, “If I closed the door to my bedroom when the river was in flood, it would rattle.”
That morning in the Stanley & Livingstone Private Game Reserve, we glimpsed a rare creature: a dehorned black rhino, one of a handful in the reserve, which is heavily patrolled by anti-poaching units. Her nose hovered just above the orange dust as Keith explained that she was searching for the scent of younger members of her critically endangered tribe, which is considered extinct in the wild.
We saw one rhino. One.
David Livingstone, the 19th-century Scottish explorer who documented this land’s wildlife in obsessive detail, would have wept. Where he sketched thriving populations, human development has left devastating scarcity. But that solitary female represented more than loss; she embodied a global fight for survival. Conservationists worldwide are working to reverse the decline of the rhino. Coming to the rescue are TCU faculty and students from the Institute for Environmental Studies, who partner with South African wildlife advocates through Planet Rhino. There is hope for a species on the brink.
That evening, while a storm gathered back home in Texas, we cruised the Zambezi River as the sun turned the sky into molten purple and the water shimmered like mercury. Keith pointed out the Old Drift, where Livingstone Town was first situated and where dozens of early white explorers succumbed to blackwater fever caused by malaria.
Those days are long gone, he said, because of anti-malarial drugs and a largely peaceable populace. “A lot of people who come here are absolutely amazed because they didn’t realize how safe it is.”
A WELCOME COLONY
Crossing the border from Zimbabwe into Botswana, we dipped our shoes in disinfectant, an entry requirement to prevent hoof-and-mouth disease but also, in hindsight, symbolic. Here, in a country where bold conservation efforts have paid off, something shifted again. Gone were the scarcity-born improvisations. In their place: smoother roads, strip malls and functioning 5G.
Botswana felt like a preview of what’s possible when modern people with money and technology partner with unspoiled nature, when a clash of civilizations builds something beautiful.
We arrived at Chobe Bush Lodge in the modern town of Kasane. There we were greeted by Malebogo “Lebo” Baatlhodi, a 28-year-old tourism professional who had studied international tourism management through England’s University of Derby. In Botswana, she was our host, our companion and, in a few quiet moments, our teacher.
Her personal story illuminated Botswana’s unique path.
“With my father working in the diamond industry, we stayed in a small town,” she told me of her childhood and her studies in an English-speaking school. “We stayed in a house with free electricity, free water, a rent-free house. I had the privilege of getting the best education, and I got to decide what I wanted to be.”
Lebo chose tourism — one of Botswana’s main economic engines, along with diamonds — because it allowed her to meet people from all over the world and contribute to her country’s growth. She had bet on her own future by taking a bus alone to Kasane years ago, marketing herself door-to-door to find an internship.
She spoke proudly of how multiple tribes coexist peacefully under a shared national identity and of Botswana’s zero-tolerance policy for poaching and commitment to conservation. “There’s so much more to our country than just diamonds and animals,” she said. “It would be such an honor for people to just come and try to learn about our history and where we come from as a nation.”
Botswana’s approach represents perhaps the most successful postcolonial economic model in Africa. Since its independence in 1966, it has transformed from one of the world’s poorest countries to a thriving nation, largely through diamond revenues reinvested in education, infrastructure and conservation.
We knew we were lucky to be there, roaming game parks and floating down sun-kissed rivers.
WHERE THE ELEPHANTS ROAM
The Chobe River flows wide and still, pooling into oxbows and shallows where life congregates. On a boat with a bar, we again watched the sun melt into the water. We marveled as a massive gang of young elephants wrestled on a river island, their giant bodies splashing and tumbling in play.
In this part of Botswana, elephants are everywhere. Females carry their calves for 22 months, a testament to the long arc of life here. In Chobe National Park — more than 4,500 square miles of preserved wilderness that is home to as many as 50,000 elephants — herds roam freely across forest and floodplain.
Chobe was also where our human herd began to come together. “Small-group travel allows you the safety and security of being together, and all of your travel plans are made for you: hotels, restaurants, various excursions and experiences,” said Bruce Epstein, founder of the 27-year-old Odysseys International company. “If you travel with a small group, you’re still going to maintain some of your own independence and individuality.”
Giraffes and impala share the landscape in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia.
A zebra grazes outside a cabin at Mfuwe Lodge in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia.
An impala stands along the Chobe River in Botswana.
A leopard surveys South Luangwa National Park in eastern Zambia.
A lion in Chobe National Park, Botswana.
A lilac-breasted roller along the Chobe River in Botswana.
Colleen Kleuser ’80 said that sharing the wonder of wildlife with fellow travelers, who were “like a ready-made group of friends,” elevated the experience from amazing to extraordinary.
Somewhere between the early mornings in open-air jeeps and the golden-hour river cruises, we began to thrum as a unified group. We shared jokes, binoculars, hand sanitizer, silence.
Lebo noticed the change. Our TCU group struck her as unusually positive and patient. “That makes a good group,” she told me. “People that hardly complain … who are just here for the fun of it.”
A kudu in Chobe National Park, Botswana.
RIVER LIGHT
On our final night in Botswana, we again drifted into the golden hush of the Chobe River. As the sun began its descent, a lone elephant gathered the courage to hike up a bluff. Hippos blinked up at us while birds skimmed the calm waters. An unmoving crocodile oversaw the tangle of movements from its hiding spot in the tall river grasses.
We had taken several sunset cruises by then, but this one felt different. We were quieter. Still dazzled by the beauty, yes — but softened, too, by the grief curling its fingers around the edges of the thrill of travel.
Back home in Texas, a real-time tragedy was unfolding. The Guadalupe River had risen with terrifying force, sweeping away cabins and campers in the Hill Country. Two of our pack, Chuck and Suzy Fields, had close family connections to two of the missing girls at Camp Mystic.
As we sat on that boat, wrapped in the easy glow of a golden happy hour, we were also wrapped in a recognition of how easily beauty and heartbreak intertwine. That rivers, too, can change form in an instant. That this peaceful surface, here in Botswana, had a mirror image thousands of miles away, darkened by disaster.
The heightened emotion drew us together. We poured a little more into our conversations. Laughed more freely and cried a little too. We knew, in a new way, that nothing was promised. That a good day, a safe return, a pink-lit river — these were not givens. They were gifts.
“It makes you realize how fragile life is,” said Teri O’Glee ’78, past president of the TCU Alumni Association. “You take joy when you can get it.”
Back at the lodge, I asked Lebo what she hoped we would carry home from Botswana.
She didn’t hesitate: “Our kindness. … Carry that with you as you go. Just be kind and just be welcoming. Because sometimes you never know what someone is going through.”
WHERE THE GIRAFFES STARE BACK
By the time we reached Mfuwe Lodge in Zambia, recently named the No. 3 hotel in the world by Travel + Leisure, we had grown accustomed to luxury in the wild. But this was something else.
The lodge was inside South Luangwa National Park. Hippos huffed in the lagoons on the property. Zebras grazed past our cabins. Baboons screamed and squabbled like caffeinated toddlers from the trees overhead.
Mfuwe Lodge offered a striking juxtaposition: a pool and an open-air bar connected by walkways to luxurious, air-conditioned cabins that required armed escorts after dark. Just the week before, a mother elephant had trampled and killed two tourists on a walking safari inside the park. Here, wonder and danger shared the same pathways, a reminder that authentic wildlife experiences carry inherent risks that zoo encounters cannot replicate.
We didn’t shrink from it. Some of us laced up our shoes for walking safaris, where we learned to see more by looking smaller: giraffe droppings the size of marbles, scorpion tracks in the sand, scarred bark where elephants had used a tree as a towel.
Adventurers in Botswana, from left, Charles Breed, Malebogo Baathlodi, Courtney Grimm ’97, Laura Grimm ’93, Janis Breed, Gil Federico and Shirley Arsenault, board a jeep at Chobe Bush Lodge in hopes of spotting Botswana’s famed lions.
Mid-walk, we stopped for coffee next to a tower of giraffes also enjoying a morning snack. “I’ve traveled a lot, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this,” Scott O’Glee ’78 said. “Eleven giraffes that were less than 100 yards from us, standing there, looking at us, like, ‘Who are y’all?’ That’s pretty unbelievable.”
Later that day, during an after-dark game drive, a hyena, the 30th species we’d spotted since the trip began, gnawed a sun-bleached giraffe skull. Stephen Mvula, also known as “Big Steve,” our Zambian guide and wildlife encyclopedist, answered our questions about everything from Parliament to predators.
THE EDUCATION OF A HERD
In Zambia, we saw leopards, meaning we had spotted Africa’s “Big Five” species. “It was emotional,” Colleen said, “the elephant, the leopard, the lion, the cape buffalo and the rhino, all up close and personal.”
One evening, a local theatre troupe performed a play about a young woman deciding whether to leave the bush for the city. She considers new horizons but ultimately stays, having learned by observing the animals, the rhythms, the tourists that home still has something to teach her.
Over dinner, Big Steve shared his thoughts on education, too — not just for tourists, but for his own children. While he’s content living near the park, he hopes they’ll chart their own paths, even if that means leaving for Lusaka, Zambia’s capital.
“I think they’ll do fine,” he said. “Whatever they want, I’ll support that.”
A small detail of our stay made a big difference: a $15 nightly surcharge added to every guest’s bill. That fee helps support the broader South Luangwa-area community, funding schools, clean water systems and sustainable farming initiatives. Our presence felt directly reinvested, a gesture that made us feel like partners, not just outsiders.
Boston provided security during a walking safari in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park.
“There are very few places in the world that are better than this,” Keith said.
We agreed. Zambia had invited us into something sacred — not just wildlife and wonder, but perspective. “Here, I’ve found nothing but peace and joy, a commitment to maintaining this beautiful country,” Teri said. “It’s humbling.”
THE CRADLE AND THE FUTURE
“Eleven giraffes that were less than 100 yards from us, standing there, looking at us, like, ‘Who are y’all?’ That’s pretty unbelievable.” Scott O’Glee
On our last morning in Zambia, the chill was intense. We bundled into Big Steve’s open-air jeep before sunrise, breath visible, eyes still adjusting to the dark. No one spoke much. We passed hippos sunk into the mud like sentries seeing us off. Hundreds of children wearing school uniforms waved as they made their way to seize their futures.
This final ride to the airstrip marked the end of our time together in southern Africa — two weeks, four countries, 30 animal sightings, countless conversations and a hundred quiet shifts within.
In the weeks that followed, my thoughts returned often to Africa. To how the crisp air would be weighted with heat after the rainy season arrived.
The cycle again. In the place where humankind began.
“This is the cradle,” Jan said. “But modern African civilization is barely a hundred years old. Much of its political history has happened in our lifetimes. That’s a rare thing to witness.”
And we were witness to it as guests. Temporary neighbors. Curious students. Frogs flung far from Fort Worth, bringing our own culture of warmth and connection, a way of being that helped us experience the world more generously and be experienced kindly in return.
Southern Africa reminded us of what progress can cost. There’s a hunger for education there, a yearning for what’s possible. But to access it, many young people must leave the countryside, leave tradition, leave behind the trees and animals that taught them. It’s a growing chorus all over the 21st-century world, this belief that to participate in the future, we must leave the struggle with wild nature behind.
And yet: In the silence of the bush, in the gaze of a giraffe, the future felt already present. A new world in the making, transcending its wars, divisions and tragedies. Not paved over the old but growing out of it. A cycle, not a severance.
A few months after we flew home, the rainy season would return to southern Africa. Dust would turn to mud. Plants would push upward through cracked earth. Animals would roam farther, fed by new green. The world — still fragile, still holy — would remake itself again.
This story is dedicated to Lila Bonner, the 9-year-old daughter of Blake ’08 and Caitlin Bonner, who lost her life in the 2025 Guadalupe River floods. Lila wanted to open an animal rescue one day. May we all treat the world and its beings with special care and kindness in her honor.
At first glance, the portrait of a white horned frog on black paper is striking. But look more closely, and a sea of white ink dots and hidden text emerges, making the work truly awe-inspiring. Created by artist Dhananjaya“DJ” Perera ’10,“140 Hours,” displayed in TCU’s Moudy North building, is a deliberate inversion of the more common black ink on white paper.
He created the piece, named for the 140 painstaking hours it took to complete, for TCU — at the request of Amy Tully, the Teresa Ann Carter King dean of the College of Fine Arts.
In addition to being an artist, Perera is an educator, mentor and founder of a program for young artists, which led him to curate Fort Worth’s first youth art and AI exhibition. Across each of these roles, he has pushed creative boundaries and encouraged others to do the same.
“For me, that’s the whole point,” he said. “Is what you’re doing unique? Is it going to stimulate dialogue?”
“For me, that’s the whole point. Is what you’re doing unique? Is it going to stimulate dialogue?” Dhananjaya “DJ” Perera
JOURNEY TO TCU
Born and raised in Qatar but of Sri Lankan descent, Perera chose a path that he said is rarely encouraged in South Asian culture — pursuing fine arts over STEM.
His journey to TCU started with a Google search. Perera said that his mother was drawn to the word “Christian” in the university’s name — and that earning an American degree, for students having grown up outside the United States, carries prestige and is a source of pride. His path to TCU seemed predestined.
Perera became the first Sri Lankan to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts in studio art at TCU, as well as the first to receive a Master of Fine Arts in painting and drawing from Pratt Institute in New York.
A moment of “divine intervention,” Perera said, came when he invited the Sri Lankan ambassador to his graduate thesis show. The connection led Perera to briefly serve as a national adviser to the United Nations, covering sessions of the General Assembly and Security Council and preparing reports on matters relevant to the Sri Lankan government.
“These experiences are networking lessons that no one can teach you,” Perera said. “It starts with education. It starts with how you project yourself, how you communicate.”
ART IN THE DIGITAL AGE
“140 Hours” is the second work of Perera’s to be displayed at TCU. In 2021, after an interview on NPR boosted his career, Perera donated “117 Hours” — a similarly detailed depiction of a peacock — to the Mary Couts Burnett Library in gratitude for the role TCU had played in his successful artistic journey.
Both pieces are part of Perera’s ongoing 19-part series — a number inspired by the year 2019, when the project began — that explores the tension between artificial intelligence and human intelligence. Through painstakingly rendered depictions of wildlife, Perera challenges viewers to reflect on the patience and dedication behind human-made art in an increasingly digital age.
While grounded in traditional techniques like stippling, Perera also embraces emerging media and encourages the next generation of artists to do the same.
He founded the New Arts Media New Arts Learning program, better known as NAMNAL, which connects high school students with tools like augmented reality, laser engraving, projection mapping and artificial intelligence.
The program collaborated with institutions including TCU’s College of Fine Arts, the University of Texas at Dallas’ Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities and Technologyand the University of Texas at Dallas’ ArtSciLab, which shared their new media technology. The students’ work culminated in Fort Worth’s first art and AI exhibition featuring young artists, hosted by the Pool Near Southside Artspace in 2025.
DJ Perera’s intricate pen-and-ink drawings, two of which are part of TCU’s permanent collection, explore the tension between artificial and human intelligence. Photo by Joyce Marshall
With Perera’s guidance and passion, students don’t just build exceptional résumé entries — they become engaged in Fort Worth’s art ecosystem while being part of art history.
“I’m trying to collect and preserve these artworks from teenagers,” Perera said. “They’re younger than me, but their artworks are, dare I say, more valuable than minebecause this goes beyond anything we’ve seen before.”
So far, Perera said, the NAMNAL program has helped students earn acceptance letters to Pratt Institute, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Rhode Island School of Design.
“DJ is a very student-centered educator,” Tully said. “I think what stands out to me most is his commitment to exposing his students to both traditional and nontraditional forms of art and being curious to experiment with new media and AI, which are changing as quickly as we can learn about them.”
LEADING BY EXAMPLE
In his role as an Advanced Placement art teacher at Fort Worth’s Boswell High School, Perera brings a hands-on, culturally immersive approach to the classroom. He encourages students to look beyond the screen by offering extra credit for attending art exhibitions, helping them build cultural awareness through real-world experiences.
His teaching philosophy emphasizes STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics) education as well as entrepreneurship and practical application. That same mindset led him to co-found Bos Gentlemen, a character-building initiative for boys at Boswell that Perera said instills the values of “charity, community, civility and courtesy.”
Students in the program participate in leadership events, meet with local executives and civic leaders — such as Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker and council member Michael Crain — and donate out of their own pockets to charitable causes. At the end of the program, juniors and seniors attend a formal dinner, and seniors receive two-piece suits to mark their growth and professionalism.
“It follows this principle of: ‘OK, you have done for the community — now the community will do for you,’” Perera said.
Gaining recognition for his role with Bos Gentlemen led Perera to join TCU’s JPMorgan Chase Inclusive Excellence Mentoring Program. While the program is focused on business and professional development, Perera brings a unique perspective, emphasizing the importance of soft skills like communication, community engagement, intuition, innovation and personal presentation.
“What makes Mr. Perera an exceptional mentor is his ability to listen and tailor his advice to each issue or lack of understanding I had in each situation,” Whitin said. “He doesn’t offer generic tips; he invests in understanding your specific journey.”
Perera reflected on a few values that have helped him succeed.
Be willing to take risks. Wisdom comes from experiences, and experiences come from you being willing to take risks. You have to milk every opportunity and not waste time.
Put effort into being successful. I say this to my mentees, and to both my students at the secondary level and at the tertiary level: Erase all false senses of entitlement and actually get out of your community, learn something from people that are different from you. How will you learn from those experiences? Do not feed ignorance.This country, this society — they thrive on sensationalism. Where is the reality? There is a world that is going on elsewhere, and you have to edify yourself to contextualize everything; TCU allowed me to do that from the very beginning.
Time waits on no one. Time is of the essence. What are you going to do with time and are you going to choose to waste it?
The median age of Americans has risen sharply, and the numbers tell a compelling story: The Population Reference Bureau projects that the number of U.S. residents 65 and older will increase to 82 million, or 23 percent of the total population, by 2050, up from 58 million in 2022. Other countries, including Japan, Germany and Canada, are seeing a similar aging trend. As of 2020, 33 countries had a higher share of older residents than the United States.
As the world grays at unprecedented rates, the surge in age-related ailments demands attention. Alzheimer’s, the most common type of dementia, affects more than 7 million people in the U.S. alone, with total costs topping $384 billion, reports the Alzheimer’s Association. Parkinson’s disease, the world’s fastest-growing neurodegenerative condition, affects about 1.1 million U.S. adults, with total costs of about $52 billion a year, per the Parkinson’s Foundation.
Don Kent could be a poster child for this demographic shift. The 73-year-old Tyler, Texas, resident has Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia, which is linked to abnormal deposits of a brain protein that can cause problems with thinking, movement, behavior and mood.
Yet he proudly recalls completing a recent climb to the 3,000-foot summit of Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas, on a calm, sunny day. The 8.4-mile hike took him 11 hours — nearly twice the typical time — with several stumbles and falls, plus help from two of his three sons.
“I may have Lewy body dementia,” he said, “and it definitely changes things, but I can still do things.”
Kent participates in TCU’s aging-related research, and his determination demonstrates why this work is important.
BUILDING A CENTER FOR CHANGE
Reflecting this landscape, TCU aims to be a leader in the research and education of age-related neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, that affect the nervous system. Faculty across the university are conducting research to help people age better through new treatments, teaching students to better care for an older population and providing crucial support and resources to patients and their caregivers.
“Neurodegenerative diseases are a huge problem internationally,” said Floyd L. Wormley Jr., TCU’s provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, who is a microbiologist. “It’s part of what we’re trying to do to create excellence in research and creative activity that has a community and global impact. It fits well into our overall teacher-scholarship model, in which excellence in scholarship and teaching is not only encouraged but expected.”
A prime example is TCU’s new research lab, the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease, which was co-founded by two professors in the Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences in 2024. TCU’s other centers that focus on aging-related research include its Memory and Aging Lab, Motor Behavior Lab and Neurobiology of Aging Labs.
The center’s creation was jumpstarted by a gift of $1 million from Murray Zoota, who died at 80 in December, and his family, including son Andrew Zoota ’98 MS (PhD ’00). The former Fort Worth resident was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2013.
“Parkinson’s can stop you in your tracks,” Murray Zoota, a former mortgage company CEO, said in a Zoom interview last May. “It’s frustrating. It’s not what I planned for.”
He wanted to preserve his legacy by increasing awareness of Parkinson’s. His family’s gift funded an endowed professorship and a Parkinson’s speaker series.
“We’re participating with TCU to grow the school’s reputation” and that of Fort Worth, he said.
Christopher R. Watts, the Marilyn & Morgan Davies Dean of TCU’s Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences and co-founder of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease, said he saw the center as a catalyst to better understand neurodegeneration through research, education and community engagement.
“The world is aging, and the United States is aging, and dementia and Parkinson’s disease are significant problems of aging,” Watts said. “And guess what? TCU is doing something about it.”
Watts died of cancer in January, four months after he was interviewed for this article.
His colleagues will carry on the center’s research, which focuses on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, the two most common neurodegenerative diseases. Both incurable diseases mainly affect adults age 65 and up.
Finding a cure was “the holy grail” for Watts, who began studying Parkinson’s about 30 years ago. While some new treatments for Alzheimer’s target the underlying biology, such as amyloid plaques in the brain, most Parkinson’s treatments address symptoms, not the cause.
Christopher R. Watts’ research focused on developing exercise programs to prevent voice and swallowing problems in Parkinson’s patients. Photo by Olaf Growald
Aging-related research is part of TCU’s goal to become a top-tier research university by 2035. The university’s pursuit of R1 — the highest research level designated by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education — means it must boost total research spending to at least $50 million and the number of doctoral research degrees to 70.
Courtney Kloske, director of scientific engagement for the Alzheimer’s Association, which funds over $450 million in research in more than 1,200 projects across 56 countries, sees a need for more aging-related research at the university level.
“As the prevalence and cost of Alzheimer’s and related dementias continue to rise, there is a growing urgency to better understand these diseases and neurodegeneration more broadly,” she said. “Aging-focused research centers like TCU’s Center for Neurodegenerative Disease are important hubs for collaboration, innovation and education.”
Watts and Michelle Kimzey, co-founder of the center and an associate professor of nursing at Harris College, already had done extensive research on neurodegenerative diseases before joining forces. Their projects — Watts’ Endeavor Parkinsonology launched in 2016 and Kimzey’s Rethinking Dementia started in 2020 — now are wrapped into the center.
“There are a lot of similarities and overlaps between dementia and Parkinson’s,” Kimzey said.
FROM BOXING TO DIET
Dan Novak credits daily exercise, particularly noncontact boxing, with helping him lead an active life despite his Parkinson’s diagnosis. Photo by Olaf Growald
Dan Novak of Westworth Village, Texas, received a Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2008. A few years later, the one-time adjunct professor of marketing for the Neeley School of Business stopped teaching “because I was so physically exhausted,” he said. He also experienced muscle stiffness, slowness and loss of balance.
Regular exercise, he believes, enables him to lead an active life. Novak, who is founding president of the South Central Chapter of the Parkinson’s Foundation, does some type of daily exercise, including walking, noncontact boxing and using elliptical and rowing machines.
Novak credits the Punching Out Parkinson’s boxing program with improving his motor coordination, flexibility and muscle strength. Fort Worth-based world champion boxer Paulie Ayala began the program in 2011 to help people with Parkinson’s.
Noncontact boxing is “one of the best exercises you can do for Parkinson’s,” Watts said, because it addresses impairments caused by that disease, such as balance, strength and cardiovascular health.
When Watts recruited Novak and Zoota for studies, they told him about Punching Out Parkinson’s, which became part of his research. He published a study in the Journal of Clinical Medicine in 2023 on how noncontact boxing helped men with Parkinson’s breathe better. The study found the men’s respiratory muscle strength increased 60 percent or more after a year of biweekly resistance training.
Watts, who was a speech pathologist, also researched how boxing influences swallowing and vocal health in people with Parkinson’s. His goal was to develop exercise programs that prevent voice and swallowing problems.
“We know about 90 percent of people with Parkinson’s disease will have changes to their voice at some point,” Watts said. “We really don’t have a good idea as to when those changes happen. If we know when those problems occur, we can better design preventions.”
TCU’s aging-related research also takes an interdisciplinary approach. Michael Chumley, professor of immunology and co-director (with TCU neurobiologist Gary Boehm) of the Neurobiology of Aging Labs, collaborates across departments and universities.
Last year, Chumley co-published a study in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease suggesting a largely plant-based Mediterranean diet helps prevent Alzheimer’s biomarkers associated with cognitive impairment and aids with learning and memory.
Chumley said switching from a typical American diet to a Mediterranean diet rich in olive oil and proteins from fish and plants may reduce or eliminate inflammation in the body, which can increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. His study found that about three times less amyloid beta, an important component of Alzheimer’s, accumulated in the brain’s cortex and about two times less in the hippocampus of mice on a Mediterranean diet versus a typical American diet.
A traditional American diet fed to mice results in inflammation throughout the body, causing blood vessels in the brain to leak, Chumley said. If shifting mice to a Mediterranean-style diet can restore proper vascular function, it may prevent or slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in humans, he added.
TRAINING THE NEXT GENERATION
For Kent, a dementia diagnosis in 2017 and Parkinson’s in 2024 were devastating. The former lawyer, who often defended health care providers, had to end his career and stop driving.
Kent wants to reduce the stigma he sees associated with dementia. He recalled an incident soon after his diagnosis: He and his wife, Cynthia, visited their financial adviser, whom Kent had dealt with for 25 years, to relay the news. The adviser, he said, “just turned to my wife and didn’t talk to me anymore.”
“I’d like to see some change in how the ordinary person views people with dementia,” Kent said. “TCU’s efforts are going to help reduce what I call the stigma of dementia diagnosis.”
Kent decided to relay his life story to a TCU nursing student as part of Kimzey’s research on dementia. An abstract of that study, published in Innovation in Aging in 2024, found that storytelling can help people with dementia find meaning and purpose in life and adjust to their diagnosis. “The older person with dementia still plays the role of a mentor” with students, Kimzey said.
Normalizing dementia care is one of Kimzey’s goals. She began studying the condition a decade ago after watching her mother-in-law navigate Alzheimer’s disease. Since then, she has helped Harris College earn a dementia friendly designation, meaning it has pledged to educate students on how to be empathetic and proactive with people living with the condition.
Since joining TCU in 2017, Kimzey has designed simulations of what it’s like to live with dementia. When she began the simulations in 2017, she had five students. Last year, there were 35 students plus a waiting list.
In 2020, Kimzey began offering a dementia elective course for nursing students, making TCU one of the first colleges of nursing to do so. Students in that class become certified through the National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners. While the class is mostly made up of nursing students, students in speech pathology, pre-med and social work also take the course if they expect to work with people with dementia.
Now Kimzey offers a second elective, Dementia in the Community, in which students volunteer at dementia care communities.
She also invites people with dementia, including Kent, into her classroom as guest speakers. Kent speaks about living with Alzheimer’s; Cynthia talks about being a spouse and caregiver of someone with a neurodegenerative disease.
Kimzey even co-teaches a nursing class with North Texas resident Jim McLarty, who has a rare dementia that affects brain tissue and results in problems with memory, concentration, mood and walking. She co-published a paper with social work faculty last year in the Gerontology & Geriatrics Education journal about the benefits of having people with dementia as co-teachers or guest speakers. Such arrangements provide purpose to the people with dementia and give a real face to students, Kimzey said, showing them that such a diagnosis isn’t necessarily “the end stage.”
One student transformed by this education was Jeni Green, ’24, of Arlington, Texas. During her first semester at TCU, her father had a stroke and was later diagnosed with vascular dementia.
After his stroke, Green changed her major to applied health sciences and enrolled in dementia-related courses. She also volunteered at an assisted living facility and at a support group through Dementia Friendly Fort Worth.
“We talk about how having a sense of humor or singing can help, how much love is still important, and how to approach different conversations, like having an advance directive, with family,” Green said. “I realized I wanted to work with people with dementia and their caregivers to help ease their burden.”
Her TCU education and family experiences led her to enroll last summer in a Master of Public Health program at Louisiana State University Shreveport.
“My goal is to make life as easy and as pleasant as possible for people living with dementia and their caregivers,” said Green, who wants to return to TCU for a PhD in health sciences. “I’m focused on anything I can do to help people with dementia retain personality, dignity and respect.”
Michelle Kimzey co-founded TCU’s Center for Neurodegenerative Disease after watching her mother-in-law navigate Alzheimer’s disease — an experience that reshaped her approach to nursing education and sparked a mission to normalize dementia care. Photo by Olaf Growald
Student involvement in research is important to the future of health care. “Funding to help talented early career scientists establish themselves in the field has long been a priority for the Alzheimer’s Association,” Kloske said. University research centers “play a key role in building up the next generation of dementia researchers by providing students and early-career scientists a role in conducting cutting-edge science.”
As the nation faces a shortage of health care workers, Kimzey envisions more TCU students turning to aging-related majors and professions as they’re exposed to more related illnesses among their family members. She already sees that happening.
“Students get very passionate about it; their grandparents are living with dementia,” Kimzey said. “Now some students not only want to do research but want to work in memory care.”
This fall, she plans to offer a dementia elective course to TCU medical school students.
BEYOND THE CLASSROOM
Every Thursday at Brookdale Westover Hills, a senior living community in Fort Worth, a handful of TCU students sit and talk with residents or participate in activities like bingo and crafts. Jada Tezeno, the Clare Bridge program manager at Brookdale, said the visits provide major benefits to residents. Clare Bridge, Brookdale’s memory care program, offers people with dementia several daily activities ranging from a morning cognitive workout and brain games to dancing and music programs.
“It’s very impactful because a lot of the residents don’t have visitors who come all the time,” Tezeno said. “It makes the residents feel important and loved. They seem happier and are very responsive.”
Dakota Schumacher, a neurologist and movement disorder specialist at the Texas Institute for Neurological Disorders in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, is impressed with what TCU is doing to keep the community engaged and informed about neurodegenerative diseases.
“Other similar conditions like dystonia [a movement disorder] don’t have that kind of support, and that’s a detriment to the patient,” Schumacher said. “Patients in Parkinson’s support groups tend to be more engaged and do better with their disease course.”
One TCU psychology professor, Uma Tauber, aims to help families and caregivers in supporting people with dementia.
Tauber, who is also the director of TCU’s Memory and Aging Lab, is studying a learning strategy called structured retrieval practice. It involves quizzes and feedback to help family caregivers of people with dementia retain information they need to learn — from new prescriptions and their side effects to stress management and coping strategies. Data show these family caregivers retain more information 10 minutes later, two days later and even a year later.
As caregivers retain more information, Tauber hopes they’ll “feel more confident in their care roles and make good decisions” that lead to improved health for people with dementia. The long-term goal is to create a free app to help them be effective helpers.
“Most caregivers are thrust into their position without a lot of training,” Tauber said. Her vision is to support caregivers by helping them whittle down the “overwhelming mountain of information” they receive into “clear, accurate, memorable and actionable concepts,” she said. “We want to not only help improve their caregiver role but help them improve the quality of care.”
Andrew Zoota valued TCU’s support.
“As a caretaker, it’s hard not to get frustrated,” he said of the last few years of caring for his father. “The more that we can educate those who are suffering but also those who are supporting the sufferers, the better. I see a lot of that from TCU now. Keep doing it. Keep providing us tools — whether it’s on diet, how to react emotionally or what to say.”
The proof, he said, is in audience reactions in TCU’s Parkinson’s speaker series. The room “really lights up” when the discussion turns to what he calls the touchy-feely stuff, such as what it’s like to live with Parkinson’s on a daily basis.
“That’s tangible, right?” he said. “It’s a very holistic view. That’s what’s going to connect to the community. We obviously need the hard science, but the other part is needed, too.”
LOOKING AHEAD: GROWTH AND IMPACT
So far, TCU’s Center for Neurodegenerative Disease has raised more than $1 million along with pledges of just over $500,000 toward its $17 million fundraising goal for research and educational programs.
The center doesn’t have a physical home on TCU’s campus yet, but it may end up housed in a planned STEM facility as part of TCU’s Campus Master Plan, Wormley said.
The Zoota family’s gift to create the Eleanor & Murray Zoota Endowed Professorship in Neurodegenerative Research led to Brad Cannell joining TCU in that role in August, adding a specialization in elder mistreatment.
Like other TCU researchers, Cannell’s motivation is personal. His great-grandmother, he said, developed dementia and “had an end-of-life experience that most of us do not want.”
Cannell, who is an epidemiologist, is in year four of a five-year study evaluating a clinical screening for elder mistreatment, including people living with dementia. “We know there’s such a strong connection between elder mistreatment and Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases,” he said. “My goal is and always has been to help people live and die how they want to live and die — to live as happy and healthy as possible for as long as possible.”
An essential piece of helping older adults live longer and better lives often involves their family, paid caregivers and the greater community.
“Ultimately,” Kloske said, “collaborations, idea-sharing, clinical trials, community engagement and stewardship of the next generation of researchers are critical to speeding the rate of progress in Alzheimer’s and dementia research.”
TCU’s interdisciplinary collaboration “reflects how broad of an impact dementia and Parkinson’s has,” said Kimzey, who has collaborated with social work faculty and speech-language pathology students on studies about patients’ life stories as well as the empathy skills needed to care for people with dementia.
The work matters now more than ever. As baby boomers age and neurodegenerative diseases affect more families, the demand for research, trained health care professionals and community resources will only intensify.
In November, Texas voters approved using $3 billion to fund the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, which will be the nation’s largest state-funded initiative dedicated to dementia research and prevention.
And TCU’s investment in this field positions the university to make meaningful contributions to a crisis affecting millions.
“My goal is and always has been to help people live and die how they want to live and die — to live as happy and healthy as possible for as long as possible.” Brad Cannell
For Don Kent, these efforts represent something larger than academic achievement or institutional goals. They represent hope — not necessarily for a cure in his lifetime, but for a future where people with dementia are understood, supported and empowered to live fully.
Kent’s Guadalupe Peak climb wasn’t just a personal triumph. It was a statement about possibility and resilience, the same qualities driving TCU’s aging-related research. His message resonates with researchers’ collective belief that people living with neurodegenerative diseases deserve dignity, community and the chance to keep reaching new heights.
“I wanted to try to encourage people,” Kent said. “Stay active. It’s good for you.”
That encouragement flows both ways — from people like Kent to researchers and students, and back again. As TCU builds its reputation as a leader in aging-related research and education, the university isn’t just preparing for the future of health care. It’s helping write a new story about what’s possible for the millions of Americans who will face these diseases in the coming decades.
This story is dedicated to the memory of Murray Zoota, whose advocacy jumpstarted the creation of TCU’s Center for Neurodegenerative Disease.
