TCU’s spike collar is coming back.
After being absent from Horned Frogs uniforms since the 2023 season, the iconic look is set to return for 2027 football. For TCU fans, it brings back one of the clearest visual markers of the program’s Nike era.
The spike collar had become a familiar part of the Frogs’ identity before it was removed when TCU rolled out a redesigned, simplified uniform set for the 2024 season. That change shut the door, at least temporarily, on one of the school’s most recognizable football designs.
Plenty of fans were never all that eager to see it go.
“I love it man. I don’t know why they ever got rid of them. They look amazing,” Charlie Galvez, a first-year economics major, said.
TCU’s uniform history with Nike has never been shy. The program has leaned into bold concepts over the years, including blood-red uniforms meant to mimic the Horned Frog’s ability to shoot blood from its eyes, the “frog skin” design on the jersey numbers and a newer, more subdued version of the spike collar that appeared during the Frogs’ game against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
For Royce Huffman II, a former TCU football player and TCU Athletics Hall of Fame inductee, that kind of attention to detail matters.
“I’m a big proponent of if you look good, you feel good, you play good,” said Royce Huffman II, a former TCU football player and TCU Athletics Hall of Fame inductee. “Any mental edge that you can get to make you feel better and be more confident, that’s what it’s about.”
Uniform changes can split a fan base right down the middle. Huffman said he remembers alumni being unhappy when TCU introduced black football uniforms, because the school’s original colors are purple and white.
Still, he said the opinion that matters most is the one inside the locker room.
“The only thing that matters is what the people in that locker room think,” Huffman said.
Beyond the reaction from fans, the point of these designs is also practical. They help bring eyes to the program and leave an impression on recruits and visitors alike.
“I think it’s a great recruiting tool to be able to have so many uniform options,” Huffman said.
TCU’s love of visual flair shows up beyond football, too. The Jane & John Justin Hall of Fame in Schollmaier Arena features several uniform designs from across TCU Athletics, another reminder of how central creativity has become to the school’s brand.
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