TCU legend to call his last Horned Frogs football game vs Georgia. John Denton saw it all

John Denton’s first game in the TCU radio booth came in 1988, against Georgia.

You know where this is going.

Since he walked on as a skinny kicker at TCU in 1980, he has seen nearly everything that this school, athletic department and football program has experienced.

His last game as the TCU football radio color analyst is Monday night, when No. 3 TCU plays No. 1 Georgia in the national championship game.

“How ‘bout that, huh?” Denton asked.

No university could know a greater ally than TCU has in John Denton, who is one of the best salesman God created, because he’s not selling anything.

He’s genuine, funny, decent, kind, sincere, and he cares deeply about TCU. You will not find a person who has a bad word to say about John Denton because they don’t exist.

“You don’t know how many times John dug into his own pocket to find some part to make sure the games got on the air, and a lot of the times he wasn’t reimbursed,” TCU football radio broadcast spotter Wayne Gossard said. “Everything that he has ever done over there has been a labor of love.”

Said TCU radio play-by-play voice Brian Estridge: “He’s an ambassador for the entire place. He is TCU, and TCU is him.”

Denton, 60, is not leaving TCU but his days as TCU’s football radio analyst will end Monday.

From walk-on to the booth

Denton arrived to TCU in the fall of 1980 and wanted to walk on as a kicker. Then coach F.A. Dry told Denton he was too skinny, but he had good mechanics and said he would redshirt his first year.

“We were 1-10 that season so I was kind of glad I missed that one,” Denton said. “If I had not redshirted, I would not have been a part of that team in 1984 when we went to the Bluebonnet Bowl.”

That season was only the school’s second winning record in 21 years.

Denton was a broadcast journalism major and called the TCU baseball games on the student radio station for three years by himself.

Bill Coates was the radio play-by-play voice of TCU football back then. He now hosts a sports talk show in Tyler.

Before TCU’s 1988 season opener at Georgia, Coates asked Denton if he wanted to help with the football broadcasts.

Thirty four years later ...

“At the beginning, the radio broadcast was pretty much what John made of it,” Gossard said. “He was a producer and engineer. There was no real investment in the radio broadcast because they didn’t see it as a strategic essential, so it all got dumped on John. He would put together a 15-station package all over West and East Texas and sell it by himself.

“We were not that many steps of being ahead of Marconi.”

Denton’s full-time job was working for a professional turf product company owned by Toro, but you’d never know he did anything other than work for TCU.

Denton became the full-time color analyst in 1992. He added color commentary for the men’s basketball broadcasts in 2005; he will remain in that role until that season is over in the spring.

When Estridge arrived in 1998, the two hit it off and have been together calling both ever since.

“I loved his personality and the fact that he loved TCU,” Estridge said.

John Denton called a looooooooooooot of long Saturday afternoon games before TCU finally started to win. When it came to basketball, John Denton called a loooooooooot of ugly games in single-digit win seasons.

Denton is your atypical college analyst. He never steps on the play-by-play voice or ruins a memorable moment by screaming and cheering over a call.

“People ask me, ‘How can you not scream or yell?’ That’s where being a former player helps. You just can’t,” Denton said. “Let the play be called, and then talk.”

That is not Denton’s No. 1 rule as a color analyst.

“No. 1 rule is ‘Don’t cuss,’” he said, “and I’ve been able to do that.”

From the booth to NIL

In 2005, then TCU athletic director Danny Morrison asked Denton to join him for lunch.

“I thought he was going to ask me for money,” Denton said.

Morrison offered Denton a job to work as the executive director of the Frog Club. Denton was so excited at the prospects he said no.

After some more convincing, he said yes.

When Morrison’s successor, Chris Del Conte, arrived in 2009, he offered Denton a different job. He wanted Denton to go after “elephants” to help fund new facility projects, as the director of major gifts.

Denton could sell an Apple computer to Bill Gates.

“When I came back here to work I just wanted to make sure we never go back to what it was when I was here as a student,” Denton said. “When I played here, the department was not well budgeted. It was just another department on campus, and you represent your school and if you win by accident, great.”

That never happened.

Last year, Denton started kicking around the idea of leaving the booth. It was 34 years of every fall Saturday, as well as a full slate of college basketball. Denton estimates he’s called well over 400 games.

John and Linda Denton’s two daughters, Erin and Meredith, had both graduated from TCU and the timing works.

When the new NIL collective “Flying T” club — which is not part of the university — asked him to join it made sense.

“It’s been so long I feel like I’ve worked three jobs that I won’t know what to do with myself,” Denton said.

Next fall, John Denton will still be watching TCU football, he just won’t be in the booth.

Because, ultimately, John Denton is TCU and TCU is John Denton.