TCU: Son says father was part of 1938 national title team

FRISCO, Texas — We all are inclined to favor some rooms greater than others within the locations we stay. 

If you ask David Kline what his favourite room is inside his Frisco dwelling, he can level you to which one with out hesitation. 

His workplace is loaded with TCU memorabilia honoring his and his father’s time on the college’s soccer team. 

Kline performed defensive again for the Horned Frogs within the mid to late ’60s. 

He was impressed to observe in his father’s footsteps, Forrest H. Kline, who blocked for Davey O’Brien and led the offensive line as a guard in 1938 to TCU’s most up-to-date and final national title. 

“I love this room because it feels like my dad is right here with me,” Kline mentioned. 

“Back when he played, they had leather helmets, they weren’t plastic like I played with,” he chuckled.

Kline’s father is in TCU’s Football Hall of Fame, and his legend traces most of the partitions within the 77-year-old’s workplace, who continues to be a realtor in Frisco. 

The reminiscences are frozen in time and imply rather more to Kline this week than they ever have as TCU prepares to play within the College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday. 

“It’s a different game now than it was back then, it’s a much faster game,” Kline mentioned with amusing. “They probably hit a little harder too.” 

Forrest Kline cemented his legacy alongside quarterback Davey O’Brien and others who secured a national title with a Sugar Bowl win in 1939 over Carnegie Tech 15-7.

Kline confirmed pictures from a 1939 TCU yearbook of the matchup.  

He nonetheless has the watch his father was awarded for profitable that recreation. 

“I think it still can tell time,” Kline mentioned whereas displaying the watch to WFAA. “I haven’t tried in a long time.” 

Forrest Kline was an Honorable Mention All-American that season and an Academic All-American. He was drafted to the NFL because the seventy fifth choose of the Brooklyn Dodgers however declined to play to start educating and training. 

He proudly served his nation within the United States Air Force till 1945 as an teacher for pilots in inclement climate.

Crazy sufficient, Kline additionally performed within the very first Cotton Bowl recreation in 1937. 

His brother, George Kline, was additionally on the 1935 TCU team that claimed a national title. 

Yes, indubitably, TCU soccer runs deep within the Kline household. David Kline’s nephew, Brad Kline, was additionally a deep snapper for TCU within the early 2000s. 

“We are a football family, exactly,” David Kline mentioned with a smile.

While rising up, Kline did not absolutely grasp what his father had achieved on the soccer area till he began taking part in the sport. 

He remembers going to TCU video games as a boy together with his dad and assembly with gamers from his father’s squad to look at video games. 

Kline mentioned he seen an unmatched chemistry between his dad and his previous teammates — one thing he sees in at this time’s team. 

“They enjoyed being with each other and visiting with each other. Back in those days, they had this great chemistry. I see that now with Duggan and all the others. They feel like they’re brothers, and they win games because they play together–they don’t play separately or individually,” Kline mentioned. 

Forrest Kline handed away in 2007 on the age of 89. 

Kline now works carefully with what was TCU’s Lettermen’s Association. The group shifted to the “Block T Association.”

He bleeds purple, striving to maintain the previous alive with a concentrate on the longer term. 

“It’s been exciting, especially this year,” Kline mentioned. “My dad would have loved this, he was a TCU football player until the day he died.” 

When kickoff comes subsequent week, Kline will likely be watching — and is aware of his father will, too.