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Victor Boschini led a group of Horned Frogs to Wall Street in the fall to ring the final bell one day to commemorate the beginning of the celebration of TCU's sesquicentennial. With the football team's success on a national stage, the year is shaping up to be a very big one.
TCU’s march to the national stage at the dawn of its 150th birthday has been the agent of an awakening that perhaps only Barton Stone, Billy Graham, or Jim Wacker could have induced.
“I couldn’t script a better way to do it than this. That’s how incredible it’s been,” says Chancellor Victor J. Boschini of the university beginning its sesquicentennial by having the football team competing in front of a worldwide audience for the College Football Playoff national championship.
“It reflects on every part of the campus. I always thought TCU was a very glass-half-full kind of place. I love it. It’s positive, the environment is uplifting. But it’s a glass full right now if you talk to any faculty or staff member. It’s incredible. And the students are out of the orbit.”
The No. 3 Horned Frogs meet No. 1 Georgia, the defending champion, at 6:30 p.m. Monday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
This tidal wave of good mojo enveloping the university has not caused anyone to shift gears and promote the football coach to president of the university.
“Well, no, not yet,” Boschini says laughing. “Not yet.”
Sonny Dykes would almost certainly turn down the job if offered. He knows full well his vocational calling was “Hut! Hut!”
The topic of president, however, was the reason for the call with the chancellor on Thursday.
Daniel Pullin, the John V. Roach Dean of the TCU Neeley School of Business, will assume the presidency on Feb. 1. In that position, he will be responsible for overall operations supporting and enhancing the university’s academic mission.
TCU
Daniel Pullin
He will report to Boschini.
Pullin’s appointment in December ended a year-long search headed by trustee Sheryl Adkins-Green, who was appointed to lead the advisory committee made up of a number of university stakeholders.
“I think he’ll have a huge and positive effect on the university and on the future of TCU,” Boschini says. “He’s young and dynamic, and he is very strategic oriented. He’s a great thinker. I think it’s a total win for TCU.”
In addition to serving as dean, Pullin was also a professor of entrepreneurship and innovation. Since joining TCU in 2019, he has utilized his combined experience in higher education across multiple roles, as well as an early foundation in leading corporations and private industry to serve as a steward for the Neeley School.
Under Pullin’s leadership, TCU Neeley has driven faculty and staff growth and curriculum innovation; earned increased national visibility and rankings; realized development success; built community and civic engagement; and has placed a focus on inclusive excellence.
Prior to joining TCU Neeley School of Business, Pullin was the dean of the Price College of Business at the University of Oklahoma, where he also served as university vice president. Before transitioning to higher education, Pullin worked for global consultancy McKinsey & Company and the private equity firm Hicks Muse Tate & Furst and its portfolio companies.
Pullin earned his undergraduate degrees from the University of Oklahoma and an MBA from Harvard Business School before returning to OU to earn a Juris Doctor degree.
With the appointment, Boschini will be free to “spend more time making friends and raising funds for TCU.”
“He will do all the internal things, which will give me a chance to do everything external,” Boschini says.
Success in football is like the most fertile seed, particularly in fundraising and enrollment. One report suggested TCU will see tens of thousands more applications for school simply with the exposure the university is receiving from the football team’s success on this stage.
The school experienced something similar in the 2010 Rose Bowl year.
“I’m not smart enough to predict [how many more applications to expect],” Boschini says. “It’s definitely going to increase, and it already has started.”
This run to the national championship “affects everything positively.”