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TCU unveils statue of coach Gary Patterson (Photos)

Sam Cooper
College football writer

TCU unveiled three new statues on Saturday morning dedicated to the school’s most well-known figures in football: Dutch Meyer, Davey O’Brien and current Horned Frogs head coach Gary Patterson.

The statues stand outside Schollmaier Arena, which is adjacent to Amon G. Carter Stadium on the school’s campus in Fort Worth.

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Patterson, who is entering his 16th season as head coach and his 19th year with the program overall, feels a little uneasy about his statue while he is still coaching, especially because of its placement next to two men – O’Brien, the 1938 Heisman Trophy winner, and Meyer, the two-time national championship-winning head coach – who have passed away.

In fact, Patterson turned down the school when presented with the idea of the statue for quite some time. It took some unfortunate circumstances for the family funding the statue to change his mind.

Patterson explained the situation to ESPN Radio in Dallas, while making it known he feels there is still work to do to help the program continue to rise (transcribed by the Dallas Morning News):

"Well let me just say this to you, nobody that's not retired or not passed away would be fired up about a statue. Kind of the story behind it, there was a family that put up a lot of money for all three statues that are gonna be put in place. Went through bad health and went into a coma and came out of it and one of his requests was that he would love to be able to see that put in place before he wasn't on this earth. So very good friend of mine and a great TCU fan and so I'm honoring his request. For me it's really hard. Because what do you say at one of these things? Because the other statues that are going to be there, they're not alive anymore.

“For me I feel like we have a lot of work left to do. So in honor of the family, in honor of TCU, the former players, everybody who's been here in the 19 years I've been at TCU, we're going to do it for them but for me it's one of those things where I feel like we still have a lot of unfinished business. I'm very honored and it's very heartfelt that somebody would feel that way and the university would feel that way. But we've still got a lot of work to do. There's still a lot we want to achieve. I still have a lot of energy to do that. Have you guys ever listened to yourself on the radio? We do teaching tapes and you have to listen to yourself down the hallway and I made 15-16 years ago when I was young defensive coordinator. And I would have to think that to look at myself would be the same thing."

Patterson’s statue was revealed alongside statues for the two men who helped TCU become a powerhouse in the 1930’s. Meyer led the program from 1934-1952 and coached the Horned Frogs to national championships in 1935 and 1938. He was also the school’s head basketball coach from 1934-1937 and had three stints as head baseball coach (1926-1934, 1945, 1956-57).

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In addition to winning the Heisman, O’Brien, a quarterback, also won the Maxwell and Walter Camp awards in 1938. Now, the top quarterback in the country is awarded with the Davey O’Brien Award each season.

Patterson has led the Horned Frogs to a Conference USA title (2002), four Mountain West titles (2005, 2009-2011) and one Big 12 title (2014) along with nine bowl victories. Patterson has a 143-47 overall record.

For more TCU news, visit PurpleMenace.com.

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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!