Jamie Dixon shares memories of his late father Jim: “He loved TCU.”

It’s been an emotional week for TCU coach Jamie Dixon is he prepares the Horned Frogs for a massive road trip to Iowa State on Saturday.

Dixon’s father, Jim ,died of cancer Monday evening in California. Dixon spent the opening portion of his press conference Thursday remembering his father. His father was an actor, producer and screenwriter in Hollywood. Jim’s first movie was “Ice Station Zebra” that afeatured a cameo from NFL Hall of Famer Jim Brown.

Dixon had an opportunity to spend time with him last weekend before he passed.

“It’s been a tough week for the family, but it’s been a tough five years or so,” Dixon said. “Knowing we had the bye week, I planned a trip to go to L.A. and see him and recruit on the off days. As it got closer, he wasn’t doing as well, so I left Saturday after the [Texas] game and went straight to the hospital.”

At this point during the press conference, the emotions began to pile up despite Dixon doing his best to hold strong. He used his sense of humor to alleviate the mood.

“He waited for the bye week,” Dixon joked about the timing of his father’s passing.

Jokes aside, it’s clear Jim had a profound impact on his son and helped set the course for him to become a college basketball coach.

“He was my best friend, my best man at my wedding and a great father,” Dixon said. “He meant a lot to me, he raised three kids. He was a special man, he coached me when I was young. He coached my teams when I played little league in California. Everybody was like baseball, baseball, baseball and he kind of pushed me into basketball.

“He loved college basketball because he grew up in (Madison Square Garden) watching St. John’s, I think I got a little more pushed out that way than most kids in California.”

Jim’s love for college basketball only grew as his son rose up the coaching ranks. When Dixon was coaching at Pittsburgh, his father became a regular in the press box and became close with a number of media.

Dixon also said TCU was a special place to his father.

“He loved TCU because they gave me a chance,” Dixon said as a single tear rolled down the right side of his cheek. Dixon took a long pause at this moment to look up at the rafters as he tried to continue to keep the emotions at bay. After the pause Dixon shared a moment between his father ad longtime TCU coach Bill Montigel.

“I got a text from Coach Montigel and Bill was the one that recruited me,” Dixon said. “Bill came over to my dad at a game and said, ‘I know I’m not supposed to be talking to you Mr. Dixon, but we love your son and want to offer him a scholarship.’ Bill sent that to me and it meant a lot.”

The next step in the grieving process for Dixon and his family is finding a way to let his mother Marge know about the passing of her husband. Marge has Parkinson’s disease which can cause dementia and memory loss.

As much as there is on the shoulders of Dixon, he credited the people around the TCU program for helping to manage the emotional load.

“You know what I do have? I have a great staff and the players have been great,” Dixon said. “I’ve said what high character guys we have and they reached out to me. I said I couldn’t do that at 21, 22, 23. I didn’t have that type of maturity but they reached out to me. They’ve been there for me all the way through and they were here for the players. We’re ready to go, we’re ready for Iowa State.”

While Jim won’t be able to watch his son coach on Saturday, Dixon knows his presence will still be with him.

“He loved TCU and that’s enough,” Dixon said.