1926: Tech Band Takes Historic Trip to Become Goin' Band from Raiderland

In 1926, beloved American humorist Will Rogers helped Tech’s then-called Matador Band become the first college marching band to travel to an away game.

According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

“Will Rogers wants Fort Worth to see a ‘real West Texas band’ and hear some real West Texas music. That’s the reason he gave $200 to help bring the 80-piece band of Texas Technological College to Fort Worth for the game with TCU Saturday.”

The Matador Band became the Goin’ Band from Raiderland.

For almost a century, the Goin’ Band has created:

• A family.
• A tradition of hard work, excellence and fun.
• Band 1 and Band 2…and Band 3.
• The foot-and-a-half.
• Service organizations.
• A lot of music and marching.

In the Beginning…

In 1925, the Matador Band performed at Texas Technological College’s first football game in 1925 with about two-dozen members, under direction of W.H. Waghorne.

The next year, Harry Lemaire arrived in Lubbock to lead the marching band and take it on that Fort Worth trip.

Lemaire was already 64 years old. He’d been a bandmaster under Theodore Roosevelt during the Spanish-American War and knew famed American band director John Philip Sousa. During his eight years at Tech:

• Lemaire helped write the “Matador Song.”
• First band to have its halftime show on radio on WBAP in Dallas/Fort Worth – long before the phrase Metroplex was born.
• Because Tech’s teams were the Matadors, Lemaire had band members wear Spanish look with a Gaucho hat (like now) and chaps.

‘Father of Bands’ Lands in Lubbock

D.O. “Prof” Wiley was the last Tech band director born in the 1800s and the first of three men who over 68 years transformed the Goin’ Band from its early years to a source of pride for Red Raiders.

Wiley was known as the Father of Bands in Texas, developing the popular Cowboy Band at Hardin-Simmons University before coming to Tech, where he expanded the band to more than 200 members.

“He really put the Tech band on the map,” said Keith Bearden, who later played in the Goin’ Band and became the first alum to direct it in 1981.

During Wiley’s time in Lubbock:

• The Tau Beta Sigma band sorority was founded at Tech in the 1930s and the first Texas chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi for men was formed at Tech. Even though Tau Beta Sigma was the first chapter, Wiley called Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University) to offer them the chance to have the alpha chapter because they’d started Kappa Kappa Psi. When Sarah McKoin came to Tech to be director of bands, she found out how serious the two groups are about service. “Within five minutes of coming here, there was a group of kids who gave me a gift basket and asked if they could help me move into my house. I gave them the keys to my house and said, ‘I’ll meet you there,’” she said, laughing at the memory of handing people she’d barely met her house keys.
• Wiley started Phi Beta Mu, the international bandmasters’ fraternity and years later Bearden served three years as the group’s president.
• Few women were in the Goin’ Band in its early years, but during World War II, the band was almost all women when men were fighting the war. “Women really kept the band going during those days,” said Bearden.

The Man from Nebraska

Nebraskan Dean Killion brought a Big 10 Conference look and feel to the band, eventually expanding it to more than 400 members.

He abandoned the Spanish-looking uniforms, replacing them a garrison-style hat with plume, military-looking coat with breastplate – a look more like Big 10 Conference bands.

Killion started the Court Jesters band for Red Raider basketball games. Dick Tolley came to Tech the same year as Killion to teach brass and helped direct the Goin’ Band.

Band 1 and Band 2

“We started with 120. By the second year, we enrolled 205,” said Tolley. “Dean decided to divide the band into two units – Band 1 and Band 2 with the percussion session in the middle.” The idea was to split the band in half, so the audience heard the same performance. It created a stereophonic effect. Killion also created a hilarious rivalry.

Jay Sedberry, president of the Goin’ Band Association – a group of band alumni who support the band – was an alto saxophone player in Band 2.

Chris Brewer, treasurer of the same group, was a Band 1 trombone player.

“Band 1 and Band 2 are identical. But everyone knows Band 1 is better than band two,” said Brewer.

Sedberry disagreed.

“Band 2 is better than you because Band 1 has no fun,” he said while the two discussed their time in the Goin’ Band.

Sedberry went on to fill many roles in the Ropes Independent School District southwest of Lubbock, including assistant band director.

A former Band 1 tuba player worked with him for a while and they’d jab at each other about the Band 1 and 2 rivalry.

“I pretty much convinced the majority of the Ropes band that Band 2 is better,” he said.

On the Goin’ Band’s alumni website, bios of Board of Directors point out which band they were in.

“Speed of light is faster than speed of sound.”

As the band grew, Tolley was one of three directors helping Killion conduct.

“Speed of light is so much faster than speed of sound. If the people on my side just listened, they can be late. We wore white gloves,” Tolley said, so the students could easily see their hands.

Tolley kept an eye on Killion. Even if Killion slowed down because he got tripped up, Tolley matched his tempo.

Percussion, color guard and auxiliaries were unofficially Band 3. They didn’t march, so during rehearsals, they had fun while Tolley was conducting on a ladder.

“These guys would tie my shoelaces together, roll my socks down, roll up my pants while I was up there helpless. I was sympathetic to their plight – they had time on their hands.”

“These guys would tie my shoelaces together, roll my socks down, roll up my pants while I was up there helpless,” he said. “I was sympathetic to their plight – they had time on their hands.”

Band 3 also call themselves ZIT – Zeta Iota Tau – a mock fraternity.

Killion was a Salesman

Killion grew the band by recruiting on campus.

“He would stand out in the hallway in administration. In those days, we only had 8,000 students. All the students had to go through Administration during registration. He was out in the hallway confronting kids – but he had a genial way about it,” said Tolley.

Killion would get a student talking, finding out if they were in marching in high school.

“If they did, he’d ask, ‘Are you going to be in the band?’ If the kid would say, “No, I don’t have time.’ The he’d say, ‘Well, let me talk to you.’ Kids couldn’t resist him. The band grew exponentially,” said Tolley. About 25 percent are music majors.

How Music for Masked Rider’s Run was Written

Tech’s head cheerleader went to Killion asking if there was a way to tie the band, cheerleaders and the student body all together. Killion told him to visit Tolley.

“He’s from Illinois and they had terrific tradition up there. I’m sure he’s got an idea,” Killion told the cheerleader about Tolley.

They came up with the idea of a fanfare for when the Masked Rider led the football team on the field and ran around the stadium.

“I took the theme from one of our most popular marches. It caught on. I really get a kick that they’re still using it,” Tolley said.

Years later, Tolley saw his youngest granddaughter play the enduring music on trumpet he wrote years before.

Foot-and-a-Half

Bearden came to Tech to play for Killion.

“He was my role model. I wanted to be like Dean Killion,” he said.

Killion created the foot-and-a-half.

“People are wandering around and he’d say get into your foot-and-a-half. You kept one foot in place and you could roam 18 inches in any direction as long as you stayed in your foot-and-a-half,” said Bearden.

When seniors move on, they’re given a framed certificate – a foot-and-a-half “land deed” to their foot-and-a-half of the field at Jones AT&T Stadium by their work and traditions they’ve upheld, said Debbie Holt, the band’s unit coordinator, who first saw the Goin’ Band when she was five years old and her family came into Lubbock from Levelland.

Expecting Twirlers to Make Their Weight

Killion asked Tolley if they had girls in the band when he was at the University of Illinois. Tolley said no.

“Well we’re going to have girls in the band here,” Killion said.

Were there twirlers at Illinois? Killion asked again.

“Absolutely not,” Tolley answered.

“Well, we’re going to have twirlers and they’re not going to wander around, they’re going to be organized,” said Tolley, recalling what Killion said. “He spent a lot of time coaching twirling.”

Killion also weighed the twirlers, which would not be close to acceptable now.

“He’d weight them in the summer and decide what their weight was supposed to be, then every Monday, there were scales in his office. If they were overweight, they wouldn’t perform. And he told them, ‘I’m your best friend. Because up in the stands, people have binoculars. If you get fat, they’re going to talk about you. I want everyone to admire our twirlers. When you walk on campus, I want your hair fixed, I want you well dressed. People will say, ‘that is a Tech twirler,’” said Tolley, again recalling what Killion said.

Tolley’s daughter Tammy became a twirler and Killion said Tolley was in charge of weighing his daughter.

“She told me after she graduated, ‘I used to have a picture of Mr. Killion on my refrigerator. Every time I went to get a snack, I said, No – I can’t do that,’” her father said.

Replacing His Role Model

Under the Bearden’s leadership, Tech won the Sudler Trophy in 1999, what’s been called the Heisman Trophy of the college band world. It’s not a championship but awarded to a band surrounded by great tradition that’s become nationally respected.

As much as Hale Center-native Bearden revered Killion, he returned the band’s uniforms to a Spanish-influenced uniform with the Gaucho hat and cape.

“I wanted to change back to the traditional style,” said Bearden.

He kept the spats from Killion’s era and when seniors leave the band, they get to keep their spats.

Different Styles

Marching bands developed from the military and early college bands performed what’s called military style. One of the best examples is Texas A&M.

Killion’s shows were precision-drill style, said Bearden, who added corps style to the Goin’ Band.

In corps style – not to be confused with A&M’s Corps of Cadets – the marching matches the music. In precision drill, the music matches the marching, said Bearden.

“I tried to do a mixture of all styles,” said Bearden.

From Grid Sheets to Computers

Killion used grid sheets to plot out a show and Bearden used them when he took over.

“You’d mess up, throw it on the floor and at two in the morning I was knee deep in paper until you got what you wanted,” Bearden said.

The process evolved to using acetate on top of a light box and a grease pencil.

“It was very tedious and time consuming. Then along came the computer,” Bearden.

“These companies came up with software where you could place a line and say I want it to move to an arc here so you would make it 16 steps from here to there. It would chart the pathways course – these people down at the end are taking smaller steps, these in the middle are taking longer steps but everybody takes 16 counts. That’s the basic premise for all the corps-style things you see. They go from point A to point B in certain number of steps and change the look,” said Bearden.

Shows can run 50 or more pages for the students to learn and Bearden said they could learn about ten pages an hour.

Band Pranks Bearden in his Last Show

Bearden’s last show at Jones AT&T Stadium was in 2002 and without his knowledge, the band rewrote part of the show to spell out “Bearden,” not Texas Tech. ABC was told what was going to happen and had a camera on him, said Sedberry.

“Keith didn’t realize what’s going on,” said Sedberry.

Brewer said Bearden thought the show was falling apart when someone told him to look at the stadium Jumbotron so he knew about the honor.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Now

Joel Pagan is director of the Goin’ Band.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” he thought when he took over.

His favorite show was a wedding show. A couple in the band had recently gotten married.

“We reached out and asked, ‘how would you like to be married again?’” he said.

The band got a preacher from a Lubbock church who officiated a wedding ceremony on the Double T on the 50-yard-line.

“The bride wore her wedding dress again. The groom came out. Raider Red walked the bride down the aisle and we played all wedding music,” said Pagan.

They played a song called “The Stripper” when the groom takes the garter off his wife’s leg. As with all songs they play, they must get permission to play the song.

“When we submitted that to our School of Music, the acting director at the time said, ‘What are you guys doing? I got a request to approve a stripper?’” Pagan said he was asked, clarifying it was a piece of music.

Goin’ Band grads who are teaching help recruit.

But when Tech is traveling, Pagan said they’ll hold an open rehearsal and get the word out for people to come watch.

Goin’ Band Association

The organization dropped alumni from its name so it could include parents of current members, Sedberry said.

“We exist to help the Goin’ Band go – scholarships, providing water, funding the bandwagon to haul equipment,” he said.

They’ve built a scholarship endowment where every dollar goes back to the band. They distribute about $11-12,000 a year to about three-dozen students.

The organization has more than 100 members and former Goin’ Band members must be a member of the association to play when the alumni band plays once a year at the stadium.

Sedberry and Brewer have lots of memories:

• Brewer was one of many who met his spouse in the band.
• Sedberry was with the band at Colorado in 2002 – which was Bearden’s last football season. They were pelted with marshmallows, water bottles and batteries. “Somebody threw a water bottle into the bell of a sousaphone,” he said.
• “There’s nothing like running out of the tunnel for pre-game. Then the Masked Rider and team run on. There’s this burst of energy. It’s amazing,” said Sedberry. Brewer added, “you get a chill down your spine when you run out of the tunnels.”
• Brewer was also one of the small team who drove the bandwagon 30-45 minutes before the game to set up. He would miss the March Over and March Back, where the band takes off from the Music Building parking lot where they practice. “They do it in such a stylistic and entertaining way. It draws a crowd and people follow them,” he said. Brewer did it once his freshman year. He wanted to do it the final game of his senior year and told the bandwagon crew they’d have to do this one without them.

‘Look at That…That’s Cool’

When McKoin came to Tech she was impressed by the connection between the band, the Tech community and beyond.

“I went to Michigan State. They have a terrific marching band and I marched there. I did my doctoral work at the University of Texas. But when I came here for my interview, one of the university buses drove by and on the side was a picture of the marching band,” she said.

“I thought, look at that…that’s cool,” she added.

Once she started working at Tech, she met people who brought up their time in the Goin’ Band.

“I saw how integrated it is into the community that’s unique from other places. The culture in phenomenal,” she said.

‘The Goin’ Band keeps going’

Holt sees a lot of band members who’ve become band directors.

“They come back and introduce their spouses to me. Then they come back and bring their children to meet me,” said Holt, whose daughter was a Goin’ Band member.

“To see how they progress from little freshmen who walked in the door scared to where they are now. They always come back – it’s a homecoming for them and it’s great to be part of that. No matter what happens in the outside world, the Goin’ Band keeps going. And it always will,” she said.

1926: Double T Created

Lucille Davis Ford kept a diary from her time at Texas Tech.

Her Jan. 7, 1926, entry: “Football boys receive scarlet and black slip-on sweaters. Very thrilling.”

A story in the school newspaper – the Toreador – had more detail about the event and the first unveiling of Texas Tech’s iconic logo.

“Coach Freeland kept the boys in suspense as to what was on the sweaters by telling of the difficulties in selecting the letter. When Captain (Windy) Nicklaus stepped forward for his sweater Coach held it so the letter could not be seen. He told of some wanting an M (for Matadors), some a T, while he thought of a P (for Plains) would be symbolic of the great surrounding country of the college. When Windy unfolded the sweater, he revealed two black outlined Ts on the front of a scarlet body.”

Coach E.Y. Freeland and his assistant, Grady Higginbotham, never said they created the Double T, but historians credit them.

Dr. David Murrah, former director of the Southwest Collection, wrote a paper on “Origin of the Double-T.”

“Just how close the Double-T came to being an ‘M’ or a ‘P’ is anybody’s guess, but Freeland probably was only ribbing his team and the audience in order to add to the drama of the occasion.”

“Just how close the Double-T came to being an ‘M’ or a ‘P’ is anybody’s guess, but Freeland probably was only ribbing his team and the audience in order to add to the drama of the occasion. The Double-T was the obvious choice for the new school and more than likely, its designer drew upon the popular block T of the Texas A&M logo. After all, Texas Tech in many minds was a West Texas A&M and its supporters at that time would have been proud to have a symbol based upon the logo of the older institution. Also, Tech’s assistant coach Higginbotham, a recent graduate of Texas A&M, probably participated in the letter design,” wrote Murrah.

Double T popularity spread when the senior class of 1931 donated the Double T bench to the campus grounds.

The class of 1938 donated the first neon Double T sign, which currently is fixed to the east side of Jones AT&T Stadium visible from University Avenue. It was reputedly the largest neon sign in existence at the time it was purchased and presented to Texas Tech.

Over the decades, the Double T’s presence grew, becoming the school’s official logo in 1963 – the same year it first appeared on the football team’s helmets. The logo also played a role in the name change from Texas Technological College to Texas Tech University a few years later.

Alumni rebelled against faculty and student votes toward naming the school Texas State or other options, not wanting to give up their Double T symbol.

In August 1987, a second neon Double T was added to the west side of the stadium, funded by Bill McMillan. It was replaced by a stained-glass Double T after renovations to the stadium’s west side in 2003.

The Double T existed in its original form until 2000, when an updated three-dimensional version was created.

Some fans advocate for the old – or classic – Double T. There’s even a Twitter account: Bring Back the Classic Double T.

Both are available on gear – so fans have their choice.

And there are lots of choices. The Double T is everywhere in Lubbock, across the Texas Tech University System and beyond on clothes, flags, face paint, buildings, holiday ornaments and more.

1930: Matador Song Written & Tech’s Other “Hits”

The Red Raider Nation – long before that phrase was used to define a sports program’s fanbase – has sung “The Matador Song,” and “Fight, Raiders, Fight” since Texas Tech’s early years.

“The Matador Song” is more powerful after a big win, when jubilant fans in a packed Jones AT&T Stadium, United Supermarkets Arena or Rip Griffin Park have their Guns Up and reach a crescendo singing “Stand on heights of victory,” finishing with “Strive for honor, ever more, long live the Matadors!”

The lyrics resonate decades later:

• Fearless Champion recently retired as the Masked Rider’s horse after nine years of thrilling fans, the horse named after another line in the “Matador Song.”
• The university recently launched a magazine called Evermore.
• The campaign started in 2014 to upgrade Athletics facilities across campus is called the Campaign for Fearless Champions.
• Strive for honor and bear our banners far and wide constantly show up in speeches by Tech officials.

What’s the genesis of Tech’s alma mater and fight song – the university’s greatest hits?

From the May 1, 1930, issue of The Toreador, Texas Technological College’s student newspaper:

Council Adopts
Song for Tech
R.C. Marshall submits tune
placed first in contest

Following agitation over a period of several years for a spirited song for Tech, the student council recently approved the entry of R.C. Marshall, transfer from Hillsboro Junior College, in a contest held for the purpose of adopting an official tune.

The words of the selection are as follows:

SONG OF THE MATADORS

Fight Matadors for Tech,
Songs of love we’ll sing to you,
Bear our banners far and wide,
Ever to be our pride,
Fearless champions always be,
Stand on heights of victory,
Strive for honor, ever more,
Long live the Matador.

Almost a year later, in the March 5, 1931, issue of the Toreador:

New Music Is
Adopted For
Matador Song

Because of controversy over the similarities of music of the Tech war song “Matadors” with that of Notre Dame’s official fight song, Harry LeMaire, Tech band director, has written new music for the song. The words have not been changed.

The article went on to say the song would be copyrighted.

The song was created as part of a Toreador contest and Marshall won $25, which today would be close to $500. Marshall was the editor of the 1931 La Ventana.

Even though Tech’s nickname changed to the Red Raiders later in the 1930s, decades later the song still pays tribute the school’s original team name. It’s also sung at commencement.

In 1936, Tech band members Carroll McMath and James Nevin adjusted the school’s fight song to update the nickname to Red Raiders. It was originally written by Vic Williams and John J. Tatgenhorst.

Fight, Raiders, Fight! Fight, Raiders, Fight!
Fight for the school we love so dearly.
You’ll hit ’em high, you'll hit ’em low.
You’ll push the ball across the goal,
Tech, Fight! Fight!
We'll praise your name, boost you to fame.
Fight for the Scarlet and Black.
You will hit ’em, you will wreck ’em.
Hit ’em, Wreck ’em, Texas Tech!
And the Victory Bells will ring out.

Bill Dean, former president and CEO of the Texas Tech Alumni Association, longtime professor and Tech grad, remembers singing the “Fight Raiders Fight!”

“Any school’s fight song is a major tradition,” Dean said. “We sang that fight song when I first came to Texas Tech in 1956 and it has been sung all the way through, and it was sung before then. It is something that is part of Texas Tech.”

“…We have one of the greatest fight songs in all of college athletics and combined with the great Goin’ Band from Raiderland, it makes it a great tradition that is enjoyed by all of our fans.”

Gerald Myers, Athletics Director emeritus loves the fight song.

“I think we have one of the greatest fight songs in all of college athletics and combined with the great Goin’ Band from Raiderland, it makes it a great tradition that is enjoyed by all of our fans,” said Myers.

Both songs are taught to new students as part of orientation.

Source:

• Preserving a legacy: The tradition behind the Texas Tech Fight Song, Texas Tech Today, Sept. 17, 2010, by Sarah Salazar

1936: Saddle Tramps Founded; High Riders Follow in 1970s

Trent Bell felt a bit nervous the first time he was part of the Saddle Tramp Bell Circle on the Jones AT&T Stadium field before a Texas Tech football game.

“You’re in front of a lot of people. It’s a tradition that’s been going on for a very long time. You don’t want to be the one to mess it up. It’s a lot of fun, though and it’s definitely exciting to pump up the crowd,” said Bell, president of the Tech spirit organization for the 2022-23 school year.

Erica Martinez was in training for High Riders – the female version of Saddle Tramps – during COVID. Sessions were on Zoom.

“My pledge trainer showed us a picture of them ringing the Victory Bells and I was like, ‘I want to do that!’” she said.

Martinez first rang the bells in the Administration Building’s northeast tower on after a Tech soccer win.

“I nearly started crying because there’s something powerful about ringing those bells.”

“I nearly started crying because there’s something powerful about ringing those bells,” said Martinez, president of High Riders for the 2022-23 school year.

Saddle Tramps are Born

In the mid-1930s, Tech students had spirit – but not channeled in the right direction.

The student body was overly exuberant, unorganized and unruly. Private property was destroyed during bonfires and parade-like snake dances.

Arch Lamb, Tech’s head cheerleader, came up with an idea for an organization to guide that enthusiasm in less destructive ways.

The Saddle Tramps were born in 1936.

Early Texas ranchers hired a “saddle tramp” to help, who’d move on after the work was done.

Saddle Tramps would be hard workers when in school at Tech, moving on after their college years were done, Lamb thought.

Lamb has been out of school four years before entering Tech in 1934. He lived in West Hall, where he operated a shoeshine stand and worked in the Tech Creamery. He went on to become a Lubbock County Commissioner.

The group had ten members, up to 50 by the spring of 1937, with a goal of serving in any way to elevate the college in the public’s eyes. The first Tramps wore dark slacks and red shirts dyed in the Textile Engineering Building.

High Riders are Born

Nancy Neill, High Riders’ first president, attended some Saddle Tramp smokers as a hostess fall of 1975 and questioned why there was no women’s organization to support Texas Tech women’s athletics.

She found out there had been unsuccessful attempts.

With friend Lyn Morris they came up with the name and a constitution submitted to the Dean of Students’ Office, making it clear they would count on the help and guidance of God.

On Feb. 2, 1976, the High Riders became an official campus organization.

Sponsors were Joyce Arterburn of the physical education department and B.J. Marshall of the Physics Department.

The by-laws, pledge program, and pledge manual were prepared. The High Rider symbol was designed. T-shirts, bumper stickers, jackets and uniforms were prepared for the first pledge class.

Neill, Morris and now joined by Kathy Pate contacted the Women’s Athletic Council to present the organization to their service. The council immediately put the “founders” to work.

They learned what’s involved in supporting women’s athletics by attending home games, traveling to road games with teams and encouraging the athletes with signs, special treats and send-offs.

During fall rush, approximately 75 undergraduate women attended rush parties and 25 were chosen to be the charter pledge class.

Saddle Tramps Traditions

Midnight Raiders: Every Thursday night before a home football game, the Saddle Tramps wrap the Will Rogers statue at Memorial Circle with crepe paper. Streamers are also hung from the coaches’ bridge, the Frazier Alumni Pavilion and light poles all over campus. At midnight, after Will is wrapped, the Saddle Tramps circle Soapsuds to sing the “Fight Song,” “Matador Song,” Saddle Tramps song and pledge class songs. Some High Riders like to help with this Saddle Tramp tradition, said Martinez.

Bell Circle: The Saddle Tramps open every home football game with a bell circle, welcoming the team on and off the field and start the Go, Fight, Win chant. They also do a version for basketball and baseball. The handbells are unique to every Saddle Tramp, said Bell. “You get to wrap the handle however you’d like because you’ll get blisters if you don’t. They also have a plaque on each one with your big brother and little brother and the year you pledged. When you leave, you get a holder so you can mount it on the wall and have a keepsake,” he added.

Homecoming: They participate in the homecoming parade, during which members run behind Bangin’ Bertha , and perform bell circles at every intersection. “We build the bonfire, which is our big thing. We get up at 5 a.m. and start stacking pallets. It’s a whole two days of work,” said Bell, adding Saddle Tramp alumni donate the pallets.

Victory Bells: The Saddle Tramps ring the victory bells for 30 minutes after every football, basketball, and baseball win. “A lot of people don’t realize there are people up there physically ringing the bells and they are not motorized or on some sort of timer,” said Bell.

The Statues: Whenever a big rival comes for a home football game, the Saddle Tramps guard the statues on campus.

Raider Red: Saddle Tramp Jim Gaspard created mascot Raider Red in 1971 and only Saddle Tramps or High Riders can be the mascot. Raider Red attends men’s and women’s athletic events, pep rallies, and visits elementary and high schools.

Carol of Lights: The Saddle Tramps start this ceremony with a torch-lighted parade, which precedes seasonal music and the lighting of campus on the first Friday of December. Longtime Saddle Tramps sponsor Bill Dean turned on the lights at the first Carol of Lights when he was a student in 1959.

The group also:

• Helped plant thousands of trees at Tech’s first Arbor Day in 1938.
• Raised money to buy 40 band uniforms by selling tickets to a band concert.
• In 1978, along with other student groups, broke the world record at the time for an outdoor balloon release letting 151,000 balloons fly at the Tech-SMU football game at Jones Stadium.
• Played a role in obtaining the seal at the Broadway entrance to campus.
• Helped the dream of a student recreation center become reality.
• Set up the Saddle Tramp Student Endowment Scholarship Fund.
• Donated to the Dairy Barn renovation.

“We’re a spirit organization, but we’re also a service organization.”

“We’re a spirit organization, but we’re also a service organization,” said Bell.

Bell is a computer science major from Midland, who came to football games before college.

“It just seemed like this was where I was going to go. All my friends wanted to go. I really enjoyed the culture of Tech,” he said.

Bell didn’t know much about the Saddle Tramps, but one of his friends was going to a rush event and he went along.

“I ended up having a real good time, decided I wanted to join and fell in love with it,” he said.

Saddle Tramp pledges must learn about Tech’s history and traditions and are tested on it.

Pledges go through a process ending with the entire group deciding if a pledge will wear the red workshirt and get their bell.

“We have to make sure we only have people in the organization who are going to try their hardest to keep our traditions going,” he said.

High Riders Traditions

Banquet: A High Rider banquet is held every five years to celebrate the founding of High Riders. Alumni and founders come to a formal dinner.

Spirit Tunnels: High Riders form a spirit tunnel when Tech teams come on the field or court and ring their High Rider Bell.

High Rider Bell: The newest tradition is the handbell. The bells are brought to all games to be used during appropriate times.

Victory Bells High Riders ring the Victory Bells after every home win by womens’ teams. “But when Raider Red won the national championship, Saddle Tramps and High Riders went up there to ring Victory Bells together,” said Martinez.

Big/Lil: A night where pledges find out who their Big Sisters are.

Carol of Lights: High Riders light the path for the Saddle Tramps.

Homecoming: High Riders participate in the homecoming parade, so-sing, spirit board, spirit banner and are in charge of the pep rally.

Raider Red: High Rider Katie Lynn was the first female Raider Red in 2005.

Locker Decorations: High Riders decorate locker rooms of women’s athletic teams before some games.

Martinez grew up in Lubbock and graduated from Lubbock High School’s demanding International Baccalaureate program.

She attended various Tech sporting events and participated in some Tech soccer camps.

Martinez had heard of the Saddle Tramps.

After she came to Tech’s Honors College, a friend told her about High Riders.

The group is passionate about supporting women student athletes because they don’t get the same attention as men’s teams – now and historically.

“Why didn’t I hear about this opportunity growing up? There’s a group for women’s athletics too?” she said, adding the group is passionate about supporting women student athletes because they don’t get the same attention as men’s teams – now and historically.

“Where the Talkington dorm is now there used to be a gym and that’s where women’s basketball played. They weren’t allowed to use the Coliseum,” she said of the dark ages of women’s college sports.

High Riders have about 40 members and Martinez wants to grow that to 50 or more this coming school year.

Much like their male counterparts, the High Riders learn about Tech’s history and traditions.

She also wants to get the word out about the High Riders so more people aren’t surprised like she was.

Mission Hasn't Changed

The original mission to show sportsmanship and class is still important to both groups.

From the Saddle Tramps list of do’s:

• Start a chant or yell when boos come from the student section.
• Face the flag with right hand on heart and left hand with “Guns Up” through back belt loop during the “National Anthem.”
• Be polite to our opponents, including cheerleaders, fans and players.
• Put Guns Up when an injured player is on the playing surface.

From the Saddle Tramps list of don’ts:

• Downgrade the teams, players or coaches.
• Harass the officials.
• Drink alcohol while wearing official Saddle Tramp dress.
• Ring bells during a band song, announcements, awards, while on the field during play or when any players are injured.

The group didn’t have to get the crowd excited last Feb. 1, when the Texas basketball team came to Lubbock with former Tech head coach Chris Beard leading the Longhorns.

“There were extensive meetings before, talking about how we needed to behave. We needed to be the example during the game, try to keep things under control and make sure everybody stays safe,” said Bell.

Sources:

• Saddle Tramp Manual
• High Riders Manual

1936: Victory Bells Donated, Start Ringing

Arch Lamb – “father” of the Saddle Tramps – promised to ring the Victory Bells all night on Sept. 26, 1936. The Red Raiders hosted the defending national champion TCU Horned Frogs before a crowd of 12,000 in Lubbock.

Tech won 7-0, shutting out TCU’s legendary quarterback Sammy Baugh, who months later was the 7th overall pick in the 1937 NFL Draft.

It was one of Tech’s earliest “signature” wins.

Lamb climbed to the Administration Building’s east tower and started ringing the bells…and ringing…and ringing.

Residents got annoyed, because they couldn’t sleep, Ben Montecillo, a Saddle Tramp alum, told the Daily Toreador student newspaper in 2021.

“They were trying to get him out of the bell tower, but he had barricaded himself and some of his other Saddle Tramps at the time in the bell tower,” Montecillo said. “They said they wouldn’t stop and were threatened with expulsion and they still refused. They said, ‘A promise is a promise and that’s what we’re going to do.’”

They rang until 6 a.m. the next day.

Within a day or two, it was decided the bells could ring for no more than 30 minutes.

The class of 1936 gave the Victory Bells as their gift to Tech. They rang for the first time at the group’s graduation and were silent until a few months later when Lamb rung up Lubbock.

The bells – one large and one small with a combined weight of 1,200 pounds – ring after:

• Tech football, basketball or baseball wins.
• Tech teams win a Big 12 Conference title.
• A Red Raider is selected as an All-American.
• A Tech commencement ceremony ends.
• Tech students are recognized during honors ceremonies.

They’ve also rung for special occasions – when Tech joined the Southwest, and a few decades later, the Big 12 conferences.

The bells rang 41 times when President George H.W. Bush – America’s 41st president – died in 2018.

Saddle Tramps and High Riders manually ring the bells, pulling chains.

The Victory Bells were Kent Hance’s favorite tradition as a student.

Now he’s Tech’s chancellor emeritus.

But in 1962 he was a Saddle Tramp pledge charged with ringing the bells with fellow pledge Tom Craddick.

Craddick became speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.

But decades back, they were pledges following orders.

Tech’s ’62 football team ended up with a 1-9 record in coach J.T. King’s second year. The Red Raiders were hosting Texas and well behind at halftime in a game they ended up losing 34-0.

“And that’s back when nobody scored that much,” said Hance.

“But the president of the Tramps was the most optimistic guy in the world and at halftime he sent us over to (the Victory Bells) to get warmed up,” said Hance, who didn’t get to ring the bells that day.

Sean Cunniff rang the bells in 2007 when Texas Tech knocked off No. 3-Oklahoma at Jones AT&T Stadium.

“When they ring, I am proud to be a Red Raider. It means Texas Tech took care of business.”

“They told me I had to learn how to ring the bells that day. At first I was upset because I would have to miss the end of the game, but we got up in the bell tower and turned on the radio. We listened while Texas Tech beat Oklahoma and then we started ringing the bells,” he said. “When they ring, I am proud to be a Red Raider. It means Texas Tech took care of business.”

Sources:

• Daily Toreador: Saddle Tramps celebrate 85th anniversary, Oct. 9, 2021, by Tana Thompson
• Texas Tech Today: And the Victory Bells will ring out!, February 8, 2011, by Ioanna Makris

1938: Arbor Day Tradition Planted on Campus

Texas Tech wasn’t carved out of deeply forested land.

And in the school’s first years of life, the focus was on getting academic programs started and constructing buildings where those programs would be implemented. There wasn’t a lot of time or money to think about sprucing the campus up a bit on the flat, almost treeless South Plains.

In 1938, Bradford Knapp, Tech’s second president, proclaimed one day each spring should be dedicated to changing that.

On March 2, 1938 – Tech’s first Arbor Day – classes were dismissed at noon and 20,000 trees and shrubs were planted by faculty, staff and more than 1,000 members of student organizations.

Shrubs, hedges and more than 50 varieties of trees from the Tech nursery were planted according to blue-printed plans.

O.B. Howell, professor of horticulture, had advanced horticulture students as foremen in charge of moving trees, water hoses, stakes and tools. Some faculty and staff were “straw bosses” to direct the planting around buildings. Five mounted supervisors kept an eye on the work.

A chuck wagon served coffee and doughnuts.

“In not more than or four years the campus will be practically transformed,” said Howell, pledging to make the effort an annual event.

The good news? Tech improved the campus in one day.

The bad news? There were no resources to care for the plants the other 364 days of the year and many died from neglect.

Arbor Day continued for another ten years.

There are photos of President Clifford B. Jones watering a shrub and supervising tree planting while on a horse.

Tech eventually was able to expand its maintenance program and hire Elo Urbanovsky, a landscape architect. Under Urbanovsky’s leadership, the campus was transformed.

Arbor Day started in America decades before Knapp brought the idea to Lubbock – in 1872 in then-barren Nebraska.

Arbor Day returned to Tech as an annual activity when Debbie Montford, wife of Tech’s first chancellor John Montford, focused on campus beautification. It continues, held the last Friday in April.

It didn’t take place in 2020 because of the COVID pandemic, but in 2021, Tech was planting again, with a scaled-down effort because of the pandemic.

About 500 people helped plant about 26,000 growing things.

“Usually when people think of Arbor Day they think of planting trees,” Troy Pike, activities coordinator for Student Union and Activities, told the Daily Toreador, Tech’s student newspaper in 2021. “We are not going to plant trees; we will be planting flower beds instead. We will be planting at the Broadway entrance, Memorial Circle, the Engineering Key and the Tech Administration Building. We have been doing this now for the past 22 years.”

“We know this campus is absolutely beautiful and the grounds maintenance does a ton of work all year long to make it look great.”

“I think Arbor Day is a great way to give back,” Pike told the DT. “We know this campus is absolutely beautiful and the grounds maintenance does a ton of work all year long to make it look great. This is a good way to realize the semester is coming to an end, so everyone should do what they can to make campus look great for graduation and for the last couple weeks.”

Arbor Day is not only a celebration of campus, but a way for students, faculty and staff to come together and strengthen the sense of community, Bethany DeLuna, a senior history major from Wichita Falls, told the Toreador.

“The campus belongs to all of us, so I think it’s nice to have a hands-on experience in making campus beautiful as well as forming that community bond with everyone working together,” DeLuna said.

More than 100 student groups get involved with Arbor Day.

“We participate in Arbor Day every year either individually or as a whole organization,” Stacy Stockard Caliva, the Tech High Riders advisor, told the Toreador. “One of our main values is serving the Tech and Lubbock community, so we’re always looking for ways to contribute.”

Grace Howard, a junior natural resources management major from Tyler, told the Toreador Arbor Day is a good way to make friends.

“It’s an amazing thing to continue to make our campus beautiful…it feels like everyone is coming together, regardless of being in different majors or organizations. I’ve actually met several of my friends through Arbor Days in the past.”

In 2022, there were almost three-dozen spots on campus where Tech continued this long tradition of planting beauty.

Sources:

• The Southwest Collection’s Texas Tech in Retrospect…Arbor Day: An early Tech tradition

Daily Toreador:

• Tech Arbor Day tradition provides involvement opportunities, by Madeleine Hall, April 16, 2021
• Tech staff explains Arbor Day tradition, by Javier Baca, April 28, 2021

1950: Will Rogers & Soapsuds Statue Dedicated with Its Rear End Aimed at Texas A&M

A man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people. – Will Rogers

Humorist-philosopher Will Rogers was speaking to a Lubbock crowd on Oct. 29, 1926.

Rogers knew all about Texas Technological College, its football team and coach, he said. Rogers added he assumed the college had a president, but he’d never heard of him.

That night, Rogers was getting on a train for Fort Worth. So was Tech President Paul Whitfield Horn. Some Lubbock folks made sure they met.

“Mr. Horn, please excuse that bum joke of mine. Of course, I’ve heard lots about you,” it was reported Rogers said.

The comment did more to credit Rogers’ courtesy than veracity, Horn said.

Tech was scheduled to play Texas Christian the next Saturday.

According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

“Will Rogers wants Fort Worth to see a ‘real West Texas band’ and hear some real West Texas music. That’s the reason he gave $200 to help bring the 80-piece band of Texas Technological College to Fort Worth for the game with TCU Saturday.”

Minutes of the Oct. 30, 1926, Tech Board of Directors include the item:

“Chairman (Amon) Carter presented a check signed by Will Rogers for $200 and one by himself for $100 as contributions toward the expenses of bringing the College band to Fort Worth…for the TCU football game.”

The Goin’ Band was launched. Unfortunately, Tech lost its first showdown with a future Southwest Conference opponent, 28-16.

Carter was a newspaper publisher, oil man and first chairman of Tech’s Board of Directors – and a good friend of the popular Rogers.

Nine years later, Rogers died in an Alaskan plane crash with another friend, famed pilot Wiley Post.

On Feb. 16, 1950, 15 years after Rogers died, a bronze statue of him riding his horse Soapsuds was dedicated on the Tech campus. It was a gift from Carter, who passed away five years later.

The statue’s details:

• 9-feet, 11-inches tall
• 3,200 pounds
• $25,000 estimated cost
• On the base of the statue, the inscription reads, “Lovable Old Will Rogers on his favorite horse, ‘Soapsuds,’ riding into the Western sunset.”

It’s one of three cast at Carter’s request: One at the Will Rogers complex in Fort Worth and one at the Will Rogers memorial in Claremore, Oklahoma, close to his hometown of Oologah.

“This statue will fit into the traditions and scenery of our great western country. Will Rogers felt at home in the Lubbock section. He punched cattle not far from this site. His statue is a befitting monument to your students and faculty,” said Carter.

One of Rogers’ favorite ranches was the Mashed O spread owned by Ewing Halsell, west of Lubbock. His last visit to the Mashed O was in 1935, shortly before he died.

Even though Rogers’ connection to Tech is minimal, the statue has become one of Tech’s beloved landmarks.

Even though Rogers’ connection to Tech is minimal, the statue has become one of Tech’s beloved landmarks.

There’s great folklore of why the horse’s rear end is pointed in a certain direction and the Saddle Tramp practice of wrapping the statue in red crepe paper for home football games has become one of Tech’s great traditions.

The statue has also been wrapped in black crepe paper to mourn national tragedies.

Ruth Horn Andrews, in her book, “The First Thirty Years” wrote:

“The statue, called “Riding into the Sunset,” was done by Electra Waggoner Biggs of Texas and New York. The humorist-philosopher and Soapsuds, his mount, look as much at home on the esplanade leading up to Memorial Circle on the campus as young cowpoke Rogers undoubtedly felt when, about the turn of the century, he rode the range of the Halsell Ranch, not a great distance from where his effigy now stands. So much a part of the Tech scene has Will Rogers and Soapsuds become that the cover of the 1955 volume of La Ventana bears a representation of the statue.”

In November of 1951, the Texas Tech Museum and the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Posse celebrated Rogers’ birthday. A parade started at the fairgrounds and ended at the statue where a wreath was place around the neck of Soapsuds. Brownie McNeil, a singer and guitarist from San Antonio, presented a recital of cowboy ballads in the Museum auditorium.

As for Soapsuds’ posterior:

According to one legend, the plan to face Will Rogers so he’d ride into the sunset didn’t happen because Soapsuds’ rear would be facing downtown. To solve this problem, the statue was turned 23 degrees to the southeast so the horse’s rear end was facing in the direction of College Station, home of rival Texas A&M.

Another legend is if a virgin graduates from Texas Tech, Rogers will dismount. When a visiting alum says, “I see Will is still on his horse,” the implication is supposedly understood.

Sources:

• “The First Thirty Years” by Ruth Horn Andrews
• “The Southwest Collection’s Texas Tech in Retrospect: Will and Soapsuds” by Michael Q. Hooks

1954: Joe Kirk Fulton: First Masked Rider

Before the Masked Rider, Texas Technological College had the Ghost Rider.

In 1936, George Tate wore a mask and scarlet cape on a Palomino named Tony before a football game against TCU and its star quarterback Sammy Baugh.

Tate and Tony didn’t hang around long enough to become a tradition.

In 1953, the Red Raiders were having a great football season, hoping the on-the-field success would boost their resume to get into the Southwest Conference. All SWC teams had a mascot and Tech felt it needed one.

Around that time, Joe Kirk Fulton rode a horse into the Student Union as a prank. It wasn’t funny to the rodeo team that was suspended because it was assumed one of them was guilty.

Football coach DeWitt Weaver knew Fulton’s dad and asked if his son would be interested in creating a mascot.

They met.

“Would you be the first Red Raider?” Fulton, in a 2011 interview, said Weaver asked him.

Yes, he told the coach.

Fulton had chaps made at Wendy Ryan’s in Fort Worth, part of his ensemble. He borrowed a black horse from the Hockley County Sheriff’s Posse.

His debut was at the Gator Bowl on Jan. 1, 1954, in Jacksonville, Florida, when the 10-1 Red Raiders faced Auburn.

Fulton led the team on the field, under a black hat with his red cape flying.

“No team in any bowl game made a more sensational entrance,” wrote Ed Danforth of the Atlanta Journal.

Tech beat Auburn 35-13 to finish the season 11-1 and ranked 12th in the nation.

The name Red Raider became Masker Rider and Fulton served as the mascot the next school year.

During that year, Tech was playing LSU and Fulton collided with an LSU cheerleader. Weaver told his mascot:

“I don’t care how many cheerleaders you run over. Just make sure you get the quarterback first,” Weaver said.

Sixty students and more than a dozen black horses have followed Fulton – who passed away in 2013 – giving Tech a mascot and enduring symbol.

Picking the Masked Rider

Most years, about a dozen upperclassmen apply to be the Masked Rider, said Stephanie Rhode, Tech’s Spirit Program director.

An arduous process begins in January with background checks. Then:

• A written equestrian test. Sam Jackson from Animal Sciences puts it together and Rhode contributes questions about Texas Tech. A score of at least 80 percent is needed to advance.
• Candidates submit references, answer ten questions about their background, put together a portfolio of their experience with horses, public speaking and other needed skills.
• They ride a horse.
• They drive a truck and horse trailer.

After that, about three-to-five students are finalists.

“Then we have them interview with the Masked Rider Advisory Committee, made up of about 25 people. That’s a pretty in-depth interview,” said Rhode. “We gather all the scores and choose a mascot by the end of March.”

Rhode’s amazed how many students want to do it.

“It’s a full-time job,” said Rhode, who feels like she’s the Masked Rider’s on-campus mom during their year.

The Masked Rider used to get a $3,000 stipend, but now gets a full-ride scholarship. The Linda and Terry Fuller Masked Rider Scholarship Endowment was established in 2013 by the Fullers, one of the couple’s many philanthropic gifts to their alma mater.

There’s a transition period of a few weeks before the new Masked Rider is introduced at the Passing of the Reins ceremony.

“You get fitted for your uniform, work with the current rider on the transition,” said Stacy Stockard Caliva, Masked Rider in 2004-05, taking over from Ben Holland.

She went to appearances with Holland to see what happens, help and started riding Midnight Matador.

“That’s the main part, getting to know the horse. Then when we transfer the reins, it’s truly a transfer of the reins,” she said. Caliva got the horse and keys to the truck, trailer and barn.

The next day Caliva was riding in her first appearance, a Lubbock parade.

“You wake up every morning, the first thing you do after you get ready is tend to the horse. You go study and do your assignments. You feed the horse dinner. Sometimes you go check on him later at night,” she said.

The Masked Rider is responsible keeping the horse exercised, groomed and maintaining the truck and trailer.

“When you put on that hat and do the transfer of reins, you are no longer embodying yourself, you’re really taking on a role in the service of Texas Tech.”

“When you put on that hat and do the transfer of reins, you are no longer embodying yourself, you’re really taking on a role in the service of Texas Tech. You get to represent the university as an icon that a lot of people associate with their time at Texas Tech,” she said.

“You’re joining this pretty small group of people who know what that role is really like from the inside. What it’s like to knock out a stall and then have to go to a chemistry lab. Or how hot it gets under that cape during summer rodeos and parades and how that cape makes a wonderful blanket on those cold, November football games,” she said.

Masked Riders also know about connecting with their equine partner.

“They know what it’s like to have this strong bond with a horse. I’m pretty biased but I think they are really some of the coolest horses on the planet,” she said.

Almost 20 years later, she looks back on that time.

“The students who step into that role are outstanding students who are one of the most public faces of the university and take care of our horses so many people hold dear. It’s a testament to the quality of students we have here at Texas Tech,” she said.

Picking the Horse

Sam Jackson was planning on going to Texas A&M when the Masked Rider and Happy VI-II made what turned into a recruiting visit to his family’s spread in Stephenville.

“My father was good friends with the father of Kurt Harris, the Masked Rider,” said Jackson.

They were looking for a place to spend the night where they could keep the horse on the way to the Baylor game. This was when the horse went to most Southwest Conference games. Harris was traveling with his assistant Perry Church, who would take the reins the next school year.

Jackson went with them to the Baylor game and helped.

“That experience was one of the things that convinced me to attend Texas Tech instead of Texas A&M,” he said. “I was able to visit with those two. They were Animal Science majors, I was going to be an Animal Science major and they were outstanding people. They told me about the department, that led me to come up here, visit with faculty and cement the deal.”

While at Tech, Jackson was on national championship Livestock Judging and Wool Judging teams. He did go to A&M for a master’s degree before returning to Lubbock for his Ph.D. He’s associate chair and associate professor in the department of Meat Science & Muscle Biology and coordinates the Wool Judging Team.

Jackson took over the horse side of the Masked Rider program in 1995.

Rhode oversees the rider, schedules hundreds of appearances.

Jackson makes sure the horse is doing well.

He’s also in charge of picking the horse. If Masked Rider candidates think the process Tech puts them through is hard, the horse would disagree.

Less than 1 percent of horses have a shot at becoming the Masked Rider’s mount.

Less than 1 percent of horses have a shot at becoming the Masked Rider’s mount.

Jackson finds horses through a network of alumni, friends, people who knows what qualities the horse must have.

“Somebody will say ‘I just ran across a good, black horse. You want to look at it?’ I’ll say, yeah, give me his contact info. That’s how we found Fearless Champion,” said Jackson, about the horse that just retired after serving nine years.

Jackson got the tip from an old friend and former Masked Rider – Perry Church – who visited Jackson’s Stephenville home with Kurt Harris back when Jackson thought he’d be an Aggie.

“He called and said, ‘we branded up around Pampa and this guy’s got a pretty nice black horse I think could work as the Masked Rider horse.’ He gave me the guy’s number. I went up, started evaluating the horse and he ended up being Fearless Champion,” said Jackson.

That’s just the start of Jackson’s process:

• The horse must be black.
• Breed is important. “A lot of people have this perception we just need a beautiful black stallion. That’s the furthest thing from the truth. I get calls about Andalusians and Arabians – breeds that usually don’t have the mentality to be able to handle the stress,” said Jackson. Tech needs a horse that can stay calm in front of 60,000 screaming football fans. Quarter horses are typically quieter and calmer.
• Quarter horses are also durable, another thing Jackson looks for – checking a horse’s feet and legs. “This horse makes a lot of appearances. Gets in and out of the trailer a lot and goes to a lot of places. You’ve got to have a horse able to handle that much use,” he said.
• Size. “I don’t need a little bitty one – I don’t need a great big one,” he said.
• Experience. “What’s he done, who’s ridden him, what have they done with him,” Jackson added.
• Age – which is explained in a bit.

After getting that information, Jackson decides if the horse is worth seeing. If yes, he takes the horse for a ride.

“Usually after that first ride, I have a pretty good idea,” he said, adding he can very quickly tell if the answer is no.

“A lot of people have this perception their horse is really broke, quiet and talented. When I get on him and ride him it’s very obvious to me as somebody who’s ridden a jillion horses that he’s not broke, he’s not quiet. When I ask him to do certain things and he responds in a certain way I know he’s problematic.,” said Jackson.

It might be the horse is just young and inexperienced.

“But it also may be that he’s just not a horse that’s been trained and prepared properly, that I would feel comfortable with. I know the skill set that horse needs and what they need to be able to do,” he said.

If a horse passes all that scrutiny, Jackson brings them to campus for two reasons.

“One, get them away from their owner. You never know what the owner has done ahead of time to prepare a horse for purchase. I’m not saying most people are unethical, but some people drug them. They’ll give the horse a tranquilizer before you get there,” he said.

The horse seems calm during the ride. Then the drug wears off eight hours later and he’s totally different, said Jackson.

“So we get him to campus and under our control so we can see what he is naturally. They may have ridden him before we came three straight days for five hours every day. The horse is tired, wore out and it makes him quiet,” said Jackson.

Then, two, the horse meets the stimuli it could encounter at a football game.

“That starts with the band. We go to band practice and that’s very telling. Most of them do not pass band practice. I don’t know if it’s the drums, but a lot of horses are very intolerant of that experience,” he said.

If the horse hits all the right notes at band practice, the next step is a football game.

In 2012, Tech had already finished its regular season when they were taking Fearless Champion through the process. They took him to Tech’s bowl game against Minnesota in Houston’s indoor Reliant Stadium.

“This horse had never been to a football game. But he had done so well I felt it didn’t matter if I was going to test him in that environment or in Jones Stadium,” said Jackson.

Tech was leasing the horse while deciding if he’d be a long-term horse.

Some fireworks and a cannon went off.

“The horse was quiet and solid as when we walked him out of the trailer. We bought the horse,” he said.

Tech pays somewhere between $5-10,000 for a horse, said Jackson. Sometimes an alum will sell a little lower.

Jackson had a horse from New Mexico that got all the way to the football game.

“We had a horse we were ready to retire,” said Jackson. They brought in the new horse at halftime at a packed Jones AT&T Stadium against Texas.

“The stadium had that big-game buzz,” said Jackson.

The horse got a few feet onto the field, started jumping, kicking and running backwards.

“Just a total abandonment of behavior. We got him out of there and this horse is sweating. There was no indication the horse would respond like that. He just couldn’t tolerate it. He didn’t pass the last test,” said Jackson.

Midnight Matador and Fearless Champion served the last 20 years, but Jackson said most horses don’t last that long.

“Usually when a horse reaches a point in his life where he’s broken and calm enough he’s got some age on him,” said Jackson, saying the horse could be 10-15 years old by then. Midnight Matador went a record 11 years, but started when he was three, which is unusual. When Midnight Matador retired, Caliva kept him until he died in 2015.

“It doesn’t matter what you’re doing with them, roping cattle, barrel racing – they don’t last forever,” said Jackson, saying the average time a horse can serve in the program is five years. “I don’t think we’ll ever have another horse go 11 years.”

Their feet get sore, their muscles get sore.

“They’re no different than an aging person,” he said.

Fearless Champion had to sit out a game due to an injury a few years ago and he didn’t recover as quickly as he would have a few years earlier. There is no back-up horse.

“If you’re a barrel racer and your horse gets sore, you don’t barrel race. But if this horse is sore and he doesn’t make an appearance, it’s a big deal,” he said.

Incidents Happen

The Masked Rider’s history has not been without incidents:

• 1963: Tech Beauty was kidnapped and spray-painted with the letters “AMC” prior to Tech’s football game against rival Texas A&M.
• 1975: Happy Five was kidnapped and received chemical burns after being painted with orange paint before Tech’s football game against Texas.
• 1982: The Masked Rider was involved in injuring an opposing school’s cheerleader. Ten years later, the Masked Rider was involved in injuring a referee.
• Tragedy struck in 1994: Masked Rider Amy Smart’s saddle broke during a post-score gallop. Double T got scared, ran into the tunnel, hit the wall and died instantly. Smart broke her arm when she was thrown off.

Then-Tech President Bob Lawless banned future running of the mascot and a committee was created.

A new horse and rider were ready the following year, but the mascot was still not allowed to run because of the committee’s moratorium.

After John Montford became chancellor in 1996, he knew people wanted the horse to run again.

“I attended a meeting of the solemn Committee for the Masked Rider and pleaded my case, requesting that the horse be allowed to run at the opening of the game when the teams took to the field but not necessarily after each Tech touchdown, which I felt was a reasonable compromise,” Montford wrote in his book, “Board Games: Straight Talk for New Directors and Good Governance.”

The committee went into executive session and after a long deliberation, the committee chair came into the hall and told Montford the group had voted and the horse was not going to be allowed to run.

“This committee is dissolved,” Montford replied.

The horse ran in the next game when Texas Tech beat Baylor 45-24 in front of a crowd of 50,000 and “erupted with applause when the horse and its Masked Rider took the field.”

One other horse in the program had to be euthanized when the Masked Rider was driving and hauling the trailer. Another vehicle came into the lane. The Masked Rider tried to avoid an accident but couldn’t.

Over the years, Masked Riders rode with a certain panache.

Before the low wall was built around Jones Stadium, Masked Riders would ride up the grass area above the north end zone, picking up speed as they galloped back down.

Some Masked Riders put the reins in their mouth and flashed a Guns Up sign with both hands.

That’s not allowed anymore.

“That’s probably one of the things I say within the first five minutes when I meet these students. We don’t do that anymore – we want to maintain our insurance,” said Rhode.

Now Masked Riders have one hand on the reins and one hand doing Guns Up.

Every August there’s a safety meeting to go over what happens if there was another incident like in 1994. A veterinarian is at games with drugs to euthanize the horse if needed and equipment is in place to remove the horse quickly.

Jackson – who joined the program the year after the horse died – points out over the almost 70 years of the program, incidents have been remarkably low.

“…We really have not had that many negative events. I think that’s because of good riders and good horses.”

“When you look at a tradition that is this old and has many opportunities for problems when you think about how many appearances the Masked Rider makes – we really have not had that many negative events. I think that’s because of good riders and good horses,” he said.

‘It Never Gets Old’

The Associated Press ranked the Masked Rider the ninth-best mascot in college football in 2010 and Tech’s pre-game entrance is consistently ranked among the ten best in the country.

“It never gets old to me,” said Rhode. “I will talk to men who remember it back in the ’60s and they’ll tear up about about it, what it means to them, how symbolic it is of this university we all love. That really gets to you.”

Jackson wonders how many others, like him, came to Tech after seeing the Masked Rider.

“How many thousands of students were impacted by the Masked Rider in their town at a rodeo, parade or at a football game?” he said.

‘Dad was so Honored’

Joe Kirk Fulton took over his family’s oil, banking and ranching business but was always proud of kicking off the Masked Rider.

“Dad was so honored they chose him to be the first Masked Rider,” said his son Tim, who now oversees the family businesses out of a Lubbock office.

“He was larger than life. He was my hero,” said Tim.

Sometimes his dad’s history comes up during a conversation. “Everybody’s in such disbelief. They’ll say, ‘that is so neat.”

Every Masked Rider loved horses, but Fulton was on another level.

Every Masked Rider loved horses, but Fulton was on another level, said his son. Fulton was involved with cutting horses, quarter horses and passionate about breeding.

“Dad loved to go fast,” said Tim. His dad was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2011.

They raced horses and still do – with trophies spread around Tim’s office.

His dad and mom, Merle, were friends with another former Masked Rider – Kurt Harris – the same Masked Rider who visited Jackson’s home years ago and became an equine veterinarian.

A few years after Fulton passed away, Merle married Harris.

Tim and his mother share Joe Kirk’s passion for genetics.

They even tried to breed a horse for the Masked Rider program.

“Getting an all-black horse is hard. We studied all these stallions, looking for a specific gene that could produce an all-black horse. We found a horse and bred it to a foundation mare my mother had. But he ended up with four white feet and a star on his blaze,” he said.

When Joe Kirk died, Masked Rider Corey Waggoner brought Fearless Champion to the funeral. Boots were sideways and backwards in the stirrups to honor the first Masked Rider.

On the 60th anniversary of Joe Kirk’s first ride, shortly after his death, Merle said:

“It’s very emotional for me. I feel very honored. He always said he never dreamed him riding the horse was going to be a legacy for Tech, and it is. It’s very emotional for me every time I see that horse.”

Masked Riders and their Horses

• 1953-54: Joe Kirk Fulton/Lubbock, Texas
• 1954-55: Joe Kirk Fulton/Lubbock, Texas
• 1955-56: Jim Cloyd/Stratford, Texas/Blackie
• 1956-57: Jim Cloyd/Stratford, Texas/Tech Beauty
• 1957-58: Donald “Polly” Hollar/Benham, Texas/Tech Beauty
• 1958-59: Donald “Polly” Hollar/Benham, Texas/Tech Beauty
• 1959-60: J.H. “Hud” Rhea/Roswell, N.M./Beau Black
• 1960-61: J.H. “Hud” Rhea/Roswell, N.M./Beau Black
• 1961-62: Kelley Waggoner/Hillsboro, N.M./Tech Beauty
• 1962-63: Bill Durfey/The Woodlands, Texas/Tech Beauty
• 1963-64: Douglas “Nubbin” Hollar/Brenham, Texas/Charcoal Cody
• 1964-65: Douglas “Dink” Wilson/Quanah, Texas/Charcoal Cody
• 1965-66: Douglas “Dink” Wilson/Quanah, Texas/Charcoal Cody
• 1966-67: Douglas “Nubbin” Hollar/Brenham, Texas/Charcoal Cody
• 1967-68: Douglas “Nubbin” Hollar/Brenham, Texas/Charcoal Cody
• 1968-69: Johnny Bob Carruth/Lubbock, Texas/Charcoal Cody
• 1969-70: Johnny Bob Carruth/Lubbock, Texas/Charcoal Cody
• 1970-71: Tommy Martin/Graham, Texas/Charcoal Cody
• 1971-72: Randy Jeffers/Amarillo, Texas/Charcoal Cody
• 1972-73: Randy Jeffers/Amarillo, Texas/Showboy Huffman
• 1973-74: Gerald Nobles/Midland, Texas/Happy Five
• 1974-75: Anne Lynch/Dell City, Texas/Happy Five
• 1975-76: Joe Kim King/Brady, Texas/Happy Five
• 1976-77: Jess Wall/Perryton, Texas/Happy Five
• 1977-78: Larry Cade/Copperas Cove, Texas/Happy Five
• 1978-79: Lee Puckitt/San Angelo, Texas/Happy VI
• 1979-80: Coke Topping/Memphis, Texas/Happy VI
• 1980-81: Kathleen Campbell/El Paso, Texas/Happy VI-II
• 1981-82: Kurt Harris/Collinsville, Texas/Happy VI-II
• 1982-83: Perry Church, Canyon, Texas/Happy VI-II
• 1983-84: Jennifer Aufill, Buffalo Gap, Texas/Happy VI-II
• 1984-85: Zurick Labrier/Guymon, Oklahoma/Happy VI-II
• 1985-86: Jerrell Key, Lubbock, Texas/Happy VI-II
• 1986-87: Daniel Jenkins, Turkey, Texas/Happy VI-II
• 1987-88: Kim Saunders/Colfax, Louisiana/Midnight Raider
• 1988-89: Lea Whitehead/Midland, Texas/Midnight Raider
• 1989-90: Tonya Tinnin/Bryson, Texas/Midnight Raider
• 1990-91: Blaine Lemons/Colorado City, Texas/Midnight Raider
• 1991-92: RaLynn Key/Crosbyton, Texas/Midnight Raider
• 1992-93: Jason Spence/Seminole, Texas/Midnight Raider
• 1993-94: Lisa Gilbreath/Lewisville, Texas/Double T
• 1994-95: Amy Smart/Midland, Texas/Double T
• 1995-96: JoLynn Self/Lubbock, Texas/High Red
• 1996-97: Martha Reed/San Angelo, Texas/High Red
• 1997-98: Becky McDougal/Lubbock, Texas/High Red
• 1998-99: Michael “Dusty” Abney/Lubbock, Texas/Black Phantom Raider
• 1999-2000: Travis Thorne/New Deal, Texas/Black Phantom Raider
• 2000-01: Lesley Gilbreath/Flower Mound, Texas/Black Phantom Raider
• 2001-02: Katie Carruth/Lubbock, Texas/Black Phantom Raider
• 2002-03: Jessica Melvin/Pierre, South Dakota/Midnight Matador
• 2003-04: Ben Holland/Texline, Texas/Midnight Matador
• 2004-05: Stacy Stockard/Stanger, Texas/Midnight Matador
• 2005-06: Justin Burgin/Scurry, Texas/Midnight Matador
• 2006-07: Amy Bell/Kermit, Texas/Midnight Matador
• 2007-08: Kevin Burns/Clovis, N.M./Midnight Matador
• 2008-09: Ashley Hartzog/Farwell, Texas/Midnight Matador
• 2009-10: Brianne Hight/Clovis, N.M./Midnight Matador
• 2010-11: Christi Chadwell/Garland, Texas/Midnight Matador
• 2011-12: Bradley Skinner/Arvada, Colorado/Midnight Matador
• 2012-13: Ashley Wenzel/Friendswood, Texas/Midnight Matador
• 2013-14: Corey Waggoner/Lubbock, Texas/Fearless Champion
• 2014-15: Mackenzie White/Marble Falls, Texas/Fearless Champion
• 2015-16: Rachel McLelland/Tijeras, N.M./Fearless Champion
• 2016-17: Charlie Snider/Corinth, Texas/Fearless Champion
• 2017-18: Laurie Tolboom/ Dublin, Texas/Fearless Champion
• 2018-19: Lyndi Starr/Mount Vernon, Texas/Fearless Champion
• 2019-20: Emily Brodbeck/Lubbock, Texas/Fearless Champion
• 2020-21: Cameron Hekkert/Highlands Ranch, Colorado/Fearless Champion
• 2021-22: Ashley Adams/Lubbock, Texas/Fearless Champion
• Current: Caroline Hobbs/Dallas, Texas/Centennial Champion

1960: Locomotive Bell Becomes Bangin' Bertha

For more than 60 years, the bell has been ringing – thanks to Saddle Tramp Joe Winegar and the Santa Fe Railroad.

The railroad donated a bell designed by Winegar in 1959 and Bangin’ Bertha became a loud Texas Tech tradition.

Saddle Tramps carry Bangin’ Bertha on a trailer to home football and baseball games, plus homecoming events.

The original bell was used into the mid-2010s when it was cracked beyond repair and replaced.

The original bell was used into the mid-2010s when it was cracked beyond repair and replaced.

The Saddle Tramps ring Bangin’ Bertha behind the south end zone at football games at Jones AT&T Stadium.

When Zach Thomas beat Texas A&M with a late pick six to win the 1995 game in Lubbock, he ran into the end zone, out the back line, turned right and was mobbed by his teammates right next to Bertha.

The bell’s traveled to away games, like bowl games.

At football games, it’s rung:

• Repeatedly as the teams run onto the field.
• Repeatedly after each Red Raider score.
• For third – and fourth-down – plays when Tech is on defense. But Saddle Tramps are taught to stop once the opposing team’s center touches the ball.
• It’s also rung by a special guest each game.

For baseball, it’s rung:

• Once for each Red Raider as they exit the dugout at the start of the game.
• Once when a run’s scored.
• At the end of the inning.
• It’s also rung repeatedly for a Tech home run until the runner crosses home plate.

For both football and baseball, it’s rung in sync with the Saddle Tramp bell circle.

Students who ring the bell wear earplugs to protect their hearing.

1961: First Carol of Lights Starts Beloved Tradition

Bill Dean pushed a button to illuminate the 60th Carol of Lights in 2018 – just as he did 60 years earlier as Student Body President.

Back then it wasn’t a button, but a different contraption to turn on about 5,000 lights on a few buildings in front of a few hundred people.

When Dean pushed that button in 2018, he powered 25,000 lights on 18 buildings in front of a much larger crowd that some years grows past 20,000.

The Carol of Lights has become one of Texas Tech’s most beloved traditions, kicking off the holiday season in early December.

The lighted Masked Rider, Saddle Tramps Torch Light Processional and High Riders follow luminaria around Memorial Circle to the Science Quad where the annual program follows – the highlight coming when the lights are turned on.

And Dean – longtime professor, Saddle Tramp sponsor and former head of the Texas Tech Alumni Association – has been to every one rain or shine except when he was in military service in the early 1960s.

“Dr. Gene Hemmle, who was chair of the Music Department, gathered some students in the Quad. They had hot chocolate and sang Christmas carols,” said Dean of the event’s beginning.

In 1959, Harold Hinn, a member of the Board of Regents, came up with the idea to string lights on a few buildings on the Quad and paid for them.

Dean was asked to turn on the lights.

“I thought ‘this is cool,’” Dean remembered thinking.

“It wasn’t much compared to what we have today,” he said, adding he had no idea then what the “Carol” would become.

“It’s a wonderful way to kick off the season. And I think, my God, this thing – when I think back – it’s grown each year and it’s pretty significant. Students seem to love it – and they bring their dogs,” said Dean.

Dean was asked what the audience reaction was when he was introduced in 2018 and people heard about his history with the event.

“Well, the Saddle Tramps all clapped,” he said in his laid-back way.

Growing Up in Lubbock & Going to Tech

Dean’s taught at the university for more than 50 years – but he’s been in Lubbock even longer, growing up in the Hub City and attending Lubbock High School.

Dean was born in St. Mary of the Plains Hospital on 19th Street, in a building that later became the Café J restaurant. He grew up at 2608 20th Street, right behind the hospital and a block from the Texas Tech campus.

The family doctors were Olan Key and Sam Arnett, who had started Plains Hospital and Clinic in 1937. Two years later they sold it to the Sisters of St. Joseph in Orange, Calif. for $57,901 so they could just focus on medicine.

“If we needed to go to the doctor we just walked across the alley,” he said.

Dean thought of going to college at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

“My mother was not happy about that – she didn’t want me to go to a Methodist school,” said Dean.

He had a scholarship to play baseball at Texas Tech and a journalism scholarship from the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

Dean didn’t have a burning desire to get away from his hometown, so he became a Red Raider.

“I mean – I’m living at home, my tuition and fees are paid for – why not?” he said.

Dean played baseball for Beattie Feathers, who’d played pro football with Red Grange. He then played for legendary coach Berl Huffman his last couple of years at Texas Tech.

He graduated with a marketing degree from the Department of Business Administration and a journalism minor.

After military service, Dean started working on a master’s degree while teaching journalism and directing the student newspaper and yearbook at his high school alma mater.

Dean also started working on a teaching certificate.

He brought his students to summer journalism workshops at Texas Tech and in 1967 was offered the job as director of student publications at the university.

Dean also started teaching journalism.

Some of the Saddle Tramps came into his office one day and said they were looking for a sponsor – they usually had more than one.

“They asked if I would come to a meeting and see what it was all about,” he said.

“Saddle Tramps contribute a lot of good to the university. Everything they do is to promote Texas Tech in some way and not just athletics. I thought this would be a good organization to be associated with.”

Murder Creates a Tense Carol of Lights in 1967

The same year Dean started teaching at Texas Tech, the time around Carol of Lights was extremely tense after custodian Sarah Alice Morgan was brutally murdered.

Dean was trying to enter the journalism building and greeted by another woman custodian who had a butcher knife in her belt. She told Dean one of her fellow custodians had been murdered in the nearby biology building.

“I noticed all these police cars. The murderer tried to decapitate her,” said Dean.

“You can imagine the panic it set off on campus because they didn’t know who did it.”

“You can imagine the panic it set off on campus because they didn’t know who did it. I heard a San Antonio newspaper ran a headline that said ‘Psychopathic killer roams Texas Tech campus.’ Well, obviously people were on edge and the Carol of Lights was that week. There were helicopters flying around and policemen on top of buildings for the Carol of Lights. It was a really, really tense situation.”

People were encouraged to not go anywhere alone and go in groups.

The case was solved after a biology professor had some concerns about a graduate student. It led to a stakeout in his office. The student showed up and a chase followed, with Benjamin Lach caught in a cemetery.

Lach was convicted of murder, killing Morgan to steal her keys so he could steal an exam.

Morgan’s body was found by David Schmidley, another graduate student who eventually became Texas Tech’s 13th President.

Lach was paroled and, last heard, lives in Massachusetts.

‘Great Sense of Pride of What We’ve Become’

Bill Dean is one of the few people who has witnessed more than half the university’s history along with being a Red Raider as a student, faculty and leading the alumni association.

“I have a great sense of pride of what we’ve become. When I came to school we were kind of viewed as a stepchild” compared to other universities in Texas. “And we had a little bit of a defensive mentality. That’s gone. We don’t have to be defensive about anything.”

“Enrollment continues to grow. Of course, it didn’t hurt to go to the Final Four in basketball in 2019 and win the national track and field championship. That gives you some recognition,” Dean said.

“We’ve always felt in recruiting students that if you get them to come and visit your chances to get them to enroll are pretty good because they find this is not a backwater place. It has a modern airport, which is more than a lot of schools in the Big 12 have. It’s a big city with a small-city feel. There are 250,000 people who live here. The campus is beautiful and well designed. They find it’s a very friendly atmosphere. They find faculty will take their time to visit with you and encourage you. I don’t think they find that every place they go – at least that’s what parents tell me,” he said.

“We have done more here with less than our major competitors downstate. The greatest example of that to me is the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. We’re not a land-grant school but look at what they’ve accomplished and how competitive they are,” he said.

1971: Tech Grads Create Guns Up…in Austin

Glenn Dippel and Don Richards never met, but a little more than 50 years ago they – and two others – teamed up to launch Texas Tech’s Guns Up sign.

“Glenn Dippel deserves all the credit; it was a great idea. I played a pretty small role,” said Richards, who practices law in Lubbock.

Tech grads Glenn and Roxie Dippel were living in Austin in the early 1970s – surrounded by Longhorn fans.

“The people who went to school there were not that bad,” said Glenn from his home in Temple.

It was the people who didn’t go to school there – “the Walmart Longhorns,” Glenn called them, who ticked him off.

Plus, that constant Hook ‘Em Horns gesture in a place where everything seemed to be in Burnt Orange.

“They looked down their noses at the rest of us. My favorite schools are Texas Tech and whoever’s playing Texas,” he said.

Glenn and Roxie got an idea. It became an iconic symbol for Red Raiders that’s even traveled to outer space.

Birthing Guns Up

Glenn and Roxie tried to create a sign based on the Double T, but it didn’t work. Then Roxie got an idea from Dirk West’s cartoons in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal – which they got through the mail in Austin.

Even though Glenn’s name is most often connected to Guns Up, he’s quick to say Roxie was an equal co-creator.

West’s cartoon character the Red Raider had pistols. Roxie first came up with the gesture of the thumb and index finger extended with the other three fingers tucked in.

They made a copy of the gesture on a copy machine and sent it to the Saddle Tramps spirit group at Texas Tech along with a letter in January of 1971. It said:

“This weariness has, however, given me an idea which I should like to submit to you for your consideration…”

“After having lived in Austin for almost two months now, I have seen the ‘Hook ‘Em Horns’ sign so many times that I’m weary of it. This weariness has, however, given me an idea which I should like to submit to you for your consideration…I propose that Texas Tech have a ‘Hook ‘Em Horns’- type sign of our own. This idea came to me about two weeks ago, and I wrote it off as too much of an imitation of the ‘Hook ‘Em Horns’ sign…but it has continued to haunt me, and the more I think about it, the more I like it. Consider the idea and see if it has the same effect on you.”

Keith Ingram was president of the Saddle Tramps and asked fellow Saddle Tramp Richards to meet him at the University Center where he showed Richards the letter.

The Dippels suggested it could be used at pep rallies, games and to signify to others someone was a Red Raider.

Ingram and Richards discussed bringing the idea up at a Saddle Tramps meeting.

They did. A debate followed.

Some Saddle Tramps were afraid Tech would be ridiculed for using a little kid’s gesture. But they decided to try.

Richards also took a copy of the sign and put it in University Daily newspaper where he was Opinion Editor.

The name Red Raider Revolver had been attached to the gesture in the early process. The following football season, the Saddle Tramps held up their Red Raider Revolvers during “The Matador Song” but the name didn’t stick. The Saddle Tramps started saying “Guns Up” and it stuck.

“Everybody around us was wondering what it stood for and it caught on a little bit with the student body…but it didn’t catch on too much,” said Richards.

That same season, Texas Tech’s football team visited Austin and the Dippels were there.

They never received a response to their letter but saw the sign during games on TV and were pleased. But they were amazed when they saw it in person in Austin.

“The cheerleaders, Saddle Tramps and everyone used Guns Up. Did we have something to do with that?” Glenn said they wondered.

After Richards graduated, he came back to a game in 1973. By then, the guns were up.

“Everybody got up to sing the ‘Matador Song’ and everybody had the Guns Up and I remember being amazed and was thinking, ‘Holy cow…this caught on,’” he said.

Guns Up are Everywhere

Guns Up shows out in many ways:

• Tech’s iconic mascots – the Masked Rider and Raider Red – always have their Guns Up.
• At graduations, the last thing a student does before officially becoming a graduate, is holding their Guns Up while singing “The Matador Song.”
• When former Texas Tech President Lauro Cavazos was named Secretary of Education in 1988, he had his Guns Up.
• The 2008 official Texas Tech holiday ornament featured the sign.
• Some Texas Tech gear features only the gesture.
• Guns Up are seen when people drive past security stations entering campus.

Years later, Richards was driving down Arizona’s Interstate 17 toward Phoenix and came up behind a truck with a Texas Tech sticker.

“It’s become a real symbol for Texas Tech.”

“I went around, put my hand out the window and did the Guns Up and he stuck his hand out and did Guns Up, too,” said Richards. “It’s become a real symbol for Texas Tech.”

Richards took his son out of school in 2001 to watch the press conference when Bob Knight was named Texas Tech head basketball coach.

“Gerald Myers gave him a red sweater, he pulled it on over his head and then did a Guns Up with both hands. The whole roof came off the arena when he did that,” said Richards, adding it was his favorite Guns Up moment.

If he’s at a meeting and someone introduces him as a graduate of Texas Tech, Richards will put his Guns Up.

“And then a few in the audience will put their Guns Up,” he said.

At a Saddle Tramp reunion, Richards and Ingram took a picture with their Guns Up, enjoying the memory of how they carried Glenn and Roxie’s idea forward. Ingram died shortly afterwards at 62.

The sign has grown as Texas Tech has grown, said Jim Douglass, Vice President for Development for the Texas Tech Alumni Association and former Saddle Tramp.

When he travels and wears a Texas Tech pin, he’ll be greeted by Guns Up.

“It’s more prevalent in the last ten years,” he said, helped by people seeing Texas Tech sports teams at the Final Four in men’s basketball or the College World Series – where lots of Red Raiders have their Guns Up.

Competing Signs

As much as the Dippels were focused on UT’s sign, it wasn’t the first among Texas teams Tech’s competed against over the years.

• Texas A&M’s Gig ‘Em sign was born in 1930 during Texas Tech’s very early years.
• Houston’s Cougar Paw – pulling the right-hand ring finger down with the thumb – dates back to 1953. Houston’s cougar mascot lost a toe in a cage door and Texas fans mocked the cougar’s injury by making the sign. Houston adopted it as a symbol of pride.
• Hook ‘Em Horns came in the 1950s.
• Baylor’s Bear Claw was started in the 1960s but didn’t catch on until a decade later.
• SMU’s two-finger Pony Ears became popular in the 1970s.
• TCU’s two-finger Horned Frog sign arrived in the early 1980s.

NASA and Guns Up

NASA and Guns Up have a history – even if one example is a reminder of a grim tragedy.

Rick Husband, Texas Tech grad and commander of the Space Shuttle Columbia mission in 2003, died with his crew when the shuttle disintegrated during reentry.

Earlier in the mission, Husband was photographed floating in the shuttle with his Guns Up.

Eight years before the Columbia tragedy, Bernard Harris gave Red Raiders a happier memory. And Ginger Kerrick, a member of the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents, has her NASA office festooned with red and black examples of where she went to school.

On February 9, 1995, Harris became the first African American to walk in space and honored Tech with arguably the most famous – and cosmic – Guns Up in history.

He’d finished his tasks during the spacewalk and was hanging out at the end of a robotic arm, tethered to astronaut Michael Foale.

Harris could see earth and the stars of the Milky Way and he decided he wanted to do something to honor Texas Tech.

Even though he graduated from Texas Tech University’s Health Sciences Center, Guns Up travels across campuses in the Texas Tech University System.

“We bring up different items and flags into space to celebrate schools. I didn’t bring a Texas Tech banner. How could I forget? So what could I do to commemorate this moment and do something for the university that was my launching pad?” he said.

Harris told Foale he’d push away from him and Foale could take a photo of Harris doing Guns Up with the camera built into his spacesuit. But Harris pushed off too fast.

“Like a yo-yo I snapped back,” he said.

It took a couple of times pushing off slowly for Harris to get far enough away for Foale to get the photo.

“It was one of the great moments in my life and what a wonderful tribute to this great university.”

“It was one of the great moments in my life and what a wonderful tribute to this great university,” said Harris, who is now CEO of the National Math + Science Initiative, which improves teacher effectiveness and student achievement in STEM education across America.

Kerrick is surrounded by Longhorns, Aggies and Purdue Boilermakers at NASA.

“Texas Tech is not as populous at NASA,” as the other schools, she said.

“Because we’re underrepresented, I try to be extra annoying,” said Kerrick, former Mission Control Flight Director, who’s put her Guns Up while at her post during space missions.

She’s now Deputy Director of the Exploration Integration and Sciences Directorate at NASA in Houston.

There’s a Texas Tech sign on her office door, a Tech business card holder, a Wreck ‘Em Tech sign, Tech tissue holder.

“It’s ridiculous. It’s so I can annoy the Aggies,” she said.

If she’s walking down a NASA hallway and see a fellow Red Raider, they’ll flash Guns Up or say “Wreck ‘Em.”

Even her kitchen at home is done in red and black.

‘Proud and Flattered We Had a Part in Texas Tech’s Identity’

None of this was on Dippel’s radar when he started at Texas Tech in 1954. He met Roxie at a Lubbock church. They married and had three sons, who all ended up being Red Raiders. But with classes and raising a family, it took them awhile to get their degrees. Glenn worked for Roxie’s dad who owned gas stations.

His favorite Tech sports moment was in 1965, when Donny Anderson was in his senior year.

“We were behind three points to Texas A&M. Tom Wilson threw a pass to Jerry Shipley, who lateraled to Donny Anderson and we won the game,” he said.

Glenn got his economics degree in 1961 and Roxie her accounting degree in 1970.

Glenn said he was not ready for college when he started. He got infectious mononucleosis.

“I should have dropped out,” he said.

He flunked out and had to take a series of tests to get back into Tech.

After Roxie graduated from Tech, they both sat for the CPA exam at the same time and ended up with their accounting firm in Austin, moving to Temple a few years later.

As long as they’ve lived on the other side of Texas, the Dippels – she grew up in Lubbock and he in Old Glory, near Aspermont – always consider themselves West Texans.

“Once a West Texan, always a West Texan.”

“Once a West Texan, always a West Texan,” he said. “And we are proud and flattered we had a part in Texas Tech’s identity.”

1971: Jim Gaspard creates Raider Red in his Dorm Room

Raider Red was conceived in room 242 of Wells Hall during the 1970-71 school year, then born in Clement Hall the summer of ’71.

The proud parents were Texas Tech students Jim Gaspard and his girlfriend Dinah. Baby Red’s grandparents were Dirk and Mary Ruth West.

The infant was born fully grown, with big red moustache, huge hat, cape, Texas Tech belt, boots and a pair of guns.

More than 50 years later, Raider Red has joined the Masked Rider as beloved school symbols.

Red has traveled extensively – the 2019 Final Four just one example – and that brings us back to Texas Tech in 1970.

Gaspard came to Lubbock after four years in the Navy and wanted the full college experience.

He joined Delta Tau Delta and the Saddle Tramps, where he became an officer. Then he heard something at a meeting.

“One of the guys brought up that their dad had heard stadium managers were upset when the Masked Rider went to out-of-town games. Fields would get torn up when he’d do his run because they were all grass back then,” said Gaspard.

There was talk about banning all Southwest Conference live mascots from going to road games.

Gaspard had seen the San Diego Chicken mascot at a San Diego Padres baseball game when he was in the Navy.

“He was crazy. He’d get on an opponent’s dugout and jump on the roof,” he said.

Gaspard decided to create something at the dorm, where he had free housing as an advisor. He was inspired by Dirk West’s cartoons in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, where Tech football was represented by a character named Ol’ Red.

“I thought maybe I could make a three-dimensional Ol’ Red to fit me,” he said.

Gaspard started working on it with Dinah, who met Gaspard on a blind date at a frat party. Dinah also had Tech family history – her dad played football for Tech in the 1920s.

“We went to Tandy Leather and bought the leather. We went to the Salvation Army downtown, bought some boots and painted them black, white and red. The head was going to be the most difficult part. I found an old helmet, lightweight shoulder pads and attached chicken wire to create a rough mold,” he said.

They put papier-mache over the head-and-shoulder structure, using Avalanche-Journal and University Daily newspapers – assuring Red would be well-read.

Gaspard then went looking for help at Texas Tech’s Theatre Department.

Ginger Tongate saw him and asked if she could help.

“I’m looking for someone to help me make a costume,” Gaspard told her.

“Well, I’m the assistant costume designer, can I help?” she responded.

She sewed the rest of the costume and later went on to a career in the entertainment industry.

Raider Red Makes His Debut

In August, Gaspard was at a Saddle Tramps meeting to discuss the upcoming season. If the Southwest Conference went ahead with the mascot ban, Gaspard told them he had an idea. He showed them pictures of his creation he’d kept quiet about while under construction.

“What would you think if at the first pep rally I ran out onto the field with the cheerleaders?” he asked.

There was one concern. Would people think Raider Red was replacing the Masked Rider?

There was one concern. Would people think Raider Red was replacing the Masked Rider?

“The Masked Rider was our true mascot and still is,” he said.

Considering the Saddle Tramps were the guardians of Tech traditions, they didn’t want to be seen as trying to replace one of the greatest traditions.

But the other concern of not having a mascot for road games led the group to give Raider Red a try.

At the pep rally before the first game of the 1971 season – a road game at Tulane – Gaspard came out.

“I couldn’t do flips, but I could roll around on the ground and just acted crazy,” he said.

The next day in the Avalanche-Journal was the following:

“A surprise in the festivities was the appearance of Raider Red, a gun-toting comic strip character that appeared to have walked right out of a Dirk West cartoon. The brightly colored papier-mache costume will be worn by a Saddle Tramp at the football games.”

Gaspard wore it to a home game – it was hot in the costume – before handing it off to Stan Alcott, who wore it the next two seasons.

A Lot Has Changed

Raider Red is now part of Tech’s Spirit Program, under Stephanie Rhode. Male Raider Reds still must be a Saddle Tramp, but there have been many other changes:

• High Riders, the women’s spirit version of the Saddle Tramps, have been Raider Reds for almost 20 years now.
• There are four Raider Reds, two main and two backups, who are basically in training to be one of the main Reds. But people never see two at the same place.
• Under Cheer and Mascot Coach Bruce Bills, Red now competes and has won back-to-back national titles in 2021 and 2022 in the Mascot division of the National Cheerleaders Association and National Dance Association Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championships in Florida.
• Red makes hundreds and hundreds of appearances each year at games, other Tech events, schools, hospitals and more. The year before COVID, Red made more than 500 appearances with the four students splitting up the schedule.
• Raider Reds work out with other spirit squad members.
• The costume is now made in Canada.
• Raider Red is on all kinds of merchandise – shirts, hats, even Christmas ornaments.
• There’s a Passing of the Guns ceremony, where the outgoing Reds are revealed.

It’s also a lot of work.

“That costume is huge and bulky to carry around,” said Rhode. “I’m always admiring students carrying this enormous head around, heavy boots and belt. You watch them going into basketball or football games and it’s cumbersome.”

The students must keep it looking good and clean.

“They do laundry between events. You’ve got those white gloves,” she said, which get dirty from all the kids who come up to Raider Red.

Raider Reds also must keep their grades up.

“We expect their grade point average not to suffer because they’re Raider Red,” she said, pointing to a study area outside her office in the basement of the Student Union.

She’s asked why Tech has two mascots.

Rhode pointed out a few schools have two – Tennessee has the Volunteer and Smokey the Dog, she said.

“We always say the Masked Rider is the official mascot and Raider Red’s the costume public relations.”

Bills said: “We always say the Masked Rider is the official mascot and Raider Red’s the costume public relations.”

Almost everyone loves Raider Red.

“It’s quite a phenomenon to walk beside Raider Red and watch people react to him. Even adults – people are genuinely happy to see him,” said Rhode. “He can be scary to babies and some little kids can be terrified.”

Raider Red is friendly, high-fiving people, taking photos, but he can also be mischievous.

Rhode and Bills said former Raider Red Zach Bohls captured the character’s essence wonderfully when he was at Tech about a decade ago.

‘FullTtime Raider Red, Part-Time Student’

Bohls was in the costume when Raider Red won the 2012 Capital One Mascot Challenge , unlike the two national titles, this was decided by a social media vote.

“I think he embodied what Dirk West meant with the character. And he had a great relationship with (Dirk’s widow) Mary Ruth West,” said Rhode. Mary Ruth West enjoyed meeting the students serving as Red until she died in 2020.

Bohls – who ended up being a professional mascot – filled Red’s costume for three-and-a-half years.

“I had to convince Stephanie and Bruce to extend my career there,” he said. “I referred to myself as a full-time Raider Red and part-time student – which I never told my parents for obvious reasons.”

Bohls went to mascot camp and went through rigorous training.

“They went over how to walk, how to carry yourself, what kind of emotions to bring out. How to interact with a baby, a kid, a grown-up,” he said.

His favorite moment – besides beating South Carolina’s Cocky for the Capitol One title in 2012 – was going onto the field at Jones AT&T Stadium the first time in 2010 against SMU.

“Nobody picked that game because it was just SMU, it was hot in September but I was more than happy to do it. Going out there was nerve-wracking, but it was so cool holding these 12-gauge shotguns, shooting a firearm on the field and not getting tackled or arrested. It was pretty nice,” he said.

Bohls was not always excited to put on the costume.

“Being a college kid you’re either super tired from staying up late or you’re worried about passing classes and whatnot. So it was difficult at times when you had to work several events throughout the day with several classes and Saddle Tramps,” he said.

“There were days where I didn’t want to put the suit on. There were times where I was going through a break-up or I may have failed a test or something. But I had to put the suit on, I had to put that big moustache on and you know you couldn’t walk around all mopey. You’ve got to bring smiles to other people. So in a lot of ways it was like therapy for us mascots because it made us forget about all the other stuff that was going on,” he said.

The program made it clear they wanted students who could bring high energy, be an ambassador to Tech and a walking billboard.

“But putting on the costume you are kind of immediately engaged in this incandescent attitude. You want to portray the character in a nice, happy way.

Gaspard Wrap Up

Jim and Dinah married in 1973.

He felt Raider Red was on a trial that first year, but it stuck, even though the Southwest Conference never banned animal mascots from road games.

The Gaspards ended up in the Metroplex and would see Red at games at SMU and take photos.

For Raider Red’s 25th anniversary, Gaspard was invited to Tech to be grand marshal of the homecoming parade.

“That was cool. We got to sit in a Cadillac convertible that had a CD player. I didn’t even know what a CD player was then,” he said.

When Raider Red won the Capitol One Mascot Challenge, Rhode called Gaspard to share the news.

He also got to know Mary Ruth West and other members of the West family.

Speaking of family, the Gaspards have four children they call Raider Red’s siblings.

“We’re just so proud to be part of this and he’s still our kid,” he said.

1974: Anne Lynch: First Female Masked Rider

Anne Lynch got off the bus from tiny farm town of Dell City, Texas, to start school at Texas Tech – her path to a career in the agriculture world. Everything was new – dorm life at Stangel Hall and friends. There were lots of people her age.

“I remember being really worried about being able to find my classroom the first day,” she said.

Lynch went to her first football game the fall of 1970.

“It was excitement everywhere. The Goin’ Band from Raiderland with Dean Killion. That music. The Spanish influence. A stadium full of very loud people – almost everybody in red – yelling and screaming. Then all the excitement of what was happening on the field. It was sensory overload – just fabulous,” said Lynch.

Then Masked Rider Tommy Martin took off on Charcoal Cody – racing around Jones Stadium.

Lynch had seen pictures of the Masked Rider on Tech literature when deciding where to go to college. But seeing the horse in front of her was transformational.

The young woman – who grew up riding horses around the Dell Valley like other kids rode bikes around their city neighborhoods – wanted to be the Masked Rider.

“I imagined what an honor it would be to ride the black horse as the mascot, an honor and a privilege.

But could she? “Do they let students do that?” she wondered.

They do, she found out – but only juniors and seniors.

And only men.

Lynch set the goal aside to focus on school.

“I was taking 18 units. I had amazing professors so that’s where my focus was. I didn’t have time to worry about other things,” she said.

Two Years Later…

Lynch went back to ask about being the Masked Rider her junior year.

“I understood the whole concept of upperclassmen. What I didn’t understand was why it could only be a guy. There were just as many women in the school. I thought I should at least be able to try, even if I didn’t win. I wanted better answers,”

“I understood the whole concept of upperclassmen. What I didn’t understand was why it could only be a guy. There were just as many women in the school. I thought I should at least be able to try, even if I didn’t win. I wanted better answers,” she said.

Lynch was raised to believe she could do anything.

She was the first Dell City girl in Future Farmers of America, even though she couldn’t be in the class with the guys. The ag teacher taught her one-to-one.

“I never heard anybody say you can’t do something,” she said.

Lynch began asking questions – all the way to the Board of Regents.

The answer?

“I was told ‘we need to look into that,’” she said.

Some time passed, then Lynch was invited to try out in late 1973. She was asked to ride a Western Pleasure Pattern at the horse barn, where she worked.

“Just putting the horse through its paces – walk, run, canter, trot, stop, back up, get off, get on. Easy,” said Lynch. She’d been riding since she was six years old when she rode Red on her family’s farm once she got her chores done.

In January, Lynch got a call saying she’d be the next Masked Rider. She was asked to come to the Administration Building and told it would be announced in the newspaper the next day.

Not everyone was thrilled.

Beloved Avalanche-Journal cartoonist Dirk West lampooned the idea. He drew a woman on a horse with curly blonde hair putting on lipstick and saying, “It was very exciting, but my girdle is killin’ me.”

The lower right corner of the ‘toon was signed “Dirk West…Male Chauvinist Pig.”

For the record, Lynch had long, dark hair.

Women’s rights were a passionate topic in the 1970s. Title IX was created about the time Lynch came to Lubbock. The famous Battle of the Sexes tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs took place in 1973. The National Organization of Women was founded less than a decade before Lynch started asking questions.

“There were some who didn’t think it was a good idea to change that tradition. There were others who thought a girl could not hold the reins of the horse,” said Lynch, who’d been holding them for years.

“But I knew half the population of the school would like it. I didn’t know any girls against it,” she said, laughing. “There was a quote by someone saying I should step down and stop messing with tradition. There was no way I was stepping down.”

Lynch wasn’t the only trailblazing woman on campus then.

“Beverly Boyd, the first woman on the meat judging team – we were together in Stangel Hall. Betsy Bond was getting her pre-veterinarian degree from Texas Tech and one of the first women accepted into the Texas A&M Veterinary School. She became one of the first veterinary cardiologists and is in New York,” said Lynch.

Once the drama dissipated, Lynch had a job to do – taking care of Happy Five, the Masked Rider’s mount.

They went to a lot of rodeos, a good recruiting tool for Tech, but she didn’t have the busy schedule Masked Riders have today.

Lynch always felt welcome at the rodeos. But at one, there was a spotlight on rider and horse while running after the National Anthem. Everything else was pitch black.

“I was so grateful Happy Five could see because I sure couldn’t,” she said.

‘He Knew Where the Finish Line Was’

On Sept. 14, 1974, Anne Lynch sat atop Happy Five in her mask, cape and hat – ready for her first run around Jones Stadium when the Red Raiders came on the field to play Iowa State.

The Saddle Tramps had a sign welcoming her.

“I was doing everything to be sure I did a good job for the school and the team. I felt a little pressure to make sure it was perfect.”

“I was doing everything to be sure I did a good job for the school and the team. I felt a little pressure to make sure it was perfect,” she said.

But in the back of her mind was a nagging thought – what if something happened and she fell off? Critics would say they were right.

“They had warned me about things coming out of the stands,” she said.

It may have been Lynch’s first season, but it was Happy Five’s second.

Right before the Red Raiders came on the field, the cheerleaders chanted:

“Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar – all for the Red Raiders stand up a holler.”

When the horse heard two bits, he was ready.

“He always knew a good run was coming when ‘two bits’ started. He made quite a spirited dance while I was holding him back. Then the band started,” she said.

As soon as Lynch loosened the reins, Happy Five knew what to do.

“I didn’t have to say go. He knew where the finish line was and went all the way around,” said Lynch.

Her dad was there to see his daughter’s first ride.

Tech won 24-3, then whipped Texas at home two weeks later, 26-3.

Back then, the Masked Rider made the full loop around the field at full gallop each time the Red Raiders scored.

“I ran all day long. Happy Five managed to go around cameras, cheerleaders, wires, players, band. He kept the cape flying that day,” she said.

The horse was not allowed on the field at that time, using a rubber track for its famous runs.

“Mr. King, who was athletic director at the time, would not be happy if Happy Five put a horseshoe on the Astroturf,” she said.

She was getting the horse ready for a game and Happy Five’s hooves got on the playing surface.

Someone leaned out of a window and yelled, “Off the field.” It was J.T. King.

Lynch’s dad returned for the homecoming game, with special guest Bob Hope, there to give the Goin’ Band a community service award.

“There’s a picture of me with Bob Hope. He asked me to take off my mask. We shouldn’t be out of our costume, but for him…” she said. “My dad loved that; he loved Bob Hope.”

Lynch would sleep in Happy Five’s stall before games to make sure no one from a rival team messed with her buddy.

Lynch and Happy Five finished the season at the Peach Bowl in Atlanta, where Tech and Vanderbilt played to a 6-6 tie in the last game of the Jim Carlen era.

Lynch also liked horsing around around campus with her equine pal.

“Students loved it. But nobody had cell phones to take pictures. They’d just wave. I’d go see the band practicing. It was just fun to ride all over campus and be with students,” she said.

Lynch was interviewed for this story in the house she grew up in five miles south of Dell City – a house being renovated by her sister.

While she tells her story, she refers to a scrapbook given to her by friends Judy and David White, who were her “amazing assistants.” Friend Mac Tull also helped during her Masked Rider year.

From Tech to the World

Lynch graduated from Tech with confidence and got a job selling agriculture products. She trained in Little Rock, Arkansas and was the only woman in the group. Lynch settled in Stamford, Connecticut and started doing international sales.

She’d learned Spanish growing up in Dell City, where people spoke English and Spanish.

“They gave me a territory in Latin America – so I was sent to South America, Central America and the Caribbean. It wasn’t hard because I had this incredible training,” she said.

Lynch ran into a different type of gender discrimination, though. She didn’t get to go on some sales trips because salesmen would be going and their wives didn’t want her on a trip with their husbands.

“But I was happy to be earning money and I loved working,” she said.

Lynch learned all about shoveling snow in Connecticut winters and tried to make sure her Central America trips were during the worst part of winter.

She wanted to go to California and ended up working in San Francisco for Wells Fargo Bank’s Agriculture Division.

“They managed thousands of acres of California farmland and ranchland. They needed to be out on the properties every year, negotiating leases. Most of the people in the office didn’t speak rural and didn’t want to go out there. It was perfect for me,” she said.

While in San Francisco, she met a man, married and they had four children – eventually landing in Costa Rica. What was supposed to be a few years lasted a couple of decades.

“I met the horse world there because that was my thing. Once the kids were settled in school, I got involved in riding Spanish horses and took dressage lessons. It was a whole other universe. I had been into ranch riding,” she said.

The marriage ended and Lynch eventually returned to Dell City.

One of her children still lives in Costa Rica . Lynch visits the country often and she’s very impressed with Texas Tech’s Costa Rica campus.

“It’s beautiful and they picked pretty much the coolest part of town to put it in. It’s a great idea,” she said.

Return to Dell City

Some of her children and siblings also returned to Dell City after living all over the world.

Dell City is tucked just west of the Guadalupe Mountains. El Paso – where the Lynch family went for clothing, dental visits and school shoes – is just under 100 miles west.

“It’s a good place to live. We’re not the only ones who came back. A lot of my peers from high school have come back to Dell City. You go, look, see, work, do and then you realize it’s such a lovely valley. It’s so protected, surrounded by mountains. It’s full of water,” she said.

A city park is named for one of her aunts.

Dell City was founded in 1947 and Lynch’s family arrived three years later.

“We worked with other farmers to build the valley farming industry. There were many other farmers – it does take a village,” she said.

Return to Texas Tech

Living in Costa Rica made it hard to get back to her alma mater, but Lynch was there when the Masked Rider statue was dedicated just south of the Frazier Alumni Center.

“They had all the Masked Riders there,” she said. “A dad of one of the female Masked Riders came up to me and told me he was happy I rode because his daughter loved being the Masked Rider and representing the school.”

Since Lynch rode, a little more than half the Masked Riders have been women.

When she sees the horse run it’s still a thrill.

When she sees the horse run it’s still a thrill.

“I know what he or she is feeling. I love what they’re doing with the Masked Rider and horse now, more public appearances,” she said, pointing out recent Masked Rider Lyndi Starr “was a great representative.”

Lynch said she’s sometimes asked what made her think she could do all the things she ended up doing around the world.

“I said because nobody ever told me I couldn’t,” she said.

1989: Texas Tech Wins First of Many Meat Judging National Titles

In 2019, Sports Illustrated did a story on the sport of meat judging. The star of the story was Texas Tech – winner of 16 national titles and the last three in 2019-2021.

The article was more than nice publicity.

“One article elevated meat judging to the same playing field as football and basketball. It put meat judging as a sport on the map.”

“One article elevated meat judging to the same playing field as football and basketball. It put meat judging as a sport on the map,” said Mark Miller, who competed in meat judging as a Tech student in the 1980s and had led his alma mater to 15 of those 16 titles.

He showed an online post of what sports schools are best-known for. Football? Alabama. Women’s basketball? Tennessee. Rowing? Washington. Skiing? Colorado. Meat judging? Texas Tech.

“That would have never happened without the Sports Illustrated article,” he said.

When Miller was speaking to kids at Tech’s judging camp this summer – yes, Tech hosts judging camps just like other Tech sports – there were kids from ten different states in the room and their parents.

“I told these kids – who were 7-17 years old – ‘you are the top 1 percent. You are no different than Kobe Bryant, LeBron James or Patrick Mahomes. You are a D1 athlete in being here and doing meat judging,’” Miller said.

Then he laid it on thicker.

“There’s an industry that values you so much they are going to track you, be there to help you and give you the greatest life you could ever have, paying you really good money to make sure everybody gets to eat a safe, tasty, high-quality, nutritious meat product for the rest of their lives,” he said.

It resonates with parents.

“I’ve had parents come up and say, ‘Wow, I never knew that I was not wasting my time just dragging my kid to meat judging camp,’” Miller said.

“That’s what the Sports Illustrated article did. It gave us a platform to tell parents and hopefully counselors because we are so blessed in this nation when you think about how safe our food supply is,” he said.

‘If You Build It, They Will Come’

Meat judging began in 1926. Tech started in 1938 but was off and on.

Enter Gordon Davis .

He built Tech’s meat judging program in the 1980s, getting a new meat laboratory built, which helped recruiting.

“If you build it, they will come,” he said.

Miller judged for him, helped coach and left to get his doctorate.

Davis led Tech to its first national title in 1989, then went into the private sector.

Miller came home to coach the team, leading it to a second title in 1991.

Much like Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt wanting Tech to have winning teams with great athletes who are also great people, Miller is passionate about focusing on first building good people. If that happens, the championships follow.

His foundational principles are:

• Striving for honor (as “The Matador Song” says)
• Pursuing excellence
• Serving unselfishly

“Those are the three things that have been going in this program since we started. Doing the right things, even when no one’s watching. Then if we can get kids to look at everybody else on their team as family…it’s a game changer,” he said.

On the wall in Miller’s office – loaded with photos of his teams, western and religious art, books and lots of memorabilia – is a framed letter from former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz.

“To Dr. Mark Miller:

I could write a book about the great things Trevor has told me about you as a person, coach & leader.

Wow!!!

Lou Holtz

…Live like a champion today and Do Right

Trevor White, from New Home, was on Tech’s 2010 meat judging team and saw Holtz at the airport in Miami. Miller uses a Holtz video called “Do Right” to motivate team members.

“He talks about the way to build a team that cannot lose is having trust, commitment and love.”

“He talks about the way to build a team that cannot lose is having trust, commitment and love,” Miller said about that video.

“You have to be committed to be excited to be at practice at 4 a.m. And love is a big part of getting 25 or so people all moving in the same direction. I tell the kids they don’t have to always like each other. But if they love each other unconditionally you’ve got all your teammates with you,” he said.

One Year of Eligibility

Unlike NCAA sports, meat judging students have one year of eligibility under the American Meat Science Association, primarily because the food industry needs talent. Unlike the NFL, which has limited jobs, the food industry is desperate for help, said Miller.

Each school year, trains two teams.

• One has already competed in meat judging contests the previous semester. They compete in three more before the nationals, which are held in a Tyson Foods plant in Dakota City, Nebraska.
• The next team is learning in the fall. They start competing after the first of the year, following a schedule of the previous team.

Miller’s former team members serve as graduate assistant coaches – saying they have responsibilities like offensive, defensive and special teams coordinators in football.

Tech’s also been dominant in the AMSA Quiz Bowl, started in 20o1 to give students with only one year of eligibility more opportunities to compete. Tech’s won 12 of them and finished second in 2022.

Besides camps, the program hosts meat judging competitions for FFA and 4H. Tech’s team members run it like the contests they compete in.

Both the camps and competitions are great recruiting tools, said Miller.

How Do You Judge Meat?

A committee made up from people from the USDA, industry, academia come in two days before a contest for set it up.

“It’s like the best medical team doctors coming together to create a problem-solving contest for medical school interns,” said Miller.

“We usually get up about 4 a.m. on the contest morning, arrive at the plant about 5,” said Miller.

It begins around 6 and ends about two in the afternoon.

Students look at ten classes, two each of:

• Beef carcasses
• Pork carcasses
• Lamb carcasses
• Beef cuts
• Pork cuts

First they grade them for quality and then yield. Beef quality is either prime, choice, select or standard. Pork is acceptable or unacceptable.

If they get the quality wrong, they lose points.

The students also write reasons for five of the ten classes justifying and defending their choices.

Oh – and it’s all done in a meat cooler with close to freezing temperatures after you got up in the middle of the night.

“We do this in practice every Saturday. They turn in their reasons and I grade them,” he said.

For example, a student writes one beef carcass was prime and the other choice.

“I would expect them to write the first topic sentence saying, ‘I have placed one over two due to superior quality (USDA prime vs. choice) resulting in a clearly higher merchandising value and greater consumer appeal,’” Miller said.

“If a student came in and wrote ‘I place one over two due to greater trimness and muscling’ that would be an automatic three-point deduction because they got the topic sentence wrong. They didn’t see a difference in the quality,” he said.

Most students will score 38 to 42 each on their five written submissions. The elite will get 46, 47, 48s – 50s are rarely given.

Everything is turned in and results are announced at dinner or breakfast the next morning.

Texas Tech has had a lot of happy meals the past few years.

Texas Tech has had a lot of happy meals the past few years.

Not all of Miller’s students go into the food industry.

Some are doctors, lawyers, nurses, physical therapists, dentists, veterinarians and some agriculture economics majors go into banking, he said.

They also go into the meat industry.

Former meat judging team members have created Oscar Meyer Lunchables, Slim Jim snacks, products for Tyson and McDonald’s.

Others work for the government on food safety.

Tech Excels in Other Judging Teams

Texas Tech also has:

• Wool judging team, which has own five national titles, including back-to-back in 2021-22.
• Horse judging team, which won its first national title in 15 years in 2021.
• Livestock judging team won a second straight title in 2016 and ninth overall.
• Meat Animal Evaluation team won a national title in 2019, its sixth overall.
• Institute of Food Technologists College Bowl team.

2005: First women serve as Raider Red

Katie Lynn was valedictorian of her class at Strawn High School and had her choice of colleges.

Texas Tech became a practical decision.

“I had a cousin in Lubbock who offered me a free place to live that summer,” said Lynn, who started at Texas Tech the summer 2003.

Lubbock was familiar – she had family here and visited for gymnastics events.

“It was the best decision I ever made,” said Lynn, who returned to her hometown where she’s raising a family and is business manager for the Strawn Independent School District.

But before she left Lubbock, Lynn made history as the first woman to inhabit Raider Red.

“It was one of the most fun and interesting times of my life. Anyone who put on the costume would say the same thing. It was an honor,” she said.

Trailblazers

Lynn’s friend from Strawn, Amanda Popham McDaniel, was also at Tech and invited her to join the High Riders, the women’s spirit organization version of the Saddle Tramps.

There’d been talk about High Riders getting a chance to be Raider Red. Since Red debuted in the early 1970s, only Saddle Tramps couple Red. When both groups were incorporated under an umbrella with the Masked Rider, cheerleading and pom squad, the chance for a High Rider to be Raider Red accelerated.

Lynn credits Stephanie Rhode, who’d taken over as Spirit Program Director, for helping.

“She made us feel very welcomed,” when she, another High Rider and two Saddle Tramps were chosen to be Raider Red during the 2005-06 school year.

“She got us into some camps, made sure we were included at events with the Masked Rider, cheerleaders and the pom squad,” said Lynn.

Until Raider Red became part of the spirit “team,” people contacted the Saddle Tramps to get Red to come to an event.

Under Rhode’s team, Lynn said, scheduling went through the spirit office and was better coordinated.

Being Raider Red

Lynn was in costume on the field for Tech football games and once got slapped on the back by legendary basketball coach Bob Knight at the Big 12 Tournament – “I was thinking this the coolest thing that ever happened to me.” But her favorite memory was doing orientation the summer of 2005.

“We did orientations all summer. Raider Red was there meeting people and that was the most fun I ever had. You got to wander around, meet all these new students who were just so excited to take pictures. You were able to bring a smile to someone’s face,” she said.

During football games, Red did pushups on a raised platform after every Tech score – a pushup for every point the team had scored so far. That season, the Red Raiders scored an average of 40 points a game – five times scoring more than 50.

That’s a lot of pushups and Lynn had a challenge.

“Red’s hat is pretty huge and I’m not tall. I’m five feet – on a good day,” she said. When she did pushups, Red’s hat came within an inch or two of the platform.

“That’s why my pushups may not have been as good as others,” she said.

High Rider Kari Rodgers was Lynn’s backup as Raider Red.

The Saddle Tramps wanted to make sure one of them was in the costume at the beginning of games and back then, Red still blasted his double shotguns.

“We didn’t fight them on that,” said Lynn.

The two Saddle Tramps and High Riders all took turns. Lynn might do pregame events like Raider Alley. The quartet would sometimes take turns by quarters or halves.

“Sometimes Red would disappear up the tunnel for a little bit, would come back and it would be someone different,” she said.

Lynn came to games as a student but being on the field as Red was “still one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my life.”

“The Masked Rider was still making a run anytime there was a touchdown. It was so cool to be down there,” she said.

The Saddle Tramps could not participate as Raider Red during part of the spring of 2006, so Lynn and Rodgers spent more time as the school’s favorite character.

They did basketball, softball, baseball games along with community events like hospital visits.

But they didn’t do the number of events Raider Reds do now as the requests have grown and scheduling through the spirit office has helped.

“It’s grown massively,” said Lynn.

One of the highlights of her year was meeting Mary Ruth West. Her late husband, Dirk West, drew the cartoon character in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that inspired Tech student Jim Gaspard to create Raider Red in the early 1970s.

“She gave us Raider Red posters and a really cool coffee table book that had all his drawings in it. She was lovely. We sat with her for an afternoon just visiting,” she said.

A Special Relationship

The guy with the big hat helped Lynn get through a transitional period.

She graduated at the end of the 2005 fall semester with a bachelor’s degree in political science but was only 20 years old and wasn’t ready to go into the world. She’d been taking 18 hours of classes, but cut that down to 12 when she became Red. In the spring of 2006, she started grad school, her classes were at night. She had days free to be Red.

“He was my sense of purpose,” as she adjusted to the changes in her life.

Red was also her confidant.

“My roommates would laugh because I’d bring home the costume and I’d be talking to him like he was a real person. It freaked them out so much. They asked if they should be worried about me,” said Lynn, laughing.

And Red never responded.

“Raider Red does not speak. There’s no voice, you use your body to talk. There was never a two-sided conversation. But I would still carry on and talk to him. I’d be pulling this giant bag out of my truck with the costume inside and mumbling to the bag about how irritating it was to carry because it was huge,” she said.

“…when I see him now it’s like seeing a friend.”

“He’s a separate person from you. But once you put the costume on, you’re not you anymore. So, when I see him now it’s like seeing a friend,” she said.

Last Stuff

More than 15 years later, being Raider Red doesn’t get brought up often.

“When we did it in 2005 it was still such a big secret. We didn’t have the passing of the guns. You were supposed to keep it under your hat who was in the costume. I supposed I carried that along with me,” she said, the secrecy adding to the belief just one person gets inside Red’s head. But multiple students are needed to handle all the games, events, competitions and more Raider Red does.

Lynn has been to Dirk’s restaurant in Lubbock, owned by Dirk West’s grandson Cameron West and filled with his cartoons – many featuring her buddy Red.

She attended Red’s 50th birthday party in 2021.

“It was interesting to meet all those guys who had come before,” she said.

Lynn is also impressed by Red’s back-to-back national championships in the National Cheerleaders Association and National Dance Alliance Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championships and the Capital One Mascot Challenge a decade ago.

“I know how tough that is to be in that costume and do those things in it,” she said.

“People don’t know how much work it is,” Lynn said about embodying Red. “You’re always doing something. There’s always something going on. You have to be willing to dedicate yourself to doing it – which is very rewarding,” she said.

Lynn’s kids are now eight and six. She hopes to come back for more football games, now that they’re getting old enough to sit through a contest.

“I’m already brainwashing them to get their Guns Up,” she said.

2020's: Tech Cheer/Pom Squads Win Multiple National Honors

The Texas Tech co-ed cheer and pom squads both won their first national championships in 2017 within minutes of each other in Florida.

The pom squad was taking a photo on the beach after winning the National Dance Alliance title, when they heard about cheer’s National Cheerleaders Association crown.

“We were wearing red and they were wearing red,” said Erin Alvarado, pom squad coach.

The two squads ran toward each other, creating a sea of red to expand Texas Tech’s Daytona Beach party.

It was almost too much for Stephanie Rhode, who’d become spirit program director in 2003.

“I was running around. I was so excited, jumping up and down,” said Rhode, who’d hired former Tech cheerleader Bruce Bills and Alvarado to improve the programs a few years earlier.

They did.

Since then, Rhode’s hopes have blossomed into a national power.

• 2018: Pom won two national titles for pom and jazz, both different dance genres.
• 2019: Co-ed cheer and pom won national titles.
• 2021: Pom won two more national titles – jazz and pom. Co-ed cheer was second by a tenth of a point.
• 2022: Pom won the worlds in jazz after being chosen to represent the United States. Co-ed cheer was again second at nationals by a tenth of a point.
• Pom is synonymous with dance squad, said Alvarado, who danced at West Virginia, then led her alma mater’s dance squad to two national titles before coming to Tech.
• There is also an all-girls cheer team.

Some History

Texas Tech has had cheerleaders all the way back to the school’s first football game in 1925 – a 0-0 tie against McMurry played at the fairgrounds.

“It was like six people at the most,” said Bills. “They obviously didn’t do the acrobatics and stunts we do now, but there was a group back then.”

Dance teams started to flourish in the 1970s and ‘80s – when Tech’s started – sparked by the NBA’s Laker Girls, whose first choreographer was Paula Abdul. Decades before, the Kilgore Rangerettes brought its version of entertainment to a Texas football field.

Tech’s pom team There were no rules or regulations for cheerleaders years ago and squads pushed the limits trying to be creative.

Rhode has a picture of a human pyramid at the old Municipal Coliseum where it’s four people high.

There were also serious injuries and deaths around the country.

Now teams have limits on how many people can be stacked.

Tech’s cheer teams competed as far back as 1982, when they finished 19th, said Bills.

‘Fix the Spirit Squads’

When Rhode was hired the dean of students told her to “fix the spirit squads,” she said.

“I don’t think anybody had a vision for what they wanted the program to be. I kissed a bunch of frogs,” she said.

“We’ve always had some talent because we’re a Power 5 school and Texas is very popular in cheerleading. But we didn’t have the coaching, the discipline,” she said.

Bills was cheering at Tech when Rhode took her job. He stayed connected to the squad and she put him in charge in 2011.

Rhode also got pom a full-time coach, giving both programs equal support.

The national titles started happening a few years after Bills and Alvarado came on board. The trio had a shared vision and expectations.

Like other college sports teams, it takes a coach a few years to get the people they want and install their system, said Alvarado.

When co-ed cheer won that first title, Bills was overwhelmed with excitement – but also relieved.

“It was affirming all those years of hard work. Now people could see to trust the process because it’s paying off.”

“It was affirming all those years of hard work. Now people could see to trust the process because it’s paying off,” he said.

Even though Alvarado had won titles at West Virginia, she inherited a team at that had not competed the year before she arrived and when it had, they did not do well.

“Because they didn’t have a coach,” said Rhode.

Before the 2017 nationals, Alvarado was on a bus with her team at an event at SMU in Dallas.

“I remember thinking, if we can’t get it done this year, I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it – to get to that level,” she said.

The process she brought from West Virginia led to some dancers quitting.

The title was validation.

“I was proud, but like Bruce, I also felt relief. It proved what we were doing was working and worth the effort,” she said.

Success Helps Recruiting

Tech’s success has helped recruiting.

“It does scare some people away because they see us as the elite program,” said Bills. “But the flip side is we’re getting more talent from across the country.”

Cheer has 16 states represented in the program, plus Canada and Mexico.

The main reason they want to come to Tech is to complete, but Rhode pointed out being part of football and basketball games is a great perk – especially the opening of a Tech football game with the Masked Rider and the recent loud, raucous crowds for men’s basketball.”

“Those don’t hurt,” said Rhode.

When Alvarado started at Tech, none of her squad members were from out of state. Now nine states are represented.

“Almost 50 percent of our team is from out of state,” she said.

Before the last rounds of tryouts for cheer, Bills received 198 videos, cutting that to about half for live tryouts. Roughly half that number makes the team.

Plus, there are kids they heavily recruit for their teams.

But they don’t do visits like football because they don’t have that budget.

They do a lot of recruiting at conferences and other events.

“People will come to our table and make a connection like that,” said Bills, who, like other college sports, also gets transfers from other schools.

Hard Work and Recognition

Team members put in about 10-15 hours a week, depending on the time of year as time ramps up closer to nationals.

“A lot of cheer is watching videos from other teams and using that as a resource to try it as a team,” said Bills.

Tech Athletics also lets the teams use their strength and conditioning coaches and the Sports Performance Center. Pom practices in Tech’s Creative Movement Studio, part of the campus dance facility.

The students also work on their own time.

“One of the biggest differences from where we began to now is how much time they do on their own. How much work they will do to go to the gym and work on their skills,” said Rhode.

As the titles have been won, the students are more recognized.

“They’re proud to wear their practice shirt,” said Bills.

Some professors show support when a member of the pom squad brings in a note to excuse them because they’ll be gone for competition.

“They point out...this student is an example of how to be successful academically and competitively.”

“They point out to the rest of the class how this student is an example of how to be successful academically and competitively,” said Alvarado.

“Each of us have kids on our team we consider the face of the program, whether it’s a skill they have or because of public speaking or their longevity in the program – typically our ‘fourth-years’ are more recognizable,” said Alvarado.

Lots of Games and One Crazy Road Trip

The squads appear at football games – both home and road. They’re at men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball games, some other sports and some post-season travel.

Sometimes that travel can be a bit hectic.

After both squads won national titles in 2019, they jumped on a bus for a 24-hour, 1,500-mile plus ride to Minneapolis to support men’s basketball in the Final Four.

“They ran into the ocean, which is a tradition, then got on that bus,” said Rhode.

Alvarado added: “We were ordering Jimmy John’s two hours in advance. We’d set the timer, we have four minutes to get off the bus, grab the sandwich, get back on and we’re on our way. It was the craziest trip,” said Alvarado.

Rhode, already in Minneapolis, was getting nervous.

“We were leaving in 15 minutes (to go to the semi-final game against Michigan State) and they literally walked in with ten minutes to spare. They had self-tanned and done their hair on the bus trip,” said Rhode.

Going Pro

The Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars all have former Tech team members on their dance teams.

“We had one who went to the Final Four and the next year she was at the Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs,” said Alvarado.

Tech’s also had dancers with the New York Jets, New England Patriots, Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs.

“We have a really good relationship with especially the Dallas Cowboys. We’ve gotten to do halftime with them three or four times at their Christmas game. We’ve all been invited to watch their show group tryouts and their regular tryouts. They actually helped design the pom uniform with the boots,” said Alvarado.

2013, 2021, 2022: Raider Red Wins National Honors

Zach Bohls was nervous awaiting the final decision.

The Texas Tech student who inhabited Raider Red was at the Orange Bowl in Florida for the championship round of the 2012 Capital One Mascot Challenge, facing South Carolina’s Cocky – the champ nine years earlier.

“I’m going up the elevator and I’m shaking nervously. So, I went to change into my costume in the bathroom. I’m looking at myself in the mirror and I’m sweating and asking myself, “did we win?’ said Bohls.

Just then, country star Dierks Bentley walked in with a group.

“They were all soaking wet because they just jumped in some freezing water for some charity,” said Bohls, who was partly in the Raider Red costume.

“Congrats,” Bentley told Bohls.

“Then I go up the elevator, the doors open. I think I’m about to do a shoot for ESPN and there was this huge blue check for $20,000 and Bruce and Stephanie are bookending it. Oh my God, it was amazing,” said Bohls, who has gone on to be a professional mascot.

It wasn’t Red’s last big win.

Raider Red won back-to-back national titles in 2021 and 2022 in the Mascot division of the National Cheerleaders Association and National Dance Association Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championships in Florida.

Brandt Schneider was inside the costume in 2021 and Regi Lane kept it in the family the next year.

Raider Red has been a staple at Texas Tech since Jim Gaspard created him in 1971 out of chicken wire and papier mache based on Dirk West’s cartoons in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

West’s creation looked like the cartoon character Yosemite Sam, one of Bugs Bunny’s many foils.

In Lubbock and around the Big 12 Conference, people have known the difference between Raider Red and Sam, who couldn’t outsmart what he called a “cotton pickin’ varmint.”

Raider Red’s a lot smarter, but he wasn’t well known across America.

The mascot was visiting a hospital.

“A nurse said ‘Yosemite Sam,’ and we said no, we’re the mascot from Texas Tech.”

“A nurse said ‘Yosemite Sam,’ and we said no, we’re the mascot from Texas Tech,” said Stephanie Rhode, director of Tech’s Spirit Program.

It encouraged Rhode and Bruce Bills, cheer and mascot coach, to enter Raider Red in the Capital One challenge – decided by a social media vote.

Raider Red’s two recent national titles followed a 90-second skit in front of judges.

Mascots go to a camp each summer. They take classes and are evaluated on their skits. Whichever mascot gets the most points at camp wins a gold bid, guaranteeing a spot at nationals the following year.

In 2019, Raider Red won his first gold bid, but COVID canceled the nationals the next year. So Red competed in 2021, beating out four other mascots with a skit themed from the movie “Toy Story.”

Red went back-to-back against 11 more mascots the next year with a skit about his trip to New York.

“They have to come up with a theme, props and music to enhance what they’re projecting. They’re judged on the characterization, creativity, a crowd-leading portion and dance component,” said Bills, who was a Red Raider cheerleader and has been head coach since 2010.

For Red’s trip to New York, props were the Statue of Liberty, a cab ride, getting a hot dog from a street vendor and dancing at Radio City Music Hall.

“You want about three-to-four major props, then you can have some little ones along the way. You want your stage set to look nice. It also has to be easily understood because you only have 90 seconds,” Bills said.

Raider Red takes all the things he does at games – crowd interactions, for example – and adds things for the competition skit.

Four different Tech students – they must be members of the Saddle Tramps or High Riders spirit squads – are Raider Red during a school year. Two are the main Reds. Two others are backups or apprentices who could be one of the main Reds the next year.

When it’s time for which student to compete, Bills said it’s a group decision.

“One will kind of take the lead, they’ll want to do it and if I feel they’re qualified and going to do a great job, we’ll let them do it,” he said.

The other main Raider Red comes along and competes with coed cheer because it’s all at the same event.

Bills watches Raider Red at games through the season, picking up things that could fit into a competition skit. He also looks for how the mascot grabs people’s attention.

“That benefits them at nationals,” he said.

Since the national titles, Bills said Saddle Tramps and High Riders are more attuned to develop students to be great mascots and keep Tech successful at the national level.

“We don’t want to take a step backwards. We want to continue to grow,” he said.

Between the national titles and Tech’s deep runs in men’s basketball and baseball, Red’s has become more recognizable.

“I feel we’ve seen Raider Red’s image grow. You see him on more merchandise. University departments have started using him for some of their marketing,” said Bills.

That recognition has grown to where “People can identify Raider Red as a successful ambassador for the university,” he said.

February 10, 1923: Texas Tech Created with Signing of SB 103

Before the turn of the century – meaning the 1900s – people had not yet tasted Spanky’s fried cheese, quaffed a beer at Conference or wore a stitch of clothing adorned with a Double T.

But even back in the late 1800s in sparsely populated West Texas, there was chatter about creating a college.

A few decades later, in 1917, the Texas Legislature passed a bill creating a branch of Texas A&M in Abilene. The bill was repealed two years later after it became known controversial Governor James Ferguson falsely reported the site committee’s choice of location.

Two years later, related legislation was vetoed by Governor Pat Neff, citing hard financial times in West Texas. Angry West Texans contemplated seceding from the state.

Finally, two years later, the Legislature decided a new university would be better than a branch of Texas A&M.

A century later, the thought of Texas Tech University being part of longtime rival Texas A&M is amusing.

A century later, the thought of Texas Tech University being part of longtime rival Texas A&M is amusing. Would the rear end of Will Rogers’ horse Soapsuds be aimed at College Station?

On Jan. 25, 1923, a bill creating Texas Technological College was introduced by Texas Sen. W.H. Bledsoe and Representatives Lewis Carpenter and Richard Chitwood.

It passed and on February 10, 1923, Neff signed legislation creating Texas Technological College, which became the school’s official birthday.

Texas Technological College existed on paper. However, the physical location of the school had not yet been determined.

1923-1924: Lubbock Chosen as Home for Texas Tech…the Work Begins

Once Senate Bill 103 was signed, the question was where would Texas Technological College be built?

Lubbock was one of dozens of cities wanting the new college. The Locating Board considered the following:

• Climate
• Water supply
• Accessibility
• Location “where in the future it can render the greatest service to the state and to the United States.”
• A campus close to where students live

Lubbock sent a 50-plus page proposal, the final pages filled with photos of Lubbock and the region.

The city was chosen on August 8, 1923 – unleashing a massive victory party. The story is 30,000 people attended, even though Lubbock’s population at the time was 10,000.

At the party, revelers devoured:

• 35,000 pounds of beef, barbecued over a long fire pit
• 418 tubs of sliced bread
• 44,400 pounds of potato salad
• 46 tubs of fried chicken
• 1,950 gallons of coffee, served from a watering tank
• 10,000 roasting ears

People wanted a practical curriculum students could use on the farm or other “common sense” jobs – not East Coast classes about famous Austrian composers who wouldn’t know cotton from sorghum.

A myth started that Lubbock gave Texas Tech 2,000 acres for its campus – the myth circulated for years.

Only pioneer physician M.C. Overton donated land.

Others sold their land.

The state budgeted $150,000 for the land – land prices at the time were less than $100 an acre.

But some people sold their land to the state for as much as $1,000 an acre. For them, the new college was a direct economic boost.

More than $75,000 had to be raised through contributions to acquire all the acres.

It would not be the only time the community stepped up to help Texas Tech financially and many other ways.

On Nov. 11, 1924, more than a year after, Lubbock threw another big shindig when the cornerstone of Tech’s Administration Building was laid on Nov. 11, 1924.

A parade formed at the courthouse, led be masonic groups and Knights Templar in full regalia. Gov. Pat Neff rode in a car with Sen. William Bledsoe and Amon Carter, chairman of Tech’s Board of Directors, heading toward campus. Bledsoe, author of S.B. 103 called it “the best day of my life.” Other cars carried new Tech President Paul Horn and other members of the Board of Directors.

Bands were from Lubbock, Plainview, Lorenzo, Post, Slaton and Littlefield. At Avenue T, 3,000 school children dressed in white and waving Texas flags joined the parade.

Stands were erected for speakers and visitors with a cotton bale serving as the speakers’ table. More than 10,000 people attended, with some crowd estimates higher.

Col. E.O. Thompson of Amarillo represented the America Legion and veterans of the world war, which had not yet been known as World War I. He said it was fitting the cornerstone was laid on Armistice Day. Education and the soldiers of the world war, he said, were like enemies of greed and ignorance. Schools combatted ignorance and soldiers combatted the greed of the German Kaiser.

After a few speakers, Gov. Neff got up to speak as the Plainview band played “The Eyes of Texas.”

Civilization is built on education, said the governor whose signature birthed the college. The Declaration of Independence of Texas was signed by more college graduates than had ever signed a similar document in world history, he said, adding the fathers of Texas set aside 50 million acres of land for education.

“There rings out in Lubbock County today the commanding sentence that the wealth of the State shall educate the children of the State. The colleges give back to the people every dollar invested in them and more besides. This institution must add character to its culture. It must turn out a trained democracy and not an educated snobbery,” he said.

That evening a banquet was held for 500 in the Ford building at 9th Street and Avenue I. R.M. Chitwood, a state representative who helped create the college spoke.

“I hope that the last insolent demagogue will die who bids for public favor on the outrageous allegation that institutions of higher learning in Texas are being maintained at the expense of the common school system and who draws a distinction between the little red schoolhouse on the hill and the university,” he said.

The governor explained that night on why he vetoed an earlier bill to create a college in West Texas.

“It carried a miserable appropriation of $50,000. I knew that was not expressing the true spirit of West Texas. I told them to go back and pass a real bill and they came back with a million-dollar request. I signed that bill and I haven’t lost a minute of sleep over spending all that money,” said Neff.

Creating Curriculum

Horn outlined his plans for the college in Vol. 1, No. 1 of the Bulletin of Texas Technological College, titled “The College That Is To Be.”

Horn talked about college subjects grouped under useful or cultural – saying they didn’t have to be separate.

“…whether the value of a subject is chiefly utilitarian or chiefly cultural depends more upon the man who teaches it and the way he teaches it.”

“The question as to whether the value of a subject is chiefly utilitarian or chiefly cultural depends more upon the man who teaches it and the way he teaches it,” wrote Horn.

Tech would be organized in four areas:

• College of liberal arts. Subjects chiefly of cultural value. Tech was not going to just teach utilitarian subjects.
• College of household economics. “This will include subjects of special value to women in their great work of homemaking.”
• College of agriculture. Subjects “most needed in the region where most of the students attending the college.”
• College of engineering. Hydraulic engineering, highway engineering, textile engineering. “These latter should enable the college to become part of the great economic and industrial life of the great region in which it is located.”

Horn and others toured technological colleges and manufacturing plants through the south and up into New England. Only ten college in the country offered textile engineering, with none west of the Mississippi. The Legislature that passed the bill creating Tech emphasized the important of textile engineering given how much cotton was grown in Texas.

After a visit to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Horn was asked if Texas could ever have a technological college equal to MIT.

Horn wrote a series of articles for 50 Texas newspapers about the scouting trip.

In one, he answered the question about Texas and MIT.

“…the sun of Texas is a rising sun, not a setting sun.”

“Yes, when Texas has fulfilled four conditions that go into the making of a technological college. The first is brains, which we have. The second is money. MIT has just spent $25 million on buildings and equipment. The third is industrial development; that is when Texas is as highly industrialized as New England now is. The fourth is time. MIT opened its doors in 1865,” wrote Horn, then adding, “And remember, that the sun of Texas is a rising sun, not a setting sun.”

As faculty and the college came together, Horn told them:

“As we are unhampered by precedent, we can more readily meet the needs of the people. We must be adaptable. We are a democratic institution. We must have no class distinction,” he said.

The Board of Directors decided on June 27, 1924, there would be no Greek-letter fraternities and sororities.

“We must have no hazing, for hazing is another form of class distinction. We must be generous in our entrance requirements. The West is growing so fast that the schools have not had time to meet the entrance requirements,” Horn said.

He also reminded Tech faculty to be frugal because Tech had no idea what its first enrollment would be.

They’d soon find out.

Source:

• “The First Thirty Years,” by Ruth Horn Andrews

1925-1932: The Early Years

A member of the Texas Legislature told President Paul Horn if as many as 300 students enrolled at Texas Tech the first semester, he would walk out to see them. With his flair for the dramatic, Amon Carter, chair of Tech’s Board of Directors said at a meeting if fewer than 300 people registered for that inaugural term, he’d buy a new suit for everyone in the room – board members, secretaries, newspaper men and casual visitors.

When 914 students registered for that first term – or semester – Horn sent a telegraph to the skeptical lawmaker: “Start walking.”

Of those first 914:

• 730 freshmen
• 184 sophomores
• 642 men
• 272 women
• Some 220 Texas towns were represented
• 287 were from Lubbock
• 24 were from five different states

These buildings were in place when Tech began classes on Oct. 1, 1925:

• First units of the Administration and Home Economics buildings
• Textile Engineering Building, which housed all engineering classes
• Stock Judging Pavilion
• Dairy Barn
• President’s residence

With a 2,008-acre campus and only a few buildings, distances seemed endless.

Students with 9 a.m. classes in Administration and a 10 a.m. class in Textile Engineering referred the textile facility as the Amarillo branch.

The college’s formal opening was Sept. 30, with Carter presiding and speeches by many officials.

The week ended with Tech’s first football game on Saturday against McMurry and the first appearance of the Tech band, led by W.R. Waghorne, professor music. He also beat the drum.

The next day, Horn hosted a reception for the student body and “union services” of all Lubbock churches were held in the Stock Judging Pavilion in honor of Tech’s opening.

For a school just getting started, a lot happened that first year. The first La Ventana yearbook had 284 pages and chronicled:

• Images of Tech’s first buildings.
• A message from Horn that is still quoted almost 100 years later: “Everything that is done on these West Texas Plains ought to be on a big scale. It is a country that lends itself to bigness. It is a country that does not harmonize with little things or narrow or mean. Let us make the work of our college fit in with the scope of our country. Let our thoughts be big thoughts and broad thoughts. Let our thinking be in world-wide terms.”
• Photos and lists of staff, faculty.
• Photos of sophomore and freshmen classes.
• Reports and photos from every football game that first season.
• Reports and photos of basketball, baseball, track teams and women’s basketball, volleyball, tennis, baseball – the women all in sailor-style tops and skirts. There was also a female swimming squad.
• A photo of women with the following caption: “A Bunch of Aspiring Young Housewomen.”
• The Military Department.
• Reports and photos of about two-dozen organizations.
• A list of events, with some reports, illustrated by photos and cartoons.
• Photos of the five women who won the Vanity Fair contest, judged on a combination of beauty and popularity. On the page before the photos, it said, “We herewith present the five best reasons for young men to come to Texas Tech.”
• “The Rack” – a story criticizing faculty “offenders.”
• Fun stories about “The Kissing Situation at Texas Tech” and “The Pajama Episode at Cheri-Casa.”

In 1926, the Legislature would not approve money for a gymnasium, but did approve a warehouse which ended up hosting convocations, basketball games, dances and commencements. The building was ugly, hard to access and had terrible ventilation. Visiting prima donnas performing in the Artists Course had harsh names for it.

First commencement was held in May 1927. Horn had 14 slips of paper representing the 14 graduates and said he’d pick one with the word diploma on it to receive the first diploma. Mary Dale Bucker of Lubbock made history.

The next year, Tech’s first master’s degrees were awarded.

Then, in 1929, the first class graduated who had done all four years at Tech – with 175 receiving bachelor’s degrees with a dozen masters.

Within its first few years, Texas Tech had doubled its enrollment, but saw state funding dropping as America entered the Depression.

In 1932, Horn passed away and Florence Drane, a member of Tech’s Board of Directors, was named temporary acting president for the purpose of signing diplomas.

By now, Tech was seven years old and had a whole lot more history to make.

Sources:

• “The First Thirty Years,” by Ruth Horn Andrews
• First edition of La Ventana

1934: Tech Grad Dub Rushing Opens Varsity Bookstore; Businesses Grow Around Campus

W.R. “dub” Rushing sold a burger stand to open the Varsity Bookstore in 1934 – an iconic business that spurred more development around campus.

As Tech kept growing, so did businesses bordering campus. Restaurants, bars, apartments and hotels dotted College – now University – Avenue. More spread east on Broadway toward downtown.

Rushing developed a lot of Lubbock over its first half century and shared his success with Texas Tech – giving millions toward scholarships and other areas.

He’s the only Tech student to be named a Distinguished Alum without finishing his degree.

But when John Osborne thinks about the university’s impact on Lubbock, he goes back before Rushing opened that bookstore.

“At some point, someone said ‘wouldn’t it be good if we had a college in Lubbock?’ That was the game changer in terms of being a catalytic event,” said Osborne, president and CEO of the Lubbock Economic Development Alliance.

“Imagine if it didn’t come. Where would we be today?” he said. “I’m incredibly thankful for that small group of people who ultimately said, ‘let’s go get this for Lubbock.’ Because when you try and do a catalytic project of that magnitude, it’s not easy. You get told no a lot. But that changed our course direction immensely.”

Then Tech produced driven and talented graduates who opened Lubbock businesses.

“A college generates knowledge, new thoughts, new ideas and understanding of how things work. A lot of the businesses got their start in Lubbock because of a graduate of our universities,” said Osborne.

Tech’s economic impact goes well beyond the bordering streets and the Depot District.

Tech’s economic impact goes well beyond the bordering streets and the Depot District.

Osborne moved to Lubbock in 2010, when Tech had 28,000 students. Ten years later, that number was above 40,000.

More students, more faculty, more administrators. They needed apartments and houses. Construction on campus boomed. That meant opportunities for jobs and businesses.

“These people need to eat; they like to shop and hang out. All of that generates economic opportunities to sell food, drinks, clothing and other necessities,” said Osborne.

If a student moves into Tech and forgot pillows at home, he said, they must buy pillows.

Some of the housing built just east of campus was originally planned for corporate use – but became student housing to keep up with Tech’s growth.

When Osborne came to Lubbock 12 years ago, apartment occupancy was at 92 percent and is still around that number.

Much of Osborne’s job is to lure businesses to Lubbock and Tech helps by providing a talented labor force, he said.

“We have a ready supply of talent every year coming out of the university ready to go to work. They’re trained, have the right knowledge and skills,” he said.

That talent has also helped existing businesses survive.

“During an economic downturn in the mid-2010s, there were companies that said the reason they survived was because of the Ph.Ds. hired from Tech who brought new ideas,” he said.

Lubbock is also a lure for Red Raiders who moved away, said Osborne. Tech grads want to bring companies they own to Lubbock or influence their companies to the home of their alma mater because they see it as offering a better quality of life than large metro areas.

And Tech’s impact goes far beyond Lubbock.

The Texas Tech University System recorded a statewide economic impact of $16.4 billion in fiscal year 2021 – up 64 percent from a decade ago – in the many communities it serves.

It’s a long way from Rushing’s bookstore…which closed at the end of 2022.

1936: Senior ROTC Unit Authorized by War Department and Tech’s other Military Connections

Texas Tech’s Reserve Officer Training Corps was authorized in 1936 by the War Department – before it was called the Department of Defense – but there’s been a military presence on campus since its first year to today.

Tech also did its part in World War II.

The 1937 La Ventana yearbook shows:

• Photo of four young men in uniform with the caption: “Some ROTCs do target practice underground.”
• Three men around a machine gun, with the caption: “With Sergeant Richards instructing, Cadets Ryan and Chamberlain learn the essentials of machine gunning.”
• Ryan and Chamberlain are shown again cleaning their rifles.
• Three other men look at a diagram, discussing military tactics.

The short story in the yearbook said:

The senior ROTC unit of Texas Tech is one of thirty such units established in the United States this year, said Captain Pettit, professor of military science and tactics…Pettit came as new captain this year…uniforms and military equipment for 150 men…80 freshmen students enrolled in the military training corps…new building contains storage, supply room, classroom, rifle room and basement range.

The Military Department

A dozen years earlier in the first La Ventana, the entry for the Military Department – which had three platoons with close to 60 officers, sergeants, corporals and privates – was not as positive.

The Military Department at Texas Tech has had to labor under the greatest difficulties all year. Lack of proper equipment and instructors has handicapped its work to no inconsiderable extent. Thru the efforts of Lt. Hugh Killin, however, much has been accomplished, considering the handicaps under which the department has had to work. A rifle range has been equipped and the cadets have received instruction in actual firing.

It mentioned classroom lectures on Military Science and Tactics and three hours of drill, where the students got outside to exercise. The entry continued:

The esprit-de-corps of the cadets has been especially high this year. Several social functions have been given by the cadets. An officers’ club has also been organized among the officers of the corps.

Next year the prospects are bright for establishment of an ROTC unit here, which means that proper equipment in the way of rifles, bayonets, etc. will be available.

World War II

Tech’s enrollment plummeted, with students and faculty leaving to fight.

“There were no men around; it was just girls,” said Bettie Fagan, 94 in 2021.

In 1941, the Association of Women Students called a meeting on campus to talk about how women could participate in the defense effort, said Lynn Whitfield, university archivist in the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library.

For the next four years, the group offered canning demonstrations and hosted a campus-wide donation drive. The women put on a home nursing course as well as courses from the Red Cross. They also hosted defense bond drives.

“The female students living in the Home Management House planted a victory garden here on campus and it was very successful.”

“The division of home economics also was very instrumental,” Whitfield said. “The female students living in the Home Management House planted a victory garden here on campus and it was very successful. It was covered in the campus newspaper about how little it cost to plant the garden and how much they were able to grow out of it. Then they did canning demonstrations out of that as well.”

Their help wasn’t limited to campus.

“The faculty of home economics went into the Lubbock community and helped people understand how to use ration books, how to make the rations they did have go further and different ways you could substitute things when you didn’t have them in order to make nourishing and healthy meals,” Whitfield said. Texas Tech President Clifford B. Jones presented a report on the university’s 1943 war efforts to the Board of Directors. Among those efforts were:

• Housing, feeding and training of 1,250 pre-flight students for the Air Corps, who arrived in February and March.
• Housing, feeding and training of 500 engineers receiving specialized training for the 8th Service Command.
• The university’s newly established Senior Engineering ROTC and Signal Corps units.

Tech also helped the wives of the servicemen coming to Lubbock. “At Lubbock Army Air Field, the barracks were pretty unpleasant,” Whitfield said. “So, they invited the wives to come to campus and attend courses. They had home decoration courses; they had nutrition courses. They had charm school, where they taught the women good posture, social skills and how to dress. One of the ways they were able to draw military wives was offering daycare so the wives could drop off their children in the campus nursery for a few hours to attend classes.”

Because women were the university’s primary target for prospective new students during World War II, home economics faculty spoke on the radio.

“They went on KFYO and held a series of talks basically saying, ‘These are the types of programs we have for women,’ and it was specifically addressed to girls graduating high school with the idea that, ‘should they go to college,’” Whitfield said. “It was trying to encourage women to continue their education during this time.”

As the war continued, Texas Tech was already focused on how to help returning veterans. The Board of Directors granted Jones the authority to sign a contract with the Veterans Administration in Washington, D.C., for the instruction and vocational rehabilitation of disabled veterans.

Tech had been struggling financially before the war as the nation grappled with the Depression and had to navigate lower enrollment during the war. But the GI Bill helped people attend college and as America benefitted from the post-war boom, so did Texas Tech.

Memorial Circle

Since the school’s founding, a large round area of grass was saved in front of the Administration building, called only “the circle.” In February 1948, the Board of Directors voted to approve naming it Memorial Circle, and the expenditure of more than $5,400 for sidewalks.

“People were not supposed to walk on the grass,” said Amy Mire, assistant to the university archivist in the Southwest Collection. “They could be fined 25 cents.”

On May 2, 1948, Texas Tech hosted an elaborate dedication ceremony for Memorial Circle. According to that morning’s Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, hundreds of visitors were expected to attend the event, featuring the Texas Tech concert band, all-male chorus, Texas Tech ROTC and speeches from campus administrators.

Major Gen. Andrew D. Bruce, commander of the 4th Army at Fort Sam Houston and a decorated veteran of both world wars, gave an address on national security.

Most importantly, a 40-inch red granite monument was dedicated, which reads: “Memorial Circle: Dedicated 1948 by Tech War Veterans Association to all whose service has brought honor to college and country.”

“The dedication applies not only to those in the past but to those who shall perform such a service in the future as well.”

The Avalanche-Journal pointed out, “The dedication applies not only to those in the past but to those who shall perform such a service in the future as well.”

The Tech War Veterans Association (TWVA) was organized in 1944. About 60 veterans joined the group that year, according to the 1945 La Ventana. By the 1946 yearbook, the organization had about 300 active members. In 1947, the yearbook listed group involvement in campus traffic improvement, completion of the museum, a nursery, Blue Cross Hospital service and a Veterans’ Memorial Loan Fund, among other programs. It carried the notation: “There is no doubt the TWVA is one of the most influential organizations on campus and it is a credit to the veterans and an aid to both veteran and non-veteran students.” 

Other Important Moments in Tech's Military History

• 1949: Lubbock Air Force Base, once known as the Lubbock Army Flying School and then the Lubbock Army Airfield, renamed Reese Air Force Base in honor of 1st Lt. Augustus F. Reese Jr., a 1939 Tech civil engineering grad who was killed during active service in 1943.
• 1951: Texas Tech Air Force ROTC was dedicated as the Lewis C. Ellis Unit.
• 1952: Texas Tech graduate George O’Brien is injured while heroically leading his men to overtake a strategic hill in Korea that communist forces captured the day before. He became the only Red Raiders to be given the Congressional Medal of Honor.
• 1954: The popular Jack Benny radio program mentioned extension courses at Texas Technological College and how soldiers overseas can take extension courses from various U.S. schools.
• 1956: Groundbreaking held for the Army Reserve Training Center, which would be located at the northwest corner of the Municipal Auditorium/Coliseum. The land was leased to the Texas National Guard Armory Board.
• 1989: Texas Tech’s Vietnam Center was approved.
• 2014: Tech designated as the first Purple Heart University in Texas after participating in the National Day of Remembrance Roll Call with a gathering of Purple Heart recipients during the 2013 football game against Kansas State. It was also honored for service to wounded warriors through its programs.
• 2018: Wall of Honor established in Drane Hall to remember Red Raiders who either died in combat or received high military honors and died outside of battle.
• 2022: Tech announces plans to add a Texas Tech Military & Veterans Tribute Walk at Memorial Circle, located on the grassy area adjacent to the Pfluger fountain between the two Medal of Honor monuments dedicated in 2018. The area will be surrounded by a brick walkway dedicated to all service members who attended Texas Tech. As the first Purple Heart University in Texas, the feature will also include a walkway plaque honoring Texas Tech Purple Heart recipients or those wounded or killed in action.

Today, Tech’s Military & Veterans Programs department assists veterans and their families to achieve their academic, personal, and professional success.

Army and Air Force ROTC units are still active on campus.

Sources:

• La Ventana, 1926 and 1937
• “How World War II Saved Texas Tech,” Texas Tech Today, Nov. 11, 2021, by Glenys Young

1950: Silver Anniversary Symposium

In 1950, Texas Tech celebrated 25 years since classes began, with a multi-event silver anniversary soiree.

According to “The First Thirty Years,” by Ruth Horn Andrews, daughter of Tech’s first president:

The first official notice that Tech was going to observe her twenty-fifth anniversary came in the spring of 1950, when the campus post office began to use a cancellation stamp reading, “Texas Technological College, Silver Anniversary, 1925-1950.”

(The rest of this story paraphrases or quotes her book.)

The cancellation was three-by-three inches, with an outline of the Administration Building. Thousands of requests came in from collectors in every state and 11 foreign countries for envelopes with the cachet.

The party started on Oct. 19, 1950, with a formal dedication of the school’s museum, where a ranch meal featuring barbecued beef was served.

The museum was “not merely a repository for old bones, but a place to broaden the cultural horizon of the Southwest,” said President Emeritus Clifford B. Jones.

Dr. Carl Coke Rister, research professor at the University of Oklahoma and petroleum industry expert, spoke on “Oil’s Impact on West Texas.”

“Texas Technological College is the cultural queen of this great industrial reservoir.”

“West Texas is America’s oil reservoir of the future,” he said. “Texas Technological College is the cultural queen of this great industrial reservoir. There is no danger of exhausting our oil supply. Oil wealth has improved our public schools, built hundreds of small towns and communities and thousands of miles of hard-surfaced roads and modernized our cities.”

The next day, Chancellor Gibb Gilchrist of the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical System, spoke at a luncheon at Drane Hall on “State Supported Colleges and Universities of Texas.”

That afternoon, a symposium was held at Lubbock High School featuring three speakers:

• Chase Going Woodhouse, Connecticut congresswoman and prominent feminist leader, suffragist and educator, speaking on “Education of a Citizen in a World Seeking Peace.”
• Dr. Otto Struve, Russian-American astronomer, speaking on “Evolution of the Stars.”
• Dr. Henry Steele Commager, professor of American history at Columbia University, who helped define modern liberalism in the U.S. He spoke on “Democracy and Voluntary Associations.”

Three weeks later, the silver anniversary continued with homecoming on Nov. 11, which was then called Armistice Day (it changed to Veterans Day in 1954). It was exactly 26 years from Armistice Day in 1924 when the cornerstone was laid for the college.

Guests were invited to morning ceremonies for the $4 million building program and to hear an address by U.S. Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas. Unlike Armistice Day 26 years earlier, the weather was near freezing and ceremonies were moved to the gym.

An estimated crowd of 30,000 watched the homecoming parade with floats representing Tech’s history.

About 2,500 alumni had lunch in the gym – provided by the Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma Coaches Inc.; Furr Food Stores; Lubbock Auto Company and Dunlap’s Department Store.

Tech faced the Golden Hurricanes from Tulsa, who rudely pummeled the Red Raiders 39-7. Adding to the insult, Tulsa was coached by John Orville “Buddy” Brothers, who played for Tech in the 1930s.

At halftime, “Dub” Rushing of the then-called Ex-Students Association, gave President Dossie Wiggins an eight-gallon silver punch bowl and 110 silver cups as an anniversary gift.

A dance in the gym ended Tech’s silver celebration.

1952: Estus Polk, English Grad Student, Gets First Doctoral Degree

Alaric Alexander Watts died in 1864 – 88 years later, a work on his life led to the first doctoral degree in Texas Tech history.

Estus C. Polk, 44, earned the Doctor of Philosophy in English for his four-inch-thick thesis called “The Correspondence of Alaric Alexander Watts.”

Texas Tech had granted honorary doctor’s degrees, but Polk’s was the first one earned in the doctoral program launched two years earlier.

Dr. Truman W. Camp…called Polk’s work a shrewd and ingenious job.

Dr. Truman W. Camp, part of the dissertation committee called Polk’s work a shrewd and ingenious job, “showing a fascinating picture of literary relationships and magazine practices in the early 19th Century.”

After his thesis passed the dissertation committee, it was approved by Dr. William B. Gates, dean of the graduate studies division.

When Polk received his doctorate, there were about a dozen students working on other doctorates, said Gates, adding Tech wanted to stress quality, not quantity.

Polk served on Tech’s English faculty from December 1945 to October 1946. He resigned to accept a position with the Veteran’s Administration as a training officer on the campus. The following year he moved to Fort Worth to be an assistant professor at Texas Christian University.

“I chose Texas Tech for my doctoral work because I like the college and the people here. But primarily because Tech has a good English department,” he said.

Polk edited material from the Blackwood Papers and the National Library of Scotland. Watts is shown by Polk as a 19th-Century editor, minor poet and pioneer in connection with the Blackwood Magazine. The magazine published the works of some of Watts’ contemporary writers, Byron, Shelly and Keats.

Watts was not a great writer, Polk said. Rather he was a representative journalist who made several contributions to the newspaper business and to advertising. Polk credited him with originating the partly printed paper, a forerunner of syndicated newspaper sections and chain articles in advertising.

Source:

• 1952 Texas Techsan article: “First Doctor’s Degree Awarded,” by Bob Corbett

1964-1967: Law School Approved and Inaugurated

Since opening its doors in 1967, the Texas Tech University School of Law has graduated more than 8,500 trained attorneys who fight – legally – for their clients.

When Frank Newton was the law school’s dean, he fought many times for his client – the school.

Newton wanted the law school’s parking lot landscaped after seeing beautiful, landscaped parking lots in an Indiana town.

Back in Lubbock, he looked out his office window.

“This looks pathetic,” said Newton, who went to the school administration and was told landscaping the parking lot was not going to happen.

This was about the time plans for United Spirit Arena (now United Supermarkets Arena) were moving along – across the street from the law school.

“I was trying to think how we could leverage that,” said Newton, 20 years after he ended his tenure as the school’s longest-serving dean.

Tech students had to approve using money from student fees for the arena.

“The leader of the Student Bar Association came in and said, ‘We’ve got a problem. We’re part of the university and they didn’t bring a box over here for the election.’ And I said, ‘That’s terrible.’ So I called my counterpart at the medical school and asked if they got boxes to vote and he said no,” said Newton.

“The students filed a petition challenging the election on grounds the medical school and law school were disenfranchised,” said Newton.

This angered former Texas Tech regent Jerry Ford, who was spearheading the arena, said Newton.

“He called me and said, ‘Dammit Frank, what’s going on? You know we’ve got to have this United Spirit Arena and the law school is mucking it up.’ I said, ‘Jerry, you know deans don’t really control their students,’” said Newton, not adding he was in cahoots with the students. “But if you want to get on your plane and fly here from Dallas, I’ll put you up in my office with the student bar leaders. You’re a lawyer, they’re law students and you all negotiate an answer,” said Newton.

Newton told the students to play hardball in the beginning.

“But then tell him, ‘Yes, we could work this out as long as the landscaping budget for United Spirit Arena included landscaping for the law school parking lot.’ And that’s how we paid to have landscaping at the law school parking lot,” he said.

In the Beginning…

Starting in its first year, 1925, Texas Tech offered courses to students who planned to go to law school.

It took 42 more years before Red Raiders wanting to go to law school didn’t have to leave Lubbock.

The man responsible for those doors opening in 1967 was Alvin Allison, a 1930 Texas Technological College grad, who had a passion for legal education.

After studying law at the University of Texas, he started practicing law in his native Levelland and became a member of the Texas Legislature. He co-sponsored the bill creating the State Bar of Texas in 1939.

A few decades later he was appointed to Tech’s Board of Directors. Establishing a law school became his project.

Not all of Allison’s Board colleagues shared his enthusiasm, so he built support from legal and other professional groups.

In 1963, the Board of Directors voted to apply to the Texas Commission on Higher Education for permission to create a law school.

Then:

• 1964: The school was approved.
• 1965: Legislature approved funds for law school with help from Lt. Gov. Preston Smith, a Tech grad.
• 1966: Richard Amandes named the school’s first dean. The work of creating the law school began.
• 1967: First classes taught in converted military barracks.
• 1970: Law school building opens and the American Bar Association grants accreditation. It’s also the first year Tech law school grads could take the bar exam. The pass rates were 93 percent in January and 100 percent in June and October.

“We opened strong,” said Jack Nowlin, law school dean since 2017. “For a brand-new law school to have that kind of high bar pass rate is amazing. That set the standard for the school,” said Nowlin.

In 1974, the school was elected to the Order of the Coif, shared by less than half the nation’s law schools.

“The early deans were really important. Then Frank Newton came in the mid-’80s and led a long period of consolidation and building. He was an impressive figure and a state bar president. Then Walt Huffman built on that foundation, doing fundraising we had not focused on that much at the law school to take us to the next level,” said Newton.

“The finest universities have law schools.”

“The finest universities have law schools. It was important for Tech to establish a law school. It was important for the region,” he said.

When Nowlin came to the law school, its endowment was at $20 million. It’s gone up to $24 million. In 2020, Bob Collier, a member of the law school’s Foundation Board, passed away and left the school a more than $10 million gift that will take the endowment to more than $34 million.

“That’s very impactful,” said Nowlin.

Losing Five ‘Giants’

In recent years, the law school lost five men who were considered giants in its development:

• Joe Conboy: Came to the school after retiring as a colonel in the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps and a stint at the University of Alabama’s law school. Conboy spent 30 years at Texas Tech as a professor and associate dean. He made his mark as associate dean for student affairs, where his positive nature was a perfect fit. General Huffman, who knew Conboy from the JAG Corps, said, “He was a guy who students came to with problems or to resolve trouble.”
• Jim Eissinger: Was one of nine faculty members teaching when Huffman was a student in the mid-’70s and still there when he became dean in 2002. “He was the consummate professional,” said Huffman. “Having served in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, I worked with and against grads from every law school in America. I was up against people who may have been smarter, but I never felt I was up against anyone who had a better legal education than from TTU Law and Jim Eissinger was part of that.”
• John Krahmer: A law school student taking Contracts from John Krahmer had a question about the Uniform Commercial Code when he saw the professor in the hallway. Krahmer answered, saying, “What I was going for … ” before he gave the answer. The student quickly realized Krahmer wrote the section in question. Krahmer – who joined the School of Law faculty in 1971 and was the longest-serving faculty member and known as “Mr. UCC,” was also an expert on banking.
• Bob Weninger: His primary teaching areas were procedure, evidence and trial advocacy and he recruited from the top ten percent of the students for his complex litigation class, limiting how many he would invite.
• Don Hunt: The “father of the Texas Tech law advocacy program” taught Rob Sherwin, who now runs the program, keeping Hunt’s legacy alive. Even though Hunt taught part time while continuing his law practice, Tech quickly became a national power in regional, national and international advocacy competitions. It won its first national title in 1979-80 when the team of Jeanette Robison, Fred Raschke and David Weinstein won the National Moot Court Competition.

Speaking of Advocacy Competition

The law school was won:

• 50 national and international competitions.
• 112 state and regional championships.
• 126 individual awards.
• Was the top-ranked school in the 2019 American Bar Association Competitions Championship, which measures overall performance in four skills competitions. In 2021, Tech was second.

The Advocacy Program Hunt built and Sherwin now guides gives students a chance to compete inside and outside of school. The law school’s Board of Barristers – a student group consisting of the most accomplished third-year advocates – administers eight in-school competitions a year in negotiation, mock trial and moot court. Three of those eight competitions are specifically for first-year students.

Each April, rising second- and third-year students try out for teams that travel throughout the country and world to compete against other law schools. Students are evaluated by the traveling team coaches, who make decisions about what students to put on particular teams.

Hunt said if Tech was going to have a national presence, students would have to outwork everyone else, said Sherwin.

That’s still his focus, still referring to Hunt as “Coach.”

“Success is tied to how much work you put into any given activity.”

“Success is tied to how much work you put into any given activity. What Coach told us was we’re part of great program with a great tradition, but don’t think because we’re part of this it will somehow seep into our bodies or we naturally have some sort of advantage than others. There is no magic pixie dust. The reason our students perform better than students at other law schools is our students work harder. I try to pass that on to our students. If we work harder we’ll succeed and that’s in our control,” said Sherwin.

Mark and Becky Lanier Professional Development Center

Hunt’s most well-known student is Mark Lanier, on the 1984 national champion team in the American Bar Association National Appellate Advocacy Competition.

The Lanier Law Firm in Houston has offices in Oklahoma City, New York and Los Angeles.

He’s built a reputation as one of the best trial lawyers in the country, winning massive judgments in cases involving serious problems with the drug Vioxx, a company’s artificial hip and talcum powder.

Lanier’s been named Trial Lawyer of the Year by the National Trial Lawyers among a long list of honors and awards.

He credits Hunt.

“Don Hunt changed my life and made me understand both the art and science of advocacy,” Lanier said.

Lanier shared his success with his law school when the Mark & Becky Lanier Professional Development Center opened in 2008, doubling the law school’s size.

The huge addition houses the Donald Hunt Courtroom.

Hunt didn’t want it named after him, Sherwin said.

But Lanier told “Coach” it was too late – the papers had already been signed for the donation.

‘American Legal Education was Conservative’

When Newton arrived in Lubbock, he was pleased to have professors such as Krahmer and Hadley Edgar, who was very active in bar and bench activities with both federal and state judges. Both helped him.

Newton brought in Jorge Ramirez, who expanded the school internationally.

Newton also found not everyone at the school was excited about change.

“American legal education at the time I came to Tech was conservative in their experience – teaching and practicing law did not involve technology, did not involve specialization. It was more about general practitioners who did a broad range of things,” he said.

The faculty didn’t agree with some of the changes Newton wanted to make.

“Well, if you want to go try it, have at it and if it works, we’ll swing in.”

“But they were very good about saying, ‘Well, if you want to go try it, have at it and if it works, we’ll swing in,’” he said.

Building Diversity…Even Conservative Diversity

Newton looked to “feeder” schools for future students and to increase diversity.

“It’s hard to go to Baylor, SMU, the University of Houston or the University of Texas and convince students there to come to Tech,” he said, because they all have law schools.

“I decided to concentrate on feeder schools, universities in Texas that didn’t have law schools,” said Newton, meeting with presidents of UTEP, San Angelo State, Texas State and others.

Newton told them he’d guarantee two scholarships a year if they would select students meeting a minimum criteria.

“I told them, ‘You’re not likely to have a law school anytime soon but this will allow you to recruit students to your university by telling them you can give them a scholarship to go to law school,’” he said.

“The presidents liked that,” Newton said.

Newton also went to Abilene Christian University seeking students and met someone from the Dodge Jones Foundation, which has been generous to Tech over the years and invited him to speak to the group.

When he met with the foundation, they asked what he’d do if they funded scholarships.

“We’re working on increasing diversity – more women, more people of color,” Newton told them and got the sense it didn’t go over well.

They asked him to wait outside.

When Newton returned, the group said they wanted to help him create diversity.

“They said they’ll give two full-ride scholarships through all three years. We’re going to pick extremely conservative law students because law schools are too liberal and they don’t have enough conservatives,” said Newton.

“They were outstanding students,” he added.

As part of the scholarship, Dodge Jones worked with a conservative group in Washington and the students would work there.

That summer, those students drafted a petition in Federal District Court in Austin against Newton in his role as chair of the Texas Equal Access to Justice Foundation, a program providing funds to help underserved Texans in civil legal services.

The case eventually went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, but there was no decision due to procedural issues, Newton said.

A subsequent case from the state of Washington established constitutional validity for what Newton’s group was doing and similar groups are now in all 50 states.

He had no issue with his two students.

“They were great students,” he said.

Newton also went to the NAACP and LULAC in Lubbock, asking lawyers connected with the groups to help him recruit African American and Hispanic law students and mentor them.

Today, Nowlin points out the school continues to focus on diversity, also wanting first-generation law students to feel welcome.

“I tell people if your parents went to law school and your grandparents went to law school, this is a great place to go to law school. If your dad worked in the oil fields as an industrial electrician, this is a great place to go to law school.”

“I tell people if your parents went to law school and your grandparents went to law school, this is a great place to go to law school. If your dad worked in the oil fields as an industrial electrician, this is a great place to go to law school,” he said.

Newton Finds Money Again

Part of Newton’s efforts were making building and technology improvements.

He asked the administration to ask the Legislature for money to expand the law library, add technology and fix building issues.

Newton was told to put it in writing, it would go to a committee and if they decide it’s worthy it goes on a project list.

“Right now we have 72 projects ahead of yours,” Newton said he was told.

“How many do you get a year?” Newton asked.

When he was told two to three in a good year, he said, “It could be 30-40 years before mine rolls up.”

“That’s how we play the game,” Newton said he was told.

Newton asked if he could go to the Legislature himself and was told that would never work.

“What they didn’t know was the speaker of the House of Representatives, Pete Laney from Hale Center, had a daughter in my law school. And Rob Junell, Texas Tech grad was chairman of the House Finance Committee. The senator representing that area was John Montford,” said Newton.

Nothing was ever said about the law school during the session, but at the end, the law school got the money.

Tech hardwired the whole building to drive new technology and expand the law library.

Ready to Practice

Nowlin’s goal is to have graduates ready to practice once they graduate and pass the bar exam.

“That’s always an aspiration that we’re never going to completely meet because you’ve got to learn some things on the job,” he said.

Tech is on the cutting edge, Nowlin said, of pushing students to get as much experience beyond the classroom.

“Are you doing pro bono hours, are you volunteering, are you working for a law firm, are you doing competitions and learning in simulations how to think on your feet? Have you done a clinic with real clients where you’ve really been in a courtroom under the supervision of a professor who’s a practicing lawyer? Are you doing a real divorce or real adoption in a family law clinic?” he said.

The school’s also focused on wellness.

“The entire profession has become more focused on work/ life balance. We’ve been out on front of that too.”

“Attorneys have twice the levels of alcoholism, other substance abuse, depression, anxiety. The entire profession has become more focused on work/ life balance. We’ve been out on front of that too. When I got here, we already had a Student Wellness Advisory Council,” Nowlin said.

1969: Name Changed to Texas Tech University

Texas Tech University has earned a name for itself.

Through its national championship-winning mascot Raider Red, Super Bowl-MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes, Carnegie Tier-1 research status and other accolades, Texas Tech has become synonymous with success.

But in the 1960s there were worries the university’s original name was a barrier to success.

Texas Technological College was founded in 1923 and the name stuck until the late 1950s when Board of Directors (now regents) considered a name change to represent the school’s growth since its birth. Enrollment was climbing after World War II, the university started awarding doctoral degrees and there were talks of implementing schools of law and medicine.

Was it still a college – or a university?

In addition to representing growth, school leadership felt a new name would attract future growth. “A fresh name would appeal more to prospective students,” said then-Board Member Harold Hinn.

That was Tech’s focus.

Enrollment had dropped to all-time lows during the war. With renewed growth, the university wanted to keep momentum going. So in 1958, the school’s leadership began to push for a new name. It took a few years to get buy-in, but students, staff and faculty finally voted in favor of changing the name in 1962, with 5-to-1 in favor of the idea.

This began a spirited, seven-year debate over the perfect name. Students were largely in favor of “Texas State University.” The board argued however, there were already 13 schools with “state” in the name and wanted something unique.

“There was no question about changing the name, but it became increasingly difficult to agree.”

There was no question about changing the name, but it became increasingly difficult to agree on a new name, let alone have it passed by the Legislature.

The executive board of the Ex-Students Association (now Alumni Association) kept pushing for Texas Tech University. The main reason was to keep the Double T logo, which was all over campus. Preserving this tradition was vital, they felt.

1964, the Board of Directors submitted a bill to the Legislature asking for the name to officially be changed. Rather than bring the debate to a close, this stirred up protests and rallies across campus and the Lubbock community, resulting in five more years of back-and-forth.

Most students were dead set against Texas Tech University. In a 1969 issue of The University Daily students recognized Texas Technological College was “indeed a misnomer” but “while the name should be changed…it must be a meaningful change.”

One of the largest arguments was “Tech” was not even a real word and it might limit the university in the future. But leadership thought the word had a future. While “Tech” was not a widely used word in West Texas, schools such as California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were seeing rapid growth at the time.

Nothing stuck like Texas Tech.

The school’s name was officially changed to Texas Tech University on Sept. 1, 1969.

In the months leading up to the name passing, “The University Daily” printed an interview with the Board of Directors stating, “a name is not so important, rather, the important thing is the reputation a school makes for itself.”

And that’s what Texas Tech University has done.

2003: Shuttle Columbia, Commanded by Tech Grad Rick Husband, Disintegrates While Returning to Earth

Astronaut Charles Bassett II was killed when his T-38 Trainer crashed four months before he was supposed to pilot Gemini 9 pilot in 1966, six years after graduating Texas Tech with an electrical engineering degree.

In 1996, Tech dedicated an electrical engineering research laboratory building in Bassett’s honor. Among those in attendance was fellow astronaut Rick Husband.

Seven years later, Husband became the second astronaut from Texas Tech to die when the shuttle Columbia disintegrated above Texas on its way back to earth. Texas Tech has many connections to NASA – including three who gave their lives.

In 1976, Husband met his wife Evelyn at a Texas Tech basketball game in the old Coliseum. She recognized him from Amarillo High School, where she was year behind him.

Evelyn thought he was cute.

Later, he racked his brain to remember her name and called the Tech operator to contact her.

Their first date was Jan. 28, 1977 and he picked her up in the 1975 Camaro he owned the rest of his life.

They went to the Smuggler’s Inn, then saw “The Seven-Per-Cent Solution.” Rick and Evelyn Husband married in 1982.

Rick knew he wanted to be an astronaut after seeing John Glenn orbit earth in 1962. At 17 he started taking flying lessons. After graduating with a mechanical engineering degree, Rick joined the Air Force and became a test pilot.

He was eventually picked as an astronaut and flew on Discovery in 1999, then chosen to be commander of Columbia’s next flight in 2003.

Seven families – along with NASA and a nation – were devastated after the tragedy.

One of those other families also had Texas Tech ties.

Pilot Willie McCool graduated from Lubbock’s Coronado High School while his mother Audrey taught in Tech’s Food and Nutrition Department.

Barry and Audrey McCool were living in Las Vegas when the tragedy happened.

After visiting Lubbock a number of times for the dedication of the track at Coronado and a statue at Huneke Park to honor Willie, the McCools moved back to the Hub City. Barry taught in Tech’s Restaurant, Hotel and Institutional Management program. Audrey served as interim chair of the same program – then called the Hospitality and Retail Management Department – for the 2017-18 school year.

Leaning on Faith

After Columbia didn’t come home, Evelyn Husband brought her kids back to a Houston home decorated for Rick’s return.

She went to her room and started wailing. Her children were distraught.

They attended the memorial service with President George W. Bush and the first lady Laura Bush As wife of the commander, she had to attend memorials for all seven crew members.

Evelyn realized she couldn't just go to her room to be alone when things got tough.

Going forward, this would be a journey that at times had to be public – and she wanted to honor Columbia's crew.

She also knew she would need time for herself and her children.

Evelyn leaned on her faith.

When Rick signed photos for people, he also jotted down Proverbs 3:5-6.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.

That didn’t mean things were easy.

Her family struggled. They needed counseling.

But even that first day, during the first hours as she tried to fathom what happened, she felt completely embraced and protected by God.

Evelyn wrote a memoir about Rick in 2004 called “High Calling: The Courageous Life and Faith of Space Shuttle Columbia Commander Rick Husband.”

She became friends with June Scobee, whose husband was commander of the shuttle Challenger that exploded on takeoff in 1986. She eventually remarried.

Amarillo’s airport is now Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport among many honors for Husband, McCool and the other Columbia crew members.

Tech has many other proud connections to NASA:

• Ginger Kerrick - 1991 bachelor’s and 1993 master’s degrees in physics…became the first Hispanic woman to be a flight director at NASA, serving in that role from 2005-2012. She is also a member of the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents.
• Bernard Harris - 1982 medical grad from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in…flew on two shuttle missions and became the first African American to walk in space – where he was photographed giving the Guns Up salute.
• Paul Lockhart - 1978 mathematics grad…piloted Endeavour on two shuttle missions to the International Space Station.
• Al Sacco/former dean of the Whitacre College of Engineering…flew on Columbia in 1995 as a payload specialist.
• Sally Davis - 1980 mathematics grad…served many NASA roles, along with being flight director for the International Space Station from 1996-2008.
• Lucy Kranz - 1981 political science grad…daughter of Gene Kranz, who was flight director during Apollo 13 and coined the phrase “failure is not an option.” She was manager of program planning and control for the Orion/Multipurposed Crew Vehicle Program among many NASA roles.
• Patricia DeLucia - associate vice president for research at Texas Tech, among other roles at Tech from 1991-2018. She served on a NASA panel.
• Joel Tumbiolo - 1989 master’s in atmospheric science…was an Air Force meteorologist who became launch weather officer at Cape Canaveral, deciding if a launch is go or no go.

Sources:

• Keeping the faith: Evelyn Husband leaned on God when she lost husband Rick, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Jan. 31, 2013, by Terry Greenberg
• Texas Tech makes its mark on NASA, Texas Tech Today, July 7, 2011, by Karin Slyker

2014: Tim Cole Statue Unveiled after late Texas Tech Student Receives First Posthumous Pardon in Texas History

The 13-foot tall monument to Timothy Cole – a man falsely accused and wrongly convicted of rape in Lubbock, who died in prison – casts a long shadow on the corner of 19th Street and University Avenue.

But justice never came in Cole’s lifetime, although he and his family proclaimed his innocence until he died at 39 from complications of asthma in 1999. He is buried near his family’s home in Fort Worth.

On March 24, 1985, a Texas Tech student parked her car across the street from her dorm. A man asked her for help, but when she said she couldn’t help the stranger, he carjacked her at knifepoint and raped her in a field. It was one of several sexual assaults that spring that shook the campus.

She misidentified Cole as her attacker. Although Cole had an alibi and physical evidence from the real rapist was lost, Cole was convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

In 1995, the actual rapist, Jerry Wayne Johnson, serving a 99-year prison sentence on other rape counts, sent a letter to Lubbock officials saying he — not Cole — had raped the Tech student that March night. But his letter went unanswered.

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reporter Elliott Blackburn got a letter from Johnson a dozen years later and wrote a three-part series in 2008 proving Cole’s innocence. Blackburn spurred investigators to unbox and test the DNA evidence, clearing Cole of the crime and identifying Johnson as the perpetrator. That DNA technology was not available when Cole was convicted.

After Blackburn’s series and persistent efforts from Cole’s family and The Innocence Project of Texas, Charles Baird, a judge in Travis County agreed to hear the case for Cole’s exoneration. In a proceeding rarely used in Texas, Baird found Cole’s arrest and trial was mishandled — the police “had tunnel vision” and had showed a flawed lineup to the student.

Gov. Rick Perry pardoned Cole in 2010, the first posthumous pardon in Texas history. His family received apologies from district courts, the Legislature and a letter of support from the White House.

The spotlight on Cole’s injustice created many reforms, including the Timothy Cole Compensation Act — making those falsely accused eligible to receive $80,000 for every year in prison. Changes also included the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions and reform of eyewitness identification practices.

Texas Tech University Board of Regents awarded an honorary bachelor’s degree in Law and Social Justice to Cole in 2015. He had been expelled after his 1985 arrest.

The Lubbock City Council approved the Timothy Cole Memorial Statue in June 2012. Lubbock artist Eddie Dixon and his team created the sculpture. Kevin Glasheen’s Lubbock law firm funded the $250,000 statue. Glasheen said he was inspired by Cole’s unwavering courage and integrity. It was unveiled in September 2014 in the Timothy Cole Memorial Park. Cole’s mother lived to see her son exonerated but passed away before the statue was unveiled.

“I still believe in the justice system, even though it doesn’t believe in me.”

Cole’s words from prison in a letter to his sister are etched on the back in granite: “I still believe in the justice system, even though it doesn’t believe in me.”

Sources:

• Board of Regents Grants Honorary Degree to Timothy Cole
• Statue of Tim Cole to be unveiled
• Timeline of Tim Cole's wrongful conviction, exoneration
• Justice system failed Tim Cole, victim
• 'Creative' process used to grant first posthumous pardon in Texas
• Tim Cole family seeks reconciliation from remorseful Judge Jim Bob Darnell
• Tim Cole leaves legacy of legislative changes
• Tim Cole statue unveiled after state leaders praise first Texan posthumously exonerated
• Tim Cole commission offers recommendations to reduce wrongful convictions

2017: Texas Tech Officer Floyd East Murdered

Texas Tech Police Officer Floyd East Jr. was interviewing a freshman, who had been detained on a narcotics charge about 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 9, 2017.

A shot rang out in the interview room where East and his suspect were alone. Other police officers raced to the room to find East dead and the suspect gone.

Hollis Daniels was arrested about two hours later after police searched the campus and surrounding areas. Police found a .45-caliber pistol nearby that proved to be the weapon used to kill East, according to reports from the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

More than five years later, a Lubbock jury found Daniels guilty of murder and sentenced him to life in prison. COVID and other issues had delayed the trial, according to newspaper reports. Daniels had been incarcerated for the five years at the Lubbock County Detention Center.

On the witness stand, Daniels, a Seguin native, admitted he asked East about his family before shooting him in the head with a gun he had stolen. During the trial, police video showed Daniels appeared to have smuggled the gun in his clothing after his arrest.

Daniels and his defense attorney said he had drug and mental health problems. He pleaded guilty to capital murder at the trial.

Although the prosecution asked for the death penalty, at least 10 jurors — the number required for a life sentence, instead of the death penalty — did not see Daniels as a future threat to the prison population. The death penalty required a unanimous vote. Jurors deliberated for three days.

During sentencing, East’s sister Juanita Cooper expressed her rage and told Daniels to “rot in hell.”

“You have the privilege to be anything in life that you choose to be, but you chose to be a cop killer. Not only did you take our brother’s life, Floyd was everybody’s brother here: A kind and loving man,” she said.

A memorial stone honoring East marks the entrance to the Texas Tech Police Department station on Flint Avenue. Inside the entry hall, plaques and photos in the front hallway remind officers and visitors of the fallen officer’s heroic service.

A plaque in the hallway also commemorates a second officer, Sgt. Ricky Eade, who died of COVID-19 related causes Dec. 9, 2020. No other police officers have died while with the Texas Tech Police Department, Bonath and Assistant Chief Kenny Evans confirmed.

Eade, who served for 24 years, had two teenaged sons.

East, married to Carmen East, had two daughters. The family lived in El Paso and East had come to Lubbock from Texas Tech Health Sciences Center El Paso to complete his field training to become a full-certified police officer.

His family had stayed in that city and he returned on the weekends and planned to return when a position for a police officer opened on that campus. After his death, his family created a foundation, Texas 635 — East’s badge number — to help other police families in similar situations.

TTUHSC-El Paso has created a scholarship for students from his hometown pursuing education and careers related to law enforcement.

In many ways, East’s service and career path reflect the history of the Texas Tech Police Department, Bonath said.

What is now a professional 24/7 department with branches across most of Texas Tech campuses, started in 1959 as a security patrol with guards, rather than officers, Bonath explained. Tech’s Lubbock campus has 58 authorized police officer positions and has more than 130 people on staff system wide. The student body has more than doubled in size.

Bonath, who retired from the FBI after 25 years of service, is the fifth chief of the department, beginning in September 2015.

“We started off as a security force that wrote parking tickets in an office surrounding by cotton fields,” Bonath said. “Now we’re surrounded by buildings. We’re like a city within a city. We’re a one-stop shop here.”

2020: Tech Surpasses 40,000 Student Enrollment Goal

When Texas Tech Chancellor Kent Hance established a goal of 40,000 students at Texas Tech by the year 2020, it was kind of like when President John F. Kennedy said he wanted the country to land a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s.

At the time, Tech had about 30,000 students. Like America’s space program, it had a long way to go – with a deadline.

Kennedy – tragically – didn’t live to see Neil Armstrong fulfill that goal in 1969. But a few years after Hance left his role, the now-Chancellor Emeritus saw Tech pass 40,000 students despite the COVID pandemic.

In the fall 2020 semester, Tech had 40,322 students.

Inside that number were many other records:

• 6,522 first-year student enrollment
• 7,053 graduate student enrollment
• 12,677 DFW students
• 5,771 Central Texas students
• 10,634 West Texas students
• 9,030 first-generation college student enrollment
• Diversity in student enrollment
• Interest from prospective students

“The goal in some ways became ingrained in the psyche of our alumni and community,” said Tech President Lawrence Schovanec. “It represented Tech’s increasing influence in the state. It spoke to the growing influence and vitality of the university to achieve that growth.”

“It reflected the work of our faculty and staff, increased scholarship support, enhanced recruitment and marketing strategies and the support and success of our alumni who contribute to the Texas Tech brand,” he added.

Beyond the number, it positively impacted the university’s formula funding and finances.

“The challenge was to grow in a structured way that did not compromise our student experience and success.”

“The challenge was to grow in a structured way that did not compromise our student experience and success,” he said.

Even as Tech grew, Schovanec has said, the school’s retention rate grew to 82 percent from a little below 80 percent. And in the past five years, Tech’s four-year graduation rate grew by 12 percent, along with Tech’s growing recognition as a national research institution.

“So we grew at the same time we enhanced student success. That’s significant that we got to the larger figure but did not compromise the student experience and success. In fact, in the last two years we’ve had record four-year and six-year graduation rates and one-year retention rates. That is what I’m proud of,” he said.

The university also saw a more than a doubling of Presidential Scholars and a ten-fold increase in National Merit Finalists from 2015.

2020-2021: COVID-19 Global Pandemic Impacts Texas Tech

On January 27, 2020, the following was sent to the Texas Tech Community:

As you may know, there is an outbreak of a new virus in China that is causing infections primarily in the Hubei province and concentrated in the city of Wuhan. The symptoms are similar to the flu and are fever, cough, and shortness of breath due to pneumonia. Cases have now been identified in the U.S. in patients returning from China. We have not had any reported or suspected cases among the Texas Tech University community.

By March, the COVID pandemic had hit the world – and Texas Tech. The university extended spring break and told students all classes would move to online until further notice.

The men’s basketball team was about to play Texas in the Big 12 Conference Tournament before being told to go back to the locker room. Then the college basketball season – on the cusp of the NCAA Tournament – was canceled along with all spring sports.

Men’s basketball and baseball – which had made the Final Four and the College World Series in 2019 – were left wondering what could have happened.

But keeping people healthy was the priority as the worldwide death toll climbed.

Over the next few days in March:

• All summer Study Abroad and Maymester programs were canceled.
• Researchers were told to work from home.
• The rest of all spring classes would be taught online.
• The student recreation center was closed.
• A Tech student who returned from Europe tested positive for the virus.
• In-person commencement was canceled.
• Tech shifted more staff to work from home and meetings on the Zoom platform became the norm.

In late April, President Lawrence Schovanec announced a plan to resume in-person teaching for the fall semester. He later announced plans for virtual graduation ceremonies and invited grads to visit his home for pictures with him and Raider Red.

The 2020-21 school year was a mix of trying to return to normal amid COVID testing, vaccine clinics, social distancing, masking, quarantine rules and 25 percent capacity for football games.

The 2021-22 school year was somewhat back to normal, but COVID variants were still popping up around the world and the City of Lubbock reported more than 1,000 deaths from the virus.

A Texas Tech policeman, a staff member and a recently retired professor died from the virus, said Schovanec.

When he looked back on the height of the pandemic in spring of 2020, Tech’s president said he was grateful how the university made massive changes in a short time to address the crisis.

“I was full of gratitude how people came together, cooperated and supported one another. We learned how there’s something about this culture at Texas Tech where we just step up and do what has to be done,” he said.

Oct. 3, 1925: Daily Toreador Produces First Issue

From Linotype machines to virtual reality headsets, student media has helped Texas Tech University keep journalism and mass communication relevant for students for almost a century.

Student media has been a part of students’ education since the first days of instruction on campus. Student journalism and communication has expanded from print to multimedia changing along with the global environment of media with television, radio and digital outlets.

Two days after classes began, The Toreador, the student newspaper, began publishing on Oct. 3, 1925, to illuminate life on campus.

First student editor Harry Montgomery wrote that a toreador, was an assistant to a matador (bull fighter) — a symbolic nod to the campus Spanish architecture and the nickname for the school’s sports teams.

“An aggravator you might say…Nothing seemed more appropriate for the name of the student publication than The Toreador.”

“An aggravator you might say…Nothing seemed more appropriate for the name of the student publication than The Toreador,” he wrote.

While advisers have helped guide students as they delivered news – first in print and then on changing platforms – students have maintained independence in their publications and broadcasts, understanding their role in a free press.

For example, Robert Montemayor, editor of the newspaper from 1974-1975, and one of four Pulitzer Prize winning journalists from Tech, made this slogan his masthead, “It is this newspaper’s duty to raise constructive hell.”

Montemayor, who graduated from Tech in 1975, was part of a Los Angeles Times team that won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service for a 21-part series on Latinos in Southern California.

Other Pulitzer Prize winners were:

• Photojournalist Dennis Copeland, 1977 graduate, won a Pulitzer Prize twice. Once in 1985 for Spot News covering the 1984 Olympics at the Orange County Register. In 1993, Copeland won the Public Service Award as photography director at the Miami Herald for coverage of Hurricane Andrew.
• Tech graduate Frank Bass was part of an Alabama Journal reporting team winning a 1988 Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting for a series on the state’s high infant mortality rates.
• And in 2010 Tod Robberson, a 1981 journalism graduate, was part of the Dallas Morning News team winning for Editorial Writing. The team’s series explored the sharp economic disparities between the rich and poor in Dallas.

The student newspaper and what is now the College of Media and Mass Communication has also propelled other successful and award-winning careers.

Charles Richards said his time as editor at The Toreador from 1962-1963 helped launch his 40-plus year career working for the Fort Worth Press, Dallas Times Herald, UPI and The Associated Press.

“All of it because The Toreador sports editor working the Linotype alongside me talked me into picking up intramural scores and other details. One thing led to another and here I am,” he wrote in an email. “I was playing intramural basketball so he asked if I would pick up intramural scores after my games. Then he suggested I try writing a story on the various intramural results. Before I knew it, even though I was a math major, I was writing one or two sports stories for each edition.”

His younger brother Don Richards was also editor of the student newspaper from 1971 to 1972. He said his time in student media helped shape him. He was a press secretary and then an attorney for 30 years.

“It was a fun and learning time in my life,” he said in in a 2015 Texas Tech Today article celebrating the paper’s 90th anniversary.

The Toreador morphed over the years from a weekly publication, to a daily as The University Daily in 1966. It was renamed The Daily Toreador in 2005 to mark its 80th year of publication.

Beyond newspapers, students have been delivering news through other outlets.

Student radio broadcasts began informally between dorms in 1949 and then as an AM station and finally as KTXT-FM that continues to broadcast, although with an interruption between 2008 and 2012, according to The Toreador archives.

KTXT-TV broadcast its first programs on Oct. 16, 1962, as a non-commercial television station. It continues as KTTZ-TV, a professional PBS station, while students broadcast through MCTV, part of a multimedia platform, The Hub@TTU, that began in 2012, according to the College of Media and Communication website.

The student yearbook, La Ventana, began publishing in 1926 with an issue of more than 250 pages.

The Board of Regents designated it to be a comprehensive written and photographic record of the entire campus community. It is a self-supporting independent student publication, according to a Toreador Media website.

Sheri Lewis, an adviser in student media, said in the 2015 Texas Tech Today anniversary story, the hands-on media experience gives students an advantage.

“They learn whether or not they are going to love doing this.”

“It’s not an 8-to-5 kind of business. It’s not a job where you go home at 5 p.m. and put it on the shelf. They learn whether or not they are going to love doing this. It gives them an opportunity as well. Most people who go through here probably start further down the road,” she said.

Veterans of student media experiences agree.

Jonathan Seaborn, chief content officer at Texas Tech Public Media, said his Tech education, including student media, prepared him well for his career. He graduated with a degree in electronic media and communications in 2020.

“The evolution in the College of Media and Communication impressed me. I left and came back and the continued growth and investment in students was obvious. The theory and academic side is more balanced with opportunities for practical application. In an ever-changing landscape, I got the necessary storytelling skills to go from print to virtual reality and video games.”

Seaborn oversees public radio, television and streaming media in for El Paso, Lubbock, and San Angelo. Texas Tech Public Media recruits three Tech student interns across television, radio and internet streaming most semesters, he said.

Sarah Self-Walbrick, news director at Texas Tech Public Media, said her work at The Hub@TTU allowed her to focus on longer-form journalism. It confirmed for her she was in the right place. She’s still proud of her team’s package on water issues and drought.

She was at Tech from 2011-2017 and has two bachelor’s degrees — electronic media and communication and journalism. Her master’s is in mass communication.

“I’m a rare person who has always known what I wanted to do and had a chance to pursue it,” she said in an email. “I’m fortunate to have a job that fulfills me each day. I’m entering my fifth year as a professional journalist and I am happier than I’ve ever been in my career.”

Linda Rutherford, an executive vice president with Southwest Airlines, credits her time as a student editor at The University Daily in the late 1980s with helping her learn to run a business, meet deadlines, understand the importance of accuracy and create revenue plans.

“I never for a moment thought from my time at Texas Tech I’d be sitting here as an executive vice president of Southwest Airlines, but it’s a tribute to Texas Tech.”

Adam Young, editor of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, credits his clips from the campus newspaper with helping him shine when the newspaper was laying people off in 2009, not hiring.

“I got a night cops position,” he said.

At Tech, he started at La Ventana, the yearbook, because The Daily Toreador wasn’t hiring at the time, but he was persistent. “I got a very good understanding of the quick turnaround. I was competitive.”

Perhaps one of Tech’s more famous students, Scott Pelley, a multiple-award winning broadcaster, famous for his work on CBS 60 Minutes, didn’t graduate from Tech, but still credits the university for academic and practical experience that got him hired at a Dallas CBS affiliate.

In his remarks at a Tech commencement in 2009 he encouraged students follow their dreams. “Don’t settle,” he said. “No one ever wanted to hire me. I was not ever recruited. But I had a song in my heart for journalism. Texas Tech gave me the keys to the world.”

1926: First Letterman Sweaters Presented

In January 1926, “Windy” Nicklaus received the first letter sweater in Texas Tech history. More than 50 years later, Nicklaus donated the sweater – which he could still wear – to the Texas Tech Museum.

Those first sweaters were best known for first appearance of the Double T logo .

But for thousands of Red Raider student athletes who followed that team, the sweaters – which became jackets a few decades later – are wearable proof they competed for Texas Tech.

A high percentage of Tech athletes “letter,” said Rodney Allison, Director of the Double T Varsity Club, with about 3,500 former Red Raiders as members.

Allison lettered as starting quarterback three seasons for Tech, including the marvelous 1976 team which:

• Beat three ranked teams, two of those Texas and Texas A&M.
• Shared the Southwest Conference title with Houston.
• Finished the year 10-2, barely losing the Bluebonnet Bowl to No. 9 Nebraska.
• Finished the season ranked No. 13 after being ranked as high as No. 5.

As he talks about letter winners, J.B. “Whizzer” White’s 1938 red letter sweaters is draped across one of his office chairs. When White passed away in 2020 at age 99, the former Red Raider basketball player was believed to be the oldest living Tech letter winner.

Student athletes get a jacket the first year they letter. Then:

• Second year: Watch.
• Third year: Framed letter with an action photo of them.
• Fourth year: Ring

Criteria for who letters has changed over the years and is not the same for all Tech sports, said Allison.

“They had different criteria in football – the number of plays, number of quarters. They kept all of this and figured out who lettered at the end of the year. It was very regimented. You had to meet the criteria in order to letter,” he said.

That changed when Spike Dykes was the head football coach from 1987-99 and became more subjective.

“Spike felt if they were good kids who showed up to practice every day, did the right things and stayed out of trouble, Spike would give them a letter.”

“Spike felt if they were good kids who showed up to practice every day, did the right things and stayed out of trouble, Spike would give them a letter,” said Allison.

“And tennis was a little bit different, basketball was a little bit different,” he said, adding, each coach has his or her own standard.

But most do get a letter.

“It’s hard to tell a kid they don’t letter,” said Allison.

The Double T Varsity Club holds jacket presentations for different sports.

“We’ve tried to make it a big deal,” he said.

Allison’s organization also manages the Ring of Honor and Hall of Fame, along with keeping connected to those 3,500 former Red Raiders.

Another 1,300-1,400 former Red Raiders are out there, Allison says, but Tech has not been able to track them down.

The Double T Varsity Club has only been around a decade and is part of the Athletics Department. Before that, it was run by former Red Raiders and an annual fee was charged.

“These were people who cared about Tech, cared about the lettermen.

But they didn’t have the resources that we do now,” said Allison, adding the annual fee no longer exists.

The Double T Varsity Club is also involved when former players come home.

“Anytime we honor anybody, anytime we have a reunion, anytime we have an event that deals with former players it comes through this office. If Michael Crabtree is here for a weekend, we’ve got something to do with it,” Allison said.

1928: Probation Club Places an Ad in the Newspaper

There were about 30 clubs listed in the 1928 edition of the La Ventana yearbook – including ten “scofflaws.”

Amid the New Mexico Club, Dairy Club, Pre-Law Club, Aggie Club, Thespian Club was the unusual Probation Club on page 173.

Under photos of Mary Frank Nichols, Elois Sneed, Helen Wommack, Faye Foote, Glenna Sims, Rachel Cole, Fay Rutledge, Clona Swinney, Anna Belle Collins and Charlotte Elms was the following:

“At a certain dance given out at the Country Club a few of the College Inn girls were in attendance. Not being used to the long drive home after the dance they could not fail to take advantage of it. As a result, ten of the girls came in fifteen minutes late and were put on probation, not as a means of punishment, but to instill in them the knowledge they should leave a dance early when there was a long and pleasant road to follow.”

The spunky women decided to have some fun with their probation and immortalize it.

1930: First Tech Aggie Rodeo Held

More than a dozen wild horses were led around the flimsy rodeo arena just south of the Texas Tech Dairy Barn in November of 1930. They had names like “Funeral Wagon,” “Hell to Set” and “Graveyard Agnes. They were reported to be “unusually mean and hard to ride.”

It was the first Tech Aggie Rodeo – not a tip of the cap to Texas A&M. It was sponsored by the Agricultural Club with proceeds used to help judging teams in regional and international competitions.

Kathleen Harmon of Lampasas was the first rodeo queen. A parade down Broadway featured bands, decorated cars and clowns.

Paramount and Pathe Newsreels sent cameramen to film the parade and performances.

Events included steer riding, calf roping, a range relay race, goat roping and pack races. There were also some less traditional events such as wild cow milking and wild buffalo riding.

It’s not known if insurance wavers were involved.

Entry fees? 75 cents.

Prizes to grand finals winners included Justin boots, Stetson hats, silk shirts and dress gloves, a leather jacket and a silk manilla rope.

In 1933, the Block and Bridle Club took over the rodeo and two years later replaced it with La Remuda, which included events such as “Combat of Tech Knights,” a donkey polo game and a pillow fight on top of a wooden horse.

La Remuda was not a success. Block and Bridle Club brought the rodeo back in 1940.

The Texas Tech Rodeo Association took over the event in 1947 and that same year, Tech’s first rodeo team won the Texas Intercollegiate Rodeo held at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene.

That first rodeo was such a success that the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA) was soon formed and Tech has competed since.

The rodeo team is an independent club and not supported by the university – but it won its first of several national titles in the 1950s, said Coach Jerrad Hofstetter, adding it was Tech’s first national title of any kind long before the Lady Raiders won the NCAA women’s basketball crown in 1993.

The rodeo continues – being held the last weekend of October at Cook’s Garage in south Lubbock.

“It’s bigger than ever,” said Hofstetter.

The rodeo moved to the outside site during COVID and has stayed there.

“Cook’s Garage has been good to us,” said Hostetter.

Source:

• The Southwest Collection’s Texas Tech in Retrospect…The Aggie Rodeo: One of Tech’s oldest traditions, by Cindy Martin

1931: Senior Class Gifts a Large Double T Bench

Some Texas Tech senior class gifts are still around – decades later:

• 1936: Tech’s Victory Bells
• 1938: Double T neon sign still attached to the east side of Jones AT&T Stadium.
• Donations toward a student union building.

And the Double T Bench is still nestled in the Administration Building courtyard – a gift of the Class of 1931.

The bench has its legends.

Freshmen were not allowed to sit on it and, going back before the feminist movement, if a girl wanted a date to a football game, all she had to do was sit and a date would find her.

B.A. Brady, an architectural engineering major, came up with plans for the bench that were selected over two other designs.

It was erected on June 6, 1931.

Brady, in a 1980 interview, said his plans were accepted because he worked hard to make the bench as large as possible.

“I couldn’t be much bigger and it couldn’t be any smaller than what it is.”

“The spacing in there, to make that thing balance out,” he said, “it couldn’t be much bigger and it couldn’t be any smaller than what it is.”

At the time the Double T Bench became a campus structure, Brady said Texas Tech consisted of only nine buildings. Since then, the campus has grown and changed so much he was not able to locate the bench he designed during a class reunion in 1980.

Fast forward ahead to 2022, when Avery Farmer graduated Tech with a degree in civil engineering – just like his great-grandfather Cecil Pray from the Class of 1931.

Pray played a role in the bench’s engineering, said his granddaughter Sheila Rodgers Farmer, Avery’s mom.

He also started a family of Red Raiders.

Cecil’s daughter, Lynn Pray Rodgers, graduated from Tech in 1962 and Sheila in 1989.

“Cecil paid for all six of his grandchildren to go to Texas Tech,” said Sheila.

When Avery graduated, he posed for a photo on the Double T Bench with his mom and grandmother, who was holding a photo of her dad Cecil – sitting on the bench.

Source:

• “The Double T Bench: A history rich with student involvement,” Texas Tech Today, August 10, 2010 by Kendall Rompf

1932: First Homecoming Parade

Homecoming is when many Texas Tech University alumni travel back to their alma mater. The week’s festivities attract alumni, students, families and the Lubbock community. It’s a time when the best of Texas Tech is on display, especially at the homecoming parade.

The parade starts in downtown Lubbock and makes its way back to campus.

Usually starting around Avenue V, the parade heads west on Broadway, makes its way onto campus, goes around Memorial Circle and concludes near Jones AT&T Stadium or another homecoming attraction.

Onlookers can see the homecoming king and queen leading the parade. Behind them are floats decorated by student organizations and businesses in the Lubbock community. There is a different theme each year and participants bring the themes to life.

Themes have included “Raiding the Big 12,” “Passport to the World,” “Tech Goes Hollywood” and “Raiderpalooza: Music Festival.”

The parade has been around since 1932 and is one of the school’s longest traditions. Over the following years, the parade boomed in popularity. An issue of The Toreador in 1939 invited alumni to come “put on your Sunday bonnets and hats and wear your best smile. Who knows? You might be included in those 2,000 feet of colored film taken of the parade.”

Participation declined abruptly during World War II. While there were still floats during those years, 1942 was the shortest parade in school history. The theme that year was “war time.” In 1943, there was no parade. Only a small pep rally and a bonfire. By that November, 1,192 former students were in the armed services. Leaving few students and even fewer alumni to attend things such as parades.

However, by 1948 enrollment was back up and so were homecoming festivities. That year, a record number of floats were entered into the parade and that number has only climbed since.

Suzanne Matteson was crowned Texas Tech’s first homecoming queen in 1954. For almost 50 years the school only crowned queens. But in 2000, Ryan Huie made history as the first homecoming king. The king and queen are nominated by teachers and peers and voted on by the student body.

It’s difficult to even make it to the homecoming court, let alone be crowned royalty.

Candidates are interviewed by faculty and staff panels. Only individuals who represent the best of Texas Tech are considered, as they then represent the university for the year to come until they pass their crown to the next royal pair.

“I can’t think of any words to accurately describe the feeling when the announcer named me homecoming queen,” said Angela Walker Garcia, Texas Tech homecoming queen of 1994. “Being named queen is a proud moment for any young lady, and when they said my name, I was shaking so much I couldn’t even move. I realized at that moment I was one of few women that had the honor of holding this title. It’s something I am proud of and I’ll hold my head up high for a lifetime.”

More recently, Donovan Satchell made history in 2021.

“My jaw dropped when I realized I’d be the first Black homecoming king in Texas Tech history,” Satchell said. “Getting to represent my organization and do it well just overwhelms me with emotions.”

Tech track star Sharon Moultrie Bruner was the first African American homecoming queen in 1981.

It’s these firsts and memories that make homecoming magical. Not only can alumni come back and reminisce, but current students create memories they’ll remember for years to come.

The homecoming parade has occurred for 91 of Texas Tech’s 100 years. And whether you’re a twirler, float rider, volunteer, crowd member or royalty, the parade remains a big Red Raider tradition.

1934: First Dorms Open

The first residence halls built at Texas Tech were Doak and West halls in 1934.

West, for men, had 321 beds. Doak for women, had 320 beds.

Total cost to build both was $639,881.

More than eight decades later, the Honors Hall was built in 2017 with 313 beds and $30 million.

Now Tech has close to 20 residence halls with close to 10,000 beds.

Just don’t call them dorms, said D’aun Green, interim managing director for University Student Housing.

“Dorms were a place where you only slept, maybe studied, and ate. Many of the early residential buildings were probably truly dorms. However, residence halls have continued to grow and develop much like our students,” she said.

People have used the term dorms or dormitories since the 1600s and the beginning of the residential housing system at Harvard, she said.

“Although, since the mid-90s we have changed how we talk about them with a focus on programs and services supporting student success and learning,” Green said.

Part of that are Learning Communities in different residence halls grouping students with shared experiences – such as first-year students, or the same area of study, such as medicine or architecture or media – so they can support each other.

Tech’s residence halls have been renovated over the years, some repurposed for other uses.

No matter what they’re called, these buildings scattered across campus have been a place for students to live while transitioning from high school to life after college.

No matter what they’re called, these buildings scattered across campus have been a place for students to live while transitioning from high school to life after college.

And it’s where they learned more than what was taught in their classes. For instance, country music star Pat Green learned to play guitar in the Coleman Hall laundromat.

Here are the buildings that serve, or served, as Tech’s residence halls and who they were named for.

Wiggins Complex - 1967

• Made up of Chitwood, Coleman, Weymouth Halls and Wiggins.
• Named for Dr. Dossie Marion Wiggins, Tech’s 5th president.

Coleman Hall - 1968

• Named for Dr. P.C. Coleman of Colorado City, Texas. He was a leader in the formation of the West Texas Chamber of Commerce, a strong advocate of Texas Tech and instrumental in establishing the school.
• Beginning in the fall of 1992, Coleman became one of the first residence halls to offer co-ed (by floor) housing at Texas Tech.
• An intentional fire in the lobby of Coleman Hall in the fall of 1997 led to concerns about fire safety on the Texas Tech campus, as well as other state universities. The State Fire Marshal completed a review of many university residence halls and ordered all high-rise residence halls be equipped with fire suppression systems. Coleman Hall was the first of the high-rise buildings to receive one of those systems, which cost $1 million.

Weymouth Hall - 1967

• Named for Chanslor E. Weymouth, an Amarillo native who served on Tech’s Board of Directors from 1941-1953. It’s one of three 12-story residence halls making up the Wiggins Complex.
• It was popular with male athletes for many years because it was close to the athletic dining facility at Wiggins.

Chitwood Hall - 1967

• Named for R.M. Chitwood, a member of the Texas Legislature and instrumental in passing Senate Bill 103, establishing Tech in 1923.
• When Chitwood Hall opened in the fall of 1967, a fire broke out near the top floor. There was considerable smoke and chaos, but no serious injuries or damage occurred.

Stangel Hall - 1964

• Named for Wenzel Louis Stangel, dean of the School of Agriculture from 1948 until his retirement in 1958. Stangel was a member of the original Tech faculty and served as chairman of the Athletic Council from 1925-1948. He was well known in the field of agriculture throughout Texas and internationally.
• The Stangel/Murdough Complex was the first Tech residence hall placing men and women in joining halls with common dining and lounge facilities.

Murdough Hall - 1964

• Named for James Harold Murdough, head of the Civil Engineering Department from 1925-1962 and member of Tech’s original faculty.

Clement Hall - 1964

• Named for Warren P. Clement, who came to Tech from Wayland Baptist College in 1926 as adjunct professor of education before becoming registrar from 1933 until 1961.
• When Clement opened, it was only for women. It changed to a men’s residence hall in the fall of 1975 to accommodate the demand for more male student housing in air-conditioned spaces.

Hulen Hall - 1964

• Named for General John A. Hulen, who served on the Tech Board of Directors from 1931-1937. Hulen had a successful military and business life. He joined the Texas National Guard in 1889, advanced to lieutenant colonel in 1898 and served during the Spanish-American War and World War I. He also served as chairman of the board for Burlington-Rock Island Railroad Corporation.

Gates Hall - 1963

• Named for Mr. & Mrs. William Bryan Gates. They were the last of Tech’s original faculty members when the couple retired in 1963. Gates was appointed head of the English Department and became dean of the Graduate School in 1950, where he served until his retirement. Eunice Joiner Gates was professor emeritus of Foreign Languages and spoke Portuguese, Spanish, and English.

Wall Hall - 1963

• Named for C. I. “Stoney” Wall, who served on the Board of Directors from 1956-1962, the last three years as president. A successful businessman, Wall was president of the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce and Pioneer Natural Gas Company.
• During the fall of 1975, a fire gutted two rooms on the fifth floor of Wall Hall. It was the largest fire and caused more physical damage to date than any other Tech residence fire. No students were injured. It cost $30,000 to repair the fire, smoke, and water damage.

Wells Hall - 1958

• Named for Spencer A. Wells, former chairman of the Board of Directors of Hemphill-Wells Department Store. He provided much of the financial help to start Tech. Wells also gave hundreds of jobs to students and used his influence to aid Tech in obtaining extra money during the Depression years.

Carpenter Hall - 1958

• Named for John W. Carpenter, a utilities, insurance, and steel tycoon from Dallas. He served on the first Board of Directors and is credited with a significant role with the original campus construction and forming Tech’s first curriculum.
• Wells and Carpenter Halls were permanently closed in 1994 after realizing cost to renovate the existing building into apartments would be greater than demolishing and rebuilding. They were demolished in 1997-1998 to make way for the new complex.

New Carpenter/Wells Complex - 1998

• It provided a new living option for residents. The complex is comprised of 16 buildings with apartment-style accommodations for 347 students. All suites have outside entrances.
• Residents of Carpenter/Wells were given 24-hour visitation privileges when the residence hall opened. Because of the unique environment provided in this facility, the residence hall has been designated as a “sophomore plus” complex.
• A clock tower and amphitheater were constructed with a gift given by Jim Sowell.

Thompson Hall - 1958

• Named for Charles C. Thompson, who served 19 years on the Board of Directors, 15 as president.
• Thompson Hall was last used as a residence hall in 1972, then it was leased to the Texas Tech Medical School and converted to medical school offices, clinics, and the Student Health Center.
• It was later razed to make way for the new COBA building.

Gaston Hall - 1958

• Named for William T. Gaston, who served Tech from 1930-1954 as secretary and business manager. His vast knowledge of state operations aided Tech’s growth tremendously.
• Gaston’s south wing was converted to student apartments during the 1971-72 academic year. Gaston Apartments opened for occupancy by upper-class women in the fall of 1972. In 1992, Gaston Apartments was changed from female to a co-ed complex.
• aston was razed in 2008 to make way for the new COBA building.

Weeks Hall - 1957

• Named for Margaret Watson Weeks, who came to Lubbock from Nova Scotia and served as dean of Economics. She played a vital role in establishing Casa Linda, a cooperative home for women students.
• It closed as a residence hall in 1990.
• Weeks was renovated in 2021 and serves the TECHniques Center, the Graduate Center, campus writing centers, the Army ROTC and classrooms for the College of Human Sciences. Student Disability Services occupies the entire first floor of the hall, which features quiet areas so students can study free from distractions.

Knapp Hall - 1948

• Named for Bradford Knapp, Tech’s second president. When Knapp accepted the presidency, Tech was a struggling young institution. Knapp came to Tech from Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University). He died of a heart attack on June 11, 1938, while still president.
• The Horn/Knapp Residence Hall Complex is the last all-female residence hall on campus.

Horn Hall - 1948

• Named for Tech’s first president, Paul Whitfield Horn. The Lubbock Avalanche Journal welcomed President Horn to Lubbock as Tech’s first president with a one-and-a-half-inch headline of bold type. His selection was widely heralded throughout the state and he became an immensely popular president who created the university. Horn died in office in 1932.

Gordon Hall - 1948

• Named for James M. Gordon, who served as dean of Arts and Sciences for several years.
• Gordon Hall provided space for men from its opening in 1948 until it closed in 1987 for complete remodeled.
• Gordon hall was designated as the Honors Hall in the fall of 1998. Students enrolled in the university’s Honors College were eligible for residence in this suite-style hall.

Bledsoe Hall - 1948

• Named for Senator William H. Bledsoe of Lubbock, who began the push to bring a college to West Texas and authored Senate Bill 103, establishing Texas in 1923.
• Bledsoe Hall closed in May of 2022 for a 15-month major renovation and will reopen in the fall of 2023.

Drane Hall - 1941

• Named for Florence Drane. Shortly after the Texas Senate signed a bill creating Tech, Drane of Corsicana, Texas, was appointed to the first Board of Directors. While serving on the Board, she was appointed to the position of acting president for the month after President Horn’s death.
• Drane Hall was closed as a residence hall in 1969 and converted for the Medical School. Drane Hall has been utilized as office space for many of the Business Affairs offices of the university from 1974 to the present day.

Sneed Hall - 1938

• Named for Joe T. Sneed, a native of Amarillo and former member and chairman of the Board of Directors.
• Sneed Hall is the oldest residence hall still in use, with major renovations made in 1977-78.

West Hall - 1934

• Named for James M. West, who served on the Board of Directors for several years.
• Tech first housed athletes in West Hall. It was last used as a residence hall in 1969. The next year it was converted to offices and continues to house student services offices today. A visitor’s center was added in 2002.

Doak Hall - 1934

• Named for Mary W. Doak, Tech’s first dean of women, which she did from the college’s opening in 1925 until 1945, when she joined Tech’s English faculty.
• Doak has a history of hosting various campus offices and academic departments.

Murray Hall - 2006

• Named for Grover E. Murray, born in South Carolina and studied at UNC at Chapel Hill. He had received his Ph.D. from LSU in 1942. Dr. Murray was Tech president 1966-1976. Under his watch, the law and medical schools were built and the school changed its name from Texas Technological College to Texas Tech University.

Talkington Hall/2012

• Originally named Boston Hall, but after a substantial donation from the J.T. & Margaret Talkington Charitable Foundation, the $38 million facility was renamed the J.T. and Margaret Talkington Hall. The Talkingtons were well known in Lubbock for Margaret’s, a premier, high-ed clothing store. Since their deaths, the couple’s foundation has been very generous with Tech and the city. The J.T. & Margaret Talkington College for the Visual & Performing Arts and J.T. & Margaret Talkington Leadership Academy in Athletics have benefitted from their legacy.
• A 20,500 square foot food court called the Commons @ Talkington is attached to the hall.

West Village - 2014

• West Village is the most expensive Tech residence hall. The $54-million-dollar, 236,500 square-foot complex has 455 beds. West Village A/undergraduate is comprised of 2- and 4-bedroom apartments. West Village B/graduate has 1- and 2-bedroom apartments.

Honors Hall - 2017

• Each pod has 16 beds and 8 bedrooms.
• Adjacent study lounges allow residents a place to study and meet other honors students.

1952: Greek System Formed

When Texas Tech was being created, the Board of Directors didn’t want Greek-letter fraternities or sororities at Texas Technological College.

“We must have no hazing, for hazing is another form of class distinction,” said President Paul Horn, about the June 27, 1924, decision.

Tech had social clubs in its infant years, instead of Greek-letter groups.

Today, there are more than 50 fraternities and sororities under four councils at Texas Tech University.

What led to the change? A brief history:

• 1926: Las Chaparritas, the first women’s social club, was followed by Sans Souci.
• 1929: Centaur Club, the first men’s social club.
• 1930: There were 54 student organizations on campus in three categories:
  • Academic: For example, Pre-Med, Engineering, Aggie.
  • Special interest: For example, Debate and East Texas clubs.
  • Social clubs
  That same year, DFD was founded, the only social club on campus with its full name only known to its members.
• 1950: National organizations and alumni began lobbying Tech for Greek groups on campus.
• 1951: Lubbock City Panhellenic Council polled Tech’s women’s social clubs to gauge interest in Greek-lettered organizations on campus. Two weeks later, a Toreador story said, “Coeds receptive to sorority talks.” Later that year, the administration decided to take the issue to the Board of Directors.
• 1952: On June 21st, almost exactly 28 years to the day it decided not to have Greek-letter groups on campus, the Board said yes.
• 1953: Social clubs transformed into frats and sororities. A few examples were:
  • For women, Las Chaparritas became Kappa Kappa Gamma and DFD became Delta Delta Delta.
  • For men, Centaurs became Phi Kappa Psi. Silver Keys became Phi Delta Theta.
• 1954: After poor academic performance – six out of ten men decreased their GPA by 0.43 on a 3.0 scale – the Interfraternity Council ordered a deferred rush system.
• 1958: Twenty frats and sororities chipped in $3,750 to buy the Turner Tract from Lizzie Turner for $75,000. The land became Greek Circle northeast of the 19th Street and Quaker Avenue intersection.
• 1970: Kappa Alpha Theta, first to build a lodge on Greek Circle.
• 1971: Alpha Phi Alpha Inc. forms the first “Divine Nine” fraternity on campus. The Divine Nine are under the National Pan-Hellenic Council – nine historically African-American fraternities and sororities.

Today there are more than 5,000 students involved in Tech’s Greek system, which represents 17 percent of Tech’s undergrads, said Kimberly Thornton, assistant vice provost for student life.

The majority are longtime frats and sororities. Tech also has six of the Divine Nine and 15 more groups promoting multicultural diversity, under the Multicultural Greek Council, or MGC.

“Some of the first chapters of a national organization in MGC were created here on campus,” said Thornton.

No matter which of the 50-plus Greek groups students may join, it becomes part of their identity.

When Thornton meets alumni and they find out she’s the director of fraternity and sorority life, they point out their connection.

“‘I was a Delta here,’ they’ll say. It’s very much part of their identity. The sisterhood, the brotherhood, this sense of belonging – finding a place on campus is important,” said Thornton.

Then there are connections.

“A lot of people will tell you their fraternity or sorority opened doors they would have never had opened before, through connections or networking or through experiences they had through the fraternity or sorority,” said Thornton.

Some more Greek stats:

• Just under half of students in Greek organizations had a 3.5 grade point average or higher and 20 percent had 4.0 or higher, she said.
• Even though they make up less than 20 percent of Tech undergrads, Greek students are more involved in Student Government Association, homecoming and other groups, Thornton said. “Their chapters encourage them to be involved,” adding part of the involvement includes philanthropy. “They do a lot of great philanthropy – events that raise a lot of money for their national charities but also for local charities. They also do quite a bit of community service.”
• The Rawls College of Business has the highest percentage represented in the Greek system, with 32 percent of its students. Next highest is Arts & Sciences with 28 percent.
• Tech’s Greek system currently has members from 24 countries and 36 states.

Leadership and Skills

Students join campus organizations to make friends but can learn leadership and skills beyond the classroom – especially if leading a group.

“It’s real-world experience. If you’re CFO or treasurer of your fraternity or sorority, you could be managing half-a-million to million-dollar budgets,” said Thornton.

“If you’re their philanthropy chair, you’re planning events, volunteer events, community service – you’re getting real-world experience,” she said.

The students have advisors, but they’re the ones running the organization and learning from that.

Students also develop what Thornton called soft skills, becoming more important in the workplace.

“Interpersonal skills, conflict management skills, networking skills,” Thornton said.

Thornton was in a sorority at LSU.

“I can talk to anyone about anything because of my sorority and recruitment. You had to talk to the women and make them feel at home and comfortable. There are a lot of social skills they learn,” she said.

Jerry Rawls, a Phi Gamma Delta, donated $25 million to create the Rawls College of Business and another $8 million for the Rawls Course at Texas Tech.

His Silicon Valley based Finisar Corporation became the industry standard for gigabit fiber optic communications. Rawls’ engineering degree guided him into the technology industry, but he credits his frat as much as his degree.

“The great value of a fraternity is it helps you develop social skills.”

“The great value of a fraternity is it helps you develop social skills,” he said.

Rawls learned how to recruit quality members, how to lead a project.

“You learn a lot of lessons in life and business because of a fraternity. They provide peer feedback. Guys will tell you if you’re getting off base. No one in the dorm is on your ass,” he said.

Rawls said a major part of starting Finisar was being the salesman while his partner was the Ph.D. physicist. Those sales skills blossomed in Texas Tech’s Greek system.

All-Star Flag Football at The Jones

The Greek system and Texas Tech football partner on an annual All-Star flag football game at Jones AT&T Stadium.

Each frat contributes two players.

Chris Sneed, vice president/operations & engagement with the Texas Tech Alumni Association and an SEC football referee, serves as referee.

Head coach Joey McGuire brings his coaches. Tech players coach the frat teams.

Fraternities and sororities come out to cheer.

“It builds spirit,” said Thornton, adding one of fraternity presidents made an impressive catch that had coaches wishing they had a roster spot for him.

Addressing Hazing

Along with doing a lot of good work, students join Greeks organizations to have fun. Sometimes there have been serious issues.

In 2014, two incidents – the death of a student from alcohol and offensive sexual decorations at a fraternity party – led Tech to create new policies.

“We do a lot of hazing education and define what hazing us,” said Thornton. “We work closely with our national organizations, with the fraternity members, their advisors and new members.”

“How can we have fun safely and legally? That’s important to us,” she said.

Texas state law now requires if any student organization is responsible for hazing at a Texas higher education institution, it must be posted on a website for three years.

“We post it on our website. We encourage parents to look at that. We are required by law to send it out to all students two weeks prior to school starting each semester so students can look at it,” she said.

Texas Tech Greeks of Note

Phi Delta Theta

• Josh Abbott: Created the Josh Abbott Band while at Tech. His song “Victory Bells” honors his alma mater.
• Cody Campbell: Former Texas Tech and NFL offensive lineman, whose success in the energy industry led to a record $25 gift to Texas Tech toward the South End Zone project expected to be ready for the 2024 football season. The field at Jones AT&T Stadium is now named for him.
• Robert Duncan: Longtime state senator from West Texas who served as Texas Tech University System Chancellor from 2014-18.
• George Eads: Actor best-known for playing investigator Nick Stokes on “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”
• Wes Welker: One of the greatest receivers and kick returners in Texas Tech history. Led the NFL in receptions three years when playing for the New England Patriots. Now is a coach for the Miami Dolphins.

Delta Tau Delta

• John Denver: Widely successful singer-songwriter, actor, activist and humanitarian who died when he was flying an experimental plane and it crashed in 1997.
• Kent Hance: Former Texas state senator and congressman who served as Texas Tech University System Chancellor from 2006-14.
• Ed Whitacre: CEO of AT&T who later pulled General Motors out of bankruptcy. He has given or guided millions of dollars to Texas Tech. The engineering college and the Athletics administration center are named for him.

FarmHouse

• Pat Green: Country music star who learned to play guitar in his Tech dorm basement laundry.

Sigma Chi

• Terry Fuller: Like Campbell, he’s shared his energy industry success with Tech. The Terry Fuller Petroleum Engineering Research Building and the Terry and Linda Fuller Track and Field Complex are two examples. The Fullers have also endowed 30 scholarships, including one each for all 13 varsity sports and all 10 colleges at Tech.
• Kliff Kingsbury: One of the greatest quarterbacks in Tech history, he went on to become head coach at his alma mater from 2013-18 and is now head coach of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals.

Sigma Phi Epsilon

• Andy Fickman: Producer/director. Directed “Race to Witch Mountain” and “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2” among 24 director and 16 producer credits.

Kappa Alpha Psi

• Bernard Harris: Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center graduate who became the first African American to walk in space. Served as a Texas Tech regent and is CEO of the National Math and Science Initiative and CEO of a venture capital company that invests in Medical Informatics and Technology.

Delta Delta Delta

• Angela Braly: Former CEO of WellPoint (now Anthem), the nation’s largest health insurer in terms of members, named the fourth most powerful woman in the world by Forbes in 2008.
• Laura Whitley: Former head of Global Commercial Banking for Bank of America.

Alpha Kappa Alpha

• Brenda Peters: Graduated Tech with an accounting degree, got a job with one of the Big Eight accounting firms at a time some clients did not want a woman or African Americans to work on their accounts. Went on to a long career in the energy industry. She’s been very active with Tech and endowed a scholarship to honor Herschel Mann, Tech accounting professor.

Zeta Tau Alpha

• Leslie Ward: President of AT&T Texas and member of the Texas Tech Foundation Board of Directors.

Delta Gamma

• Holly Hunt: Founder of Holly Hunt Design, became a design icon of luxury home décor.

Kappa Delta Chi

• Arcilia Acosta: Member of the Texas Tech Board of Regents. CEO of CARCON Industries and Construction and founder/CEO of Southwestern Testing Laboratories.

1990s: Red Raider Orientation Formed

The groups of new students seen over the late spring and summer months are plugging into their new school and learning Texas Tech traditions through Red Raider Orientation.

The program began in 2009, replacing New Student Orientation and Red Raider Camp, said Zach Manning, Director of Orientation Services since 2022, but who’s worked in the office since 2009 after getting his graduate degree from Tech.

New Student Orientation mostly focused on the business of being a new student – tasks such as registration, academic advising and financial aid.

Red Raider Camp taught history and traditions.

They were combined in 2009, but Manning said the Red Raider Camp was brought back in 2014 and takes place in Brownwood. The camp goes deeper into history and traditions.

The main purpose of Red Raider Orientation is the business of students connecting with Tech and some traditions.

“We teach them the Fight Song, the Matador Song and have some fun, but the business is paramount,” said Manning.

Every Tech student goes through RRO, led by The Crew.

“The Crew are students from all different colleges and backgrounds. It’s a diverse group and they help lead students and their guests, give tours, host conversations and presentations,” said Manning.

Oct. 3, 1925: First Football Game: Scoreless Tie Against McMurry Kicks Off Tech’s Most Popular Sport

Texas Tech’s first football team dressed in a garage, then jogged a few blocks to a practice field south of 19th Street.

“It took us all year to wear down the goat heads,” said “Preacher” Callaway, an end on that 1925 team.

That was an improvement over potential fields on campus – a sea of goat heads, thistles, cat’s claws and other weeds with nasty protrusions.

But that first team had a goat-head tough 6-1-2 record.

It would be more than:

• A decade before Tech’s first national ranking.
• Three decades before joining the Southwest Conference.
• Eight decades before Graham Harrell hit Michael Crabtree with that pass.

In almost a century of Texas Tech football, going into the 2022 season, the Red Raiders have:

• Played 1,082 games
• 580 wins
• 470 losses
• 32 ties
• 39 bowl appearances with a 15-23-1 record
• 31 First Team All-Americans
• 10 Academic All-Americans
• Showed up in the NFL’s biggest game with at least one Red Raider appearing in 27 of the 56 Super Bowls.

Before Tech could snap a football, it needed a coach. E.Y. “Big Un” Freeland, line coach at Southern Methodist University in Dallas became coach and athletic director on July 1, 1925.

“He has been uniformly successful in football in producing good, well-coached teams, especially in elementals, for small colleges with very little material from which to draw,” said the Dallas News of Tech’s new coach.

A teasing piece in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, owned by Tech Board of Directors chair Amon Carter, said the new school’s team name should be “dogie” – a calf that’s lost its mother.

“If ever anything had to rustle for itself, it was West Texas and Tech College.”

“If ever anything had to rustle for itself, it was West Texas and Tech College,” the article said.

The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal rose to protest:

Tech would not be an orphan or anyone’s scrub team. It would be owned and honored by all the people of West Texas and mothered by the city of Lubbock, the newspaper said.

Dogie was DOA.

Freeland’s wife thought Matadors would be a good name for Tech’s teams, a good fit with the school’s Spanish architectural influence.

Scarlet and black were chosen as colors.

About 120 young men showed up two weeks before classes began in September 1925, trying for a spot on that first squad. Some had played college football elsewhere.

Almost a century of history was about to start.

The 1920s: Early Success

Coaches:

• E.Y. Freeland, 1925-28, record 21-10-6
• Grady Higgenbotham, 1929, record 1-7-2

Memorable games:

October 3, 1925/Texas Tech 0, McMurry 0: The first game was played at the South Plains Fairgrounds. No Jones AT&T Stadium or luxury boxes.

In 1976, Callaway remembered that game:

“I think the reason the game was played (at the fairgrounds) was it was surrounded by a fence and easier to keep out non-paying spectators. Also, there were fewer grass burrs and goat heads than on the open range of the school campus,” he said in a letter to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

Tech outgained McMurry 222-96 but couldn’t score. In the game’s final seconds, Elson Archibald’s drop-kick field goal sailed over the goal posts. Fans rushed the field, lifting Archibald and other players on their shoulders to celebrate a 3-0 win.

But the referee said the clock ran out before the ball was snapped and the win became a tie.

The referee who made that call had tried to land the coaching job at Tech, said Callaway. Some Tech fans felt his call was revenge for not getting the job. It wouldn’t be the first time Tech fans were upset with a referee’s call.

Tech’s first win was two weeks later, the start of a five-game win streak.

1930-40: Tech’s Ascension

Coach:

• Pete Cawthon, record 76-32-6

Tech’s second game in that 1925 season was a 3-3 tie against Austin College, coached by a young Cawthon, who a few years later came to Lubbock and became a legend. His .693 winning percentage is still the best in school history and he’s still the only Tech coach with two double-digit win seasons. As the country was falling deeper into the Depression, Tech football was ascending. Cawthon also scheduled games from coast to coast, bring the program exposure. He eventually left the university because administrators wanted him to play games closer to Lubbock to save money.

Memorable games:

Sept. 26, 1936/Texas Tech 7, TCU 0: Tech shut out the Horned Frogs and legendary quarterback Sammy Baugh for its first win over TCU after five previous losses. It was also the first time the Saddle Tramps appeared.

Jan. 1, 1938/Sun Bowl/West Virginia 7, Texas Tech 6: Cawthon’s 8-3 Raiders earned the school’s first bowl bid but couldn’t get the win.

Jan. 2, 1939/Cotton Bowl/St. Mary’s (Calif.) 20, Texas Tech 13: Tech’s perfect season was ruined by St. Mary’s, which back then was a national power, but no longer plays football. This was Tech’s first ranked team in the Associated Press poll, finishing the season 11th. Years later, according to a Los Angeles Times story, some students at St. Mary’s, in the San Francisco Bay Area, found the Gaels’ 1939 Cotton Bowl trophy amid some campus trash.

Ring of Honor players:

Elmer Tarbox, halfback/defensive back 1936-38, inducted in 2021

Tarbox represents the early stages of the Red Raider football program when the school was named Texas Technological College.

• Came to Tech in 1935 having never played a single down of football and had only seen part of one game while growing up in small Panhandle town of Higgins near Oklahoma border.
• Joined the Red Raiders as a walk-on under Cawthon.
• Quickly developed into one of the most prominent two-way players in the country.
• Led the country as a senior in yards per catch.
• Was even better on defense. His school record 11 interceptions in 1938 has not been seriously threatened. His 17 career picks lasted nearly 50 years until Tracy Saul broke it.
• The second Red Raider selected in the NFL Draft, a year after Herschel Ramsey. Tarbox never played in the NFL as he enlisted to fight in World War II.
• Served in the Texas House of Representatives.
• Passed away in 1987.

1941-1950: The War Years

Coach:

• Dell Morgan, record 55-49-3

Morgan took over with the country on the brink of World War II when there were more important battles to be fought than on football fields. He guided Tech to Border Conference titles and three bowl games, losing all three by a total of 14 points.

Memorable games:

Sept. 28, 1946/Texas Tech 6, Texas A&M 0: The decade was not filled with memorable games, but Weaver led Tech to its first win over the Aggies and did it again two years later.

1951-1960: Building a Resume

Coach:

• DeWitt Weaver, record 49-51-5

Tech continued to excel in the Border Conference but was building an argument to join the Southwest Conference. Weaver led Tech in its first season in the SWC in 1960.

Memorable games:

Jan. 1, 1952/Sun Bowl/Texas Tech 25, Pacific 14: Weaver’s first season ended with the school’s first bowl win over the California school.

Jan. 1, 1954/Gator Bowl/Texas Tech 35, Auburn 13: Texas Tech’s first football game TV and the Masked Rider ’s debut. The Red Raiders were led by All-American running back Bobby Cavazos, who ran for 114 yards and three touchdowns, capping an 11-1 season.

Sept. 18, 1954/Texas Tech 41, at Texas A&M 9: The Aggies’ first game after Bear Bryant’s famous “Junction Boys” training camp and his worst loss.

Sept. 17, 1955/Texas Tech 20, at Texas 14: The first win over Texas after seven previous losses showed the Red Raiders were worthy of joining the Southwest Conference. Tech was voted in the following year.

1961-1969: Moving on Up

Coach:

• J.T. King, record 44-45-3

During Tech’s first five years in the Southwest Conference, four of them under King, the Red Raiders were 19-30-2 overall and 8-25-2 in the SWC. The next five years, those records were 28-21-2 and 20-15 – setting the stage for the 1970s.

Memorable games:

Oct. 2. 1965/Texas Tech 20, Texas A&M 16: Under a minute to play, Jerry Shipley caught a pass and lateraled to Tech legend Donny Anderson, who scored. It was one of many times the Red Raiders and Aggies had late-game drama. The 1965 team was ranked 9th in November, the first time Tech cracked the top ten.

Sept. 30, 1967/Texas Tech 19, at Texas 13: Tech’s first Southwest Conference win over Texas – and in Austin – was led by quarterback John Scovell, a future Texas Tech regent. It set up a wild party in Lubbock. The team plane could not land because there were too many fans on the runway.

Ring of Honor players:

E.J. Holub, center/linebacker, 1958-60, inducted 2012

Nicknamed “The Beast,” one of three Red Raiders to have his jersey retired.

• Tech’s first inductee into the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame in 1986.
• First-Team All-American in 1959 and 1960.
• Finished 10th in 1960 Heisman Trophy voting.
• Tech’s first All-Southwest Conference honoree in 1960.
• First-round draft pick by the AFL’s Dallas Texans and a second-round draft choice by the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.
• Inducted into the Texas Tech Hall of Honor in 1977.
• Five-time AFL All-Star.
• Only player to start two Super Bowls at two different positions (started Super Bowl I at linebacker and Super Bowl IV at center).
• Got a Super Bowl ring with Kansas City Chiefs in 1970.
• Inducted into the Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Honor in 1976.
• Passed away in 2019, at the age of 81.

Dave Parks, split end, 1961-63, inducted 2012

Parks is one of three Red Raiders to have his jersey retired.

• 2008 inductee into the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame.
• Consensus First-Team All-American in 1963.
• All-Southwest Conference selection in 1962 and 1963.
• Team MVP in 1962 and 1963.
• Top overall pick in the 1964 NFL Draft (San Francisco 49ers) and remains the only Red Raider chosen as the first pick in the draft.
• Inducted into the Texas Tech Hall of Honor in 1990.
• His 98-yard pick six against Colorado in 1962 is still the longest interception return for a touchdown in school history.
• NFL player for ten years with San Francisco, New Orleans and Houston.
• Passed away in 2019, at the age of 77.

Donny Anderson, running back, 1963-65, inducted in 2012

Nicknamed the “Golden Palomino, one of three Red Raiders to have his jersey retired and was:

• 1989 inductee into the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame.
• Consensus First-Team All-American in 1964 and 1965.
• Fourth in 1965 Heisman Trophy voting.
• Co-National Player of the Year in 1965 by The Sporting News.
• All-Southwest Conference selection in 1963, 1964 and 1965.
• First-round draft choice in both the AFL (Houston) and NFL (Green Bay) in 1965.
• Inducted into the Texas Tech Hall of Honor in 1978.
• His 90-yard touchdown run against TCU in 1964 is still a school record.
• Played six seasons of professional football with the Green Bay Packers and four seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals., winning two Super Bowls with Green Bay.

1970-1979: Success in the ‘70s

Coaches:

• Jim Carlen, 1970-74, record 37-20-2
• Steve Sloan, 1975-77, record 23-12
• Rex Dockery, 1978-80, record 15-16-2

Carlen and Sloan put together a string of success not seen since the Cawthon years with quarterback Joe Barnes running an option offense out of an I formation and Rodney Allison running what was called a split back veer. Both offenses featured multiple options to run the ball, keeping defenses guessing.

Tech played in six bowl games against ranked teams from 1970-77, going 1-5 in those games.

Memorable games:

Dec. 29, 1973/Gator Bowl/Texas Tech 28, Tennessee 19: The win capped one of the greatest seasons in Tech history with an 11-1 record, finishing ranked 11th in the country.

Oct. 30, 1976/Texas Tech 31, Texas 28: Tech entered the game undefeated and No. 6, while Texas was 3-1-1. The Longhorns were leading 28-24 in the middle of the fourth quarter. Allison scrambled for 22 yards on a third-down play to keep the drive alive and Billy Taylor scored from a yard out to give Tech the lead. Defensive coordinator Bill Parcells’ defense kept Texas from rallying. Texas Tech won its first Southwest Conference title (shared with Houston), finishing the year 10-2. That team was ranked No. 5 as late as Nov. 16, the first top-five ranking in school history.

Nov. 25, 1978: Texas Tech 22, Houston 21: The Cougars were a top-ten team when they came to Lubbock. Two years before, their 27-19 win in Lubbock kept Tech from the outright SWC title. In 1977, they embarrassed the Red Raiders 45-7. Tech was trailing 21-14 when they started a drive at their own 12 with 5:54 left in the game. Freshman quarterback Ron Reeves hit flanker Brian Nelson for 12 and 48 yards. From the Houston 40, Reeves lateraled to running back James Hadnot, who passed to Michael Morris to the one-yard-line. After Reeves scored on a quarterback sneak, coach Rex Dockery decided to go for two points and the win. Reeves tossed a screen pass to Hadnot, who was met by a trio of Cougars at the five-yard-line. He was stopped for a second, then burst free and scored for a 22-21 win.

1981-1986: Tech Lands on the Struggle Bus

Coaches:

• Jerry Moore, 1981-85, record 16-37-2
• David McWilliams, 1986, record 7-4

Moore’s teams struggled, but he went on to a successful career leading Appalachian State. McWilliams got Tech back to a winning season before ticking off the Red Raider Nation when he took the head coach job at Texas.

Memorable games:

Oct. 23, 1982: Texas Tech 3, at Washington 10: Texas Tech was 3-3 when it traveled to No. 1 Washington, which was averaging 40 points a game. Tech defensive lineman Gabe Rivera dominated the game, keeping Tech in contention.

Norval Pollard wrote the following in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal:

“Gabe was like a mad hornet trapped in a fast-moving car with all the windows up. The Huskies didn’t know whether to pull over, open all the doors and wait until he escaped or keep traveling and hope he stayed at the rear window.”

Washington coach Don James called Rivera the best defensive player he’d ever seen.

1986-99: The Spike Years

Coach

• Spike Dykes, record 82-67-1

“Kids loved him, high school coaches loved him, the media loved him. He was hard to compete against because I loved him, too.” – R.C. Slocum, Texas A&M football coach

Dykes led the Red Raiders longer than any other coach and was beloved for his folksy charm and some big wins.

He was quotable:

• “With all due respect, it’s not like beating TCU … it’s like Boston College beating Notre Dame or Michigan State beating Michigan. The Texas game is what everything is gauged by here in the state. It’s the biggest game for Texas Tech. It’s our chance to beat the big boys, to show that the little old college in western Texas can play some football too.”
• “Oh, we played about like three tons of buzzard puke this afternoon.”

Memorable Games:

Oct. 29, 1988/Texas Tech 33, Texas 32: The Red Raiders trailed Texas by 17 points in the fourth quarter but rallied within a point when Billy Joe Tolliver hit Eddy Anderson for a 46-yard touchdown with 2:36 left. Dykes decided to go for a two-point conversion and Tolliver connected with Travis Price for the winning points.

Nov. 4, 1989/Texas Tech 24, at Texas 17: Don Williams, who’s covered the Red Raiders since the 1980s – first for the student newspaper and then for Lubbock Avalanche-Journal – called the 1989 Tech team his favorite. They were picked sixth in the SWC, had six former walk-ons starting, but beat four top 20 teams and finished 9-3 after blowing out Duke in the All-American Bowl. “Maybe one of the most underappreciated quarterbacks in Tech history … was sophomore Jamie Gill that season. In Austin, Gill threw a 65-yard pass to beat the Longhorns,” said Williams. Gill also led the Red Raiders that year to a late win over Texas A&M. “In the discussion of great Tech quarterbacks, Jamie Gill’s name rarely gets mentioned, but in 1989 he was the quarterback on a team that beat four top 20 opponents, both your biggest rivals with touchdown passes that were perfectly thrown balls late in close fourth-quarter games,” said Williams.

Oct. 7, 1995/Texas Tech 14, Texas A&M 7: With less than a minute to play, the Aggies started a drive at their 14-yard line. A&M quarterback Corey Pullig didn’t see Tech linebacker Zach Thomas as he threw a third-down pass. Thomas picked it off and sprinted 25 yards into the end zone, sending Jones Stadium into euphoria. The game is often mentioned as one of the greatest games in Tech history after the 2008 Tech-Texas game.

Nov. 20, 1999/Texas Tech 38, Oklahoma 28: The Dykes era came to an end with a big win. Dykes told the team he was retiring after the game and then had Tech legend E.J. Holub talk to the team. Redshirt freshman Kliff Kingsbury led Tech to 18 straight points in his first college start.

Ring of Honor players:

Zach Thomas, linebacker, 1992-95, inducted in 2016

Remains one of, if not the best, linebackers in Tech history.

• 2015 inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame.
• One of five Red Raiders in team history to be named a unanimous first team All-American in 1995.
• Two-time Southwest Conference Defensive Player of the Year honoree in 1994 and 1995.
• First-team All-SWC in 1995.
• First team UPI All-American in 1994.
• Helped lead the Red Raiders to three bowl games in his four-year career from 1992-95.
• Fifth all-time in Texas Tech history with 390 career tackles.
• Fifth-round draft pick in 1996 to the Miami Dolphins.
• Ended his NFL career with seven Pro Bowl selections, 1,720 tackles, 20.5 sacks, 17 interceptions, 17 forced fumbles, eight fumble recoveries and four touchdowns during his 13-year pro career.

2000-09: Air Raid Comes to Lubbock

Mike Leach, 84-43

Under Dykes, Tech ran the ball with great success – Bam Morris and Byron Hanspard won the Doak Walker Award given to the nation’s top running back. Enter Leach and the Air Raid offense. Tech was 14-11 his first two years, losing to Nebraska 56-3. Kingsbury had some games where he got roughed up. But they got to bowl games those two years – and all ten of Leach’s seasons. “In 2002, 2003 Leach’s vision really took off. The 2003 offense was close to unstoppable,” said Williams. Leach beat A&M consistently and turned the tables on Nebraska. His quarterbacks and receivers rewrote the Texas Tech record book. Leach’s best season was 2008, when Tech was 10-0 and ranked second in the nation – its highest-ever ranking, before losing two of its last three games, including the Cotton Bowl to Mississippi to end the year ranked 12th. Leach was fired after the 2009 season after the university said he abused a player. It became a controversial, complicated mess resembling a political contest with both sides telling their version of what happened.

Memorable Games:

Oct. 5, 2002/Texas Tech 48 at Texas A&M 47: The game is remembered for Wes Welker’s 89-yard punt return down the right sideline to put Tech ahead with less than three minutes to play. Welker is racing to the end zone in a photo with A&M Corps members on the sidelines stunned in their boots while a few Tech fans exult in the stands amid a sea of maroon. But the game wasn’t over. After the Aggies took a three-point lead, Robert Treece hit a 42-yard field goal to send the game to overtime. A&M missed the extra point after scoring an overtime touchdown. Then senior quarterback Kingsbury hit Nehemiah Glover for a touchdown and Treece ended the game with his extra point. Tech had another wild win over A&M on a sweltering, hot day. Before Welker’s punt return, Tech trailed by 18 points in the fourth quarter before Kingsbury rallied the Red Raiders.

Nov. 16, 2002/Texas Tech 42, Texas 38: Kingsbury’s last home game was an upset of No. 5 Texas, which had the best pass defense in the Big 12. But Tech’s pass defense came up with a big play. The Red Raiders led by four late in the fourth quarter when Ryan Aycock intercepted Texas quarterback Chris Simms. Tech sealed the win when Kingsbury lateraled to Mickey Peters who hit Welker for a first down to allow them to run out the clock.

Sept. 27, 2003/Texas Tech 49, at Mississippi 45: B.J. Symons outdueled future Super Bowl winner Eli Manning. With eight minutes to play, Tech trailed by 11, but Symons led the Red Raiders to two touchdowns and the lead. Then, for the second season in a row, Ryan Aycock came up with a late-game interception, picking off Manning with 26 seconds left.

Oct. 9, 2004/Texas Tech 70, Nebraska 10: Tech’s first victory over one of college football’s most powerful programs was Nebraska’s worst loss in its 114-year history. Quarterback Sonny Cumbie led Tech, aided by seven Cornhusker turnovers.

Dec. 30, 2004/Holiday Bowl/Texas Tech 45, California 31: No. 4 California was loaded with future NFL stars like quarterback Aaron Rodgers and running back Marshawn Lynch. But the star was Tech’s Cumbie. He passed for 520 yards and three touchdowns as Tech outscored the Bears 31-3 in the second and third quarters.

Nov. 19, 2005/Texas Tech 23, Oklahoma 21: Cody Hodges led Tech on a 13-play drive, three of the plays reviewed by officials, before Taurean Henderson scored on a controversial final play sending the Red Raiders to the Cotton Bowl.

Sept. 30, 2006/Texas Tech 31 at Texas A&M 27: Graham Harrell hit Robert Johnson in the end zone with 26 seconds left to silence the crowd in College Station.

Dec. 29, 2006/Insight Bowl/Texas Tech 44, Minnesota 41: With 7:13 to go in the third quarter, Minnesota led 38-7. Harrell led the Red Raiders to 31 unanswered points, tying the game on a 52-yard field goal by Alex Trlica as time expired. The Gophers kicked a field goal in overtime and when Tech answered with a touchdown it completed the greatest comeback in bowl history.

Nov. 17, 2007/Texas Tech 34, Oklahoma 27: The No. 3 Sooners and future Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Sam Bradford came to Lubbock with hopes of playing for a national title. The Red Raiders knocked Bradford out of the game early and ran out to a 27-7 lead before holding on for the upset.

Jan. 1, 2008/Gator Bowl/Texas Tech 31, Virginia 38: Another Tech bowl game comeback gave Red Raiders a glimpse of what would happen the next season. The Cavaliers led by 14 points with 5:32 left in the game. Harrell hit redshirt freshman receiver Michael Crabtree with a touchdown pass, then added another touchdown after Virginia’s quarterback fumbled when he was sacked. Tech’s defense stopped Virginia. Tech drove into field goal range and Trilica again provided bowl-game magic hitting a 41-yard field goal with two seconds left.

Nov. 1, 2008/Texas Tech 39, Texas 33: The greatest game in Texas Tech history started with ESPN College Game Day’s first visit to Lubbock and ended with Graham Harrell’s 28-yard touchdown pass to Michael Crabtree in the final seconds (please link to Harrell to Crabtree story). Both teams were undefeated coming in. Texas was No. 1 and Tech 7th. The Red Raiders built a 22-6 halftime lead, but Texas rallied to lead 33-32 with a minute and a half left before Harrell led Tech down the field.

Ring of Honor players:

Michael Crabtree, wide receiver, 2007-08, 2021 inductee

First Big 12-era Red Raider to join the Ring of Honor. Crabtree is regarded as one of the top wide receivers in college football history following his two-year career in Lubbock.

• Two-time winner of the Biletnikoff Award, presented to the nation’s top receiver, first two-time winner of the award in its history and first freshman to win it.
• Only two-time unanimous All-American in program history.
• Joined fellow Ring of Honor members E.J. Holub, Donny Anderson and Zach Thomas as the only two-time first team All-Americans in school history.
• Set the Texas Tech single-season marks and NCAA records for freshmen with 134 receptions, 1,962 receiving yards and 22 receiving touchdowns in 2007.
• Closed his Tech career as all-time leader with 3,127 receiving yards and 41 touchdown catches.
• Helped lead Texas Tech to an 11-2 record during final season in 2008 that saw the Red Raiders climb to No. 2 in national polls following memorable win over top-ranked Texas.
• Declared for the 2009 NFL Draft where he was selected 10th overall by the San Francisco 49ers.
• Played 11 total NFL seasons, totaling 637 career catches for 7,499 yards and 54 touchdowns while playing for the 49ers, Oakland Raiders, Baltimore Ravens and Arizona Cardinals.

2010-2021: A Frustrating 11 Years

Coaches:

• Tommy Tuberville, 2010-12, record 20-17
• Kliff Kingsbury, 2013-18, record 35-40
• Matt Wells, 2019-2021*, record 13-17 (*Wells dismissed after eight games into 2021 season)

Tuberville met a split fan base when he came to Lubbock after Leach’s firing and was never able to match his success at Auburn. A 66-6 loss to Oklahoma State in 2011 made it seem like the heavens were lined up against him. Even though Tuberville had a winning record, he’ll forever be remembered for leaving a Lubbock dinner with recruits to take the job at Cincinnati. He went on to become a U.S. Senator. Kingsbury was a popular choice and started with a 7-0 record his first year. He developed future Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes but struggled overall his last five seasons and was dismissed after 2018. Shortly after, he was named head coach of the NFL Arizona Cardinals. In three seasons, he had the Cardinals in the NFL playoffs. Wells had the COVID pandemic to deal with and ended his two-plus seasons with the second-worst winning percentage in school history.

Memorable Games:

Oct. 22, 2011/Texas Tech 41 at No. 3 Oklahoma 38: Tech was a 28-point underdog to the Sooners but ended Oklahoma’s 39-game home win streak in a game delayed 90 minutes by weather.

Oct. 20, 2012/Texas Tech 56 at TCU 53: It was the first Big 12 game for the former Southwest Conference rivals and took three overtimes to settle. Seth Doege had seven touchdown passes in the shootout.

Nov. 26, 2015/Texas Tech 48 at Texas 45: Coach Kliff Kingsbury called the play “Little People, Big World,” and it meant defeat for Texas. The Red Raiders were nursing a late lead when they lined up at the Longhorn 40. Jakeem Grant was crouched down low next to quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes sprinted back like he was going to throw, but Grant had the ball and went down the left side of the field with the confused Texas defense trying to catch him.

Nov. 13, 2021/Texas Tech 41, Iowa State 38: Since 2000, the Red Raiders had been to bowl games 15 times, but not since 2017. That changed when Jonathan Garibay drilled a 62-yard field goal as time expired to make Tech bowl eligible.

Dec. 28, 2021/Liberty Bowl/Texas Tech 34, Mississippi State 7: Tech was the underdog against its former head coach Mike Leach, but they walloped the Bulldogs. Tech’s interim coach – former Leach quarterback Sonny Cumbie – inspired the Red Raiders adopting “pumpjack mentality” as a rallying cry. New head coach Joey McGuire asked Cumbie to stay on as offensive coordinator, but he left to become head coach at Louisiana Tech.

Sources:

• “The Red Raiders: Texas Tech Football,” by Jim Davidson and Ralph Sellmeyer, 1978.
• Also thanks to Rodney Allison, Doug Hensley, Joe Hornaday, Ryan Hyatt, Jorge Iber, Kelly Robinson, Don Williams, Norval Pollard for their input.

Spurned Tech Joins the Border Conference

There’s a stone bench near the first tee box at Tech Tech’s Rawls Golf Course with the following inscription:

J.M. (Panny) Farmer
Border Conference Golf Champion
1936
1st Texas Tech Individual Champion

Texas Technological College competed in the Border Conference from 1932 until it joined the Southwest Conference in the late 1950s.

It was a football power in the conference with nine colleges in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

But as well as Tech did in the Border Conference, it was the school’s second choice.

Tech applied to the Southwestern Conference on Sept. 17, 1927 and was rejected. It joined the Border Conference the year after the conference was formed in 1931 – joining:

• University of Arizona
• Arizona State Teachers College at Flagstaff (now Northern Arizona University)
• Arizona State Teachers College at Tempe (now Arizona State University)
• University of New Mexico
• New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts (now New Mexico State University)

From 1935 to 1941, the conference added:

• The College of Mines and Metallurgy of the University of Texas (now University of Texas at El Paso).
• Hardin-Simmons University
• West Texas State Teachers College (now West Texas A&M University)

Tech won a record nine Border Conference football titles from 1937 to 1955. The conference champion was usually the host team in the Sun Bowl in El Paso.

The Red Raiders played in five Sun Bowls from 1938-1956, but only won in 1952, beating Pacific, 25-14. It was the first bowl game Tech won and Quarterback Junior Arteburn was the game’s Most Valuable Player.

Arteburn became a Tech assistant coach and worked in the university’s admissions offices until he retired in 1998. Arteburn and his wife Joyce are the only husband and wife in the Texas Tech Athletic Hall of Fame/Hall of Honor. Joyce worked in Tech’s Physical Education Department for 37 years and was the first faculty sponsor for the High Riders student organization.

A few years before Texas Tech left for the Southwestern Conference, New Mexico and Northern Arizona had also left.

Texas Tech applied to the Southwest Conference numerous times before they heard yes. When Tech left the Border Conference, the following was in Sports Illustrated in 1956:

“…the boys from Lubbock find themselves in the peculiar position of being unfrocked participants in the conference struggle.”

“Perennial champion Texas Tech has withdrawn from the Border Conference to join the Southwest, but the conference commissioner has ruled that all games played against Texas Tech by other members of the Border will still count in the standings. Tech is not eligible, however, to win the title, so the boys from Lubbock find themselves in the peculiar position of being unfrocked participants in the conference struggle. Last year Arizona State (Tempe), sporting the multiple offense, gave new Coach Dan Devine an 8-2 record and finished second only to Texas Tech. Their chances for winning the championship in 1956 are excellent, especially since they don't play Tech.”

In the years Tech was in the Southwestern Conference, the Red Raiders played in four more Sun Bowls and lost all of them:

• 1964: Georgia 7, Tech 0
• 1970: No. 13 Georgia Tech 17, No. 19 Texas Tech 9
• 1972: No. 16 North Carolina 32, Tech 28
• 1993: No. 19 Oklahoma 41, Tech 10

So the Red Raiders are 1-8 in Sun Bowl games – 15 wins and 23 losses in all bowl games.

By the early 1960s, the Border Conference was gone.

1936: Matadors Become Red Raiders

During the 1936 Texas Tech football season, legendary Coach Pete Cawthon took his Matador team across the border to see a bullfight in Juarez, Mexico, according to the book “Tender Tyrant – The Legend of Pete Cawthon.”

The bullfight at the Plaza de Toros sickened the Tech coach.

“I don’t want you boys to be called ‘Matadors’ again.”

“I don’t want you boys to be called ‘Matadors’ again. We’ve got to get a new name,” he said.

Cawthon didn’t like how the bulls had no chance as banderillos threw darts into backs of the big beasts.

The coach changed the name to Red Devils, not that he liked it much.

About that time, Lubbock Morning Avalanche sportswriter Collier Parris started calling the team the Red Raiders because of their all-red uniforms and coast-to-coast schedule.

Cawthon adopted it.

About a decade before, the name Matadors was suggested by the wife of E.Y. Freeland, Tech’s first football coach. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram had suggested Dogies, but Mrs. Freeland liked Matadors because of the school’s Spanish architecture.

Students selected the school colors, scarlet and black, in a March 1926 convocation because they represented a full Matador’s colors, red cape and black costume.

The name stayed in place until that 1936 bullfight. The colors survived but the Matador nickname was gone – although it’s still recalled anytime “The Matador Song” is sung, which is a lot.

The only other schools using the Matador nickname are Cal State Northridge, an NCAA Division 1 program in suburban Los Angeles and Arizona Western, a community college in Yuma.

1956: Finally! Tech Joins Southwest Conference

Gerald Myers got to Lubbock in time for the party.

In 1956, Myers was a freshman when Texas Tech was voted into the Southwest Conference after being rejected four other times.

“It seemed like the whole town came out to campus,” said Myers of that historic day in May, with thousands of people filling the science quadrangle. “It was packed. The president spoke. There was a huge celebration that day. It was a giant step for Texas Tech.”

“A dream of 29 years, carefully nurtured and given tender, loving care, blossomed into fruition here today…”

The front page of the May 13, 1956, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal had a white-lettered headline set in a red background stretching across the page: Red Raiders In!

The article was histrionic:

FAYETTVILLE, Ark. – We’re in!

A dream of 29 years, carefully nurtured and given tender, loving care, blossomed into fruition here today when Texas Tech was extended an invitation to become the eighth member of the Southwest Conference.

The dream that had been barren for 29 years, although threatening to bloom on several occasions, finally came true at 10:30 a.m. in the blue room of the student union building on the University of Arkansas campus. It’s a day that will be circled in red on calendars throughout West Texas and eastern New Mexico.

In 2015, when Texas Tech was about to play its 1,000th football game, the Avalanche-Journal looked back at that day in 1956:

The announcement set off enormous celebrations not just in Lubbock, but across West Texas.

After Tech President E.N. Jones addressed students and faculty at a pep rally on campus, he called off classes the following Monday. Then, in a scene captured on the front page of the next day's A-J, Jones addressed a large outdoor throng downtown, speaking from a balcony of the Lubbock Hotel.

Ralph Sellmeyer and James Davidson described the momentous event in their 1978 book “The Red Raiders: Texas Tech Football.”

“The 29-year-old dream caused the biggest celebration in Lubbock since the end of World War II and was matched only by the gigantic celebration in 1923 when it was announced that Tech would be located in Lubbock.”

Texas Technological College first tried to get into the Southwest Conference in 1927 and was told no before it joined the Border Conference a few years later.

The Border Conference was Tech’s home for almost three decades – but it wasn’t the Southwest Conference, home since 1915 to Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor and Rice, with TCU joining in 1923.

All but Rice (1912) were founded in the 1800s.

Tech wanted to be seen as an equal to the longer-established schools – not a minor college out in West Texas. By the time it was accepted, the SWC was clearly an elite sports conference – especially in football.

SWC teams won national football titles in:

• 1938: TCU
• 1939: A&M
• 1963, ’69: Texas (with a shared title in 1970)

The conference folded in the 1990s, but four decades earlier, Tech’s acceptance meant the college on the South Plains had arrived.

“It was a huge leap,” said Myers, who played basketball in Tech’s first SWC contest his junior year, then coached the Red Raiders in the conference for 20 years before becoming athletic director.

Tech’s 11-1 football record in 1953 and 35-13 win over 17th-ranked Auburn in the Gator Bowl that season helped its case to move up to the SWC. So did beating Texas A&M in 1954, Texas in 1955 and 17th-ranked TCU in 1956.

“You have to have a good athletic program – particularly football,” said Myers.

It helped beyond sports.

“It definitely helped enrollment and Lubbock’s economy with Tech growing. It was prestigious for Texas Tech to be in the Southwest Conference and I’m sure it attracted faculty and staff,” he said.

Football: A Learning Curve

Football didn’t start playing SWC games until 1960 and struggled in the decade going 47-51-3.

The best season was 1965, when the Red Raiders were 8-3 and went to the Gator Bowl. The only two losses that year before losing to Georgia Tech in the bowl game were to No. 2 Arkansas and No. 3 Texas.

The biggest win was in 1967 when the Red Raiders won for the first time in Austin, beating 8th-ranked Texas 19-13. The plane carrying the team couldn’t land at the airport because there were too many fans on the runway.

Coaches Jim Carlen and Steve Sloan had a great run from 1970-77. The Red Raiders had a record of 60-32-2 with six bowl appearances.

Carlen’s best season was 1973, an 11-1 record and a Gator Bowl win over No. 20 Tennessee.

Sloan’s 1976 squad beat three ranked teams before losing in the Bluebonnet Bowl to finish with a 10-2 record.

There were many big wins during Tech’s SWC years, but one of the best-remembered was during the Spike Dykes years – Tech’s longest-serving coach.

Zach Thomas intercepted Texas A&M in the final minutes of the 1995 game in Lubbock and scored to seal Tech’s 14-7 win.

‘Competitive from Year one’

Tech basketball played as an independent in the 1956-57 school year, joining the SWC the next season when Myers was a junior.

“We were competitive from year one in basketball because you don’t have to have a lot of players, compared to what you need for football. If you’ve got nine or ten pretty good players you can do pretty well,” said Myers.

Tech finished third in its first year in the SWC under coach Polk Robison.

The Red Raiders won the conference basketball title in 1961 and repeated in 1962.

Tech basketball drew big crowds with a new conference and new arena – the Municipal Coliseum.

“We set attendance records for the next few years,” said Myers.

They won another title in 1965, then three more under coach Gerald Myers, who took over his alma mater’s program in 1971. One of those was the first Southwest Conference Tournament.

Tech captured two more titles in the 1990s under coach James Dickey before the conference disbanded and the Red Raiders joined the Big 12.

“During those Southwest Conference years, Tech had a winning record against every team except one,” said Myers.

The exception was Houston.

“They had those great teams with Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler. There were three years there hardly anybody beat Houston,” he said.

“But our toughest rivalry was with Eddie Sutton at Arkansas. They were tough,” said Myers, but they beat the Razorbacks three times in 1985 on the way to the SWC regular season and tournament titles.

After that season, Sutton went to Kentucky before settling in at Oklahoma State for 16 seasons. His son, Sean, is advisor to Tech basketball coach Mark Adams.

Lady Raiders

The Lady Raiders didn’t start playing basketball until the 1975-76 season following the 1972 Title IX law – but once Marsha Sharp took over the program in the early 1980s, she made up for lost time.

The Lady Raiders won five regular season SWC titles and three conference tournament titles along with the 1993 national championship.

They supplanted Texas, which won the national title in 1986 and dominated the SWC.

“We became the sweethearts of Texas women’s basketball.”

“We became the sweethearts of Texas women’s basketball,” said Krista Gerlich, who played on the ’93 title team and now coaches the Lady Raiders. “It meant so much to everybody in West Texas.”

Sharp’s programs also packed the Coliseum during the final decade of the SWC.

1967: E.J. Holub and Donny Anderson Play in Super Bowl I; Many Red Raiders Follow

Donny Anderson got into the first Super Bowl late, not something he was used to when he was the star running back at Texas Tech. But coach Vince Lombardi didn’t give his rookies much playing time.

The Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 and Anderson had four carries late in the game.

He was at the bottom of a pile after one play when he felt someone tugging at his jock strap. Anderson got up and was face mask-to-face mask with Kansas City linebacker E.J. Holub, who told him welcome to the pros, rookie.

Just one Red Raider saying hi to another.

Two Red Raiders were on the field for Super Bowl I. At least one former Texas Tech football player has been on a Super Bowl squad for 28 of the 57 games to decide the NFL champion.

Patrick Mahomes and Zech McPhearson were the latest Red Raiders to play in the Super Bowl – No. 57 – on February 12, 2023, with Mahomes winning his second ring and MVP award as his Kansas City Chiefs beat McPhearson’s Philadelphia Eagles 38-35. Mahomes rallied the Chiefs from a halftime deficit on a bum ankle to the win.

Red Raiders who’ve won two Super Bowl rings:

• Danny Amendola
• Donny Anderson
• Anthony Lynn
• Patrick Mahomes
• LaAdrian Waddle

Red Raiders who’ve won one:

• E.J. Holub
• Bake Turner
• Curtis Jordan
• Ted Watts
• Maury Buford
• Timmy Smith
• Lin Elliott
• Kliff Kingsbury
• Dylan Gandy
• Montae Reagor
• Graham Harrell
• Adrian Hamilton
• Louis Vasquez

A few other Tech/Super Bowl tidbits:

• Amendola, Waddle, Wes Welker have appeared in three Super Bowls.
• Tech quarterback legends Kliff Kingsbury and Graham Harrell won their rings as backups to Tom Brady and Aaron Rogers.
• Eight other Red Raiders have appeared in a Super Bowl, but did not win a ring, including Michael Crabtree, “Bam” Morris, Sammy Morris and Darcel McBath.

Here are a few stories of Red Raiders and their rings.

Donny Anderson

Anderson joined the Packers as the Super Bowl was born and picked up two rings.

Even though he saw limited action in the first game, during his second run in the fourth quarter, his knee knocked out Chiefs defensive back Fred “The Hammer” Williamson, who was boasting about his team’s chances before the game. The hammered “Hammer” was carried off on a stretcher. Williamson went on to a long career as a movie and TV actor.

Anderson saw more action in Super Bowl II, another dominating Packers win, this time over Oakland, 33-14. Tech’s “Golden Palomino”:

• Scored a touchdown from two yards out.
• Ran 14 times for 48 yards.
• Caught two passes for 18 yards.
• Averaged 39 yards on six punts.

To get to that game, the Packers won the famous “Ice Bowl” NFL Championship game against the Dallas Cowboys with game-time temperatures minus-13 degrees and wind chill of minus-46.

(The NFL and American Football League had not yet merged, so the winners of both league’s title games met in the Super Bowl.)

Anderson handled the ball 30 times – including punts – and caught three passes on the winning drive, picking up two first downs.

In the locker room afterward, Lombardi put his arm around Anderson and told him, “You became a man today. I'm really proud of you.”

Even though Anderson’s punting average was below the league average, Lombardi pointed out Anderson punted the ball higher and very few were returned.

The concept of hang time was born.

Anderson respected the legendary Lombardi.

“He pushed and pushed and pushed and intimidated and intimidated until you got to where he thought you could be a player.”

“He was quite a taskmaster. He was very difficult to please. But he treated everybody the same. As Henry Jordan always said, ‘He treated us all the same – like dogs.’ He didn’t have any tolerance for mental mistakes. He had a little bit of tolerance for physical mistakes. He pushed and pushed and pushed and intimidated and intimidated until you got to where he thought you could be a player. He raised the expectations of every player.”

Danny Amendola

Amendola played key roles in two of the New England Patriots’ Super Bowl wins and other post-season games, picking up the nickname “Playoff Danny.”

In 2015, New England trailed Seattle 24-14 after three quarters.

A Tom Brady to Amendola 4-yard touchdown with 7:55 left in the game made it 24-21 and the Patriots added one more score to win.

Amendola caught five passes for 48 yards.

Two years later, New England fell behind Atlanta, 28-3 in the second half before rallying for a 34-28 overtime win behind Brady.

Amendola caught a 6-yard touchdown pass from Brady with 5:56 left to make it a one score game, 28-20.

The Patriots scored another touchdown with 57 seconds left and Brady hit Amendola on the two-point conversion to force overtime.

He caught eight passes in the game for 78 yards.

Amendola retired in 2022 after 13 seasons with five teams.

Anthony Lynn

The former Texas Tech running back picked up two rings in Denver’s back-to-back Super Bowl wins in 1998-99, playing with John Elway, but saw limited action.

Lynn became a coach and in 2017 was the first former Red Raider to become a permanent NFL head coach when he was hired by the Los Angeles Chargers. Going into the 2022 season, he was assistant head coach and running backs coach for the San Francisco 49ers.

But his best-known Super Bowl connection is a Verizon Super Bowl ad in 2019.

Lynn knew he was going to a firehouse to talk to first responders for the commercial. He didn’t know the group included first responders who saved his life 14 years earlier when he was hit by a drunk driver while walking in Ventura, Calif.

“I had tears and they were fighting tears. I’ve always wondered who they were…now I know my angels.”

“I was emotionally ambushed,” he said. “I had tears and they were fighting tears. I’ve always wondered who they were…now I know my angels.”

When first responders arrived at the 2005 accident, Lynn was bleeding and mostly unresponsive. The first responders were not sure if he’d survive. Lynn has collapsed lungs, broken ribs, major facial and shoulder damage.

“They told me I couldn’t breathe, I was choking on my own blood. They had pipes down my throat. They’re the ones who got me stabilized until the cavalry got there,” Lynn said.

Patrick Mahomes

Three years before Mahomes led Kansas City to its second title in four years, the former Red Raider led three touchdown drives in the final 6:32 to rally the Chiefs to their first title since the 1969 Chiefs won Super Bowl IV – where former Red Raider E.J. Holub picked up his ring, playing center this time, the only player to play different sides of the ball in Super Bowls.

After Mahomes led the rally, he said:

“We never lost faith. That’s the biggest thing. Everybody on this team, no one had their head down. We believed in each other. That’s what we preached all year long.”

On a third down and 15 yards to go trailing 20-10, Mahomes hit Tyreek Hill on a 44-yard pass that led to a touchdown. He made big play after big play to give coach Andy Reid his first title.

After the win in 2023, Mahomes told nfl.com:

“Taking in this whole year, and everything that's come with it, man, I just want to thank my teammates. It was a heck of a run,” he said.

Mahomes completed 21 of 27 passes for 182 yards and three TDs, also adding 44 rush yards – 26 of which came on an improbable scramble prior to the two-minute warning to set up the game-winning field goal by Harrison Butker in the 38-35 victory.

Sources:

• Donny Anderson led Ice Bowl in touches, yardage…packers.com…Oct. 12, 2017, by Cliff Christl
• How Chargers coach Anthony Lynn was “emotionally ambushed” in Super Bowl ad, USA Today, Feb. 3, 2019, by Erik Brady

1975: Title IX Opens Opportunities for Women in Sports

When 8-year-old Marsha Sharp was growing up in Lubbock, her dad coached a Little League team at a school yard.

She could practice with her dad’s team – field balls, bat and do everything the boys could do.

“But when it came time for the games to start, I had to go behind the backstop and watch. I knew in so many ways I was probably as good as they were. At that time when you’re eight or nine or ten years old there’s not a lot of difference in your strength and talents. But that’s the way it worked during those days,” she said.

More than three decades later, Sharp and her Lady Raider basketball team were celebrated by a huge crowd in Tech’s football stadium after winning the 1993 NCAA women’s basketball title the day before in Atlanta.

It was the only national team title in school history until the Red Raider men’s track and field team won the NCAA crown in 2019.

It was the impact of Title IX.

Sharp was about to graduate from Wayland Baptist University when 1972’s Title IX prohibited sex discrimination in any education program receiving federal money.

Women college athletes should now have the same opportunities as the men on their campuses.

“None of the things that happened to me in my career would have happened if not for Title IX.”

“None of the things that happened to me in my career would have happened if not for Title IX,” said Sharp. “There were a significant number of us who got jobs in our 20s and kept them our entire careers.”

“It impacted half our country in a positive way,” she said.

It went beyond athletics. Scholarships had to be equally distributed. It also opened more opportunities for minority women.

“A lot of people only look at it as athletics. But when you think about the number of women who this year will graduate from medical school and law school and look at the numbers before Title IX it’s really staggering,” she said.

“My mother’s generation probably had a couple of choices. They could be a teacher or a nurse or a secretary. Most of them stayed home and that was great. That was what they chose to do. But the door opened wide after Title IX,” said Sharp.

Going through that Door

When Sharp graduated from Wayland, she started coaching girls’ basketball back when six girls were on each team – three playing defense and three on offense, limiting dribbles – designed to keep women from exertion.

“It was a great game and I don’t think it entered our mind it should be different,” she said.

The one who knew it should be different was Harley Redin, who turned Wayland Baptist’s Flying Queens into a basketball power, she said. Redin pushed for women to play by the same rules as the men.

“He did a great job of taking the game of women’s basketball to a different level and didn’t get nearly as much credit as he should,” she said.

When Jeannine McHaney hired Sharp to come to Tech, the coach found a trailblazing partner.

“She was amazing. When she hired me, I was 29 years old. She told me, ‘You fight battles on the court and try to win. I’m going to do all the stuff off the court,” said Sharp.

McHaney came to Tech in 1966 and became director of Tech’s Women’s Athletics Department when it was created in 1975.

“She was a warrior. Her entire life’s mission was to give women opportunities.”

“I had the easiest job. Some of that was really hard sledding – trying to make sure women were relevant. Every $100 we could scrape together for something was a really big deal during those days. She was a warrior. Her entire life’s mission was to give women opportunities,” said Sharp.

McHaney died of cancer in 1994 but lived to see the Lady Raiders win the ’93 title.

“What a great moment to be able to share. She was the one who made it happen. None of us would have had those opportunities had not been for her,” said Sharp.

Men also helped.

“Some of the biggest, most influential people for women’s sports have been men. Many of those men had daughters. There’s no way you want your daughters not to the have the same opportunities,” she said.

There was never a question it was the right thing to do, she heard from many men at Tech – presidents, administrators and coaches.

“I don’t ever remember hearing too many of them say ‘well, it’s the law, we've got to do it.’ They did it because they were good people who recognized it was the right thing to do,” she said.

Sharp saw a change in attitudes.

“There were football coaches having to give up some budget, men’s basketball having to share a gym for the first time and all kinds of things that had to feel really strange. But we worked through it,” she said.

Budgets and facilities improved. Women’s basketball went from the women’s gym to the Coliseum – where the men played. When United Supermarkets Arena was built, Sharp had equal input to men’s coach James Dickey.

“All it was the ripple effects of Title IX,” said Sharp.

Tech celebrated the 50th anniversary of Title IX in 2022 by honoring pioneers, highlighting:

• McHaney
• Sharp
• Robert Ewalt, former vice president for student affairs
• Sally Kipyego, NCAA champion and Olympian
• Krista Gerlich, Lady Raiders head coach

Brandi Stuart, senior women’s administrator in Texas Tech Athletics, is helping organize a yearlong celebration.

“The access to sports has done so much more for me than I could have ever given back to the sport. I wouldn’t be here as an administrator if it weren’t for my opportunity to play sports at a young age,” said Stuart.

Decades after Title IX, Sharp hopes women don’t take the progress for granted.

“I want them to hear the history of all the folks who paid the price for them to have all the great things they have now.”

“I want them to hear the history of all the folks who paid the price for them to have all the great things they have now,” said Sharp.

“I’m really grateful I got to be on the front end, fight some of those early battles to gain some respect and help them to realize it’s OK for women to be a part of this,” she said.

Years later, at that same school yard

A year after the Lady Raiders won the national title, Sharp was driving past that same school yard where she could only practice – not play with the boys her father coached.

“There was a team of kids out there playing baseball and there were all these little girls who had helmets on and ponytails sticking out the back of their helmets,” said Sharp.

The coach pulled her car to the side of the road.

“I thought how amazing is this. My nephews would tell me I should come watch their team play. ‘Katie is the fastest runner we have and she’s amazing aunt Marsha,’ they told me. They thought nothing about it – it was just the way things were supposed to happen. Isn’t that an amazing societal change in a fairly short period of time?” she said.

Women in the Texas Tech Hall of Fame

• Amanda Banks: Track 1986-89
• Angie Braziel: Basketball 1998-99
• Sharon Moultrie: Track 1979-82
• Jill Burness: Volleyball 1995-96
• Sandy Butler: Softball 1998-2001
• D’Andra Carter: Track 2006-09
• Lisa Clark: Volleyball 1987-90
• Leigh Daniel: Track & field 1998-01
• Kristy Frantz: Soccer 1996-99
• Erin Grant: Basketball 2002-06
• Lisa Hilgers: Volleyball 1995-98
• Noel Johnson: Basketball 1992-95
• Sally Kipyego: Track 2006-09
• Krista (Kirkland) Gerlich: Basketball 1990-93
• Patience Knight: Track & field 2006-09
• Lisa Love: Volleyball 1974-77
• Shereefa Lloyd: Track & field 2004-05
• Brooke Lowrance: Golf 1995-99
• Chris Martin: Volleyball 1988-91
• Becky (Boxwell) McIlraith: Volleyball 1984-87
• Jia Perkins: Basketball 2000-04
• Plenette Pierson: Basketball 1999-2003
• Amanda Renfro: Softball 1998-01
• Connie Robinson: Basketball 1993-95
• Sheryl Swoopes: Basketball 1991-93
• Alicia Thompson: Basketball 1995-98
• Carolyn Thompson: Basketball 1981-84
• Stacy (Kolb) Totman: Golf 1993-95

1993: Lady Raiders Win National Title, First Team Championship in School History

Krista Gerlich’s daughter Bryn – then in 7th grade – loved Stanford University women’s basketball. Gerlich took her daughter to Stanford’s basketball camp that year and saw Tara VanDerveer, Stanford’s head coach.

“I was just going to say hello,” Gerlich recalled after her second season as Lady Raiders head coach at her alma mater.

“Hey coach, I don’t know if you remember me,” Gerlich told VanDerveer.

“Sure, I remember – you’re Krista Kirkland,” Gerlich said the Cardinal coach responded, using Gerlich’s maiden name, when she played for the Lady Raiders.

The pair of coaches chatted about Stanford winning the 1992 women’s title and Texas Tech winning it a year later.

Then VanDerveer said: “We dropped the national championship banner on you and then you turned around and dropped it on us.”

“It made me feel good. When you haven’t won at that level – you don’t feel like you measure up to some of those people – she remembered it the same way. She knew exactly what I was talking about,” said Gerlich, during a 2022 chat in her office in the Womble Basketball Center.

In April of 1993, a lot of people were talking about Coach Marsha Sharp’s Lady Raiders.

Sheryl Swoopes’ scored a NCAA championship game record 47 points – which still stands – in an 84-82 win over Ohio State, claiming Texas Tech’s first team national title.

In 11 years, Sharp had turned Tech’s program into a national power competing with the best and packing the Municipal Coliseum, which years later sat next to the Marsha Sharp Freeway.

“It was just a bunch of little West Texas girls who decided they could do something great.”

“It was just a bunch of little West Texas girls who decided they could do something great,” said Gerlich.

Beginning Something Special

Sharp took over the Lady Raiders in 1982, ten years after Title IX improved funding for women’s college athletics and seven years after the sports began at Texas Tech.

Jody Conradt’s Texas Longhorns dominated the Southwest Conference that decade, winning the SWC title from 1983-90 and the national title in 1986.

Gerlich was in the middle of three-straight years as an all-state basketball star, playing at Sudan High School, 50 miles from Texas Tech. Her Sudan team won a 1987 state title, coached by her dad, Jim Kirkland.

Gerlich grew up watching the nearby Lady Raiders. Her idol was Lisa Wood, who wore number 21, which became Gerlich’s number. She attended Tech camps and met Coach Sharp.

“There was a lot of familiarity with the coaching staff and if felt like home and family,” she said.

But she was also recruited by Texas and other schools.

Gerlich stayed home.

“I had to get the wow factor out (of my head),” she said of being wooed by Texas. “I went where my friends and family could see me and join something that was growing.”

Each of her four years in Lubbock, the Lady Raiders did something no previous teams had done.

‘This Just Whet our Appetites’

In Gerlich’s sophomore year, the Lady Raiders beat Texas for the first time, by two points in the Southwest Conference Tournament.

By then, the program had a winning record every year Sharp led the team and a few postseason appearances.

Swoopes joined the team the next year after playing at South Plains College. The future superstar from Brownfield High School originally went to Texas. She wasn’t happy and came back to West Texas.

Juniors Gerlich and Swoopes clicked during the 1991-92 season, aware of each other’s game after competing in high school.

“She realized I could get her the ball,” said “combo guard” Gerlich, who sometimes ran the offense as a point guard or was shooting guard when Noel Johnson took the point.

Gerlich and Swoopes developed a “two-man” game – using various plays to free Swoopes from her defender so she could score. The signature move was a “back-door” play with Swoopes cutting to the basket.

Was there a signal they used?

“When my mouth was open,” said Gerlich, laughing at how she was known for being chatty on the court. “That would be nonstop. There wasn’t really a signal, it was very much just a feeling.”

The Lady Raiders split the two regular-season games against Texas that year, clinching the program’s first regular season Southwest Conference title with a home win over Texas A&M in front of their first sold-out game.

“We had to drive to the Coliseum two hours before the game. There were lines out the door,” said Gerlich. “We were like, ‘what in the world?’ When we went to warm up, I think Coach Sharp was concerned because our eyes were just big.”

They saw people on the top rows.

“It was electric,” she said.

They won by 22.

The Lady Raiders set more history when they beat the Longhorns in the Southwest Conference Tournament title game – again by two points. Swoopes was the tournament Most Valuable Player.

Their junior year ended with a 12-point loss to Stanford in the NCAA West Regional in Seattle – the program’s first Sweet Sixteen appearance – before VanDerveer’s team went on to win the title.

Gerlich was asked in the post-game press conference about the team’s chances the next year.

“I said, ‘this is the first time we’ve experienced it. This just whet our appetite,’” Gerlich said.

The Magic Year

The next season opened with the visiting Lady Raiders watching Stanford’s banner drop. Sharp wanted her team to watch.

The Lady Raiders were in their normal red road uniforms. Sharp had ordered black uniforms with black shoes. The shoes arrived at the beginning of the season, but not the uniforms. The Lady Raiders wore the black shoes with the red uniforms.

The team didn’t know about the new uniforms – yet.

Tech lost that game by seven points, then won nine straight. They lost their second game – at Utah – the second time in the black shoes.

“After we got beat by Utah, Coach Sharp said forget the black shoes,” said Gerlich, adding the team agreed.

Four games later, the Lady Raiders lost their third game of the year – at home to Texas – by a point. There was a controversial call late in the game when a blocking foul was called against Gerlich that Tech fans thought was a charge on Texas.

Long before social media, Gerlich found messages on her answering machine.

“They weren’t rude, but somebody called to say they recorded the game, they went back, watched it frame-by-frame and said that should have been a charge,” she said.

Fast forward 30 years with platforms like Twitter and the things her players now get can be awful, said Gerlich.

The 1992-93 Lady Raiders featured a high-scoring offense that thrilled – and fed – the fans. If the team scored 85 points, fans got free buffet at Cici’s restaurant by showing a game ticket. When the team got close to 85 points, fans would chant “Cici’s, Cici’s, Cici’s,” said Gerlich.

The team averaged more than 87 points in home games that season.

A half-dozen wins after losing at home to Texas, the Lady Raiders visited Austin.

The black uniforms had arrived and Sharp pulled them out.

“When we took the floor at Texas, it was the first time the Lady Raiders had ever worn black,” said Gerlich.

“Texas Tech blacks out Texas.”

After a ten-point win, a story in the Austin American-Statesman said, “Texas Tech blacks out Texas,” said Gerlich.

The team was undefeated in visiting black as part of ending the season on 19-0 run.

Again, the Lady Raiders were Southwest Conference regular season and tournament champs, beating Texas for the tourney crown.

If Sharp thought her team had a chance to win a national title, Swoopes’ performance in that game crystalized her hopes – though after the Lady Raiders fell behind at the start 17-0.

Sharp called a time out.

“I told (assistant coaches) Linden Weese and Roger Reding – they still give me a hard time about this – that we were OK. I liked the shots we were taking and that things were beginning to open up for Sheryl,” Sharp said.

Swoopes scored 53 points – still the most points scored in one game by a Lady Raider – and again was tournament MVP.

“It was a great comeback and I think it solidified Sheryl as the National Player of the Year. People knew how impactful she was. There were a lot of things that happened in that game that took us to a whole different level. We were playing really well, Swoopes had hit her stride and there were lots of possibilities in front of us,” said Sharp.

Washington, USC and Colorado all fell to Tech in the NCAA playoffs, sending the Lady Raiders to their first Final Four.

Gerlich scored 26 against USC and star Lisa Leslie.

Before they lost to Tech, Colorado knocked off defending champ Stanford.

Sharp was scouting the Stanford-Colorado game. When Colorado pulled off the upset, Swoopes came up to her coach.

“She put her arms around my neck and said, ‘We’re going to the Final Four,’” Sharp recalled.

Colorado’s win was big, said Gerlich.

“You have to get a little bit lucky because Stanford was a matchup problem for us. They had a big post player,” she said.

The Lady Raiders beat Colorado, 79-54. On to Atlanta.

The Title Game

It was the first time a women’s Final Four sold out in advance.

“We were driving up to the game and seeing scalpers on the side of the road,” said Gerlich.

There was a huge Texas Tech presence in Atlanta’s Omni arena.

Tech faced top-ranked Vanderbilt in the national semifinals. The Lady Raiders were held to 60 points but kept Vandy to 46 points – setting up the national title game against Ohio State.

“The early action against Ohio State was chippy – very physical – it was so intense,” said Gerlich.

Gerlich scored most of her 14 points in the first half, taking some pressure off Swoopes and making sure Ohio State knew it had to guard all five Lady Raiders, because Swoopes wasn’t the only one who could score.

On one play, Gerlich threw the ball toward the corner of the backboard as Swoopes made a break from around the free throw line. Swoopes grabbed the pass and scored.

One of the game commentators called it a bad pass Swoopes saved, said Gerlich, adding “we worked on that all the time.”

Tech led by nine points at halftime, but with a little more than nine minutes left in the game, Ohio State took a 59-58 lead.

Swoopes answered with a three-point shot. Tech never trailed again but it stayed close.

Noel Johnson and Cynthia Clinger teamed up for a key three-point play as Tech held a one-point lead with about four minutes left.

“They really tried to pick up the pressure on us. We weren’t super athletic on the perimeter except for Swoopes. They really denied her hard and she was working hard to get open. Noel had it on the right wing in front of our bench. Everybody was covered. Nobody could get open,” said Gerlich.

Clinger was guarded close to the basket. Johnson threw the ball toward the basket, Clinger broke away from her defender, scored, got fouled and made the free throw.

“It was huge,” said Gerlich because it reminded Ohio State they couldn’t just focus on Swoopes.

Then Swoopes scored seven points in a minute-and-a-half stretch to give Tech a seven-point lead with 58 seconds left.

“Swoopes was in a different gear,” said Gerlich, who added sometimes her teammates just got out of the way to let her attack.

The buzzer sounded.

The Lady Raiders shot 55 percent from the field, hit seven three-pointers and were 19-23 from the free throw line.

“They were gym rats and loved the game.”

Sharp was “amazed we’d gotten there. I was so thrilled for our players. They were such a great team; they were so unselfish. They didn’t care if Sheryl shot 40 times a game as long as they got to win. They were a great defensive team, fundamentally sound. They were gym rats and loved the game.”

Gerlich was crying joyful tears.

“We were all crying so hard. I’m getting emotional talking about it right now,” she said, almost 30 years later. “There’s a great moment on video – Sheryl, me and Stephanie Scott holding each other and we’re just crying. Nobody thought we could do it.”

Post-game photos show the Lady Raiders holding their championship ring boxes.

Back then, teams making the Sweet Sixteen were sized for rings. When they made the Final Four, rings were made for all four teams.

“So when we won, they hand it to you and we put them on immediately. We have video of us showing our rings,” said Gerlich.

The other three sets were melted down.

Party Time Back Home

Back in Lubbock, students flooded into Memorial Circle to celebrate after the win.

“This is super because finally, for once, Tech is the best.”

From the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal:

“This is super because finally, for once, Tech is the best,” said sophomore Mike Frazier, who climbed the Will Rogers statue and began waving a Red Raider flag in jubilation.

Several High Riders were seen at the top of the bell tower, clapping and chanting. Male students dunked their female counterparts in the fountain and fans reached from car to car to slap a high five with whoever was willing.

There were screams of “Raider Power” as students bounced up and down in the backs of pickup trucks.

“The Lady Raiders have made this city proud,” said Christine Ragsdale, a junior from San Saba who was driving around the circle. “I’m going to party tonight. It’s going to be really hard to go to class tomorrow, but I guess I will.”

The next day, 40,000 fans welcomed the team as limousines drove them onto the Jones Stadium field.

“It was unbelievable. I don’t think we all really understood how special winning the championship was until we saw the fans that night. Even now, it’s unheard of at the college level to have 40,000 fans come out to celebrate a championship,” said Sharp.

It kept the party going for Gerlich and her teammates.

“Don’t get me wrong, we celebrated together in our own way (in Atlanta), but we also wanted to be back on campus to celebrate with the students. We got phone calls back at the hotel telling us how crazy it was. That cars were bumper to bumper and people were swimming in the fountains. We basically missed the best party ever on campus,” she told a writer in 2013.

The men’s national title game was going on that Monday night.

Going back to Gerlich’s 2022 interview, she said “40,000 people missed out on Chris Webber calling a timeout because they were welcoming us home,” about the infamous play at the end of North Carolina’s 77-71 win over Webber and Michigan.

Sharp only had one disappointment after winning the title. The seniors on her 1991-92 team.

“They laid the groundwork. The seniors on that team were Tami Wilson, Teresa McMillan and Jennifer Buck. They were blue-collar, hard-working kids who took our program to a different level the time they were here. If I had one disappointment it was they weren’t part of the team because they deserved it as much as anyone who played on the 92-93 team,” she said.

A Life-Changing Experience

Life changed for Sharp and her program:

• The coach came back to hundreds of messages on her desk, which she quickly scanned to make sure she didn’t miss any recruits.
• Lots of media requests.
• An event where fans brought in memorabilia to be signed by the team – so many fans and items that it reminded Sharp of a swap meet.

The team spent a lot of time that spring signing items.

“One of my favorite quotes was Stephanie Scott. She understood why Tennessee only won the national title every other year because it took them two years to sign everything people wanted,” said Sharp.

The program dedicated one staff member to manage autograph opportunities and other things because Sharp wanted fans to know they were appreciated.

“I thought about all of our families and fans who loved to watch that team and how really thrilled I was for all of them to have this moment to celebrate all together,” she said.

A title team brings people together, she said.

“They might have different high schools, different churches, different businesses, different socio-economic groups but they can all come together behind a team when you’re in a town like Lubbock. We saw that in a big way,” she said.

In her years of coaching, Sharp’s seen great fan bases for women’s programs like Tennessee and Connecticut.

“There’s not any better than we had at Tech. The fans and how they treated our players and supported our program was amazing,” she said.

One of the great highlights of her career, Sharp said, was how women’s basketball became relevant on the South Plains and beyond.

“We became a player within the university and nationally,” she said, adding it was fascinating to watch how the sport changed over the span of her career.

“It was the greatest time to be a women’s basketball coach,” she said.

That respect played out in other ways – like the same prices for men’s and women’s basketball tickets.

“I wanted the seat license in the new arena (United Supermarkets Arena) to be the same as the men’s because I wanted us to pay our way as much as we could,” she said, even though TV money would not be equal. “But that was not anything we could control,” Sharp said.

There also seemed, Sharp said, to be a carryover to other sports.

“There are not three men I have more respect for and I adore more than James Dickey, Spike Dykes and Larry Hays,” said Sharp, talking about the former men’s basketball, football and baseball coaches.

After the women’s title, Dickey’s team made a Sweet Sixteen, Dykes’ Red Raiders got to a Cotton Bowl and the baseball team had a couple of very good years.

“It was a time in Tech Athletics where everybody believed it was possible and I hope we put that thought in everyone’s mind,” she said, talking further about the men’s track team national title in 2019, the men’s basketball team run to the 2019 Final Four and baseball’s trips to the College World Series.

“Success breeds success. It was such an amazing feeling and I wanted other people to feel that.”

“Success breeds success,” she said, “It was such an amazing feeling and I wanted other people to feel that.”

Supplanting Texas

The Lady Raiders also shoved Texas off its perch.

“We became the sweethearts of Texas women’s basketball,” said Gerlich. “It meant so much to everybody in West Texas.”

When she started playing for Tech, the biggest crowds were when the Longhorns came to Lubbock. A lot of the crowd were Texas fans.

“It was a little annoying,” she said.

The rivalry meant a lot to Sharp.

“The rivalry we had with Texas for the rest of my career and Jody’s was something that became really special. It became one of the best rivalries in women’s basketball in the country,” she said.

Once the Lady Raiders could compete with Texas, they could compete with any team in the country.

“You were definitely in the national conversation,” Sharp added, which led to:

• Invitations to big nonconference games, such as starting the season against Stanford.
• Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame games.
• High-profile tournaments across the country and in places like Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

“It really changed the dynamics of the whole program,” she said.

‘People Bring It Up All the Time’

Years later, Sharp and Gerlich are constantly reminded of April 4, 1993.

“People bring it up all the time,” said Sharp, mostly at Tech basketball games. “It’s one of those things where people can tell you exactly where they were, what they were doing and who they were with. People have such great memories. It really touches my heart.”

Someone told Gerlich about watching the game in Puerto Rico.

“They had to see if they could find it on TV. Luckily, we played on CBS, which was huge because the women’s game was not being broadcast until then,” she said.

At the team’s 10-year reunion, Sharp gave the players their bench seats with National Champions on the back piece. Gerlich’s is in her home office.

The team enjoyed a 20th reunion and they’ve all stayed in touch, even though they’ve lost two of their teammates.

Johnson – who had a successful career leading Midwestern State’s women’s basketball program in Wichita Falls – died after a 14-month battle with ovarian cancer in 2020. A few months later, Michelle Thomas, another member of the title team who got a law degree from Tech, passed away at 47 after a serious illness.

Since their teammates’ deaths, Gerlich feels the team wants to make sure they are there for each other – their family.

“When you accomplish amazing things with a group of people it binds you for life.”

“I think we’re a great example of that. The coolest thing is how close our team still is. I use it in recruiting, I use it in our program. When you accomplish amazing things with a group of people it binds you for life,” she said.

‘It’s Taken Me 15 Years to Get Back Here’

When Gerlich graduated, there was no WNBA. She was engaged to former Tech linebacker Bryan Gerlich.

“I knew I was getting married. I was going to get a job,” she said.

After leading some high school girls’ basketball programs and one college assistant coaching job, she landed on Sharp’s staff.

When Sharp retired, she lost her job.

After successful head coaching runs at West Texas A&M and UT Arlington, she came home. Then her daughter Bryn joined her, transferring from Oklahoma State.

“It’s taken me 15 years to get back here,” she said, itching to return the Lady Raiders to the heights she helped set.

She has lunch often with Sharp, who shares her passion for seeing the program reclaim its historic success.

And she loves how the women’s game has come far in terms of respect and national media coverage.

“It’s about time, right?” she said.

Postscript

Sheryl Swoopes:

• National Player of the Year in 1993.
• Three Olympic gold medals for the U.S.
• First player signed by the WNBA.
• Four-time WNBA champ with Houston Comets.
• Three-time WNBA MVP.
• Is peppered throughout the Texas Tech women’s basketball record book. Most noticeably for the most points in one game – 53 – against Texas in the Southwest Conference Tournament championship game, her top-ranked 24.9 points per game average and top-ranked .844 percent free throw average.
• Her number 22 Lady Raider jersey is retired.

Marsha Sharp:

• Retired after end of the 2005-06 season with a 572-189 record, numerous conference titles and deep NCAA Tournament runs.
• Became Texas Tech Associate Athletic Director for Special Projects and helped Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt launch the J.T. & Margaret Talkington Leadership Academy.
• Became Executive Director of the Kay Yow Cancer Fund, raising millions for cancer research in honor of the late coach.
• Involved with Lubbock’s Sharp Academy, serving pre-K through 12th grade.
• The Marsha Sharp Center for Student Athletes at Tech and the Marsha Sharp Freeway are both named for her.

Krista Gerlich:

• Her 553 career assists are third on the all-time Lady Raider list and her three-point field goal percentage of .417 is fourth all-time.
• Her number 21 Lady Raider jersey is retired.
• Became head coach at Lockney High School after graduating from Tech. Had three other coaching jobs before joining Sharp’s staff from 2003-06.
• Compiled a 289-147 record as head coach at West Texas A&M and UT Arlington before coming back to Tech.
• Became her alma mater’s head coach in the 2020-21 season.

1994: Tech Joins the Big 12 Conference

Salina, Kansas, wasn’t going to work for Marsha Sharp.

The Texas Tech women’s basketball coach was also serving as Tech’s senior administrator for women’s sports during meetings to form the Big 12 Conference. It was a 1990s marriage between schools from the Big Eight Conference and Texas Tech, Texas, Texas A&M and Baylor from the dying Southwest Conference.

Sharp was used to sold-out Reunion Arena in Dallas hosting the SWC women’s basketball tournament when her Lady Raiders and Texas were two of the best programs in the country.

The Big Eight women’s tournament was held in Salina – where many fans came in motorhomes because there were not enough hotel rooms in the central Kansas town.

“We had to push them to move the tournament to Kansas City because they loved that small-town environment,” she said.

The road was bumpy. Forming the conference meant a lot of compromise, but it’s been very beneficial to Tech for more than 25 years.

The End of the SWC

When Arkansas left the SWC for the Southeastern Conference in 1992, it was precursor of what would happen to college sports.

The SEC was spread over nine states in markets delivering almost 20 percent of the nation’s televisions.

The all-Texas SWC delivered less than 7 percent.

The SWC dreamed of a 16-team merger but the Big Eight only wanted the four schools.

Tech became one of those four schools with big help from Bob Bullock – the powerful Texas lieutenant governor, who called representatives from Texas and Texas A&M to a mid-1990s meeting in his office.

The Longhorns and Aggies wanted out of the SWC. That was fine with Bullock if they took Texas Tech and Baylor with them.

The Longhorns and Aggies wanted out of the SWC. That was fine with Bullock if they took Texas Tech and Baylor with them. Also in the room were John Montford, head of the Texas Senate Appropriations Committee and Rob Junell, head of the Texas House Appropriations Committee.

Junell played football at Tech and even though Montford went to the University of Texas, he represented Lubbock and West Texas. Also, Bullock attended both Texas Tech and Baylor and Gov. Ann Richards was a Baylor Bear.

Bullock made it clear there’d be financial hell to pay if UT and A&M didn’t play ball.

Done deal.

“We knew the significance of it. There was a lot of anxiety that we needed to get in,” said Sharp.

Being in what became one of the Power 5 conferences meant more money coming to Tech. It would be much less if they didn’t make the cut.

Another reason Tech made the cut was football attendance, said Gerald Myers, athletics director emeritus.

“Our football team was averaging close to 40,000 a game,” he said.

Some of the other SWC schools – Houston, Rice, SMU, TCU – were drawing much smaller crowds.

Building the Big 12

Besides deciding where the Big 12 women’s basketball tournament was going to be held, lots of details had to be worked out, said Sharp:

• Schedules
• Divisions
• What officials to use
• Tiebreakers
• Where visiting cheerleaders and bands would be and more…

“They might not seem like big decisions but when you’re trying to hammer them out, they become a little bit contentious. It was a really important time for people to sometimes put their own needs aside and do what they thought was best for league,” she said.

“Forming a league is really interesting. But it galvanized women’s basketball coaches. We had to come together, make some choices and be strong. We all became closer and more focused on what we were trying to get done than we ever had been before,” she said.

The Big 12 Conference Championship football game landed in Dallas – primarily for weather reasons.

That did not go over well with one of the top programs in the country, said Myers.

“Nebraska really resented that,” said Myers. “They wanted that football game to alternate between Kansas City and Dallas.”

That’s what led to the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments to be in Kansas City.

An ‘Exciting, Fun Time’

Tech played in the first Big 12 football game when the Red Raiders visited Kansas State on August 31, 1996.

“We handed the game to them,” said Myers, recalling a snap over a Tech punter’s head leading to a Wildcat touchdown.

Despite that first game, Myers said the early years of the new conference were an “exciting, fun time.”

Many highlights have followed:

• Beating No. 1 Texas in 2008 when Graham Harrell hit Michael Crabtree with a last-second touchdown pass.
• Men’s basketball’s first Final Four run, coming within three seconds of a national title and several NCAA Tournament runs.
• Bob Knight breaking the NCAA Division I record for men’s basketball coaching wins.
• Men’s track and field winning the 2019 NCAA title.
• Sharp’s Lady Raiders won several Big 12 titles and made deep NCAA Tournament runs before she retired in 2006.
• Baseball became a Big 12 power under coach Tim Tadlock with four trips to the College World Series.
• Numerous team and individual Big 12 titles.

More Money, More Prestige

Tech’s facilities were the worst in the Big 12 when the conference started, said Myers.

The conference and Texas Tech University System and began around the same time and John Montford, Tech’s first chancellor, could raise money.

“I think we spent $250 million over the next ten years to improve facilities,” said Myers, the most obvious were the west side of Jones AT&T Stadium and United Supermarkets Arena.

(After Myers retired and Kirby Hocutt came on as Director of Athletics, he launched the Campaign for Fearless Champions, which has added hundreds of millions more in facilities.)

Tech got more money from its new conference, said Sharp.

“Millions of dollars were coming into our budgets than we’d ever had before,” she said.

“It changed the dynamics of all sports,” Sharp said, including her sport.

“Baylor, A&M, Missouri, Oklahoma State – who really had never been a big part of the women’s basketball scene – were able to use more money to hire coaches, have bigger budgets and do more to improve all their programs.

“Look at Baylor’s record before the Big 12 and after – that’s probably one of the best examples,” she said.

“All the spring sports in the Big 12 became so much more amazingly better because there was enough money to support every sport…”

“All the spring sports in the Big 12 became so much more amazingly better because there was enough money to support every sport and not just football and men’s basketball. We changed a lot of things for all sports,” said Sharp.

There was also more prestige as Tech was seen on a bigger national stage.

The university’s academic standards rose, along with its rankings.

Travel also changed, said Sharp.

“We jumped on Southwest Airlines to get wherever in the Southwest Conference – especially after we lost Arkansas,” she said.

Now the Lady Raiders were flying to Manhattan, Kansas; Ames, Iowa; Lincoln, Nebraska in January and February. We went commercial that first year,” she said, having to use other airlines.

“After that, I said I don’t care how much money I have to raise, we’re going to use charters because we’re missing so much school,” she said.

Not Everyone was Happy

Nebraska and Texas did not get along, said Myers, and the Cornhuskers left for the Big 10 in 2010.

Around that time, the then-Pac 10 looked to add Tech, Texas, Texas A↦M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Colorado to create a 16-team conference.

The deal fell apart because Texas would not give up plans to launch the Longhorn Network.

Colorado still joined the Pac-10 that year. Two years later, A&M and Missouri joined the SEC.

The Big 12 added West Virginia and old-SWC foe TCU. Even though the conference now only had ten teams, it kept the name.

That changed in 2021, when Texas and Oklahoma surprised the conference announcing they were going to the SEC. The Big 12 added BYU, Cincinnati, another SWC team in Houston and UCF.

Myers wishes A&M had stayed.

“That was a huge rivalry game for the fans. It was a guaranteed sellout every year. We hated to see it go,” he said.

The same can be said for Texas.

But as Tech nears its centennial, it’s a strong member of a Power 5 conference it’s been with since day one.

1996: Sheryl Swoopes Wins First of Three Olympic Gold Medals

After Sheryl Swoopes and her American teammates defeated host Australia to win the women’s basketball gold medal in 2000 – the second of three straight Olympic golds Swoopes would win – she put the medal around Marsha Sharp’s neck.

Seven years earlier, Sharp’s Lady Raiders won the NCAA women’s basketball title against Ohio State behind Swoopes’ 47 points.

Now the coach and her star player were celebrating a win for their country.

“It’s one of my all-time best memories,” said Sharp.

“I loved Sydney and saw diving, swimming, track and field. But to go into that arena and watch Sheryl compete was special for me,” said Sharp.

“Everyone else was yelling against our country,” she said, but the Americans broke open a close game on way to a 76-54 victory.

“Sheryl put the team on her back,” said her coach. Swoopes finished with 14 points and nine rebounds. Lisa Leslie and Natalie Williams each scored 15 and matched Swoopes’ nine boards.

With an American flag draped around her, Swoopes shared the moment with her Lady Raider coach – two women from West Texas enjoying a golden moment.

With an American flag draped around her, Swoopes shared the moment with her Lady Raider coach – two women from West Texas enjoying a golden moment.

“I cherish that time. I’m looking at pictures of it right now,” said Sharp during a phone interview.

The American team went 8-0 in Sydney, winning every game by double-digits – the closest game was an 11-point win over Russia.

Swoopes was the second leading scorer for the U.S., averaging 13.4 points a game, behind Leslie’s 15.8.

Four years earlier in Atlanta, Swoopes became the first Texas Tech athlete to win a gold medal, when the U.S. women’s team beat Brazil 111-87 in the gold-medal game, finishing another 8-0 run – all double-digit wins.

Brazil had beaten the U.S. teams in the ’94 World Championships and ’91 Pan Am Games, but the American women shot 66 percent from the field on their way to the gold.

Leslie had 29 points, followed by Swoopes with 16.

In 2004 in Athens, Greece, the American women won their third-straight gold led by Leslie, Swoopes and Dawn Staley, who went on to win another gold medal as head coach of U.S. team in Tokyo in 2020. Staley’s also won two NCAA titles as coach of South Carolina.

In Greece, once again, the American women went 8-0, but edged Russia by four in the semifinal game before facing Australia again for the gold medal, winning 74-63.

Swoopes averaged 9.1 points per game, third behind Leslie’s 15.6 and Tina Thompson’s 14.1.

The head coach was Van Chancellor, who coached Swoopes’ Houston Comets. Swoopes and Chancellor teamed up for four-straight WNBA titles with the Comets from 1997-2000.

Swoopes was a three-time WNBA Most Valuable Player, along with a long list of WNBA honors. She was recently named to the WNBA 25th Anniversary Team.

Swoopes also won three more golds and two bronze medals playing for America in the World Cup and Goodwill Games between 1994-2006.

Since Swoopes opened the door, six more former Red Raiders have won ten more Olympic medals representing five different countries.

List of Tech Athletes to Medal in the Olympics

Gold:

Sheryl Swoopes: Three in women’s basketball representing the United States in 1996, 2000, 2004.

Janine Beckie: One in women’s soccer representing Canada in 2020.

Michael Mathieu: One in men’s 4x400 relay representing The Bahamas in 2012.

Gil Roberts: One in men’s 4x400 relay representing the United States in 2016.

Silver:

Shereefa Lloyd: Two in women’s 4x400 relay representing Jamaica in 2008, 2012.

Janine Beckie: One in women’s soccer representing Canada in 2016.

Sally Kipyego: One in the women’s 10,000 meters representing Kenya in 2012.

Michael Mathieu: One in men’s 4x400 relay representing The Bahamas in 2008.

Andrae Williams: One in men’s 4x400 relay representing The Bahamas in 2008.

Bronze:

Michael Mathieu: One in men’s 4x400 relay representing The Bahamas in 2016.

2008: Harrell to Crabtree Stuns Longhorns

Danny Amendola grabbed Michael Crabtree’s jersey.

“You’re the best in the world…nobody can guard you,” Amendola told the Red Raider star receiver in the closing seconds of the 2008 Texas Tech-Texas football game.

Years later, Crabtree remembered saying, “We have eight seconds left and we’re about to lose.”

Crabtree had nine catches so far, but most were in the first half.

“I was mad at Graham the whole game – like throw me the ball,” he said, making it clear he had a great relationship with quarterback Graham Harrell, but it didn’t dampen his competitive passion.

“Then he gave me a (nod) and I knew it was coming to me,” said Crabtree.

Harrell connected with Crabtree on a dramatic game-winning touchdown to beat then-No. 1 Texas 39-33.

It meant more to the university and the Red Raider Nation than a football game. And it was a great game – ESPN recently ranked it 72nd of the 150 greatest games in college football history.

Striving for Respect

By the time Texas Tech was founded, Texas A&M was already 47 years old and the University of Texas had been around 40 years.

As Texas Tech grew and matured – growing into a world-class university – Red Raiders were tired of how the older Texas institutions looked down on the West Texas school.

But in a few hours on a field or court you could be equals – or even look down from victory at the teams from Austin and College Station.

That’s why it was a big deal when Texas Tech was invited into the Southwest Conference in the late 1950s with Texas and Texas A&M.

The Game

Jump ahead to Nov. 2, 2008, when all three universities were now in the Big 12 Conference.

The table was set for one of the greatest moments in Texas Tech sports history.

The Red Raiders were undefeated and ranked 7th in the country, hosting the undefeated No. 1 Longhorns on national television.

ESPN’s College Game Day made its first visit to Lubbock.

Jones AT&T Stadium was packed with most of the 56,000-plus fans dressed in black.

“When you played at Texas Tech, you had to have a chip on your shoulder. A&M and Texas looked down on you and you had something to prove,” Harrell said more than a decade later.

The Red Raiders built an early lead, up 22-6 at halftime.

Texas cut the lead to 29-19 at the end of three quarters and finally took its first lead of the game, 33-32 with 1:29 to play.

As the Longhorns were driving for the go-ahead score in the south end zone, Harrell watched from the sidelines. If the Longhorns scored, he hoped there would be enough time left to do what his high-powered offense did so well.

“I thought they’d run out the clock. I felt they gave us too much time. I felt pretty confident we had a chance to score.”

“I thought they’d run out the clock. I felt they gave us too much time. I felt pretty confident we had a chance to score,” he said.

Harrell had experience with comebacks. Two years earlier, he rallied the Red Raiders from a 31-point deficit to Minnesota in the Insight Bowl to win 44-41 in overtime.

His team’s chances against Texas got better when Jamar Wall took the kickoff back to the Texas Tech 38.

The Drive

There was 1:23 left, 62 yards to the end zone and Tech had one timeout.

All the Red Raiders needed was a field goal, but Harrell wanted a touchdown.

It took six plays. With one exception it was the same play.

Coach Mike Leach called it “Six” – two receivers on each side run a vertical pattern down the field. It was called “Six” because if you did it right, you got six points.

Harrell also referred to it as “Four Verts.”

The team could change formations and Harrell would decide who to pass to depending on what the defense was doing – so it could look like different plays.

“Coach Leach always said the play is a suggestion and gave his quarterback the ability to check anywhere on field. He’s the only coach who will give his quarterback a ton of freedom and expects you to do your job. That’s the whole philosophy of the offense. Give you a formation and the ability to change it…but you’d better made it work,” he said.

Harrell went to work from his own 38.

On first down, he hit running back Baron Batch for eight yards and the clock kept running.

Detron Lewis – on the only play of the drive that wasn’t “Six” – took a screen pass to the 50 for a first down.

The clock stopped as the chains moved.

When Harrell took the next snap, there were 41 seconds left. He hit Lewis again for a dozen more yards to the Texas 38 and a pass to Edward Britton got another first down at the Texas 28.

When Harrell took the next snap there were 15 seconds left. He scrambled left under pressure and saw Britton on the left side.

Harrell threw to Britton, who had turned away to block for his quarterback, thinking Harrell was going to run.

Britton turned back, but the ball bounced off his hands and popped softly into the air.

Longhorn Blake Gideon went to corral the ball and for a few seconds almost everyone in Jones AT&T Stadium – and everyone watching on TV – thought Gideon had intercepted the pass, securing Texas’ win. One of the Tech announcers even said, “game over” in a sad tone.

But Harrell knew he still had another chance.

“I had the perfect angle. I saw the ball drop straight through (Gideon),” said Harrell. “I know we’ve got to get set and run another play. But people were still confused.”

Once it was clear what happened there were now eight seconds left. Texas Tech still had the time out if they needed to try a field goal.

The Play

Crabtree, who won the Biletnikoff Award as the best receiver in college football the year before and would again, had had a quiet second half by his standards.

Harrell saw only one defender on Crabtree and knew what he wanted to do.

Their four cornerbacks covered each of the four receivers running the “Verts” and two safeties would help.

It was not an easy defense to throw against.

“I thought there was no way they’d let me go to Crabtree. They’d want me to go anywhere but to that big monster,” he said.

Crabtree sprinted down the sideline and only Texas cornerback Curtis Brown followed him with his back to Harrell.

Harrell saw his chance and threw toward Crabtree’s back shoulder, away from the defender and high enough to get over him.

Crabtree turned toward the sideline and caught the ball just in bounds around the 5-yard-line as Brown was trying to reach for it.

Brown tried to tackle Crabtree around his chest, but he turned away and sprinted into the end zone.

Safety Earl Thomas – who later helped the Baltimore Ravens win a Super Bowl – came over to help Brown but ended up in front of the play and not in position to stop Crabtree when he spun away.

Harrell at first hoped his teammate would go out of bounds, leaving the Red Raiders with enough time for a game-winning short field goal.

“Crabtree had a better plan,” said Harrell, adding the moment wouldn’t have been as good if the Red Raiders kicked a field goal.

Crabtree knew he was in bounds and just wanted to get into the end zone and not put pressure on their kicker.

“If there was a white jersey in the way, I’d just go through it and score.”

“I’ve got to score,” he said from his home in the Dallas Metroplex. “If there was a white jersey in the way, I’d just go through it and score.”

“Graham gave me a chance, just like he did all season. We practiced that play a million times, throwing to the back shoulder, so much repetition,” he added.

ESPN’s Chris Fowler, who’d hosted “Game Day” earlier on campus with his colleagues and special guest Bob Knight, is shown in photos on the sideline with his mouth wide open as Crabtree sprinted into the north end zone.

Later, the Texas defenders said they thought they heard a whistle, thought maybe Crabtree had stepped out of bounds, didn’t want to hit him and get a penalty.

The quarterback and his teammates came running toward the end zone.

What went through Harrell’s noggin?

“Pure emotion. It was such a cool moment for Texas Tech” and his teammates, he said.

Harrell added the moment created other emotions for the Longhorns – watching a perfect season and shot at a national title vanish right in front of their sideline.

“That’s what so great about sports,” he said.

He also thought the clock had expired. So did fans, who rushed the field. But there was one second left.

Crabtree had no idea how much time was left because he was on the bottom of a pile of his teammates in the end zone.

“I was so excited,” he said. He was having a hard time breathing until he was pulled up to find a camera in his face.

“I just knew after the touchdown it was over,” he said.

Texas Tech was penalized twice for fans rushing the field.

After a successful extra point, the Red Raiders kicked off from their own 7-yard line with a second left, Texas was stopped and fans rushed the field a final time.

Years later, when Crabtree was being inducted into Texas Tech’s Ring of Honor, he told how Texas coach Mack Brown was recruiting him – as a cornerback.

“Do you think he rethought that?” Crabtree was asked at the event at Lubbock’s Overton Hotel.

“I was thinking about that,” Crabtree said after the catch beat Brown’s Longhorns.

For Harrell, “It was a special moment – that year and the game will always be remembered. Coach Leach’s whole Texas Tech era all came together,” he said, recalling how students camped out to assure they could get into games and the “electric” feeling in the stadium.

“It had a lot to do with the nine years before – the guys who laid the groundwork and got the program rolling in the right direction, starting with Kliff,” he said.

It was also a product of the work Harrell and Crabtree did in their years together.

“Graham was a hard worker. Graham never told me no. He was ready to throw whatever time it was. We were just two hard workers,” said Crabtree.

The Reminders

Harrell is reminded of the play “just about anytime I talk to a Tech fan. They’ll say, ‘you’re the guy who threw the pass against Texas,’” he said.

It’s the same with Crabtree.

“People will say, ‘I remember you, you’re the dude who caught that pass,’” Crabtree said.

At the Ring of Honor ceremony, he said, “It’s like that’s the only play I ever made,” getting a big laugh from the audience.

Harrell has another daily reminder in his home – a painting of the play in his house.

“I’m reminded about it all the time,” he said.

It comes up other times, too, like during recruiting visits.

One player being recruited virtually during the 2020 coronavirus quarantine had his dad tell him about the play. He told Harrell, “Coach, I went back to watch that play against Texas on ESPN and had no idea that’s you.”

“It’s good in recruiting. It’s an easy topic to talk about and gives you credibility,” he said.

And Harrell still uses that play “quite a bit” as an offensive coordinator.

“It’s what we hung our hat on at Texas Tech,” he said.

Running four receivers deep downfield also keeps the defense a bit back on their heels.

“They fear you’ll attack them and when you put that fear into a defense, you’re better at everything else. If they have no fear they can sit 12 yards back and wait. If they have that fear of us attacking vertically, it’s in the DB’s head because he’s backing up,” said Harrell.

Staying in Touch

Harrell and Crabtree still connect – through texts.

“We’ve been all over the country since college,” said Harrell of the pair who both played in the NFL.

“If we’re in the same place, we’ll meet up,” he said. “I’ve followed his career and have been pulling for him.”

Harrell’s also close to former teammates Amendola, Eric Morris and Stephen Hamby, who’s now Tech’s offensive line coach.

He’s also close to former Red Raider quarterback Seth Doege, who worked for him at USC.

“I stay in touch with Kliff (Kingsbury) the most,” said Harrell of the former Red Raider quarterback and former coach of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals.

“He’s the Godfather of Tech quarterbacks in the Leach era. Anytime he came back to Tech, he’d thrown with me and we’d eat together,” said Harrell, who added he feels Kingsbury was instrumental in him getting the USC job when Kingsbury left the Trojans for Arizona.

“There’s an understanding anytime we run into each other. Playing for Coach Leach was not like playing for anyone else. B.J., Sonny, Cody, Taylor Potts,” he said, adding Doege.

Crabtree stays in touch with Texas Tech teammates and coaches and believes Harrell “will be a great coach.”

And he continues to support the university. He was at the 2020 basketball game against Kentucky and the Final Four the year before.

“Whatever I can do to support the school,” he said.

Epilog

Michael Crabtree

Crabtree’s name is still all over the Texas Tech record book. He owns the career record for touchdowns even though he only played two years. He was taken tenth in the 2009 NFL draft by the San Francisco 49ers and played 11 seasons for four different teams and played in a Super Bowl game. Crabtree was also inducted into the 2021 Texas Tech Hall of Fame. That same year, he became one of seven former Red Raiders in the Ring of Honor, with his name on the west side of Jones AT&T Stadium. In early 2022, Crabtree was voted into the College Football Hall of Fame the first year he was eligible. Crabtree became the sixth Red Raider to receive this honor.

Graham Harrell

After his record-setting career at Texas Tech, Harrell played in the Canadian Football League and the NFL, winning a Super Bowl ring as a backup quarterback for the Green Bay Packers. He had coaching positions at Oklahoma State, Washington State, North Texas, USC, West Virginia and Purdue. In 2021 he was inducted into the Texas Tech Hall of Fame in the same class as Crabtree.

Mike Leach

After his tenure at Texas Tech ended in controversy, he was head coach at Washington State and Mississippi State. Leach suffered a fatal heart attack in December of 2022. The “pirate” sparked an impressive coaching tree employing various versions of his Air Raid offense.

Going to the pros

Numerous players beyond Harrell and Crabtree from the 2008 team went on to play some level of professional football.

2014: Baseball Goes to First of Four College World Series

Texas Tech was seven outs away from its first trip to the College World Series, nursing a 1-0 lead in the second game of the Super Regional against the College of Charleston in Lubbock on June 8, 2014.

The tying run was at second base when Tech first baseman Eric Gutierrez watched a Cougar batter drive the ball into right-centerfield.

“This could be trouble,” Gutierrez recalled thinking eight years later at Rip Griffin Park, where he’s now a member of the Tech coaching staff. “I see ‘Bull’ (Stephen Smith) and Devon Conley and it doesn’t seem like either one of them can get there. And Conley caught that ball about three inches off the ground.”

In a 2014 interview, Conley said:

“I saw the ball was hit pretty hard, so I just put my head down, ran and fully extended. It landed perfectly in my glove. It was huge.”

“It was full extension. I saw the ball go up and we had just shifted that way. I saw the ball was hit pretty hard, so I just put my head down, ran and fully extended. It landed perfectly in my glove. It was huge,” he said.

Two innings later, the Red Raiders won their second straight 1-0 game over the Cougars and were heading to Omaha for the first time in school history.

“When I get home later this evening, I’m sure it will hit me,” said Tech coach Tim Tadlock, then in his second year of leading his alma mater.

It’s been a good homecoming for Tadlock and Tech baseball.

The Red Raiders have made three more trips to the College World Series.

Tech didn’t win a game in that first trip, then:

• 2016: Beat top-seeded Florida before being eliminated.
• 2018: Once again beat top-seeded Florida before losing to Arkansas and Florida.
• 2019: Made the final four for the first time before elimination. Tech lost its opener to Michigan before beating Arkansas and Florida State. Then eventual runner-up Michigan beat the Red Raiders again to end their season.

Since Tadlock took over the program in 2013, Tech has won three Big 12 titles, had 64 players taken in the MLB Draft and turned Rip Griffin Park into a packed home-field advantage with season seats constantly sold out. In the 2022 draft, Jace Jung became the third first-round pick in school history, joining his brother Josh in 2019 and Donald Harris in 1989.

The Royce and Linda Lewis/Capital Mortgage Services Baseball Center is being built down the left-field line following many improvements to the baseball stadium.

“He’s a special coach, a special person and we’re so fortunate to have him guiding this baseball program,” said Kirby Hocutt, Tech’s Director of Athletics, about Tadlock, National Coach of the Year in 2014 and 2018.

Baseball Began with Tech, then Disappeared

Texas Tech fielded its first baseball team in 1926, coached by E.Y. Freeland, also Tech’s football coach. Many of the Matadors on those first teams also played football.

But Tech stopped baseball after the 1929 season and didn’t have a team until 1954. The following coaches led the baseball team from ’54 until Tadlock:

• Beattie Feathers, 7 seasons, 40-57-1
• Berl Huffman, 7 seasons, 80-87
• Kal Segrist, 16 seasons, 317-324-2
• Gary Ashby, 3 seasons, 85-80
• Larry Hays, 22 seasons, 813-479-3
• Dan Spencer, 4 seasons, 115-112

Hays led Tech to its only Southwest Conference title in 1995, then captured back-to-back Big 12 titles in 1997 and ’98 – the school’s first two seasons in the Big 12 Conference.

The Tadlock Era

Gutierrez was finishing high school near McAllen in way south Texas when Tadlock called to recruit him in 2012, after Tadlock was named head coach.

It didn’t take long for Gutierrez to be sold.

“Everything that he said. It’s what I believed in, what my dad – who’s a coach – believed,” said Gutierrez.

Tadlock told him he’d have a chance to win a spot, but he’d have to earn it.

“That’s all I wanted, just an opportunity,” he said.

When he came to Lubbock, he found a coaching staff that matched his passion for the game.

The culture changed.

“We all believed in Tadlock. We all believed we could get better every day. And the older guys jumped in and believed that too,” he said.

Before Tech could survive the 2014 Super Regional drama against the College of Charleston in Gutierrez’s sophomore year, they had to advance out of the Coral Gables Regional.

Tech had played in the regionals – the first of two rounds to determine the College World Series lineup – but had never advanced to the Super Regionals.

The Red Raiders edged Columbia 3-2, then beat No. 3 Miami 3-0. The Hurricanes bounced back the next day with a 2-1 win in ten innings to force a deciding third game.

Cameron Smith pitched a complete game shutout and Tech won, 4-0.

“We had Cameron Smith on the mound. It was fun,” said Gutierrez, who loved the Miami crowds.

“It was a cool fan base. Everybody was booing us. It created more emotion for the game. They didn’t want to lose. But we had pretty good confidence,” said Gutierrez.

Six days later, the Red Raiders needed one win to get to Omaha.

“It was electric,” said Hocutt. “Our fans were so excited because they knew what the potential was that day. Then I remember watching our team dogpile after the win.”

A week later, walking into that first CWS game – against TCU – was surreal, Hocutt added.

Two years later, Gutierrez hit a two-run homer in the CWS win over Florida in his senior year. The pitcher was Alex Faedo, now with the Detroit Tigers.

That Gators team had two more future major league players on that team – Jonathan India of the Cincinnati Reds and New York Met Pete Alonso, two-time Major League Baseball Home Run Derby champ.

What’s happened since to those former Florida Gators made the 2016 even sweeter.

“It’s pretty cool,” said Gutierrez, one of 16 First Team All-Americans in program history and Big 12 Player of the Year his final season.

Since Gutierrez was named First Team All-American, Steven Gingery, Josh Jung, Cameron Warren and Jace Jung have snagged the same honor.

“It’s not easy getting to Omaha. It’s a challenge. We wanted to be there and compete at the best level. That’s what we did.”

“It’s not easy getting to Omaha. It’s a challenge. We wanted to be there and compete at the best level. That’s what we did,” he said.

To get to Omaha in 2016, Tech needed all three Super Regional games to beat East Carolina in Lubbock. The Red Raiders lost the first game, 8-6. The second game went into extra innings, tied 1-1.

Robert Dugger inherited two Pirates on base with no outs in the 8th inning and kept the game tied. In the 12th inning, East Carolina had the bases loaded with two outs, but Dugger got a ground out to second to end the inning.

Gutierrez then singling in two runs in the 13th inning for a 3-1 win.

After playing minor league baseball, Gutierrez returned to Tech as a volunteer assistant coach, with the goal of being a head coach.

“I always liked helping guys on my team. I have a passion for the game,” said Gutierrez.

Being around Tadlock is the best way he can learn to become a coach, he said.

“I believe everything he has to say about baseball. We’re on the same page and we have the same goals. That was one of the reasons why I wanted to work under him,” he said.

2019: Men’s Basketball Team’s Run to First Final Four Comes within Seconds of National Title

Texas Tech men’s basketball team entered the locker room with a 24-16 halftime lead over Michigan in the 2019 NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen game.

The Wolverines were shooting 28 percent.

Assistant coach Mark Adams lit into the team about playing even better defense in the second half.

Four years later, now-head coach Adams is chatting about Texas Tech’s run to its first Final Four that season.

“We had a game plan,” he said about the Michigan game. “I wanted to remind them it’s working, but they needed to make sure they kept doing what we said, who to guard and make sure we take away their strengths and accentuate their weaknesses. They had one guard and we wanted to make sure he couldn’t go to his right hand. I don’t think he scored a point in that game.”

Tech gave up 28 Michigan points in the second half but scored 39 and won 63-44 in Anaheim, Calif. They advanced to the Elite Eight game against top-seeded Gonzaga.

Tech beat the ‘Zags 75-69 to go to its first Final Four, holding them to 42 percent shooting, ten below their average.

“That defense is real,” said Gonzaga coach Mark Few.

Tech started its run to Minneapolis beating Northern Kentucky and Buffalo by double-digit margins, before going to California to face Michigan and Gonzaga.

In the cavernous home of the Minnesota Vikings, Tech beat Michigan State, 61-51 in the national semifinal, to get to the title game.

Against Virginia, with a lot of Tech fans in the crowd including former Red Raider quarterback Patrick Mahomes, the Red Raiders fell behind by ten. But led by Brandone Francis’ 17 points, Tech had a three-point lead in the final seconds. Virginia’s De’Andre Hunter’s three-point shot sent the game to overtime. The Cavaliers went on to win 85-77.

Tech finished ranked second in the country with a 31-7 record, a share of the Big 12 regular season title and the nation’s top defense.

It was the greatest season in Red Raider basketball history.

But that wasn’t on players’ minds in a devastated locker room.

“Great teams are competitive and part of that means refusing to lose.”

“Great teams are competitive and part of that means refusing to lose,” said Adams. “When the season ends there’s a sadness in the room because this is the last time this team will be together in a locker room. Reality sets in and it’s overwhelming. There were a lot of tears,” he said.

Applications to Tech spiked after the Final Four after all the media coverage of Tech’s great season.

Signs of Something Special

Tech started the season 10-0 before losing to Duke at Madison Square Garden in December.

The coaching staff was discussing what they wanted to tell the team. They’d played well but didn’t want to claim a moral victory. Before they could get in the locker room, they heard senior Norense Odiase telling the team in a loud and forceful voice that they should have won the game and needed to play better.

“That set the stage that we expected more. The Duke game gave us confidence and a little more motivation that we had a lot of potential. That game started to separate us from previous teams,” said Adams.

The Red Raiders won their first four Big 12 games, then lost three straight. After two more wins, they were beaten at Kansas by 16 and the margin could have worse.

“It was an embarrassing loss. Our guys were devastated,” he said. “When we got home our players were down. As a coaching staff, we told them, ‘Look – we’re not going to be victims here. Let’s not feel sorry for ourselves. Let’s turn this thing around. Everybody bought in and we had a great practice.”

Tech won nine in a row, including whipping Kansas by 29-points at home.

That game followed an 86-61 win against a Baylor team that had beaten them in Waco.

The Baylor game was important for another reason. A pair of Odiase’s cousins had died in a car crash.

“It was a very emotional game. Our team truly picked Norense up and carried him on their shoulders. We played the game for him because he was a tremendous leader for us on and off the floor,” said Adams.

Andrew Sorrells, a member of the 2019 team, referred to Odiase as the heart of that team.

“I referred to him as Moses,” said Adams. “He was an enforcer on the court and in the locker room. He led us to the promised land.”

They finished off the Big 12 season with an 80-73 win at Iowa State, avenging an earlier loss to the Cyclones.

A loss to West Virginia in the opening round of the Big 12 Tournament was a brief setback. Adams pointed out losses that year played a big role in the team’s development.

“Adversity is when character is revealed. This team had great chemistry, they trusted and loved each other. They were unselfish and very resilient. It was a magical team the way they played for each other.”

“Adversity is when character is revealed. This team had great chemistry, they trusted and loved each other. They were unselfish and very resilient. It was a magical team the way they played for each other,” he said.

A Quick History

Tech started playing basketball its first year in 1925 and won six Border Conference championships before joining the Southwest Conference in 1957-58 and moving into the new Municipal Coliseum.

One of the players on that ’57-’58 team was Gerald Myers, who came back to coach the Red Raiders for 21 years.

Texas Tech won nine SWC titles under Polk Robinson, Gene Gibson, Myers and James Dickey.

Ring of Honor members from the Border and Southwest conference eras are:

• Jim Reed: Played from 1953-56, Border Conference Player of the Year and led Tech to three straight conferences titles. He was Tech’s first AP All-America selection.
• Dub Malaise: Played from 1964-66, Southwest Conference Player of the Year and two-time AP All-America. He passed away in 2021.
• Rick Bullock: Played from 1973-76, two-time SWC Player of the Year.

Then Tech made national headlines when then-Athletic Director Myers lured Bob Knight to Lubbock. Tech had recently joined the Big 12 and moved into United Supermarkets Arena. During Knight’s time in Lubbock he:

• Set the Division I record for coaching wins, passing Dean Smith.
• Led Tech to the NIT Final Four and NCAA Sweet Sixteen before he retired.

Tech had advanced to the Sweet Sixteen three previous times.

Ring of Honor members from the Big 12 era:

• Andre Emmett: Played 2001-04, leading scorer in program history. Emmett was tragically shot and killed in Dallas in 2019.

The program then went through three coaches over five frustrating seasons before Tubby Smith returned Tech to the NCAA Tournament in his third season. After that season he left for Memphis as plans were being developed for what is now the Dustin R. Womble Basketball Center.

But he recruited some players who would make an impact after Chris Beard took over. Beard brought along Adams, the Brownfield native and Tech grad, who was on his staff at Arkansas-Little Rock.

In Beard’s second season, the Red Raiders beat Purdue, advancing to its first Elite Eight game – a year before the Final Four trip.

After a COVID-canceled 2019-20 season, Beard’s Red Raiders were beaten by Arkansas in the second-round of the NCAAs the following year and he bolted for Texas, ticking off Tech’s fans.

Beard asked Adams to come to Austin, but Adams stayed in Lubbock and applied for the job.

Starting the Adams Era

Players from the Final Four team lobbied for Adams to be hired.

Odiase, Matt Mooney, Davide Moretti, Tariq Owens, and Justin Gray from the Elite Eight team all used social media.

“Mark Adams knows how to FIGHT. Let’s keep him in it.”

From Owens: “Mark Adams knows how to FIGHT. Let’s keep him in it.”

“I give those guys a lot of credit for me being the coach. I love those guys. But I was somewhat surprised because I was always the bad cop on the floor trying to instill discipline and toughness when you’re trying to get them to play defense,” said Adams.

“The most challenging part of being a coach is getting guys to know you care about them, so they will trust you. Then you’ve got an opportunity to help them see and reach their potential. It’s the foundation of a championship team. That group had willingness to want to be coached. They just had great character,” he said.

In his first season, he took Tech to the Sweet Sixteen, where it fell to Duke during Mike Krzyzewski’s final season. The Red Raiders were undefeated at home, including beating Texas on Beard’s return in front of a raucous crowd.

And his defense never rests, as fans like to say on social media.

Adams’ no-middle defense was tried out during the Elite Eight season and blossomed in the Final Four year.

It ranked 7th in the country during Adams’ first season as head coach.

Adams developed the defense after his first year at Tech, when the Red Raiders finished seventh in the Big 12.

“That summer I watched videos of Big 12 teams and their tendencies because I knew we had to make some changes on defense. That’s when I came up with this. The no-middle defense has been around, we just tweaked it,” he said.

The biggest challenge was convincing Beard and other coaches it would work. During the Final Four year, Adams said, Tech’s defensive ranking was the highest in 20 years.

“We had a long, athletic team,” he said, pointing out Odiase and Owens, who set a single-season school record with 92 blocks.

Adams doesn’t look for defensive players when recruiting. He wants kids who have good offensive skills along with character who want to be coached.

Teaching defense is like teaching anything, he said.

“You instill habits and through repetition those habits become instinctual,” he said.

It was how his dad taught him to box, drills that developed habits.

“My brother and I were fighting guys who had 200, 300 fights and we were winning those fights. It’s because he had trained us properly,” said Adams.

The Red Raiders do defensive drills over and over.

“When they get in the game the guys just instinctively react the way they’re supposed to,” he said.

Even though basketball highlights on TV and social media mostly show slam dunks and buzzer beaters, Adams points out the coaches he grew up watching – Knight, Myers, and Eddie Sutton – were all great defensive coaches.

“The feedback we’re getting from the NBA is they want two-way players, looking for guys who can guard,” said Adams. “We’ve had NBA scouts recommend kids go back to school and suggest Texas Tech as a good place to go because we’re going to teach defense.”

Bryson Williams transferred to Tech for last season because he wanted to learn more about defense, Adams said.

“It’s an attraction to a lot of these players in the transfer portal,” he said.

Adams recently got a call from Brad Stevens, president of basketball operations for the Boston Celtics.

“He called and we were talking about players and he said he told his staff to watch Texas Tech. He really admired what we did and said they try to do a lot of the same things we do on defense, like switching the one through five. I was kind of taken aback. That was quite a compliment,” he said,

And he likes having Myers around, who he asked decades ago to sit in on his Red Raider practices to learn.

“Coach Myers has unbelievable love for this university and has always been one of my biggest supporters and mentors. He’s always a good coach to bounce ideas off,” he said.

Adams also loves his homecourt advantage, with a packed United Supermarkets Arena and the Raider Riot leading swag surfing.

“Someone asked if I heard them playing the theme from ‘The Addams Family,’” a TV sitcom from the 1960s. “I didn’t even know they did it, I’m so focused on the game. I just shut everything else out. They played it and people snapped their fingers.” Adams saw it when watching a replay.

“I’d love to be able to take credit for some of our wins at home but so many times it was just our crowd lifting our players when momentum changed.”

“It’s an unbelievable advantage for us. The crowd’s impact on our players and our opponents is significant. I’d love to be able to take credit for some of our wins at home but so many times it was just our crowd lifting our players when momentum changed. Our guys love playing for our fans,” he said.

Adams disagreed with a recent ranking putting Tech’s home-game environment third behind Kentucky and Arkansas.

“I think we’ve got the best environment in our country,” he said. “We had Kentucky players tell us we had the best home court environment. A lot of credit goes to the administration and game ops personnel who’ve created that environment.”

Adams has high expectations for his alma mater going forward.

“You take that high expectation and build an environment that supports it. That’s what we’ve done here at Texas Tech. This is a winning culture. We expect to win. But this could not happen if we didn’t have the support from the community and university administration to give us the resources, so we have the opportunity to be where we are today. We just want to keep that going,” he said.

“People didn’t think the four-minute mile could be run until Roger Bannister did it,” said Adams, of the record-setting run in 1954.

“Now that Texas Tech has gotten to that final game, we’ve seen it’s possible to win a national championship. That’s our goal and we’re going to get there. I look back at those 2018 and 2019 teams and all they did. We’re going to continue that tradition and hopefully soon we can win that championship for everybody,” he said.

2019: Men’s Track & Field Wins First Men's Team National Title

The 2019 Texas Tech men’s track & field team had title hopes at the NCAA Indoor National Championships in Birmingham, Alabama.

They finished sixth.

“We went there ranked high and got embarrassed. We went in there and acted like we were going to do something and we didn’t. The kids were just furious,” said Wes Kittley, Tech’s Director of Track & Field and Cross Country since 1999.

That was March.

At a meet at Baylor a month later during outdoor season, Kittley said, “we had the most fantastic meet I’ve ever had coaching. Those kids looked at me and said, ‘coach, we figured it out and we’re gonna go win the national championship.’ Those kids believed it from that point on,” he said.

Two months later, Divine Oduduru and Duke Kicinski won half of Tech’s 60 points and the men captured the school’s first team title at the NCAA Outdoor National Championships in Austin.

Two decades earlier, Kittley inherited a program that finished last in the Big 12 Conference. In a few years, Tech’s men’s and women’s programs were nationally ranked and part of the national conversation in track & field.

Building a National Power in Track & Field

Kittley came to Lubbock after 16 years coaching at Abilene Christian University – about 60 miles from his hometown of Rule.

When he was six years old, his grandad took him out to the Rule High School track. Young Wes saw athletes taking their spikes out of their cars and thought it was amazing.

“I was just hooked. I got to jog a lap with them and track and field was what I wanted to do,” he said.

Kittley was a state champion in the 880-yard-run his senior year at Rule. He was an All-American at ACU before taking over their track teams in 1985. His Wildcat teams won 29 NCAA titles and ACU now has a track meet named for Kittley.

When he came to Lubbock, the Tech track teams were mostly made up of student athletes from West Texas.

The best programs in the nation not only recruited the best American track & field athletes, but the best internationally.

Kittley had international athletes during his successful years at ACU.

The Red Raiders finished second in the Big 12 championships Kittley’s fourth season and success was noticed.

“We started attracting better American kids and started getting interest from international kids, too. And Texas Tech had never done that,” he said.

The college track and field powers at the time – LSU, Texas, Oregon – attracted the best in America and the world.

“Once you start recruiting one or two good ones, they tell their friends. And then I’ve got 40 years of being in the business and have a lot of contacts around the world now,” said Kittley of growing the program.

In 2005, the men’s team won the first of six Big 12 titles in the Kittley era, which led to more funding.

“The school really got committed to the program,” he said. Also, the “trickle down” to “Olympic” sports from the Big 12 improved.

Kittley could start sending coaches around the globe.

Enter Sally Kipyego.

In 2½ years from 2006-08, the Kenyan distance runner won a record nine NCAA titles, including a record three-straight NCAA individual cross-country wins.

The men’s and women’s teams were constantly ranked but had not captured a team title.

In 2008, the men’s team led after the first day of the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Iowa.

“Then everything fell apart,” said Kittley.

Over the next decade, the Red Raiders consistently finished in the top five or ten but couldn’t finish on top.

“We’d have a really good team, we’d go and just not have a great meet,” at the NCAA championships, said Kittley.

“It’s so good at the national meet, there’s such a fine line. One or two athletes can make a difference in you being 15th or top three or four. And sometimes we were a little bit unhealthy,” he said.

But the big reason, Kittley said, was the Red Raiders didn’t know how to win at that level.

“It just wasn’t coming together. And I think they just got sick and tired of it.”

“It just wasn’t coming together. And I think they just got sick and tired of it,” he said.

A Magical Meet

It all changed in June of 2019.

Oduduru won the 100 and 200 meters for ten points each. Many other Red Raiders chipped in points and when Kicinski won the discus and another ten points, it cliched the title.

“No one hardly wins if they don’t have one or two winners and we had three. We had a second with Norman Grimes in the 400 hurdles. And then we had a bunch of fourths, fifths, sixths, sevenths and eights – the whole group just put it together. So proud of how much of a team effort it was and how spread out it was,” Kittley said.

“We had the meet of our lives. Those kids reached their potential at the biggest meet there could be, and it just happened in Austin, which we couldn’t have been more proud of,” he said.

Kittley took 18 men to Austin and 16 contributed points. One high jumper didn’t score and one decathlete was injured.

The meet wasn’t finished when Tech clinched the crown.

Kittley was able to go into the stands and celebrate with his wife, his sons – including Zach, now the Texas Tech football team’s offensive coordinator – and other family. He shared hugs with Kirby Hocutt, Director of Athletics and Jonathan Botros, Senior Associate Athletics Director/Finance & Administration and celebrated with his coaching staff.

“It took 20 years, but I just stayed with it.”

“I hugged and kissed my wife and said, ‘it took 20 years, but I just stayed with it,’” he said.

After the ceremonies, about a hundred Red Raider fans came onto the field to join the celebration.

In the following days, Kittley heard from many of his former athletes.

“The outpouring of love was incredible. They were proud we’d finally gotten over the hump. I told them all, brick by brick, step by step, you guys built it for us. We just kept getting better every year,” he said.

“There’s nothing more special than the kids you coached now 30, 35, 40 years old and they’re just so proud. They were a part of it and are a part of it,” he said.

Adding the Sports Performance Center

Shortly before the program won the title, Texas Tech track & field opened the Sports Performance Center, which it shares with football and houses an impressive indoor track & field site.

The almost $50-million facility has given the program even more luster, but Kittley points out the SPC wasn’t in place when pieces of the 2019 team started coming together.

“That team was built four years, three years and two years earlier. I don’t want to take anything away from that group,” he said.

“But the Sports Performance Center is a game changer. It’s just incredible. When we bring recruits in now it helps us keep our program where it is and move it to another level. Championships are hard to win. You’ve got to have the right people, great facilities and a lot of luck,” Kittley said.

“I think we have the best indoor facility in the country,” he added.

Championship Results

Under Kittley’s leadership, beside the 2019 men’s national championship, the men’s and women’s teams have had:

• 29 NCAA individual champions
• 264 First Team All-Americans
• 186 Big 12 individual champions
• 9 Big 12 team championships (six for the men and three women’s cross-country titles)
• 20 Olympians
• 8 Olympic medalists
• 7 top-5 NCAA team finishes
• 14 top-10 NCAA team finishes

“I thought Texas Tech was a goldmine…They were my kind of people. I love the West Texas atmosphere and culture.”

“My goal from day one was to win a national championship. I thought Texas Tech was a goldmine. When I was at Abilene Christian, I said if I’m gonna leave here, it’d be for Texas Tech. They were my kind of people. I love the West Texas atmosphere and culture,” he said.

“Everybody told me I couldn’t win here. It just made me lock my jaw and say, ‘wait and see,’” he said.

Starting with winning the Big 12 title in 2005, Kittley proved a great track & field program could be built in West Texas.

“It changed the mindset out there with high school and college coaches and the international community,” he said.

“It’s a great lesson. It you want to be somewhere and you give your heart and soul to it and stay with it…it didn’t happen easily. It’s the hardest job I’ve ever had. But it’s the most rewarding. You can make something special happen,” said Kittley.

It’s hard to have two good teams consistently, he said.

“I’ve got 125 kids, so it’s a lot of manage. But I’ve known since I was six years old, I wanted to be a coach,” he said.

2021: Tech Helps Rebuild Big 12 Conference

There were concerns the Big 12 Conference was on life support when Texas and Oklahoma announced in summer 2021 they were leaving to join the Southeastern Conference.

The Big 12 moved fast with the help of Texas Tech President Lawrence Schovanec and Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt.

A quick infusion of four other schools who were excited to join – Brigham Young University, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Houston and the University of Central Florida – stabilized the conference.

During that time, Robert Giovannetti said don’t expect the conference realignment drama of 2021 to be the end of seismic changes in college sports conferences.

“Kirby’s line now is to never say never again on conference realignment,” said Giovannetti, Tech’s Senior Associate Athletics Director/External Operations & Strategic Communications.

Streaming services are getting more involved with broadcasting sports and could change the dynamic again, he said in 2021. There could also be changes in other conferences.

“The Pac 12 is not what it used to be,” he also said. “The Pac 12 has a lot of reputational value. But when you see what’s happened with football attendance – USC, UCLA, Stanford, Oregon are going to be OK, but I think the rest of the schools might say ‘is this where we want to be five, ten years from now?’” said Giovannetti.

A year later he looked like a soothsayer when USC and UCLA said they were going to the Big 10.

A year after the Big 12’s future was in question, now the Pac 12’s future was in doubt. Rumors swirled that Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State (the last two Tech’s Border Conference pals in the 1930s-1950s) could find a revamped Big 12 more attractive.

Regardless of what happens, Texas Tech no longer is tied to Texas and Texas A&M.

Regardless of what happens, Texas Tech no longer is tied to Texas and Texas A&M, which left the Big 12 for the SEC in 2013.

When Tech joined the Southwest Conference in 1956, it set off the biggest celebration in Lubbock since the end of World War II and later set the stage for the Red Raiders to join the Big 12 Conference in the 1990s.

Being in the same conferences as the older schools from Austin and College Station gave Texas Tech a sense of finally being seen as equals.

“We needed to be part of that to grow,” said Giovannetti.

But not anymore.

“We don’t need to tag along with those two anymore. Texas Tech has done enough to stand on its own,” said Giovannetti.

Forging a New Big 12

Schovanec had barely started his term as chairman of the Big 12’s Board of Directors – made up of the university presidents – when the Texas and Oklahoma defections were announced.

“I went home that day and my wife Patty said to me, ‘Well…it didn’t take you long to screw this up,’” he said, laughing in his office.

“We all (the eight remaining members) felt a certain commitment to the conference. We were competing at a very high level,” said Schovanec, pointing out Baylor won the men’s basketball championship earlier this year, which Tech almost won two years before. “With the prospects of an expanded College Football Playoff we thought the future was solid and bright.”

All eight schools were also pondering what was best for them, said Giovannetti.

“It’s like playing poker. You think you trust everyone in the room, but you don’t really know.”

“It’s like playing poker. You think you trust everyone in the room, but you don’t really know,” he said.

Reports started popping up on social media – the Big 12 would fold, schools would go to other conferences – Schovanec said a lot of it was wrong.

The Big 12 Board of Directors got busy to not only keep the conference together but keep it as one of the Power 5 conferences, allowing it to retain its autonomy status those conferences enjoy.

A firm was brought in to look at new members. It created a four-person expansion committee: Tech’s Hocutt, Iowa State President Wendy Wintersteen, Kansas Chancellor Doug Girod and Baylor Athletic Director Mack Rhodes.

“Kirby is one of the most respected athletic directors in the conference not only among his peers, but also the other presidents and chancellors. His voice matters,” said Schovanec.

Before the expansion committee was formed, Giovannetti said, Hocutt spent a lot of time talking to different people in college athletics about what was happening and what Texas Tech could do.

“Kirby is very well connected and respected nationally,” he said.

He also stays – to use a football phrase – calm in the pocket.

“Kirby’s not reactive. We saw this during COVID. There were people who wanted to make decisions right away. Kirby’s thoughtful, takes everything in and then makes decisions,” said Giovannetti.

Hocutt’s calm approach didn’t change during the frenetic days when the Big 12’s future was unknown.

Schovanec said the eight remaining Big 12 members worked well together.

On Sept. 12, 2021, the conference announced adding the four schools and all will join the Big 12 on July 1, 2023.

“The four institutions are a perfect cultural fit for the conference,” said Schovanec.

Going Forward

Where conferences used to be based on geography, it’s now TV eyeballs, said Giovannetti.

“If you look at Lubbock, I think we’re the 145th television market,” he said, but when you add Amarillo, the Permian Basin, Wichita Falls and eastern New Mexico it adds up to the 41st market.

“Those are things we’ve got to tell people. Plus, we have a huge alumni base in Dallas and Houston. We bring those eyeballs with us too,” he said.

Tony Hernandez, Tech’s Deputy Director of Athletics, said even if the Big 12 is spreading out further from its historic regions of Texas and the Midwest, all four new schools are closer to Lubbock than West Virginia.

The new Big 12 will be one of the best, if not the best basketball conference, said Hernandez.

They’re also a good academic fit.

Tech, Houston and UCF are three of 16 Carnegie R1 Research and Hispanic Serving institutions in the country. Cincinnati is an R1 school and BYU R2.

“I do believe we’ll have enhanced opportunities to work with the University of Houston in the academic arena,” said Schovanec.

When the four schools were announced, there was concern Tech would lose a recruiting advantage in Houston.

Schovanec flipped that, saying Tech can tell recruits from the fourth-largest city in the nation they can compete for the Red Raiders and still get to play in front of their friends and family on road trips.

It also gives Red Raider coaches a presence in Florida and Ohio – consistently two of the top states for high school talent.

“Our coaches feel they have a strengthened recruitment message,” said Schovanec.

Red Raider fans also have new places to go for road games, said Hernandez. UCF is in Orlando, home of Disney World. BYU is in Provo, Utah, near great skiing

“There’s some excitement from our fans being able to go to new cities,” he said.

‘We Don’t Need to Be in Anybody’s Shadow’

“This does give Texas Tech a chance to be featured more prominently,” said Giovannetti, adding the university must communicate what it’s accomplished.

Hernandez added Tech needs to tell people its reach is coast-to-coast.

“Texas Tech has a strong presence around the country,” said Hernandez, pointing out after Texas and New Mexico, California sends the third-highest number of students to Tech.

The conference shake-up helped Texas Tech take a good look at itself and liked what it saw.

“We have a strong brand, a strong institution and a strong athletic department.”

“We have a strong brand, a strong institution and a strong athletic department,” said Hernandez, emphasizing facility improvements from the Campaign for Fearless Champions.

“Our facilities don’t take a back seat to anyone. The resources we put into athletics are phenomenal – the Womble Basketball Center, the Cash Family Sports Nutrition Center, the Sports Performance Center is the best indoor track and football complex there is,” he said.

“I talk to my counterparts every time they come here and they’re amazed how great our facilities are. United Supermarkets Arena is 20 years old, but to me it’s the best arena in the Big 12, even if it doesn’t have the tradition of 66-year-old Allen Fieldhouse in Kansas,” he said.

And since that interview, Tech announced plans for the $200 million Womble Football Center and South End Zone project – the final pieces of the Campaign for Fearless Champions.

“We don’t need to be in anybody’s shadow,” he added.

Source:

• “Realignment,” October/November issue of Red Raider Sports Magazine, by Terry Greenberg

1926: Tech Receives First of Many Accreditations

In 1926, Texas Technological College received accreditation by the Association of Texas Colleges and the Texas Education Agency (formerly the State Department of Education).

It was the first in a long series of accreditations for the university and, today, more than two-dozen accredited programs.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, or SACSCOC, is Tech’s main accrediting body.

The every-five-year process is “very expensive and time consuming,” said Tech President Lawrence Schovanec, “but you have to do it.”

Accreditation is not an option.

SACSCOC accredits schools in 11 southern states and 150-plus in Texas.

“The public can feel confident the colleges and universities we accredit are stable and deliver high-quality student outcomes,” the organization said in a document, “Why Regional Accreditation Matters.”

The organization uses staff and outside experts for what they call a “rigorous peer-review process to ensure fiscal and educational integrity.”

It also points out regional accreditation is local control.

“Rather than the federal government directly overseeing institutional quality, regional accreditation is a peer-review process led by those closest to the action – not bureaucrats in Washington,” the document said. SACSCOC lists the following as its core values:

• Integrity
• Peer Review/Self-regulation
• Student Learning
• Continuous Quality Improvement
• Accountability
• Transparency

“Accreditation for our educational programs is another recognition of excellence in what we do.”

“Accreditation for our educational programs is another recognition of excellence in what we do,” said Ronald Hendrick, Tech’s Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Individual programs may or may not have accreditation, said Hendrick.

“My background is in forestry,” he said, adding there’s a national organization that does accreditation.

“But wildlife biologists don’t have that – they have a certification process individuals go through. So it’s very idiosyncratic, but it is one of those markers of excellence and consistency in your programs,” he said.

Before teachers can get a teaching certification in Texas, Hendrick pointed out, they must have a bachelor’s degree from an approved and accredited institution.

It’s the same for lawyers. The Texas Tech University School of Law is accredited by the American Bar Association. Once future lawyers graduate from the accredited school, they must pass the bar exam.

1937: Graduate Program Becomes Separate Unit

When Texas Tech began, the focus was on teaching and learning practical skills young men could take back to the farm, or could help young women be better housewives.

In 1927, only two years after classes began, graduate courses were first taught in the school of Liberal Arts.

In 1935, the Graduate School started.

As a university starts offering advanced degrees and the research that comes with those degrees, it moves from a school teaching acquired knowledge to an institution where faculty and students create and generate knowledge, said Ronald Hendrick, Texas Tech’s Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs.

“You move into a position to train the next generation of knowledge generators and creators. That’s an important first step to where you pivot from teaching into a research university and then those programs continue to grow,” he said.

Texas Tech now offers some 60 doctoral degrees, more than 100 master’s degrees, and more than 60 graduate certificate programs.

“I’m not aware of any major research universities without a standalone graduate school,” said Hendrick.

The graduate school holds students to standards as part of helping them toward their degree.

The graduate school holds students to standards as part of helping them toward their degree.

“If someone’s going to do a master’s thesis or a doctoral dissertation it meets certain criteria in ensuring the student has done original work,” he said.

The grad school offers support for students with financial, academic or personal issues as they work toward their degree.

1950: First Ph.D. Programs Offered

Texas Tech started offering Ph.D. programs in the 1950-51 year, a decade and a half after opening the graduate school.

“A need in this part of the country for a doctoral program was expressed by many persons and concurred with by the school administration,” said Dr. William B. Gates, dean of the graduate studies division at the time.

In 1952, Estus C. Polk received the first doctoral degree.

When the degree was given, Tech President Dossie Wiggins said it was indicative of Tech’s rise to the upper levels of graduate work, adding the school is striving to serve the area in the best manner possible with advanced work in certain needed fields.

Tech is really university caliber, even though it would be another 17 years until the word university was part of the school’s official name.

Gates added conferring the first doctor’s degree helps indicate Tech is really university caliber, even though it would be another 17 years until the word university was part of the school’s official name.

Now Tech offers 60 doctoral degree programs.

1951: Carl Coke Rister, First Distinguished professorship

In 1951, Dr. Carl Coke Rister was appointed to the first distinguished professorship at Texas Tech.

The State Legislature approved such appointments two years ealier.

Rister had been research professor of History at the University of Oklahoma for a dozen years.

His hiring was intended to strengthen Tech’s history department, which was beginning a Doctor of Philosophy program. Rister had a Ph.D. from George Washington University and a extensive background in Southwestern history.

Arriving in the 1951-52 school year, Rister started teaching graduate classes and worked to increase the Fledgling Southwest Collection, then in the library.

Rister wrote 12 books and did many speaking engagements.

He was speaking in Rotan, a little more than 100 miles southeast of Tech when he died of a heart attack in 1955. Rister was only 65 years old.

His last book, “Comanche Bondage” was published posthumously.

Rister’s death have life to the modern Southwest Collection. The Texas Tech Board of Directors bought his books and papers and hired Dr. Seymour V. Connor as archivist, giving the research center a separate identity.

Source:

• Texas Techsan, March/April 1995 issue, Texas Tech in Retrospect: Texas Tech’s First Distinguished Professor, by Janet Neugebauer

1959: Honors Program Initiated

When Texas Tech University was approved for a Phi Beta Kappa chapter in 2006, its “thoroughly impressive” Honors College was given as one of the reasons.

The Honors program started in 1959 and became the Honors College in 2000.

The college prides itself on offering a small-college experience for students who still have the benefits of attending a large, research-intensive university.

Some recent headlines illustrate the accomplishments from the college and its students:

• Junia Lee becomes the first Texas Tech student awarded the Sumners Scholarship to encourage studying of self-government.
• Andrew Ibrahim named 2022 Goldwater Scholar, the nation’s top undergraduate award in science, engineering and mathematics.
• Honors College Alumna Gracen Daniel named “one to watch” by Dallas Association of Young Lawyers.

The college’s First Year Experience (FYE) program helps new students transition into university life. They take one of the FYE courses that comes with an attached Learning Community Group lead by two upper-class students who serve as peer mentors – part of that small college within the big university idea.

The Honors College Thesis program gives students an opportunity to do original research which is required to graduate with the highest honors.

Undergraduate Research Scholars allows students to research ideas with mentors in an R1 research university.

The college aims to develop:

• Critical thinking
• Creativity
• Scholarly investigation and research
• Willingness to consider different perspectives
• Civic engagement
• Global awareness
• Effective communication skills
• Leadership
• Integrity

1961: Tech Faculty Works to Obtain Phi Beta Kappa Chapter

In 1961, Texas Tech faculty members – who were Phi Beta Kappa members – formed an organization called Lychnos to obtain a Phi Beta Kappa chapter.

Forty-five years later, Texas Tech became one of about ten percent of American higher education institutions with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter.

Phi Beta Kappa faculty and staff submitted applications in 1982, 1985, 1997 and 2000 but couldn’t get past the first review. Tech made significant improvements during that time, partly due to what it learned from the process.

When Tech was approved, Phi Beta Kappa pointed out the university’s “thoroughly impressive” Honors College, rising retention and graduation rates, a library called one of the best in the country by the Association of Research Libraries, among other improvements.

Then-President Jon Whitmore complimented Mary Jane Hurst, Professor of English and Faculty Assistant to the President, for helping Tech get approval.

Phi Beta Kappa officials, headed by a dean from Yale University, visited Tech for several days in 2005 to examine the campus and meet with students, faculty and administrators.

The year Tech’s chapter was approved, so were chapters for Clemson University, The University of Pacific, Xavier University in Cincinnati and two others, creating 276 chapters at the time. There are now about 300.

“With the establishment of these chapters, we acknowledge the accomplishments of the six institutions in the field of liberal education, and we look forward to a lively partnership in advancing that cause. The Phi Beta Kappa members among the faculty and staff on each campus will organize their chapter in the weeks ahead and we will present the charters and install the chapters in ceremonies during the 2006-2007 academic year,” said John Churchill of Phi Beta Kappa when Tech’s inclusion was announced in 2006.

Having a Phi Beta Kappa Chapter at Tech means:

• Students will get an education in the liberal arts and sciences found at only the top ten percent or so of U.S. institutions.
• Faculty will be affiliated with an institution whose commitment to excellence is proven and established.
• Every degree granted at Texas Tech is enhanced in value.
• Permanent association with the very best in American education.

Early each spring semester, eligible junior and senior undergrads are considered for election to the society, which is a lifetime honor. Every year since Tech has had the chapter, dozens and dozens of Red Raiders are initiated into the society at a ceremony.

Begun during the American Revolution, Phi Beta Kappa is the nation’s oldest academic honor society with more than a half-million members nationwide. It embraces the principles of freedom of inquiry and liberty of thought and expression.

“Love of learning is the guide of life.”

The Greek letters Phi Beta Kappa represent the initials of the society’s Greek motto which can be translated as “Love of learning is the guide of life.”

The first chapter began at the College of William & Mary in 1776.

The next three chapters in the 1700s were at Yale, Harvard and Dartmouth.

Almost 50 more were established in the 1800s. The University of Texas was the first in the Lone Star State in 1904. There are now 11 chapters in Texas. Texas A&M was just ahead of Tech in 2004 and Houston came after in 2016.

1966: Flying Professors Begin Distance Learning

Distance learning started at Texas Tech long before the Internet was invented.

The “Flying Professors” took off from then-called Lubbock Municipal Airport in a twin-engine plane Tuesday and Thursday afternoons to teach engineering up in the Panhandle or down in the Permian Basin.

It was the precursor to eLearning, which is a big part of what Texas Tech now offers since the Internet changed the world.

Dr. James H. Lawrence, Dr. A.G. Oberg, Dr. Richard A. Dudek, Dr. H.R. Heichelheim and Dr. Donald J. Helmers taught graduate-level work to employees of companies wanting to further their education.

The courses taught were started through a contract between engineering businesses in Amarillo, Borger and Pampa, including the Texaco refinery, Pantex nuclear weapons plant and the Phillips petroleum and chemical refinery plant. Most of the cost was covered by companies.

Milton Smith, professor of industrial engineering, joined the program during the late 1960s as a graduate student.

“They would fly professors up there once a week and teach three hours,” Smith said. “Typically there would be five professors. We would meet at the airport at about 3:30, fly to Amarillo and drop off one person” before flying to Borger and Pampa. Students would rotate each week and take the professors to dinner at a “real nice” barbecue restaurant and the group would then go back for class from 6-9 p.m., said Smith.

This was Smith’s first experience teaching a three-hour block, which was challenging because he had to have all his materials and plans together before the professors got on the plane, he said.

“We had maybe a five-minute break every hour and then take us back to the airport and the plane did the reverse,” Smith said. “We’d get to Lubbock maybe 11 o’clock, so it was 11:30 or so by the time we got home. It was a long day in addition to teaching three hours and almost a full day’s work here and then the travel and getting back.”

While the professors worked long hours and may have had a 7:30 a.m. class the next morning, as Smith did one semester, there were many rewards to keep the professors coming back to teach another year.

When Smith first started teaching, he said, one course was equal to 10 percent of the other nine-month salary.

The professors became friends.

“We had fun. We talked…There was always talking going on. Someone was always talking.”

“We had fun. We talked. I was almost always the only industrial engineering professor, so they had chemical engineers and mechanical engineers,” he said. “There was always talking going on. Someone was always talking.”

One of his favorite memories was when the professors were flying home and could hear the pilots talking back and forth on air-traffic control. It was one of the darker nights and the control tower was instructing the pilot about other aircraft to avoid.

“The air-traffic control towers were talking to some small airplanes and said, ‘watch out for that Continental plane. He should be…’ telling him where to look for him and (our) pilot comes back and says, ‘I don’t see him. I don’t see him,’” he said. “That was when (Continental) planes had a golden tail and they advertised that and the (Continental) pilot said, ‘It’s alright. We’re the ones with the golden tail.’ We all died laughing at that.”

After the flying professors program ended, they spent some time driving back and forth to the campuses to continue teaching classes, Smith said.

Later, Smith participated in the changing distance education programs when cassettes were being mailed to distance students, he said, and then when DVDs were being mailed and now with online streaming.

Today, Texas Tech has about 3,500 students taking online classes, said Melanie Hart, vice provost for outreach and engagement.

“We’ve got close to 100 bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral and certificate programs online. We have more doctoral online degree programs than anyone else in the state of Texas,” she said.

The classes are all involved with a Tech college and Hart’s office provides support.

Source:

• “The Flying Professors” began distance learning, The Daily Toreador, March 2, 2015, by Kaitlin Bain

1967: First Horn Professors Named

In 1967, Texas Tech’s first four Horn Professors were designated:

• Carl Hammer Jr., Classical and Romance Languages
• Alton Wade, Geology
• Ernest Wallace, History
• Elo J. Urbanovsky, Park Administration, Horticulture and Entomology

Since then, as the number of Horn Professors nears 100 it remains the highest honor received by a Texas Tech faculty member who’s attained national and/or international recognition in the areas of teaching, research or other creative, scholarly achievement.

“When you look at the Horn Professors, most of them have had a lengthy tenure at Texas Tech. They’re committed to Texas Tech,” said Tech President Lawrence Schovanec. “They are an impressive group of scholars. It speaks to their international stature which elevates the reputation of the university.”

The honor was named for Paul Whitfield Horn, Tech’s first president.

Ronald Hendrick, Tech’s Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, said, “With President Horn, we have our founding president, the person who took Texas Tech from a piece of ground into a degree-granting university, who had the formative impact on us.”

The honor recognizes faculty who’ve made their own formative impact on the university, he said.

“It’s a way for us to continue to recognize faculty who are contributing to excellence in their disciplines, but also embodying those things that Tech is about…”

“It’s a way for us to continue to recognize faculty who are contributing to excellence in their disciplines, but also embodying those things that Tech is about in terms of teaching, knowledge creation – the values we hold as a university,” said Hendrick.

Many universities have similar honors.

“It is an internal bestowment on those who really embody what it is that the university is about and what it is we seek to achieve,” he added.

Hendrick was at Michigan State University and its version of the Horn honor were the Hannah Professors, honoring the president who elevated the school to a global presence.

The nomination process for a Horn Professor includes critical scrutiny by an evaluation committee, letters of support by prominent experts in the same field as the nominee, dossiers demonstrating immense publication, scholarly service and final ratification by the Board of Regents.

Beyond the honor, Horn Professors have input, said Hendrick.

“They provide input on important decisions at the university, the direction we pursue in our scholarship. They typically get their own meetings with candidates for senior leadership positions. I met with the Horn professors. Dean candidates meet with the Horn professors. They have the opportunity to provide impact on major decisions here at Tech,” he said.

Horn professors receive a one-time $8,000 salary boost and other money to support their work.

Since the first four in 1967, here are the other Horn Professors:

1968

• Henry J. Shine, Chemistry
• Willard Forest Williams, Agricultural Economics

1969

• Beatrix Cobb, Psychology
• Faye L. Bumpass, Classical and Foreign Languages

1970

• Richard A. Dudek, Industrial Engineering
• George Neff Stevens, Law

1971

• Warren Walker, English

1972

• Harold Ernest Dregne, Agronomy
• Richard William Hemingway, Law
• Clarence Everit Kincaid, Jr., Art
• Dan Moody Wells, Civil Engineering

1973

• Morris Sheppard Wallace, Education
• Russell William Strandtmann, Biology

1975

• Pill-Soon Song, Chemistry

1977

• Magne Kristiansen, Electrical Engineering

1978

• M.M. Ayoub, Industrial Engineering
• Henry A. Wright, Range and Wildlife Management

1979

• Robert J. Baker, Biological Sciences
• Richard Saeks, Electrical Engineering

1981

• William J. Conover, Business Administration
• Marion O. Hagler, Electrical Engineering
• Eric G. Bolen, Agricultural Sciences

1983

• David Leon Higdon, English
• Shelby D. Hunt, Business Administration

1984

• James G. Hunt, Business Administration
• Joseph E. Minor, Civil Engineering

1985

• John F. Walkup, Electrical Engineering

1986

• John A. Gillas, Music
• Janet W. Perez, Classical and Romance Languages
• J. Knox Jones, Biological and Museum Sciences

1987

• David B. Knaff, Chemistry
• Walter R. McDonald, English
• Willard B. Robinson, Architecture

1988

• Richard A. Bartsch, Chemistry and Biochemistry

1989

• Mary Jeanne Van Appledorn, School of Music

1990

• Raymond C. Jackson, Biological Sciences
• Allan J. Kuethe, History

1991

• Clyde F. Martin, Mathematics
• Kishor C. Mehta, Civil Engineering

1992

• Purnendu K. Dasgupta, Chemistry and Biochemistry
• Harley Oberhelman, Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures

1994

• Sankar Chatterjee, Museum Science and Geosciences
• Rodney L. Preston, Animal Science and Food Technology

1996

• Clyde Hendrick, Psychology

1997

• E. Roland Menzel, Physics
• Henry Nguyen, Plant and Soil Sciences

• Clyde Jones, Biological Sciences
• Kenneth Ketner, Institute for Studies in Pragmaticism

2000

• Daniel Benson, Law
• Stefan Estreicher, Physics
• Gerald Skoog, Education
• Henryk Temkin, Electrical Engineering

2001

• Frits Ruymagaart, Mathematics and Statistics
• William Westney, Music

2002

• Peter Westfall, Information Systems and Quantitative Sciences, 2002

2003

• Loretta Bradley, Education
• Wijesuriya Dayawansa, Mathematics and Statistics

2004

• Hafid Gafaiti, Classical and Modern Languages and Literature

2005

• Vivian Allen, Plant & Soil Science
• Susan Hendrick, Psychology
• Greg McKenna, Chemical Engineering
• Sunanda Mitra, Electrical Engineering
• Marilyn Phelan, Law

2006

• James C. Watkins, Architecture
• Michael Galyean, Animal and Food Sciences

2007

• William Casto, Alvin R. Allison Professor of Law
• Eileen Johnson, Curator of Anthropology at the Museum of Texas Tech University and Director of the Lubbock Lake Landmark
• W. David Nes, Chemistry and Biochemistry

2008

• Warren Ballard, Natural Resources Management
• Daniel Cooke, Computer Science
• David Larmour, Classical and Modern Languages and Literature
• Susan Saab-Fortney, School of Law

2010

• Linda Allen, Mathematics and Statistics
• Sindee Simon, Chemical Engineering
• Vickie Sutton, School of Law

2011

• Bruce Clarke, English

2012

• Thomas Knight, Agricultural Economics

2013

• Hongxing Jiang, Electrical and Computer Engineering

2014

• William Hase, Chemistry and Biochemistry
• Jingyu Lin, Electrical and Computer Engineering

2015

• Guigen Li, Chemistry and Biochemistry
• Andreas Neuber, Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Brian Shannon, School of Law

2016

• Eric Hequet, Plant and Soil Science

2018

• Yehia S. Mechref, Chemistry and Biochemistry

2021

• Katharine Hayhoe, Political Science and Co-Director of the Climate Center at Texas Tech
• Naïma Moustaïd-Moussa, Nutritional Sciences and Director of the Texas Tech Obesity Research Cluster
• John Poch, English

1968: Tech Makes Global impact through National Wind Institute

Two years before the deadly 1970 Lubbock Tornado, a dust storm swept through Lubbock, damaging the light standards east of the football stadium. Kishor Mehta, a Horn Professor of civil engineering, was intrigued by what he saw.

“I remember walking by the stadium on my way to teach a class, and a dust storm was blowing,” he said. “I had noticed that the light standards were moving quite a bit. One of the things in the course I was teaching was related to deflection, or the degree to which a structural element is displaced under a load.

“I told the class, ‘If you really want to see something that is moving as a deflection, look at the light standards. And somebody spoke up from the back and said, ‘Dr. Mehta, they’ve already collapsed.’ Thankfully, the collapse didn’t hurt anybody. But that’s when I really became aware of the impact of high winds.”

That collapse spurred Mehta and another engineering faculty member, Jim McDonald, to delve deeper into just how much wind could damage the integrity of certain structures.

“It was just done on our own, more out of curiosity than anything else. But the impact of high winds stayed in my mind after that.”

“Jim and I put some instrumentation on the light standards when they were being put back up,” Mehta said. “Then, we took some very crude measurements. We didn't have any equipment. Nobody was funding it. It was just done on our own, more out of curiosity than anything else. But the impact of high winds stayed in my mind after that.”

Opportunity Out of Tragedy

When the tornado occurred in 1970, Mehta saw an opportunity to document the structural damage caused by the powerful winds.

“I said, ‘Well, it would be good to do damage documentation of all these failed buildings, even though the experiment is not controlled, and we don’t have any wind data,'” Mehta said. “But just the idea that how they failed, in what direction they fell and the failure mode would help us with our understanding for different types of building.”

Ernst Kiesling, named the chairman of the civil engineering department in the summer of 1969, agreed with Mehta.

“We had a young faculty, including Mehta, McDonald, Joe Minor and some other people who were looking for research areas, but we had very little going,” said Kiesling said, who passed away in 2021. “I viewed my appointment as chairman of civil engineering as a mandate to develop a research program, because we had a graduate program in place but no research to support it. The tornado provided a laboratory for us because there were lots of damaged buildings. We immediately went to work, and that was the start of the wind engineering program.”

A report that came out of the Lubbock Tornado brought national and international respect to Tech.

“It put us on the map,” said Mehta.

Developing the Fujita Scale

The day after the tornadoes touched down, Tetsuya Theodore “Ted” Fujita, a severe storms researcher and meteorologist from the University of Chicago, came to Lubbock to assess the damage. Fujita mapped the path the two twisters took with intricate detail. The data he gathered from Lubbock and other locations helped him officially develop the Fujita Scale in 1971.

The Fujita Scale, or F-Scale, ranked the strength and power of tornadic events based on wind speed and the damage caused by wind.

Monte Monroe, an archivist at Texas Tech’s Southwest Collection/Special Collection Library (SWC/SCL) and the Texas State Historian, noted history was made with Fujita’s visit.

“Most people don’t think of wind science as a history, but it is history – especially when you’re in a place like Lubbock…”

“Most people don’t think of wind science as a history, but it is history – especially when you’re in a place like Lubbock, where the first documented Category-5 tornado hit,” Monroe said. “I’m sure they’ve hit all over the place before, but this was the first one that helped Fujita create his theory, which became the Fujita Scale. He also determined that it was a multiple-vortices tornado, and we have his hand-drawn maps here.”

Once the Fujita Scale was accepted in 1971, every tornadic storm thereafter was recorded anywhere from an F-0 to an F-5.

Developing the Enhanced Fujita Scale

While Fujita’s findings were a breakthrough in understanding the devastating wind with these storms, Mehta, McDonald, Minor, Kiesling and others felt like it was a bit off.

“Fujita set up the F-Scale, and the Lubbock tornado was one of the first, if not the first, test case for him,” Mehta said. “We were looking at the damage, and he had F-0 to F-5. He said this was an F-5 because concrete buildings were damaged. There was a concrete bridge on the east side that had collapsed. So, to him, these are concrete structures’ damage. Some of the houses were wiped off the foundation and so on. Fujita had a wind speed range for an F-5 and that indicated the wind speed could be close to 300 miles per hour.

“We worked on it, particularly myself, for almost a year and a half, on some of the specific structures from which I would be able to determine what wind speed it would take to cause that damage. We came to the conclusion that the maximum wind speed in the tornado was probably 250 miles per hour, rather than 320,” he said.

Mehta, Minor and the others also concluded it wasn’t possible for wind speeds to be as high as Fujita listed in his F-Scale. Thirty years after the Lubbock tornado, in 2000, they used the data they had collected over that time to create a forum to update the Fujita Scale.

“We had a forum with a number of engineers who had done investigations in tornadoes and a number of meteorologists who were also interested in it,” Mehta said. “Beyond the forum, we formulated a steering committee to move forward. All the data, all the damage photographs we had developed, we gave them to the committee of six people saying, ‘What do you think the windspeed would be to do this kind of damage?’ The damaged buildings varied from single-family homes to mobile homes, schools, hospitals, metal buildings and warehouses.

“It took quite a bit of effort to review the data. The process requires that you recycle it. You give it to six people, let them review it independently and have them specify their values. Then, you take those values and get averages off it. Then, you give it to them again and let them talk among themselves. They’ll say, ‘Oh, my number is way too high. Let me look at it again. Maybe it should be a little lower.’ That’s how we went through the process and developed the new Enhanced Fujita Scale.”

Four years after the forum and process, Mehta and other committee members were ready to present their conclusions and develop the Enhanced Fujita Scale.

“In 2004, we gave our findings to the National Weather Service (NWS) in Silver Spring, Maryland,” Mehta said. “Then, they took it and ran it through several committees to see if it was usable. Finally, in 2006, the NWS said, ‘OK, we will accept the EF-Scale for use, but not before February 2007,’ so it’s almost a year later.

“I had asked the question, ‘Why are you waiting a year?’ They said, ‘We have to educate weather service people in every county, and every weather service station, because they’re the ones who make the judgment on EF-Scale.’ After a tornado, NWS personnel would look at the damage and compare it with photographs of the EF-Scale. They would have to match it as close as possible because actual damage is not exactly the same as photographs, and then try to give an EF-Scale rating. That’s why the current EF-Scale rating wasn’t implemented until 2007.”

Now, tornadic storms are graded on an EF-Scale with wind speeds in an EF-5 designated as 200 mph or greater.

Names May have Changed, but Mission Didn’t

After the tornado – and a little bit of organization – Mehta, McDonald, Minor, Kiesling and a team of other faculty members created the Institute for Disaster Research (IDR) to house all the research they were collecting.

Realizing the team was focused more on windstorms and less on other disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes, they decided to rename the IDR in 1985.

“We changed the name to something that would reflect the wind, so we called it the Wind Engineering Research Center,” Mehta said.

The Wind Engineering Research Center name didn’t last long. After receiving a grant from the National Science Foundation, the center expanded to include faculty research in economics and atmospheric science. To reflect the incorporation of science, the center was once again renamed to the Wind Science and Engineering Research Center, or WiSE.

WiSE stuck around for almost 30 years. As the center developed and grew, so did funding and other programs. The university received money to start a wind energy bachelor’s degree program. The program was given a name: Wind Institute.

To make things more confusing, another faculty member received funding and developed the Wind Resource Center.

“Internally, we were doing similar, but different, things,” Mehta said. “Externally, somebody would look at it and say, ‘What are you doing with three centers?’ That’s when John Schroeder, who was the director of WiSE at that time, decided to consolidate everything into the National Wind Institute (NWI).”

Besides a library, the NWI houses the Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel, a tornado vortex simulator and a Pulsed Jet Wind tunnel that simulates thunderstorm downbursts.

National Storm Shelter Association

Much like the Lubbock tornado was the impetus for the creation of what is now the NWI, a tornado in Burnet, Texas, in 1972 was the catalyst for another important Texas Tech-led center.

Kiesling traveled to Burnet with the “3-M Team” (Mehta, MacDonald and Minor) after the tornado to assess the damage. There, he noticed a small pantry still standing even though the house that had surrounded it was obliterated. That room sparked the idea for above-ground storm shelters.

Mehta saw an even more vivid example of a surviving room amid total destruction of surrounding buildings in 1974 in Xenia, Ohio. This realization further advanced the notion that protecting people from a tornado in an above-ground room is feasible.

“I kind of jumped on that and built some laboratory models of a small room,” Kiesling said. “We knew about the structural integrity of buildings and could assess the resistance to the extreme winds pretty well, but the wind-borne debris was another problem that we knew nothing about. We had little data in the literature. There were a lot of myths in the literature about tornadoes and wind-borne debris but not much factual, useful information. There were extreme reports of what winds could do. There were reports of wells being sucked dry and chickens being plucked clean, but there was really nothing that would help a designer design a building that could resist severe wind.”

Since relying on literature wasn’t an option, Kiesling decided to take matters into his own hands.

“We knew very little about the debris impact resistance of buildings or materials, so we had to do some testing of our own,” he said. “Our first testing was very crude because we had no way to launch the missiles or propel them. We devised some drop tests off the architecture building, which was the tallest building on campus. A graduate student, Ray Thompson, built a beam over the side of the building and put some pulleys out there. It was basic, but it gave us a few answers, at least, as to what might work and what might not.”

Shortly after those drop tests, McDonald and Milton Smith, a professor in the Department of Industrial, Manufacturing & Systems Engineering, devised a debris impact launcher that would launch wooden two-by-four boards. That launcher enabled the team to conduct better tests.

“We could do reasonably good testing in the laboratory,” Kiesling said. “We built some above-ground storm shelter models and tested them for debris-impact resistance. That was then the evolution of the above-ground storm shelter and it went from there.”

From there, the Debris Impact Facility was born. In 2000, Kiesling took his decade-long debris impact research and helped establish the National Storm Shelter Association (NSSA), of which he served as executive director for several years.

“The NSSA was developed to combat the lack of knowledge of the damage debris can cause and develop design and testing standards for buildings,” Kiesling said. “Our approach was to say that if you’re a member of the NSSA, you will have your storm shelter designed by a registered professional architect or engineer to ensure its structural integrity and have it tested for debris impact resistance. And then those meeting the criteria will affix an NSSA seal on it. That testifies to the purchaser that this is a quality shelter; it has been designed by a registered professional and has been tested to provide protection. It was aimed at giving assurance to the consumer that this is a quality product, and it has worked very well.”

Tech a Leader in Wind Science

Texas Tech is now a nationwide leader in wind science. From humble beginnings out of the wreckage from May 11, 1970, to the IDR, WiSE, NWI and the nation’s first doctoral program in wind science and engineering, it’s proof Tech and the Lubbock community can turn a nightmare into something beautiful.

A wall at the Lubbock Tornado Memorial honors the “five wind science pioneers who revolutionized wind sciences research and education” – Mehta, McDonald, Minor, Kiesling and Richard Peterson, who was in geosciences.

Click here to see the complete history of the NWI.

Source:

• “A night of destruction leads to innovation,” Texas Tech Today, May 11, 2020

1970: Deadly Lubbock Tornado Boosts Wind Study, Leads to Wind Institute

It was a Monday, the second-to-last day of finals at Texas Tech University. Many students had already finished their exams for the semester and gone home. Of the students who remained, some were Lubbock natives, some were staying for work and some were eagerly awaiting their college graduation that weekend.

None of the students knew that in the next 24 hours, the city would be changed forever.

It was May 11, 1970, a date Lubbock will never forget after 26 people were killed when a tornado with 200-mile-plus winds touched down near the southeast corner of campus and cut an 8.5-mile-long path of destruction through the city to the Lubbock Municipal Airport.

Here are some harrowing stories of what Tech students experienced, followed by how the university helped Lubbock after the tragedy.

Kathie Rushing: ‘We Were Really Scared’

The Tech junior lived with her husband at the Sky Vue Mobile Lodge, east of Lubbock near Buffalo Springs. Her husband was on a business trip, so she was home alone with their dog. As evening began to fall, the sky outside the mobile home became increasingly ominous.

Deciding she didn’t want to be in a mobile home in case of a serious storm, Kathie went to Sky Vue’s office area shortly after 8 p.m. Other residents soon joined her in a carport above the cellar as golf-ball-sized hail dropped from the sky. The hail paused for a few moments, but as she examined the increasingly threatening clouds overhead, Kathie wasn’t reassured. A few minutes later, another round of hail began – this time baseball-sized.

“We were really scared and began to work our way into the cellar – about 20 people were down below,” she recalled. “My neighbor came bounding down the steps and told us the biggest hailstone she’d ever seen had just fallen out of the sky.”

As Kathie and her neighbors waited anxiously below ground, an off-duty policeman above ground reported a funnel cloud seven miles south of the Lubbock Municipal Airport. At 8:30 p.m., a tornado touched down near Broadway and Quirt Avenue – now called Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. – still several miles away.

About 9:30, a neighbor with a radio told the group Lubbock had been hit by a massive storm.

“I couldn’t imagine anything more massive than what was occurring with us,” she said.

“When we thought it was safe, we ventured back upstairs to find our trailers shredded, with jagged rips in the siding and all the windows shattered. I'll never forget the sight of those large, football-shaped hailstones lying in my yard, illuminated by the flashing lightning as the storm receded.”

But the storm was just getting started.

‘Skip’ Goulet: ‘All Hell Broke Loose’

The junior was at the Village Inn Restaurant on the Brownfield Highway with some friends that evening. They were members of a local citizens band (CB) radio club, called the Southwestern Radio Emergency Associated Citizen’s Team (REACT), that helped with emergency communications.

It wasn’t long before they started receiving weather advisories over their CB radios, and the REACT members began to scatter – to the Clovis Highway, the Brownfield Highway, the Slaton Highway and Idalou – to monitor the storm.

Skip and his best friend, Jimmy Logan, went to Jimmy’s house near 24th Street and Avenue U to monitor the CB base station and listen in on the police radio channel over Jimmy's receiver. About 9:15 p.m., the police dispatcher announced that Idalou’s tornado sirens were being sounded.

“A few minutes later, a police unit on Clovis Road hollered into his mic, ‘We’ve been hit, we’ve been hit! It's terrible!'” Skip remembered. “With that, all hell broke loose.”

Maryh Holland: Refuge at Coleman Hall

On the Texas Tech campus, Maryh, a senior, was in her room in Coleman Hall. Looking out the window, she realized the rain was blowing straight sideways – parallel to the top and bottom frames. As a student worker in the residence hall’s office, she’d learned a handy trick: during a tornado, TV channel 2 would go to static.

“I didn’t have a TV, but I had an FM radio that could pick up the audio from channel 2, so I turned that on,” she said. “Soon the voices from the TV program were replaced by static.”

Already dressed for bed, Maryh hurriedly changed clothes and ran down the stairs to confer with the dorm mother, a spry but elderly woman who was quite upset. And understandably so – a tunnel under the building offered shelter, but only to those who were there. With finals over, most of the remaining students had been out on dates or at parties.

“I asked her to go and watch her television in order to report any news of the storm to me and I took over putting my girls and their dates in the tunnel under the building as they came in from their dates,” Maryh recalled. “A taxi driver came in, too, seeking shelter. Our dorm complex of nearly new high-rise dorms was the only place on campus with power and he had seen our lights.

“I stayed up all night making certain my girls were safe and listening to the growing casualty list as reported on the radio. I was praying none of the Texas Tech students were on it.”

Mike Wragg, Marilyn Hathaway, Gary Bain: McDonald’s Doors Sucked Open by Twister

Marilyn, a senior in home economics education, was working at the McDonald’s at 19th Street and Avenue X alongside her fiancé, Mike. Because of the weather, all the customers except one family had left the restaurant. Suddenly, fierce rain and hail began pounding the windows parallel to the ground. Mike, one of the managers, told everyone he was going to lock the doors and send them all to the basement.

Mike headed for the double doors facing 19th Street. Glancing out the large windows overlooking the west parking lot, he saw two commercial-size trash cans disappear straight up into the rain and hail. Not realizing what was happening, he hurried to the doors. As he inserted the key, his other hand on the handle, both doors were suddenly sucked open from the outside. At the same instant, the restaurant’s back door was sucked open and off its hinges.

Pulled outward, and hanging onto the handle and door, Mike saw the large McDonald's street sign fly straight up in the air, leaving behind only the two poles coming out of the ground. Although he couldn’t see any funnel, he realized it must be a tornado.

“Abandoning the doors, Mike began yelling for us to get into the basement immediately,” Marilyn said.

Gary, a fellow Texas Tech student and McDonald’s manager, had emerged from the basement just in time to see the destruction, so he led the others back down.

“It was an incredible sound and one I’ll never forget. It seemed to last for just a few minutes and then it was eerily quiet.”

“As we got downstairs in the basement, we heard the wind reach its peak and what most people describe as the sound of a train going right above your head,” he said. “It was an incredible sound and one I’ll never forget. It seemed to last for just a few minutes and then it was eerily quiet.”

Theresa ‘Tesi’ Bundick: ‘Then the Glass from the Windows Imploded’

One mile northeast of McDonald’s, sophomore Tesi was in a car with her friends. Since it was her last night in town before heading home to Victoria for the summer, they had called while she was packing her room on the ninth floor of Chitwood Hall, asking if she wanted to go downtown for dinner.

“It was raining very hard, but being young and foolish, I said OK,” she recalled. “We never went to Downtown Lubbock but decided to do just that on this one fateful evening. I could barely make it to their car, the rain was so fierce, but I did get into the auto and we slowly drove, with wipers barely working, to this restaurant, the In Town Inn.”

The restaurant, attached to a motel at Main Street and Avenue K, had floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides, with the kitchen on the fourth. With the blinding rain and wind gusts, it was difficult for Tesi and her friends to even get to the door, but once inside, they finally sat down and prepared to order their food.

“As the waitress was placing our silverware on the table an ungodly noise rose up,” she said. “I looked and saw that each of those enormous windows was presenting a spiderweb pattern for an instant, and then the glass from the windows imploded, and it all came toward the center of the room.

“The waitress yelled for the customers to run and follow her. I got up amidst deafening noise, darkness and glass everywhere. I ran, returned for a second to get my purse and then bolted towards the basement stairs with everyone else.”

The basement was full of motel guests, but it was pitch black. Unable to see anything, Tesi and her friends had no idea what was happening.

“Some people were hysterical,” she remembered. “I have always been a calm person, but I must say, I was extremely puzzled – not frightened, really, but wondering what was going on.”

Steve Cox: Only Tech Student Killed

Tech graduate student Steve Cox was driving into town with his wife and they wound up straight in the funnel’s path. They got out of their car around Clovis Highway and Avenue Q. The couple struggled to stay upright. A pole struck Cox, killing him.

Tech Steps Up to Help

Throughout the night, Texas Tech students were out, trying to help.

Students with ham radio skills and equipment assisted first responders. Individuals directed traffic along streets where downed power lines made stoplights inoperable.

Goulet, who regularly volunteered as an ambulance dispatcher, and his friend Logan, drove ambulances to transport storm victims to hospitals or funeral homes.

An editorial in the May 15 Avalanche-Journal praised the Texas Tech students “who rallied so magnificently in the aftermath of Monday night’s storm.”

While Tech escaped the worst of the tornado’s wrath:

Part of the north side of the Home Economics building was blown off and extensive damage was done to the inside, said B.K. Beckwith, the university’s director of information services.

Nearly all the windows on the north side of the Business Administration building had been blown out.

More than 100 trees were uprooted – some originally planted during Tech’s first Arbor Day in 1938.

Three of the giant light poles at Jones Stadium had been folded in half.

The Kappa Alpha Theta sorority house on Broadway was destroyed.

The morning after the tornado, a dozen members of the men’s service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega and men from the College of Agricultural Sciences were among those who turned out to help remove debris.

Most of Lubbock’s water supply was spoiled when the tornado ripped through the city’s water mains, said the city manager. The water from those mains, along with runoff from the storm, made most of the streets impassable except for people willing to wade.

A stretch of U.S. 87, which passed below north Loop 289, was flooded by more than 15 feet of water on May 12. The Avalanche-Journal reported as many as four cars and at least one large truck were believed to be submerged.

Five Texas Tech students – all divers – looked for victims. Allen Newman, still in his wet suit, told the newspaper he’d spent more than four hours squinting through inky water.

“It’s unbelievable down there. You can’t see anything. It’s dark as night, the mud and silt is so thick.”

“It’s unbelievable down there,” he said. “You can’t see anything. It’s dark as night, the mud and silt is so thick.”

Texas Tech did not cancel the last final exams, which were scheduled for May 12, but canceled that weekend’s Board of Regents meeting and cancelled commencement ceremonies for the first time in the university’s history. The second time was for the COVID pandemic in 2020.

Tech opened its doors to the community.

While there is never a good time to be hit by a tornado, then-Texas Tech President Grover E. Murray noted because the disaster occurred when most students had left campus for the semester, the school had space to help.

On May 12, members of the Saddle Tramps helped move service personnel, including civil defense workers, into Sneed Hall. The dormitory became a temporary home for 10 Lubbock Power & Light repairmen, seven power and light crewmen from Andrews and 10 from Midland, 50 National Guard personnel from Snyder and six from Amarillo and 13 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers personnel from Fort Worth.

First Lt. Cecil D. Vineyard, commander of the National Guard company in Snyder, said students still in the dormitory had dubbed it “Camp Sneed – Operation Hub.”

“We came expecting hardships,” Vineyard said. “Instead, we’ve been treated royally by the people of Lubbock and our living conditions and food are great.”

Ninety-three Department of Public Safety officers and Red Cross personnel were housed elsewhere on campus that night. Hundreds of people left homeless after the tornado were housed in the Municipal Coliseum.

“They came in damaged cars, by busloads – with depressed, defeated feelings, lost, frightened expressions,” the Avalanche-Journal reported. “But at the Coliseum they found a haven – warm, dry beds and bedding, warm food.”

By early evening the 1,000 beds in the Coliseum had been filled and the overflow was being directed to Drane Hall, where 300 additional beds were expected to fill by bedtime. Ultimately, Drane, Weeks, Sneed and Gordon halls were opened, and approximately 300 persons were fed in campus facilities.

On May 13, Murray announced the cancellation of commencement ceremonies, which had been scheduled to occur in the Coliseum, as well as ROTC commissioning ceremonies and all other campus meetings, receptions and reunions.

“In light of the tragic events of Monday night and the role of the university in supplying housing and food for tornado victims throughout the city, we feel the best interests of the city and university will be served by the cancellation of commencement exercises and related activities,” Murray said.

“We are proud to have been able to make a sizable contribution at Texas Tech to the city of Lubbock and its residents during a time of crisis. We appreciate deeply the day-to-day support this university receives from residents of Lubbock and the area in the form of goodwill, financial contributions, counsel and countless other ways and we are happy to respond in every way possible now to the city’s emergency needs.”

Sources:

• “Total Devastation: Texas Tech alumni share memories of tornado,” Texas Tech Today, May 11, 2020
• “Texas Tech helped city after 1970 tornado,” Texas Tech Today, May 11, 2020

1989: Vietnam Center Founded

Ron Milam was living in Houston and reading a story in the local newspaper about a Vietnam War archive starting at Texas Tech University more than 30 years ago.

“I’d been out of Vietnam 17 years and thought, ‘Are you kidding me? Does anyone care about what happened in Vietnam?’” said the Vietnam vet. “Nobody cared about us. I was shocked and pleasantly surprised anyone cared enough to collect stuff that happened,” he said.

More than a decade later, Milam joined Tech’s History Department and started working with Jim Reckner, the man who founded in 1989 what is now called the university’s Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive.

Reckner passed away in 2018.

“He used to talk about how he went to Gettysburg and saw these monuments. And he said, ‘You know, 100 years from now it’s still going to just be a monument. Nobody’s going to know what that monument really stands for,’” Milam said Reckner told him.

The Vietnam Veterans Wall in Washington, D.C. is important to remember the war and for the families of the names on the monument. But what happens when all those relatives are gone, Reckner told Milam.

“That’s where the documents come in. That’s where the archives come in. That's where the stories come in, that’s where the oral histories come in. And that’s what he created,” said Milam.

Reckner served two tours in Vietnam and became a military historian.

But he felt war was not always the answer and what could be learned from wars to either improve how they’re fought, or how to avoid them.

“He questioned the Middle East wars,” Milam said. “He said ‘Let’s do what we can to help them win this war and get the hell out of there.’ He didn’t want Vietnam to happen again.”

The Department of Defense has approached Tech to help learn what went wrong in Vietnam and how to not make the same mistakes.

Reckner’s goal for the center was to take everything, including materials from the anti-war movement, so researchers would have the whole picture.

“Texas Tech is the center of the universe of Vietnam War scholarship.”

“Texas Tech is the center of the universe of Vietnam War scholarship. We used to say if you’re going to write a book about Vietnam, you have to come to Lubbock, Texas,” said Milam. Now with more and more of the archive digitized, people can do research anywhere.

Veterans used the archive if they were making claims against the government for use of the Agent Orange defoliant.

“We have virtually all the after-action reports of every battle that took place in Vietnam,” said Milam.

Those reports were written following battles.

“If a veteran felt he was suffering from Agent Orange issues and he knew that it happened in a particular battle he would come here to read that report and see if there was evidence of defoliation caused by Agent Orange,” said Milam.

That doesn’t happen as much now because during the Obama Administration, the assumption was if someone was in Vietnam, they were exposed to Agent Orange. The veteran didn’t need to prove it.

Veterans also use the archives to find missing buddies, accessing the more than 1,400 oral histories in the archive.

“One of my buddies I knew from basic training all the way through Vietnam found me by finding my oral history and then looking me up,” said Milam.

Once Milam came to Tech, Reckner turned over the very popular Vietnam class to him and also study abroad.

“Jim was a Teddy Roosevelt scholar, not a Vietnam scholar. He never wrote a book on Vietnam. One of the great compliments I ever got was when he said, ‘I’m turning the war over to you. You’re the Vietnam scholar, not me,’” said Milam.

Milam and Steve Maxner – now director of the Vietnam Center – took a group of students to Vietnam in 2006.

“There were signs saying, ‘Welcome Texas Tech University.’ When we would meet with these universities and they would all say, ‘How’s Jim Reckner doing?’ His name was synonymous with Texas Tech,” said Milam.

Reckner loved the Vietnamese people.

“I don’t just mean the South Vietnamese, who were our allies. He was excited about meeting our former enemy,” he said.

The Vietnamese, who call it the American War, said Milam, appreciated there was a place in America that cared enough to archive everything that happened in this deadly war against their country.

The wall in Washington helps people remember what happened, but the archive helps people understand, he said.

“That’s here at Texas Tech. In the archives are the stories, the decisions that were made. It’s all here. There is no place like it,” Milam said.

Tech has also hosted students from Vietnam, who come to study.

Milam is now executive director of Tech’s Institute for Peace & Conflict, which contains the Vietnam Center.

There are plans to build the Vietnam Center, Archive and Museum of the Vietnam War on the northside of Tech’s campus.

2012: Texas Tech Qualifies for National Research University Fund

On May 25, 2011, Texas Tech learned it would receive a share of the state’s National Research University Fund – called NRUF.

The road to NRUF and becoming a nationally recognized research institution started a few years earlier.

Tech was named one of seven Emerging Research Universities in Texas, an effort to help improve research at the state’s public universities.

In 2009, then-State Sen. Robert Duncan guided HB51 that – among many things – created an endowed permanent source of funding to help emerging research universities achieve national prominence. The legislation also created criteria the schools must meet to get NRUF funds.

“Sen. Duncan had the vision and the plan to create a permanent funding mechanism for research at Texas Tech and the other emerging research universities,” said then-Chancellor Kent Hance when the bill passed. “If it were not for Sen. Duncan, HB 51 would not have passed. We all owe him our thanks for getting this done.”

NRUF was then approved by Texas voters as a constitutional amendment.

Less than two years later, Tech learned it would receive the aforementioned share – between $8-10 million a year – meeting the criteria quickly.

“We met it much faster than I think anybody ever thought,” then-President Guy Bailey told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. “Most of us thought it would take at least five years; we met it in two. It's a substantial achievement. It’s not the same thing as being tier one. Sometimes that gets lost. It’s one step on the road to tier one.”

Duncan, who would go on to become chancellor of the Texas Tech University System, said:

“I am confident that Texas Tech will continue on this path of success to be among the nation’s top universities.”

“Texas Tech is being recognized as a nationally competitive and elite academic institution,” said Duncan after the announcement. “Texas Tech’s administration, faculty and students have worked diligently to meet the high standards required to receive this designation. I am confident that Texas Tech will continue on this path of success to be among the nation’s top universities.”

Also included in the 2009 legislation was the Texas Research Incentive program, which matches private money raised for research with state money.

Tech ended up raising more than $24 million by January 2011 – more than any of the other six schools named as emerging research institutions at that time.

The university established 13 endowed professorships and 26 endowed graduate assistantships with those matched funds, reported the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Funds also developed infrastructure for research.

Sources:

• HB 51 and HJR 14 provide Texas Tech opportunities for research growth, Texas Tech University System, June 5, 2009, by Michelle Hougland
• Texas Tech receives national research university designation, Texas Tech Today, May 25, 2012, by Chris Cook
• Texas Tech may become eligible for National Research University Fund next year, officials say, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Dec. 16, 2011, By Brittany Hoover

2016: Texas Tech Joins Nation’s Top Research Universities

The first big step was NRUF designation in 2012 .

The next big step was four years later in 2016, when Texas Tech was designated tier one in the Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Education.

Of 115 universities listed in the Highest Research Activity category, Tech was one of 81 public schools in that top tier.

The Carnegie designation, announced every five years, is the foremost measure of a university’s research, academic scholarship and teaching.

“Designation as a Carnegie tier one university is not accomplished overnight,” said then-Tech Interim President John Opperman. “It is the culmination of years of dedication to research, teaching and learning by our administration, faculty, staff and students.”

In May 2012, the university was the first in the state to gain access to the National Research University Fund (NRUF).

The commitment to research is not new to the university, but more recent investments in infrastructure, faculty retention and recruitment, and workspace have reinforced that commitment.

Additionally, partnerships and collaborations with industry leaders, such as Bayer CropScience, provided a boost to Texas Tech’s research initiative, as has the opening of the Innovation Hub and Research Park.

“Texas Tech can be proud that it is now listed among the ‘highest research activity’ institutions and was one of only 15 universities to move into this category since the previous ranking in 2010,” said Lawrence Schovanec, who was Tech’s provost in early 2016, before becoming president that year.

“The Carnegie designation is rewarding for our faculty, who make possible a productive, research-oriented environment, while still fulfilling our fundamental obligation of providing our students with an exceptional educational experience.”

“The Carnegie designation is rewarding for our faculty, who make possible a productive, research-oriented environment, while still fulfilling our fundamental obligation of providing our students with an exceptional educational experience,” said Schovanec.

Texas Tech has shown increases in the number of doctoral degrees awarded each of the last five years, including 332 in 2015 – 89 more than in 2010. Doctoral degrees conferred is among the criteria for Carnegie’s highest research activity designation and was a primary category in the state’s NRUF thresholds.

In 2021, Tech was reaffirmed in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

Since reaching the top tier of the research universities in 2016, Texas Tech is in the Very High Research Activity (R1) level, adding to its growing reputation as one of the nation’s top research universities.

And R1 has become the phrase the university uses when describing itself, pointing out it’s only one of 20 R1 schools that’s also a Hispanic Serving Institution.

Tech President Lawrence Schovanec has said he wants to see Tech become one of the top 50 research universities in America.

In the 2021 ranking, Tech marked new milestones:

• Surpassed $100 million in sponsored research awards, including a record of more than $50 million in federal awards.
• Total research expenditures equaled $191.3 million.
• Tech awarded 382 doctoral degrees in 2021-22, placing the university in the top 15 percent in the nation.

Carnegie’s standards are not static. They keep rising, so universities must keep improving their research.

“The Carnegie Classification’s latest review acknowledges Texas Tech’s position as a leading research institution,” said Schovanec. “Everyone at Texas Tech – faculty, staff, students and administration – has played a role in creating a productive, research-oriented environment that is at the leading edge of discovery in multiple areas that influence our world. We remain steadfast in our commitment to conducting groundbreaking research and providing an exceptional educational experience for our students.”

Sources:

• Texas Tech achieves tier one Carnegie designation, Texas Tech Today, Feb. 2, 2106, by Chris Cook
• Carnegie Classification Reaffirms Texas Tech as Tier One Research University, Texas Tech Today, Dec. 17, 2021, by George Watson

2021 School of Veterinary Medicine Opens

The Texas Tech School of Veterinary Medicine opened in 2021, a half century after it was first approved by the state of Texas.

That approval by the then-called Texas College and University System Coordinating Board came with no funds and eventually lapsed.

Tech brought the idea back for the four-year program in 2015, starting a few-years process ending with approval.

But not without protest from Texas A&M.

“It is completely redundant,” Eleanor Green, dean of Texas A&M’s College of Veterinary Medicine, told the Texas Tribune.

The Aggies didn’t win the argument.

Tech sold the state on its plan to fill a need for vets to work with large animals, and work in rural areas in a cost-effective way, creating the state’s first new school of veterinary medicine in more than 100 years.

The school opened with 64 students in the state-of-the-art facility done in Tech’s Spanish Renaissance architecture just north of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Amarillo.

The two-story academic building has two wings with:

• Classrooms
• Breakout rooms
• Office suites
• Graduate study space
• Laboratory and research space
• Locker rooms
• Surgery suites
• Housing for small animals
• Support rooms for anatomy and pathology instruction
• A lobby where veterinary partners can drop off animals for examination and surgical procedures

The nearby School of Veterinary Medicine Mariposa Station serves as the large-animal facility.

Texas is the nation’s leading producer of cattle, a more than $12-billion-plus business in 2017 with almost a quarter of a million ranches and farms, the most in the country.

Amarillo is a key player in that industry.

Guy Loneragan is the key player as the new school’s dean.

It follows a model developed at the University of Calgary, sending students to do residency-like learning in participating clinics in rural areas, said the Texas Tribune article.

It connects students with rural practices and avoids building an expensive teaching hospital.

The first class of future veterinarians have one year completed.

“There is a lot riding on this first class…I know the faculty will do everything they can to push us to be successful even beyond our graduation date,” said Jadeyn Arthur, a Ralls native who earned her bachelor's degree in animal science from West Texas A&M University.

“There is a sense of pride in being able to say, I’m going to be in the inaugural class and be the first step in building a legacy that will last beyond my lifetime. In four years, when we walk that stage and head our separate ways, we will always be connected because we are the first class,” said Arthur.

The school’s recruiting and admission focus was picking students rooted in rural and regional communities across Texas and New Mexico.

Jovani Armendariz, part of the first class from House, New Mexico, a rural town between Clovis and Santa Rosa, grew up on sheep and cattle ranches. Armendariz said the school’s goal of producing rural veterinarians was important.

“I grew up in and have lived and worked in rural communities most of my life,” said Armendariz, who earned his bachelor's degree in animal science from New Mexico State University in 2010 and served five years in the U.S. Army as a medic.

“I’m familiar with the needs of rural communities, many of which are at least an hour’s drive from the nearest veterinary services. My goal is to provide these services to my community, and I am happy to be part of a program that has an emphasis on rural service,” he said.

Most students in the first class are from rural towns.

Sarah Cate Hyde, is not one of them.

The Fort Worth native earned her bachelor’s degree in pre-med chemical engineering from the University of Oklahoma in 2017. She always wanted a career in veterinary medicine but chose what she called the “responsible” career path after graduation, working in the oil and gas industry for two years.

Eventually, though, she decided to chase a dream beginning in her youth – influenced by riding horses and competing in rodeos.

“Working with horses brings me a peace and fulfillment unlike anything else I’ve ever felt in my life,” Hyde said. “When I found out Texas Tech’s program was designated toward Texas rural and regional communities with an emphasis on large-animal medicine, I knew it was for me. My passion is in equine medicine, and I aspire to practice mixed large-animal medicine. I knew I wanted to stay in Texas, which was another big win for me.”

About a third of the inaugural class identify as first-generation veterinary students. Approximately 25 percent are members of an underrepresented ethnic or racial group and 70 percent are female.

Armendariz said the school’s location helped him.

“The thought of uprooting our family of four to attend vet school in Colorado or Oklahoma was not really an option. However, Amarillo was very much an option as it is only two hours away from home and our existing farm and sheep and cattle operation,” he said.

A few years before classes began, Loneragan spoke at the groundbreaking.

“At its heart, this has been driven by passionate veterinarians across the state. They have been involved from the beginning and have shaped this school into something greater.”

“We are here today because of the dedicated work and leadership of so many,” he said. “At its heart, this has been driven by passionate veterinarians across the state. They have been involved from the beginning and have shaped this school into something greater. I also appreciate the great leadership of the Texas Veterinary Medical Association in advancing the needs of the state and the profession.”

At the same event, Texas Tech President Lawrence Schovanec said:

“This groundbreaking celebrates an achievement that symbolizes the best of what can result from cooperation that captures the synergies between education, city and state government, industry and individuals of exceptional vision and generosity. Because of the support of so many, the Texas Tech School of Veterinary Medicine will be able to provide students greater access to affordable and innovative education that will prepare them to serve the people of our state, especially those in rural areas, and the large-animal industry that is so important to the state and especially West Texas. This is a proud day for our state, West Texas and Texas Tech.”

Donors and civic leaders pledged more than $90 million toward infrastructure, construction and scholarships for the school to get it started, expecting an annual economic impact of $76 million.

Loneragan has said the school hopes to be self-sufficient within eight years.

1947: Dedication of Jones Stadium, Rededication, Ongoing Improvements

When Jones Stadium opened in 1947 with a 14-6 win over Hardin-Simmons, more Texas Tech fans could watch the Red Raiders play football as capacity went all the way up to about 18,000.

Tech played its first season at the South Plains Fairgrounds in 1925 and one game into the 1926 season moved to Tech Stadium on the north side of campus. Ten years later, Tech Stadium was enlarged to a horseshoe shape with capacity increased to 12,000. The 1943 graduating class donated an electric scoreboard.

When Clifford B. Jones resigned as Tech president in 1945, he created a living trust of $100,000 to go toward building a new stadium, just northwest of the old field. The Board of Directors voted to name the new stadium for Jones and his wife Audrey. Most of the seats were permanent, but temporary seats in the end zones could add a few thousand more to boost capacity closer to 20,000.

Since the $400,000 “Jones” opened in 1947, the only constant has been change.

The latest change starts after the 2022 football season ends. By the time the 2024 season begins, the combined South End Zone and Womble Football Center will make Jones AT&T Stadium one of the best college football facilities in the country and cost about $200 million.

“This project will be a landmark on our beautiful campus and will elevate Texas Tech football to the vision that we have…”

“This is our most important project,” said Kirby Hocutt, Director of Athletics about what fans will see in 2024. “This project will be a landmark on our beautiful campus and will elevate Texas Tech football to the vision that we have, the level of success we’ve experience before and are determined to get back to.”

Since the Jones opened, Tech has had some great years, some mediocre years and a few stinkers. Here’s how the football team’s home has changed over the years:

• In the ten years after the Jones opened, another 7,000 seats were added.
• As Tech prepared to enter the Southwest Conference, it had until 1960 to expand capacity to at least 40,000. The stadium’s stands were originally built in seven sections. In 1959, workers hoisted the stands onto steel rollers and moved them more than 200 feet on railroad tracks. Then the field was excavated 28 feet. Workers added 22 rows of seats and the Jones could now host 41,500 fans, in time for Tech’s first SWC home game against Baylor on Oct. 15, 1960.
• Over the next 20 years, seating was increased to 47,000 and the original grass field was replaced with artificial turf. It hosted the Coaches All-America Football game from 1970-75.
• In 1978, the iconic Double T scoreboard made its debut. It will be replaced by a new version in 2024.
• In the 1990s, when Tech joined the Big 12 Conference, it needed to increase capacity again.
• In 2000, the Jones became Jones SBC Stadium after a $30 million gift from SBC Communications. SBC’s CEO was Ed Whitacre, a 1964 Texas Tech grad who served as a member of Tech’s Board of Regents in the 1990s.
• In 2003, an $84.9 million renovation to the west side dramatically changed the look of the stadium. The four-story Spanish Renaissance building added 54 luxury suites, 1,070 club seats, press box and 10,000 seats. Capacity rose a few thousand above 50,000.
• In 2006, after a merger between SBC and AT&T, the Stadium was now Jones AT&T Stadium. The old artificial turf as replaced with FieldTurf to look like natural grass.
• In 2008, a $25 million Spanish Renaissance-designed expansion of the stadium’s east side was approved, adding more than two-dozen luxury suites, 544 club seats, the Texas Tech Club. It also had two floors eventually turned into the Ed Whitacre Center for Athletics Administration, following a gift from Whitacre.
• In 2009, more seats were added in the northwest and northeast corners and capacity was now 60,454.
• In 2013, a 38-by-100-foot video board was added to the north end of the stadium.
• In 2014, premium seats and a club area were added to the North End Zone.
• In 2015, some bleacher seating was replaced with seats.

Other improvements have been made to enhance fan experience and impress recruits.

Source:

• Cultivating the home field advantage, a memoir revisted, Texas Tech Today, Nov. 4, 2009, by Kristina Butler

1950: Dedication of Texas Tech Museum

While the Museum of Texas Tech University has paleontology collections dating to the dawn of the dinosaurs, unlike the rest of the university, it’s not 100 years old. The museum will have its centennial in 2029.

In March 1929, a small group of students, faculty and citizens formed the Plains Museum Society to protect collections accumulating across campus and in the West Texas community. It would take those devoted supporters seven more years to raise enough money to break ground for a building, originally a basement, to house its collections.

From those basement beginnings the museum has grown into a multidisciplinary complex of more than 220,000 square feet with six collecting divisions and 8.8 million objects. Along with paleontology, collections cover art, anthropology, clothing and textiles, history and natural history.

“So we have literally something for everyone here… it ranks among top university museums across the country.”

“So we have literally something for everyone here,’’ said Aaron Pan, executive director. Because of its diversity and research mission, along with accreditation, it ranks among top university museums across the country.

The museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. Of more than 35,000 museums in the country, the museum is one of 3 percent of those with the accreditation.

As the museum has evolved it’s remained true to its goal to serve the university and the community, Pan said. Part of its mission is to enhance understanding of individual and community identity, society and the world.

It also has a research mission. All the sections have museum professionals, who along with being curators are also researchers, Pan explained.

The museum offers graduates studies in museum science and students gain hands-on experience across the collections. “We’re developing the next generation of museum professionals. Students get hands-on experience in all the areas.”

But Pan points out, the museum has even more features and an expansion is under way.

The Lubbock Lake Landmark, an archaeological and natural history preserve and dig site on the northern edge of the city is part of the museum. It contains evidence of 12,000 years of the lives of ancient people on the Southern High Plains.

The 74-seat Moody Planetarium inside the museum offers a range of shows to explore stars and constellations, dark matter, black holes and a deeper look at the sun, moon and solar systems.

The Natural Science Research Laboratory is also inside the museum and holds more than 5.5 million objects and specimens. It’s one of the largest natural history collections in the state and includes mammals, birds and invertebrates for researchers around the globe.

Both the National Ranching Heritage Center and the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library were originally part of the museum, but have grown into their own venues, said Cameron Saffell, the museum’s assistant director of operations.

Beyond the museum’s permanent collections and adjacent venues, it has temporary and traveling exhibits. For example, Miss America Fashion, which was on view the first half of 2022, displayed the ballgowns, swimsuits and other couture highlights of contestants in the pageants over the years from the 1930s.

According to Saffell and Pan, two popular temporary exhibits people remember and comment about were the Sistine chapel exhibit in the 1990s and the West Texas and South Plains music exhibit, "Nothing Better to Do.”

A local Catholic priest worked through the Diocese and the Vatican on a special project to borrow a number of frescos that had never been exhibited before, Saffell said. “We still get visitors who ask about that.”

The West Texas-South Plains music exhibit appeared in the mid-1980s and featured Lubbock’s favorite son, Buddy Holly, a rock ‘n’ roll pioneer, who died in a 1959 plane crash. “It had a lot of spin-offs and was talked about in books and publications,” Saffell said.

However, none of the museum’s current successes were obvious from the start. The glossy-brick mesa-top buildings on 4th and Indiana began with a dream and detoured to a basement before becoming its current reality.

In 2019, Saffell documented the struggle of the early years in “M, The Magazine of the Museum of Texas Tech University.”

Mary Woodward Doak, an English professor and dean of women, armed with a clear vision of what items of the High Plains past could mean to future students and residents, advocated for a museum as early as 1925. Another early advocate was John Granberry, a history and sociology professor, who led Doak and 21 students on a visit to the Museum of New Mexico to see how that state preserved its history and culture.

After that trip, Granberry recruited William Curry Holden — who had created a museum at another college — to be part of the then Texas Technological College. Fortified, the museum society approached the state legislature for a share of a Texas centennial fund. Despite supporters from 67 counties in West Texas, the group came home in 1936 with $25,000 of their $120,000 request. They could build part of a building with that — the basement. Persistent and determined, the group decided to change their name to recognize the support from all their neighbors to the West Texas Museum Association.

Fundraising continued and by 1948 the association had raised $50,000. It prevailed upon the college Board of Directors for supplemental funds, and soon the construction fund was $226,000 or about $2.3 million today, Saffell wrote. In 1949 the museum added two more stories and a rotunda. Holden was named museum director for his leadership.

In 1952, the museum acquired a Spitz planetarium and hired renowned Southwest artist Peter Hurd to do a mural, a memorial to the pioneers who came to call the South Plains home. The museum was featured in Life magazine and became the area’s most popular attraction.

The museum outgrew its location by the late-50s. Located mid-campus it was hard for the community to visit, especially school children in buses.

By the mid-60s museum and campus leaders announced plans for a new complex on 15 acres at 4th and Indiana.

Its organization and design were governed by Holden’s working theme for the new complex, Man and Water, along with incoming Texas Tech’s president Grover Murray’s mission to study arid and semi-arid lands at the museum. Together the themes merged into Land, Sun, Man which the architects Howard Schmidt, Bob Messersmith and museum consultant, Lotar Witteborg of New York, incorporated into their design.

“It was how do we come up with a design to reflect all of that,” Pan said.

The designers allowed the landscape of the Southwest with its escarpments, buttes and flatlands to influence them. Witteborg, inspired while playing with his son’s blocks, imagined the Euphrates Valley, where agricultural originated. Mayan and Incan temples and early Spanish missions all melded into ideas for the new complex.

The glossy bricks were designed to repel dust. The parking lot, lower than the building, evoked the view of climbing into the Caprock near Post.

“Metaphorically when you come out of the parking lot you are coming up the escarpment,” Pan added.

In 1969, Texas Tech was also growing and the museum was rechristened The Museum — Texas Tech University. Additional wings have been added beginning in 1972 and in 2000 the Helen DeVitt Jones Sculpture Court Wing added 45,000 square feet and a 286-seat auditorium. A living arroyo with a dry streambed and native drought-tolerant plants has been added to the front of the museum.

Despite its design and diversity, Pan and Saffell said Texas Tech students often report in surveys that they don’t know about the museum that anchors the northeast corner of campus.

“They just don’t know what a great date place it is,” Pan says, jokingly. “They ask (with surprise) there’s a museum at Texas Tech? And then they are amazed when they visit and they love it.”

1952: Laying Cornerstone of Student Union

On Halloween, 1952, the cornerstone was laid for the Student Union building – an idea going back to 1928, when English professor James Allen thought such a building would be good for students.

When he later became Dean of Students, he was reminded of his idea, but didn’t remember saying it.

But he made it happen.

The “SUB” opened on March 10, 1953 – fulfilling an almost quarter-century dream.

A student union building fund was started and several senior classes donated toward it from 1930 to 1952.

After World War II, the U.S. government asked Tech if it wanted to take over several military barracks-type buildings Tech allowed to be set up during the war for the school’s ROTC program.

Allen, by now Dean of Student Life, asked if two could be used for a student center.

Allen asked friends in Lubbock to donate $1,000 each, got furnishings from Dunlap’s Department store at cost, used discarded wooded flooring from Doak Hall as a dance floor.

Dust got in the building and the roof leaked when it rained, but in 1947, students had the Recreation Hall.

A local business sold food on one end of the Recreation Center, but Allen remembered in a 1983 interview students thought it was too expensive.

There were dances, chorale concerts, a place to play games or relax.

But the need for a better student union didn’t dissipate with the Recreation Center.

Funds were raised and in 1949, Tech’s Board of Directors told the building committee to “proceed with plans for the construction of a Student Union Building at a cost not to exceed $500,000.”

Atcheson and Atkinson of Lubbock, both Texas Tech graduates, were hired as architects for the proposed building.

If the pledges fell short of the half-million needed, the Board of Directors approved a $4 student fee.

A swimming pool and bowling alley were proposed, but had to be cut because it made the project too expensive.

The building used the Spanish Renaissance exterior of other campus buildings and offered a ballroom, meeting rooms, campus organization headquarters, a game room, lounges, and food service. Approximately 1,500 people attended an April 12 open house.

Students used the building constantly and soon a Student Union Council comprised of five executive staff members, eight committees, and 250 student volunteers was created to coordinate all of the activities and programs in the Student Union Building.

Some of the events offered were concerts, movie showings, dances, bridge and other game tournaments, lectures and art exhibits.

A Tuesday night Quarterback Club reviewed videos of athletic games of the previous weekend.

The Student Union Council provided an opportunity for students to “develop leadership qualities, social maturity, cultural background and personal character.”

The December 1955 edition of Teeing Off at Texas Tech listed the Student Union Building as providing services such as check cashing, poster making, food catering, campus information, ticket sales, and a lost-and-found department.

The Student Union Building at Texas Tech became the community center, or living room, of the campus.

In 1955, up to 4,500 people passed through the building on any given day. Just two years after opening, expansion was discussed.

Student focus groups helped with ideas and the $1 million annex opened in 1962 with more office space, meeting rooms, an expanded cafeteria with modern kitchen facilities. The August 1962 edition of Teeing Off at Texas Tech quoted that 6,000 people entered the building on a peak day.

In 1977, it expanded again and renamed University Center – or the “UC.” It now backed up to the music building.

The addition included a courtyard area for lounges or informal receptions and Center Theatre, which, according to Allen, served as a perfect alternative to the Municipal Auditorium. The Municipal Auditorium was continuously booked and there was no other high-capacity theater like it in Lubbock.

The theatre was renamed Allen Theatre in 1985 in honor of Dean James Allen, who’d retired.

In 2006, the University Center was enlarged again with a third floor and expanded basement area and returned to the name of Student Union Building, or the SUB.

The two major parts of the SUB are the bookstore on the west end and a big food court on the east end. The building also features several examples of Tech’s public art.

The building had always and should always have the same personality of Texas Tech and West Texas: open, friendly, outgoing and hospitable.

Allen felt the building had always and should always have the same personality of Texas Tech and West Texas: open, friendly, outgoing and hospitable. He strongly believed students needed to have a well-rounded development. The programs and services of the Student Union Building were part of that development.

When asked how he felt about the building and its progress since 1928, Allen said when he looked out at the Student Union Building he always felt “a sense of fulfillment” and then jokingly, everything may not have happened if someone had not reminded him of his suggestion made in 1928.

Source:

• Excerpt from the paper “The Beginning of Student Unions in American Higher Education with Special Emphasis on the Student Union Building at Texas Tech University,” by Autumn Arthur, Cate Goodwill, Farha Habeeb, and Sonia Moore.

1955: Southwest Collection Opens

Elizabeth West was Texas Tech’s first librarian. She’d worked at the Library of Congress and first woman to be Texas state archivist.

West knew a young student in Tech’s earliest years who wanted to research cowboys in the 1920s.

West sent the woman to Clifford B. Jones, manager of the Espula Land and Cattle Company, a member of Tech’s Board of Directors and, eventually, president of the college.

He’s the Jones in Jones AT&T Stadium.

Jones introduced the young woman to some cowboys.

“She got all excited about their letters back home and from back home. She told Miss West,” said Monte Monroe, archivist of the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library at Texas Tech.

West understood the importance of first-person historic material – like cowboy letters home describing life on the Llano Estacado.

“Miss West got with Jones. She realized this whole area out here on the Llano Estacado was in transition. It had already changed from the open-range era to more of a stock-ranging era,” said Monroe.

Jones and new Tech history professor William Curry Holden helped West collect materials from early ranches in the area – Spur, Matador and Double U.

“They were in the library for some time,” said Monroe. When Tech opened in 1925, the library was in a single room on the first floor of the Administration Building.

West wrapped up her years at Tech in 1942. Sometime after, someone decided to throw out a lot of the material West and others compiled.

Holden stopped the trashing of history. He taught history, anthropology and was the first director of the Museum of Texas Tech . Holden – as in Holden Hall, the museum’s first home – got other historians and Lubbock business leaders together.

They envisioned a research center for Texas Tech – what the Barker Texas History Center was for the University of Texas – a major regional historical research center documenting the history of the Southwest and West. Soon after the meeting, materials previously collected by the library and museum were pulled together in a special room in the library.

On Sept. 1, 1955, the Southwest Collection was established as a separate department from the library and Seymour V. Connor was its first archivist.

By 1963, the Southwest Collection had outgrown its space in the museum basement and moved to the old library, later the Mathematics Building.

“It was there when I was a graduate student,” said Monroe.

There, the Southwest Collection had 3 million manuscript items.

In the 1990s, David Murrah – Monroe’s mentor and the facility’s third director – raised funds to build the Southwest Collection/Special Collection Library’s home, which opened in 1996, tucked between the library and Agriculture Pavilion.

What started with a passion for ranching records expanded to anything related to the American West and more.

What started with a passion for ranching records expanded to anything related to the American West and more, said Monroe.

Galleries have displays the public can see, representing a snippet of what the collection has in its walls.

• Displays about the Vietnam Conflict. Tech’s Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Archive are in the building.
• The story of the Southwest and shaping of the Plains.
• The 1970 Lubbock Tornado .
• Rare books.
• University archives. A law was passed ordering universities to have their own archives. Lynn Whitfield is the university archivist and Monroe is the Southwest Collection archivist.
• The Southwest Conference. Texas Tech competed in the conference from the late 1950s to the mid-1990s.
• The Crossroads Music Archive.
• Appeal of Texas Tech’s seal.
• The West Texas Historical Association.
• The James Sowell Family Collection in Literature, Community and the Natural World.
• The 1688 Coronelli Globe, displayed in the rotunda.

As the Southwest Collection acquired more special collections like the Sowell Family material, it became the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library.

“We’ve got Ted Fujita’s collection here,” said Monroe. Fujita studied the deadly 1970 Lubbock Tornado and the Southwest Collection has his original drawings. He created the Fujita Scale to measure tornadoes, later improved to the Enhanced Fujita Scale by Texas Tech professors connected the school’s National Wind Institute .

The University of Chicago, where Fujita was based, didn’t want the materials. “Richard Peterson, one of the ‘big five’ at Texas Tech on wind research, took a graduate student and went up to get the bulk of the material. It’s a world-class collection,” said Monroe.

Monroe drove to Houston to pick up the personal papers of Commander Rick Husband, the Texas Tech grad who died in the 2003 Columbia space shuttle tragedy .

“It’s an internationally significant collection,” he said.

Back in 1963, Tech had that 3 million manuscript items. Now it has, as Monroe puts it, 77 million leaves of material.

The galleries just show a snippet of what the building holds.

What the public doesn’t see are areas where documents and materials are processed:

• An area where materials are received and logged in.
• From there materials, whether paper records, photographs or films/audio/video tapes, go to their specific areas for processing before taken to the stacks or the appropriate vault for storage.
• Upstairs the stacks area offers a climate-controlled environment providing a constant temperature and humidity as well as a positive ventilation outflow which helps prevent the intrusion of bacteria or fungi which could damage valuable books and documents.

Source:

• “Southwest Collection, Texas Tech University,” Texas State Historical Society, Feb. 1, 1996, updated Sept. 28, 2020, by David Murrah.

1956: Lubbock Municipal Coliseum & Auditorium Open

High school basketball star Gerald Myers was heavily recruited by colleges in the 1950s.

Schools from the Southwest and Big Eight conferences tried to lure the kid from the Texas Panhandle town of Borger.

He picked Texas Tech.

“The number one thing that really attracted me to Texas Tech was that new Coliseum. My senior year they were building that Coliseum and it was a great basketball facility for the mid-’50s – one of the best in the whole country,” he said.

Myers sat down to talk about the Coliseum decades after he played for the Red Raiders and later coached his alma mater in the now-demolished building with the distinctive red bubble roof just west of Tech’s football stadium.

“For a guy who hadn’t been on many college campuses, to see that big building under construction – that was a big impression on me to have the opportunity to play in that building,” he added.

Until the Municipal Coliseum and Auditorium opened in 1956, Texas Tech’s basketball team played in what was called the Old Barn – susceptible to dust and sparrow droppings. It could be a sweatbox, too.

“It couldn’t barely hold 1,000 people,” said Myers.

Tech basketball coach Polk Robison had a hard time getting good programs to come to Lubbock to play non-conference games in the Old Barn. When plans for the Coliseum were in motion, Robison scheduled games against good non-conference teams with the promise they’d visit once the Coliseum opened, said Myers, who played for Robison.

The Red Raiders hosted coach Tex Winter’s ranked Kansas State Wildcats for the Coliseum’s first game, when Myers was a sophomore. Tech lost 90-84.

“Fans loved the game and the place was packed. It was great,” said Myers.

Winter guided the Wildcats to two Final Fours before being best known for developing the triangle offense that won nine NBA titles as an assistant coach to Phil Jackson on the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers.

Robison wanted to make Red Raiders games more than a sports event, said Myers.

“He wanted to make it a showcase. We had an organist. The lights would go out and a spotlight would be on the players when they were introduced.”

“He wanted to make it a showcase. We had an organist. The lights would go out and a spotlight would be on the players when they were introduced,” he said.

When the $2.2 million Coliseum was built, Tech basketball – moving from the Border Conference to the Southwest Conference – now had a home befitting its rise to one of the elite conferences in college sports.

It was also the last building designed in Lubbock with separate white and “colored” bathrooms.

More than a decade before it opened, the Texas Legislature approved Tech giving five acres of land to the City of Lubbock for a municipal facility, but construction didn’t start until 1954.

The Coliseum hosted sports contests, rodeos, circuses, hockey and touring ice-skating shows. The auditorium hosted concerts and other entertainment.

The Coliseum was also the site of the NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional in 1966 – famous for Texas Western’s run to the NCAA title, shown in the 2006 movie “Glory Road.”

Texas Western – now UTEP – won two close games in Lubbock to get to the Final Four, where the team’s historic all-black starting lineup beat all-white Kentucky for the crown.

The Red Raiders played basketball in the Coliseum until moving into United Supermarkets Arena in 1999. The Lady Raiders started playing basketball in the Coliseum in the 1970s and enjoyed packed houses as Marsha Sharp built the program into a national power – winning the NCAA championship in 1993.

Tech coaches still talk about the intimate Coliseum being a great home-court advantage.

The Lubbock Cotton Kings hockey team – owned by now-Tech basketball coach Mark Adams – played in the Coliseum until 2007. When plans for Lubbock’s Buddy Holly Hall were announced, the need for the auditorium – which needed a massive upgrade – ended.

After the ABC Pro Rodeo in 2019, the land returned to Texas Tech following a narrowly approved public vote and plans were made to demolish the structure.

Before the Coliseum disappeared, the men’s and women’s basketball teams played non-conference throwback games in the old arena and invited former players back home.

Myers was interviewed by the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal before the last throwback game.

“I’ve been asked what’s the most memorable thing that happened here. And, well, they’re too many,” he told the newspaper in 2018.

“The thing that sticks out to me is all of the great players and great teams over the years,” said Myers, who had more than 300 wins leading the Red Raiders from 1971-91. “It was just a fun time, great time,” the A-J story said.

Source:

• “One last time,” the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Dec. 14, 2018, by Carlos Silva Jr.

1966: A Discussion Leads to Creation of National Ranching Heritage Museum

A hundred years is a fraction of the time ranching has been a mainstay of the culture of Texas and the South Plains.

The National Ranching Heritage Center (NRHC) at Texas Tech University plans to celebrate Tech’s Centennial by looking at the present and the future of the ranching way of life, while continuing to honor its history.

“Looking forward to the university's next century, the NRHC is focused on educating the public about the importance of ranching and how it impacts each of us on a daily basis,” said Jim Bret Campbell, executive director.

The NRHC maps the scope of the ranching way of life through its relocated or reconstructed ranch buildings along the trail of the Proctor Historical Park, beginning with an adobe ranch house built about 1780 and winds through time and more than 55 structures to the Ropes Depot that continued as a train station until the 1970s. The Center’s campus is about 13 acres wedged between 4th Street and the Marsha Sharp Freeway.

“The historical park speaks volumes about the frontier settlers who lived in those structures and created legends and history in the process,” according to the website, ranchingheritage.org.

Although the museum and historical park at Texas Tech University were not formally dedicated until 1976, the concept of a center to preserve the history of ranching began in 1966.

The idea of the living ranching museum began when Dr. Grover Murray, president of then-Texas Technological College, appointed a committee of ranchers, businessmen and historians to determine if his concept was feasible. Even before that, since Tech’s early days, professors and university officials have discussed a museum to preserve artifacts of the historic lifestyle of West Texas already beginning to disappear in the mid-1920s.

“A significant consideration in establishing Texas Tech University was to the serve the surrounding agricultural communities. It was a natural fit then to add the National Ranching Heritage Center to preserve and promote the nation’s ranching heritage, with so much of that heritage rooted in West Texas,” Campbell said.

That dedication to ranching life continues into the Centennial of Texas Tech University.

“During Texas Tech’s Centennial Year, the NRHC will be working on a transformation addition that will tell the story of modern ranchers, their values and impact through a permanent indoor/outdoor exhibit called the Cash Family Ranch Life Learning Center,” Campbell said.

The NRHC announced a $3.5 million gift from the Cash Foundation late June 2022. The Cash family is one of 21 supporters — including the Helen Jones Foundation Inc., the CH Foundation and others — of the project.

“Understanding that ranching, farming and the entire agriculture industry play a vital role in the economic development of this region requires that we educate our students and our community about this work.”

Tech President Lawrence Schovanec emphasized the value of the center when the gift was announced: “Understanding that ranching, farming and the entire agriculture industry play a vital role in the economic development of this region requires that we educate our students and our community about this work.”

"The Cash Family has a long history at Texas Tech, and their engagement and financial contributions have made a difference in our ongoing efforts to excel both athletically and academically. It is investments like these that elevate Texas Tech and the National Ranching Heritage Center and validate the work we’re doing,” he said.

The educational center will feature an old friend, Hank the Cowdog, a beloved character of children’s books by author and cowboy, John Erickson, said Campbell. In 2016, Erickson was commissioned to write a special collection of four Hank the Cowdog books, “The Ranch Life Learning” series to illuminate ranch life for the NRHC. Erickson features Hank in more than 70 books.

A podcast of Hank, the self-declared head of ranch security, is voiced by fellow Texan and Academy Award winner, Matthew McConaughey, and produced through QCode. Access to the podcasts released in 2020 is available through ranchingheritage.org.

At the new educational center, both Hank and Erickson will appear as holograms to welcome visitors and explain current ranching practices to people who are often three to six generations removed from agriculture.

Visitors will learn the difference between a farm and a ranch, the business of ranching, range management and stewardship, the partnership between cowboys and their horses and the values developed through cow country, Campbell said.

“People talk to us about ranching, and really, they think it’s about cows, horses and cowboys,” said Clay Cash of The Cash Foundation. “There are so many other things that go into explaining what a ranch is beyond just cowboys, horses and cows, and this gift affords us the opportunity to tell the whole story. Doing so with Hank the Cowdog allows us to grab hold of young people and give them at least a rudimentary understanding of how ranching works.”

Even as the new Cash Family Ranch Life Learning Center begins in the Centennial, old favorite traditions will also continue:

• The annual Candlelight at the Ranch in early December is popular. Volunteers recreate holiday scenes in 15 historic structures such as the 1838 El Capote Log Cabin, 1886 XIT Ranch headquarters, 1888 Matador Half-Dugout and 1909 Queen-Anne style Barton House. Visitors have maps pointing the way to each structure.
• On Ranch Day in April volunteers focus on activities centered around ranching history, ranch skills and ranch science.
• The second Saturday in September, the ranching center celebrates
• Quannah Parker day with a viewing of the 1908 film, “The Bank Robbery.” The Comanche leader, who mounted an unsuccessful war to protect his tribal land, later became a rancher. Parker, born around 1848 near Wichita Falls, is featured in the film.

The center also has many special events on their website, ranchingheritage.org.

Sources:

• National Ranching Heritage Center at Texas Tech University
• National Ranching Heritage Center Website
• Hank the Cowdog Website
• Email interviews with Jim Bret Campbell and retired spokeswoman, Sue Hancock Jones

1972: Installation of Seal at Broadway & University

Mark Umstot’s been a photographer in Lubbock for 20 years. As long as he’s been in business, Umstot’s taken photos of Texas Tech graduates in front of the massive red granite seal at the campus main entrance at Broadway and University Avenue.

Umstot – who attended Tech as a freshman and sophomore – figures he’s taken hundreds and hundreds of photos with a proud grad by the seal.

“I can’t think of a single college senior where we don’t do at least a couple of photos there. Everybody thinks they need to have that,” he said, adding the area around the seal during grad-photo season is littered with champagne corks and mylar confetti.

The seal’s a symbol of the Texas Tech journey.

The seal’s a symbol of the Texas Tech journey. It’s common for students – at first beginning, then later ending that journey – to document the moment at the seal.

A picture at the seal is a rite of passage for graduates as they leave Tech and each picture represents an individual journey. While those stories differ, the seal’s presence is a constant as the university it represents.

The seal was installed on April 27, 1972, decades after architect William Ward Watkin designed it as well as the original campus buildings in the 1920s.

The seal is divided into four distinct parts:

• A lamp for learning
• A key for home
• A book for the Bible
• A star for the state.

Each section is divided by cotton bolls which represent the community’s leading industry – agriculture. Finally, an eagle on top represents country.

The purpose of the seal is not only to brand Texas Tech, but to highlight the importance of the foundations on which it was built.

The seal first appeared on diplomas in 1948 but was not officially approved until 1953. Around this time, student organizations such as the Saddle Tramps began to raise funds to install the seal on campus. It took about 20 years, but the funds were finally raised for the towering, red granite seal.

In the 1970s the seal took on the nickname of “the Oreo” after students decorated the 12-foot-high circle as a cookie. Many students still refer to the seal by its nickname.

1973: School of Medicine and Health Sciences Center Opens

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center recently celebrated its 50th anniversary as the largest health sciences center in Texas.

The need for doctors became critical in the booming decades following World War II – especially in West Texas, where many counties had no doctor. The region had one-half the national ratio of physicians to patients.

But TTUHSC had a long gestation period given regional jealousies and the byzantine labyrinth of Texas politics.

When first classes were held in Drane Hall in 1972, it was a proud triumph for the community and a university that twice rejected the idea.

Over these 50-plus years, TTUHSC has grown to add numerous schools beyond the School of Medicine in Lubbock and beyond.

Texas Tech Says No

After World War II, desire for a medical school in West Texas grew.

It started with Tech grad Preston Smith – the name behind Lubbock’s airport and former Texas governor.

In 1949, then-State Representative Smith – who had the most impact in making TTUHSC a reality – called Texas Technological College President Dossie Wiggins. Southwestern Medical College Foundation in Dallas had to stop operating and turn its college over to another institution.

Smith recommended Texas Tech take over.

The college was struggling with growing student population and need for new buildings.

Smith presented his plan and Board of Directors voted no.

Eight years later, Tech President Dr. E.N. Jones told the board he’d received an inquiry if Tech wanted to establish schools of pharmacy and medicine.

Jones told the directors the idea came from outside the college. Again, the idea was rejected.

The Need for a Medical School Grows

By now, Lubbock was the medical hub for a vast part of West Texas and Eastern New Mexico. For reasons of pride, economic benefit and humanitarian concerns, Lubbock wanted to maintain this position.

Numerous studies showed a growing need for medical services and plans for people who could not afford care.

Community leaders wanted a medical school.

The state’s Legislative Budget Board asked the Texas Medical Association to study medical education in the Lone Star State.

The result was another medical school would be needed in Texas in the next ten years. It should be in West Texas and not part of the University of Texas System.

It would be a good idea, Lubbock medical school supporters were told, to start planning now and build a county-funded hospital to act as a teaching hospital to work with a medical school if it was approved.

Community supporters were encouraged – but not without Texas Tech.

Roy Furr and Manual DeBusk, influential Lubbock businessmen who’d both chaired Tech’s Board of Directors, set things in motion.

On May 29, 1961, the college’s Board of Directors adopted a resolution to look at the possibility of a school of medicine and nursing.

The idea of a teaching hospital was also discussed.

George Brewer, who led Methodist Hospital – Lubbock’s largest – said a publicly supported hospital would need to be built for the medical school.

Many people supporting the medical school assumed Methodist would handle the bulk of the teaching duties. Brewer did not share that assumption.

Timing is Everything

In 1920, there were 86 medical schools in the United States.

In 1960, there were 86 medical schools in the United States.

A growing America increased the need for doctors. Of the doctors practicing in the U.S., too many were going into more lucrative specialties and living in and around larger cities.

Politicians got involved.

The Health Professions Educational Assistance Act of 1963 and the Comprehensive Health Manpower Training Act of 1971 provided federal money for medical schools.

With Uncle Sam’s checkbook open, medical schools sprouted.

By the end of the 1970s, the number was around 125.

One was in Lubbock, Texas.

It got there after jumping through numerous political hoops the previous decade.

Victory, but then with the Stroke of a Pen…

In 1965, a bill passed giving Lubbock a medical school over protests from Amarillo and Houston – communities that wanted also wanted the state’s new school in their cities.

Lubbock also had help guiding the bill from now-Lt. Gov. Preston Smith.

Sixteen years after Smith first brought the idea of a medical school to a college that spurned him, he helped pass the bill.

The legislation went to Gov. Connally to sign.

He vetoed it.

Connally called Lt. Gov. Smith to let him know about the veto.

It was the only time Smith expressed anger to the governor, saying he did not like the way this was handled.

Connally also had no answer for Smith when he asked why, nor why he said nothing before the bill was passed.

The governor – less than two years after being wounded in the attack that assassinated President John. F. Kennedy – told Lubbock legislators he might sign an amended bill which gave the new the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Board the final decision on where the medical school would go.

The meeting did not go well.

An angry Sen. “Doc” Blanchard asked Connally why he had not told them of his concerns before so they could adjust.

At one point, Blanchard slammed his pipe on the glass coffee table in front of the governor.

Connally didn’t waver.

Those pushing the medical school project for Lubbock believed the governor wilted under pressure from Lubbock’s opponents.

They believed Amarillo, Houston or the University of Texas pressured Connally to veto.

Frank Erwin, chair of the University of Texas Board of Regents, met with a Lubbock legislator, other supporters and general counsel to the Texas Medical Association.

Erwin said he’d support Lubbock’s efforts if it dropped HB14 and replaced it with a bill granting both Lubbock and Houston medical schools.

He wanted a medical school in Houston under the UT system as much as Lubbock wanted the Tech medical school.

The Lubbock supporters said no to Erwin’s plan.

Lubbock and Texas Tech were angry – very angry.

But they were not giving up.

The Fight Continues

On June 12, 1967, the 60th Legislature approved a bill to create a hospital district if Lubbock voters approved.

Voters were asked to approve three issues:

1. Whether to create the district.
2. Provide tax funds for a teaching county hospital.
3. Allow $4 million in construction bonds.

On Oct. 7, 1967, voters approved all three proposals.

Two years later, five Lubbock banks – another example of how the community rose to the challenge – teamed to buy construction bonds well below the rate for that time.

That saved the district more than $350,000 as it was becoming clear cost estimates over the previous years were not enough.

It also still required Coordinating Board approval – the toughest item on the checklist to assuage Texas and its governor.

Again, Amarillo, Houston, El Paso and now Austin all told the Coordinating Board they were better sites for a new medical school than Lubbock.

Dr. Grover Murray now led Tech. He had experience with a medical school at Louisiana State University.

The college was already working on its Coordinating Board campaign months before voters approved the hospital district and eventually got approval.

Lubbock was also talking to Amarillo about using its clinical facilities, hoping to turn its neighbors to the north into allies.

Victory!

In 1968, Preston Smith was elected governor of Texas – 19 years after he first brought the idea of a medical school to Texas Tech leaders.

When the 61st Legislature convened in 1969, Rep. Delwin Jones introduced a bill asking for money to start the Texas Tech medical school as fast as possible.

And, once again, a bill was introduced supporting Houston getting a medical school.

When it looked as if the bills were going nowhere, the college asked the state’s attorney general for a ruling if Lubbock could create a medical school as part of the existing college without having to pass legislation.

The attorney general agreed, but Tech still needed legislative approval to fund the school.

Meanwhile, Houston’s supporters were getting frustrated.

UT’s Erwin visited with Gov. Smith.

“Governor, did I understand you right if you do not get your medical school then we don’t get ours?”

“Governor, did I understand you right if you do not get your medical school then we don’t get ours?” he asked the governor.

“Yes,” said Smith, adding he wanted the “two bills be considered at the same time but that the Tech bill be passed first.”

The governor said the state may need more than one medical school and reminded Erwin one had been approved for West Texas, but Connally pulled out his veto pen.

Lubbock and Houston started working together.

Amarillo dropped its opposition and felt it could support Lubbock assuming it got something in return.

The bill for Lubbock’s medical school faced two amendments: Tech affiliate with Amarillo, El Paso and Midland-Odessa and no state money could be used to support a teaching hospital for the school.

They passed.

There was one other piece needed.

To get the funding, the medical school needed to be legally separate from the college, even if it was to be led by the same people.

The bill was passed and signed into law on May 27, 1969, going into effect on Sept. 1 of that year.

Also during the session, a bill was passed changing the college’s name to Texas Tech University.

The new medical school was the Texas Tech University School of Medicine.

The city and university planned to build a medical school/teaching hospital complex for $20-24 million.

Even though they would be built next to each other and while many people think Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and University Medical Center are under the same leadership – they were, and are, not.

But they needed each other to be created.

Finding a leader

The medical school and university, hospital district and medical community could all work together to realize the dreams of an innovative medical school using local physicians, hospitals and existing university classes to keep costs low.

That was the vision.

It just didn’t happen.

John Buesseler came in with marching orders to work with the university and community to build an innovative medical school. But he brought in people who built a traditional medical school with no desire to work with university departments like chemistry and biology.

Why?

Because he never told the new medical school hires that was the original plan.

The good news was the school opened quickly in 1972 and was a success.

Despite all the problems, on August 21, 1972, the School of Medicine opened to 36 freshmen and 25 juniors.

Buesseler and his team did in less than two years what it had taken other schools up to ten years to do.

And it worked.

A temporary teaching hospital process was set up with Methodist.

School of Medicine students worked almost one-to-one with board-certified specialists and some of the most prominent physicians in West Texas.

H. Andrew Hansen II, M.D., class of 1975:

“For me it was a great opportunity to go to medical school. The school was in Drane Hall on campus and it was like going to college all over again.

The individual attention our class of 36 students enjoyed was fantastic. We became good friends with most of our professors and this certainly fostered the learning process. When we reached our clinical rotations this continued as we were one-on-one with practicing physicians. I particularly enjoyed surgery as I was able to participate in care of patients without having to do all the ‘scut work’ medical students have to do at a teaching hospital. In addition, the quality of the surgery was excellent. I saw top surgeons – Dr. Bob Salem, Dr. Jerry Stirman and Dr. Jack Selby to name a few. It was a unique experience and one which cannot be reproduced today.”

There were many challenges. One of them was Buessler. He’d upset every group involved – the university he was supposed to partner with, medical community, hospital district.

Dr. John Bradford, then dean of Engineering, talked about Buesseler:

“Part of this (lack of integration) has been the attitude and philosophy of the first dean of the medical school. He was not interested in cooperative efforts, he was interested in building an empire. It would be solely the medical school and no one would interfere, and that was it and that was the way it was going to happen.”

Buessler was eventually moved aside.

When Health Sciences Center Hospital – now University Medical Center – finally opened in 1977, the medical school was taken off probation put in place because it did not have a permanent teaching hospital.

On June 6, 1979, before the school’s first decade ended, the Texas Legislature changed the institution’s name to Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.

More challenges were ahead, as were TTUHSC’s greatest days of education, research and growth.

Epilogue

When the Texas Tech University System was created in the 1990s, TTUHSC now truly was a separate entity from the university.

It’s an entity with the following programs:

• School of Medicine
• School of Nursing
• School of Pharmacy
• School of Health Professions
• Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

In the following places:

• Abilene
• Amarillo
• Dallas
• El Paso
• Lubbock
• Midland/Odessa
• Along with distance education options

1980s: Return of Spanish Renaissance Architecture

Fred Krenson of the Atlanta-based architecture firm Rosser International decided to channel William Ward Watkin.

In 1996, he went to Spain, sketching examples of Spanish Renaissance architecture, inspiring the design of United Supermarkets Arena.

No one had ever designed a “SpanRen”-revival indoor sports arena before – but the then-called United Spirit Arena became the star of Texas Tech’s return to its architectural roots.

The revamped Jones AT&T Stadium, Frazier Alumni Center, Sports Performance Center, Womble Basketball Center, McKenzie-Merket Alumni Center, the Southwest Collection, the English and Philosophy Building and more brought Tech back from a decades-long architectural wandering – some of it literally and figuratively brutal.

The USDA Plant Stress Research Laboratory was the U.S. government’s first-ever SpanRen-revival laboratory. The parking garage off Flint Avenue just north of 19th Street featured SpanRen details and got the nickname “Garage Mahal.”

Buildings throughout the Texas Tech University system have improved community architecture in numerous Texas cities.

And it’s not just in Lubbock. Buildings throughout the Texas Tech University system have improved community architecture in numerous Texas cities.

The Board of Regents wanted the university’s buildings to embrace its 1920s genesis first created by Watkin and based on architecture inspired by 16th Century Spain.

Plateresque was one of four distinctive styles of the Spanish Renaissance named for its ornamental resemblance to Spanish silver jewelry – plata.

Watkin could not finish his plan for the campus because of a family issue.

A few decades later, modernism was sweeping college campuses.

No neoclassically designed American campus was immune from modernism in the 1950s, wrote architect Brian Griggs in his book, “Opus in Brick and Stone: How a Spanish architectural tradition made its way to the Llano Estacado.”

In the 1950s, Nolan Barrick was chairman of the Department of Architecture at Tech and Campus Architect. He also studied under Watkin at Rice University and married Watkin’s daughter.

Even though Barrick was on campus for much of modernism’s era, he fought to return Tech to some semblance of his father-in-law’s master plan – and cut back on all the cars on campus.

At one point, 11 different city streets crossed parts of campus and there were five traffic lights on Memorial Circle.

Barrick eventually resigned his role as Campus Architect over frustrations with others who didn’t respect a planning process but stayed in the Department of Architecture.

There were many reasons modernism was embraced:

• It was cheaper and easier.
• Hard to find craftsmen who do could do decorative ironwork, stone carving or woodworking that SpanRen featured.
• A need for taller buildings to keep up with Tech’s growing enrollment. SpanRen was somewhat vertically challenged. It didn’t work well beyond a few stories high.

So limestone was replaced with cast-in-place concrete. Clay barrel-tile roofs were replaced by different terra cotta-colored materials. It was also hard to find the buff-colored bricks specifically made by Acme Brick for Tech back going back to the 1920s.

Up popped the Municipal Coliseum and Auditorium, the library, Agriculture Plant Sciences, the Art and Architecture Complex – the last one done in a modernist style called brutalism.

The Classroom and Office Building – or COB – was really brutal. It wasn’t attractive, developed roof leaks, there were complaints of sick building syndrome and rumors of ghost hauntings.

Years later, when the SpanRen Rawls College of Business was opening, then-Chancellor Kent Hance was complimenting the new facility.

“It is so far from the Classroom and Office Building. That was the ugliest building in the history of Texas Tech,” he said.

The very popular Robert H. Ewalt Student Recreation Center was the last pure modernist project at Tech.

In 1997, the Board of Regents received the first campus master plan in a long time. Beyond traffic and land planning, it said Plateresque-revival architecture would be used for all buildings.

A year before, Tech’s core campus was recognized by the U.S. National Register of Historic Places as the Texas Technological College Historic District.

But not everyone showed proper respect for Tech’s return to SpanRen.

During a discussion of turning the Brownfield Highway into what would become the Marsha Sharp Freeway, a pitch was made for a below-grade freeway with Plateresque detailing on pedestrian bridges near Jones AT&T Stadium, according to Griggs’ book.

It was more expensive than TxDOT had ever envisioned.

A TxDOT engineer who went to Texas A&M made a crack about Tech’s football team during the meeting.

A dozen years would pass before the Aggies won in Lubbock again.

1999: United Supermarkets Arena Opens

United Supermarkets Arena has been around roughly a quarter of Texas Tech’s history since opening in late 1999, but alumni of a certain age still call it the “new arena.”

“Maybe they haven’t been back on campus since the Coliseum was the home of basketball,” said Kent Meredith, executive director of the arena.

James Dickey’s Texas Tech Red Raiders lost to Bob Knight’s visiting Indiana Hoosiers on Nov. 19 that year – an opening date the arena rushed to meet after construction fell behind.

There was even discussion about bringing in more bleachers to boost the 15,000 capacity for the ESPN-televised game, but fire marshals said no.

“We hadn’t been taught how to turn the lights on. We didn’t know if all the toilets would work at halftime once everyone flushed,” said Meredith.

Indiana won and the toilets worked.

Knight – who complimented the arena – was asked if he thought he’d come back to Lubbock, said Meredith, recalling the famed coach said, “why would I come back here again?”

Two years later, Knight was named Texas Tech’s head coach and lived in Lubbock for many years after retiring in 2008.

One of the many memorable events in the arena’s history, was Jan. 1, 2007, when Knight broke Dean Smith’s record to become the winningest coach in men’s college basketball history. After Knight’s Red Raiders beat New Mexico, the arena played Frank Sinatra’s recording of “My Way,” said Meredith. A banner marking the record hangs in the arena.

The first in a long list of concerts was Feb. 8, 2000, when Elton John played what was originally called United Spirit Arena, sponsored by Lubbock-based United Supermarkets.

Since then, the arena has hosted sports, concerts of all genres, Texas Tech and high school commencements, conventions, meetings and more.

“People make memories here,” said Meredith.

Tech Decides to Fund a New Arena

The City of Lubbock pondered replacing the 1950-era Municipal Coliseum with a new arena named for Buddy Holly, favorite son and rock ‘n’ roll legend. It would be built next to the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center, about two miles from the Coliseum.

Lubbock voters turned down a tax increase to fund the arena.

Texas Tech decided to privately fund an on-campus arena, financed as part of a $500 million campaign by John Montford, the first Texas Tech University System chancellor.

In the dozen months after Elton John’s performance, the following acts/events played in the arena:

• KISS
• Franklin Graham Crusade
• Gaither Homecoming
• The Dixie Chicks, featuring Lubbock native Natalie Maines. The band’s opening act was the Lubbock-based Maines Brothers, featuring Natalie’s dad Lloyd, her uncles and others. (One of those uncles, Steve Maines, is Tech’s Assistant Athletics Director/Events.)
• Creed
• Pearl Jam
• World Wrestling Federation
• Harlem Globetrotters

Two decades later, the privately funded Buddy Holly Hall opened across the street from the Civic Center.

Meredith said the new hall is good for Lubbock, attracting smaller shows not right for the arena.

Some of the biggest events in the arena’s history, said Meredith, were:

• Paul McCartney in 2014, when the famed Beatle came to honor his hero, Holly.
• The 2022 Texas-Texas Tech men’s basketball game when former Red Raider coach Chris Beard returned to a loud and hostile crowd. Mark Adams’ Tech squad won as part of an undefeated home season on their way to the Sweet Sixteen. Since Texas Tech’s rise in men’s basketball, the Raider Riot student section has elevated home games into one of the best home court advantages in college basketball.
• A pair of Future Farmers of America conventions, the largest conventions in Lubbock history.

“We’re busy 365 days a year,” said Meredith of the arena that has a $50,000-a-month electric bill.

Going from One Event to Another

The arena employs fewer than ten full-time employees, relying on a small army of part-time help to convert the arena from one event to another and to staff events.

Sometimes that work goes all night.

“If we go from a basketball game to a concert the next day, we have to be ready for the show to come as early as 6 in the morning,” said Meredith.

The game ends around 9 p.m. the night before and conversion begins around 10.

“We have to push in all our seats. We have to cover the floor because one of the challenges we have is a permanent wooden floor,” he said.

Dickey and Marsha Sharp – the men’s and women’s basketball coaches when the arena opened – wanted that.

“We have this huge tile system we put down because our biggest asset is the floor. We have to protect it,” said Meredith.

The whole process can take about eight hours.

Arena staff meet the show caterer if there is one, sometimes before dawn. Then the show arrives to set up.

Meredith and his team have met with a show well before the concert date to know what’s needed in terms of technology, rigging, dressing rooms and more.

“You have to make sure everything’s correct,” said Meredith. He doesn’t want an act – many times traveling all night by bus – to come in and find problems.

“They’re probably tired. We want them to be in a good mood when they get here,” said Meredith, adding the rest of the day is usually handling small details.

The most challenging conversion is from a sports camp to a concert because pulling out the retractable seats takes a few hours to do, longer if they’re stubborn, Meredith said.

“They’re not like those old bleachers you might remember from middle school,” he said. Then they must cover the floor, set up the stage.

Years ago, a report was done saying the arena may not be able to get a lot of the shows they’ve booked over the years.

“As an auxiliary of the university, we’re expected to raise our revenue. We brought in more shows than the report ever thought we’d bring in,” said Meredith, considering Lubbock is a smaller market than metro areas hundreds of miles away. And tours look at market size, said Meredith.

Meredith’s team sees who’s touring and pursue acts.

But they can’t always pick dates.

“If it fits between Dallas and Phoenix or Denver and San Antonio, we’re kind of a gas stop. We do everything we can to get the shows and hopefully the date fits,” he said.

Country Stars Have Been Most Popular Shows

The most popular concerts, Meredith said, have been country stars Texas native George Strait and Garth Brooks.

“George has loved it,” said Meredith of the popular “King of Country,’ who’s played the arena five times. Brooks played five shows in four days.

Arguably, McCartney has been the biggest name to play the arena. He put on a long and winding display of his unparalleled music history playing 40 songs.

McCartney said he wanted to play Lubbock because it’s Holly’s hometown and the Beatles were huge fans of Holly and the Crickets.

McCartney said he wanted to play Lubbock because it’s Holly’s hometown and the Beatles were huge fans of Holly and the Crickets. The name Beatles was even a salute to the Crickets. McCartney played songs from his time with the Beatles, Wings and his solo career. He also played the Crickets’ “It’s So Easy,” and told a handful of songs about how much he loved Holly and his Lubbock bandmates, excited when the Crickets released a new album.

Meredith’s personal favorite acts have been Elton John and James Taylor, who’ve both made two appearances.

Taylor was down to earth and John was friendly and chatted with arena staff backstage, said Meredith.

The opposite of that, he said, was an unnamed act that would not allow anyone to be in the hallway when they were in the hallway.

John also knew his audience.

During his second visit in 2010, he was wearing red and black.

“Do I have the right colors?” he asked the crowd in his English accent, getting huge applause.

John was also very specific about how his dressing room should be set up, including flowers he wanted.

“We usually don’t ask the teams to use their locker rooms. But for Elton John and Cher we were able to get the women’s basketball locker room and the volleyball locker room,” said Meredith.

Meredith was also puzzled the rock band Creed would not allow media to come in and shoot photos of the first three songs or let a reporter cover the concert, which almost all bands allowed. Creed disbanded in 2012.

Balancing with Sports

Sometimes the date doesn’t fit because of the arena’s main residents – Texas Tech’s basketball and volleyball teams.

Before the Womble Basketball Center was built, USA was where the teams practiced, or just put up some shots.

There are times the arena must turn down a show because it’s on a game night or too close to a game.

“Do we do the show or not? We determine if it’s a big enough show,” to weigh if they want to possibly upset a coach, said Meredith.

The arena also hosts summer camps.

“We may not make a lot of revenue, but it’s still important as a recruiting tool for the university and Athletic Department,” said Meredith.

The Home of Graduations

Thousands of Red Raiders have graduated at the arena.

Students always remember their commencement and Meredith enjoys how the arena is the place for those important memories.

“They may not remember who spoke, but they have some memory of commencement because they’ve been here for four or five years,” he said.

Meredith enjoys commencement speakers and recalled late U.S. Senators John McCain and John Tower speaking to Red Raiders.

Then there were three times parents came to graduation only to find their student’s name was not on the program and they had not been going to class, Meredith said. “Then they have to have a frank conversation with their parents on why they haven’t been in school.”

‘It’s a Special Place to a Lot of People

Meredith loves watching people during student tours.

“They’ve seen it on TV from games. They love coming in and getting their picture taken with the Double T on the court. It’s a special place to a lot of people. This is where the Red Raiders and Lady Raiders play,” he said.

Meredith tells his folks people coming to the arena have already had to buy tickets, deal with traffic and parking.

“So hopefully you’re greeted by somebody friendly at the door. Hopefully our seats are clean. Hopefully everything’s clean, which was a challenge this year because of staffing shortages,” said Meredith in 2022.

“It’s a memory maker. That’s probably one of the most exciting things about working here,” he said.

2012-2023: Campaign for Fearless Champions revamps Athletics facilities

In 2014, Texas Tech announced the Campaign for Fearless Champions, which has dramatically transformed the university’s athletic facilities, endowed both scholarships and the J.T. & Margaret Talkington Leadership Academy.

“We as a Red Raider nation believe we have a bold future in front of us. We embrace the rising expectations we have for ourselves.”

“We as a Red Raider nation believe we have a bold future in front of us. We embrace the rising expectations we have for ourselves. With that we believe we have the ability to experience unprecedented success as an athletics program as we move forward. The Campaign for Fearless Champions, obviously, is one of the components of our plan as to how we are going to achieve national success. It’s the right time for us to look at and prepare for our future. Our time is now to continue to elevate Texas Tech athletics to the top nationally,” said Kirby Hocutt, Director of Athletics the day the campaign was announced, adding it would touch all 17 sports.

“The Campaign for Fearless Champions really changed the trajectory of Texas Tech Athletics,” said Andrea Tirey, Senior Associate Athletics Director for Development. “It was Kirby’s vision and it’s been executed beautifully.”

Tech’s Spanish Renaissance architectural design is carried out in all the buildings in the campaign.

Since the campaign started:

• Men’s basketball went to an Elite Eight, Final Four and Sweet Sixteen in four seasons – an unprecedented run. United Supermarkets Arena has become one of the best atmospheres in college hoops.
• Baseball went to four College World Series – it had never been to one.
• Men’s track & field won the first men’s team title in school history.
• Other sports have become nationally ranked and made deep post-season runs.

Better facilities and improved support for student athletes attract better talent to Lubbock. It also attracts coaches. It adds up to success – which inspires what Hocutt calls the Red Raider Nation to support Athletics in record numbers.

More than two-dozen facilities – from as large as the Sports Performance Center to many smaller projects – have cost about $200 million. All of it has been privately funded.

Recently, the final piece of the campaign was announced – a $200 million stunning combination of the Womble Football Center and the South End Zone at Jones AT&T Stadium.

“This is our most important project…it will be a landmark on our beautiful campus and it will elevate Texas Tech football to the vision we have, the level of success that we’ve experienced before and are determined to get back to,” said Hocutt, who played linebacker at Kansas State University.

Completed

• Sports Performance Center
• Dustin R. Womble Basketball Center
• Cash Family Sports Nutrition Center
• Whitacre Center for Athletic Administration

Completed at Jones AT&T Stadium

• Seat Replacement
• Video board and sound system upgrades
• North End Zone Colonnade
• North End Zone Building Renovation
• Field Turf replacement

Completed at United Supermarkets Arena

• Video board
• Practice gym renovations
• Weight room renovations
• Locker room and sports medicine renovations

Completed at Rip Griffin Park

• Grandstand & Team Facility Roof Renovation
• Video board & field turf replacement

Completed at existing Football Training Facility

• Locker room renovations

Completed at The Rawls Course

• Bunker Restoration

Completed at John B. Walker Soccer Complex

• Gerald Myers Indoor Soccer Facility

Completed at Rocky Johnson Field (softball)

• Video Board

Completed at Terry & Linda Fuller Track & Field Complex

• Team & sports medicine facility

Fundraising, funded or under construction

• The Dustin R. Womble Football Center and South End Zone
• Texas Tech Baseball Team Facility
• Indoor Tennis Facility

2020: Generous Donors Bring Tech’s Historic Dairy Barn Back to Life

The Dairy Barn wouldn’t die.

It lingered in limbo for decades and was scheduled to be demolished.

It was kept alive by students and alumni who passionately felt it was not just a dilapidated old building – it symbolized the university’s legacy of hard work, teamwork and rural heritage alive today in Texas Tech’s numerous national championship judging teams.

For some, the Dairy Barn helped put them through school. For others who worked in other agriculture-related barns, it was a great source of free milk.

For many who went to Texas Tech when the Dairy Barn was a working building, it was a place of happy memories of a different time.

“I get teary-eyed when I think about Texas Tech,” said donor Dale Swinburn, adding he’s not a very emotional guy.

“I feel exceedingly fortunate to attend Texas Tech. I had a good experience, learned a lot…and it changed my life in many ways. I feel a debt of gratitude to give some back to help others along the way,” he said.

The Dairy Barn was one of the original buildings at Texas Technological College when it opened in the 1920s.

“The Dairy Barn is part of the DNA of Texas Tech.”

“The Dairy Barn is part of the DNA of Texas Tech,” said Michael Galyean, former provost and former dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (CASNR), who helped launch the effort to renovate the building.

Original construction began in 1925 and finished in 1927. Total cost was $29,400.

Back then, students studying dairy farming could bring their cows to college and the milk would be used for students to drink and for cheese they would eat.

It closed in the 1960s and the university’s dairy operation moved to New Deal.

Then the Dairy Barn sat.

And sat.

It was used for theater department storage and was going to be torn down after being ruled unsafe and structurally unsound by the Coordinating Board for the Texas College and University System in 1984.

Students and alumni – especially those who were students when the barn was operating – fought back.

There’s a story that Arch Lamb – founder of the Saddle Tramps who worked in the Dairy Barn in the 1930s – threatened to stand in front of a bulldozer to keep it from being torn down.

“I’ve heard stories throughout the years that there have been many times there were discussions the Dairy Barn would be torn down. But every time they started talking about it someone stepped up to save it,” said Jane Piercy, CASNR’s senior director of development and external relations.

It was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 and became a Texas Historic Landmark in 2015.

Finally, over the past few years, the money was raised from donations and a university match.

“We agreed the university would do a match and pay for half the renovation costs,” said Lawrence Schovanec, university president – and the son of a dairy farmer.

Finally, on an Oct. 16, 2020, morning where the temperatures in the 40s were enough to keep milk cold – a ribbon cutting officially brought the 8,000-square-foot building back to life.

The renovated Dairy Barn has exhibits about the barn’s history and the dairy industry and is also a place to hold events and meetings.

It hosted a Texas Tech Board of Regents retreat the day before.

Chris Huckabee, then-chair of the Board of Regents, explained his connection to the Dairy Barn.

“This is a very special building,” said Huckbee, who studied architecture when he was a Texas Tech student. Every architecture student did “the Dairy Barn project,” where they developed their vision for the building, he said.

“So if you were the architect who took this project on, you have all these critics around the world who believe their design is still the best,” Huckbee told the audience.

“If we lose honoring the heritage of who we are, then we give up everything.”

“This is the best project we’ve ever done at Texas Tech. If we lose honoring the heritage of who we are, then we give up everything,” he said.

“When I was a student, I would think how are we allowing this building to rot? There’s got to be a way to make this building happen,” he said.

Huckabee admitted scoffing four years ago when he was told Dairy Barn plans were moving forward.

“So to be here today and be able to celebrate this is huge and we only get to do that (because of) generous donors. Those of you who stepped up and said we have a vision for what Texas Tech is and who we should be and we should never stop preserving who we were,” he said.

The donors came from many different areas – corporations, foundations, individuals, alumni, families, staff, former deans and administrators and President Schovanec.

2021: Texas Tech Breaks Ground on New Academic Sciences Building

When Texas Tech’s new Academic Sciences Building opens in late 2023, it will be the first new building within the university’s historic academic core in decades.

The $112 million, three-story, 125,000-square-foot building will be next to the current Chemistry and Science buildings with classroom and laboratory space for the departments of:

• Geosciences
• Chemistry & Biochemistry
• Biological Sciences
• Physics & Astronomy
• Psychological Science

“We have the world-class researchers and students; now we will have a physical facility to match those intellectual resources.”

“The student-teaching laboratories, active learning classrooms and computer labs, collaboration spaces and research labs will provide opportunities for our students and faculty to learn and grow their research in ways that haven’t yet been possible,” said Ronald Hendrick, provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs at the ground breaking in late 2021. “We have the world-class researchers and students; now we will have a physical facility to match those intellectual resources.”

Texas Tech President Lawrence Schovanec further discussed the need for the new building at the groundbreaking.

“If you were to visit this chemistry building or the science building next door, or biology back here, I think you’ll quickly come to the conclusion that we owe our students, our faculty and staff, better facilities that enables them to succeed at the highest level and have the best chance of success," said Schovanec in a Lubbock Avalanche-Journal story.

The story went on to say:

While meeting with various department chairs, faculty, and staff members, Schovanec said it was clear they did not have adequate teaching facilities. They came up with a concept providing state-of-the art research facilities with modern teaching capability.

“What is sort of wonderful about this, is those student instructional spaces will be co-located for that research activity to take place,” Schovanec told the newspaper.

The vacated space will be used by other departments on campus, said Hendrick, adding once the programs move to the new building, the university will start making renovations in the old building.

“We can unpack some other programs that are a little bit too crowded. Growth is common at universities, but we’ve grown at such an uncommon rate. Your infrastructure never really keeps up – whether it’s dormitories, classrooms, laboratories and the technology and equipment we now need to teach,” he said.

The building will be partially paid for by $12.5 million approved by the Texas Legislature during the 87th Session in 2021 as well as Higher Education Funding.

As someone born and raised in Lubbock, the new building is exciting, State House Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, told the A-J at the ground breaking.

“You have no idea how great it’s going to be to see the jobs brought to this economy, the research that goes on here – what a blessing it is going to be to the state in the long run,” he said.

The building will be another example of Tech’s return to its Spanish Renaissance architecture.

Building materials will include Mission Blend brick, cast stone details and terracotta tiled roofing. Planned external features include a pedestrian walkway and a courtyard to the east of the building.

Texas Tech breaks ground on Academic Sciences Building, by Elyssa Sanders for Texas Tech Today

Sources:

• Texas Tech breaks ground on Academic Sciences Building, by Elyssa Sanders for Texas Tech Today
• Texas Tech breaks ground on $100M Academic Sciences Building, by Shambhavi Rimal for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

1959: Jerry Holmes Graduates with Electrical Engineering Degree, Goes On to Play a Role in Developing GPS

If you’ve used GPS on your phone to figure out where you’re going – 1959 Texas Tech grad Jerry D. Holmes deserves some credit.

He was named a Texas Instruments Fellow in 1987 – an honor reserved for less than one percent of the company’s engineers – for his contributions on global positioning navigation systems.

Two years later, Holmes was named a Distinguished Engineer by Tech’s Edward E. Whitacre College of Engineering.

In 1996, Holmes was awarded the Lohmann Medal from Oklahoma State University, where he earned his Ph.D. after a master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The electrical engineer’s greatest achievements occurred from 1975 to 1990 when he contributed to Texas Instruments’ efforts to become a world leader in global positioning systems.

Beginning in 1975, he became the chief engineer for a new program termed the Ground/ Airborne Integrated Terminal. His work supported the company’s efforts building terminals to receive messages from 24 GPS satellites.

From 1960 to 1963, he served as a United States Air Force officer at the Satellite Test Center in Sunnyvale, California.

Holmes holds eight patents and has published numerous papers related to global positioning systems and signal processing techniques and components.

He was born in a farmhouse in Lockney, northeast of Texas Tech.

Holmes is one of 250 Distinguished Engineers named by Texas Tech since the honor began in 1967 in the following engineering areas:

• Architectural
• Biochemistry
• Chemical
• Civil
• Computer science
• Construction engineering technology
• Electrical
• Engineering physics
• Engineering technology
• Geological
• Industrial
• Mechanical
• Petroleum
• Textile

A few of those 250-plus Distinguished Engineers along with Holmes are:

• Rick Husband, commander of the Shuttle Columbia, who perished with his crew on reentry in 2003.
• Edward Whitacre, who went on to run AT&T and General Motors, whose generosity led to the engineering school being named for him, just one way he’s helped Tech.
• Bob L. Herd, whose success in the energy industry allowed him to donate back to his alma mater leading to the Bob L. Herd Department of Petroleum Engineering.
• Jerry Rawls, whose Silicon Valley success led him to give back to Tech in the form of the Rawls College of Business and the Rawls Golf Course at Texas Tech.
• Don Cash, another energy industry success story, whose family has been generous in many ways to Texas Tech, including the Cash Family Sports Nutrition Center.

Sources:

• Distinguished Engineer Citations from the Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering and article from Impact: The official magazine of the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology at Oklahoma State University

1961: Lucille Sugar Graves Becomes First African-American Student

There was diversity at Texas Tech in its first years – unless you were African American.

In 1929, A. Melendez, a male student from Guatemala, enrolled at Texas Technological College.

A year later, Korean native Laura Nackune Song and Chung Wo Au from China were students on the South Plains.

In 1935, Maria Alejandrina Hevia from Brazil was believed to be the college’s earliest female Hispanic student.

More than two decades later, Lucille Sugar Graves became Texas Tech’s first African American student, paving the way for 17 more African American students to follow her the next semester.

Texas had been a Confederate state and even though slavery was outlawed after the Civil War, segregation was widespread for roughly the next hundred years.

Four years after Graves became a Red Raider, the still-segregated Lubbock Dunbar High School basketball team won the PVIL state title. African Americans could not compete in UIL sports.

That changed a few years later, but it was more than a decade after the historic 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court case ended public school segregation.

In 1956, the Supreme Court’s ruling was extended to public colleges, but even before, Tech’s segregation policy was being challenged:

• In 1951, two African American airmen stationed at Lubbock’s Reese Air Force Base, sought to attend Tech night classes and were rejected because the college was only open to white students.
• That same year, Bobby Cavazos – a Hispanic – was a star running back for the Red Raider football team.
• The next year, the Toreador student newspaper reported the University of Arizona threatened to stop competing against Tech unless it changed its policy of banning African American athletes from visiting teams playing in Lubbock. Tech played teams with African American players, but only when on the road.
• In 1955, an Oxford-style debate was held on campus on whether Tech should allow African American students.
• In 1959, future Lubbock councilman T.J. Patterson tried to enroll as a graduate student at Tech and was rejected. He wasn’t even allowed to go into the Administration Building.
• The next year, three educators at the Mary & Mac School in Lubbock – Graves and two others – applied to enter Texas Tech and were denied. Graves was Patterson’s aunt.

Then everything changed in 1961.

Graves answered a phone call from Tech president Robert Cabiness Goodwin just before the start of the summer session, according to a Texas Tech Today story by Amanda Castro-Crist.

“He said, ‘Ms. Graves, do you want to go to Texas Tech this summer, or do you want to go this fall?’” Graves recalled in her Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library oral history interview.

Graves said summer.

“Well, I’ll be out here 15 more minutes, and you have 15 minutes to register,” he told her.

Graves registered for two classes, audiovisual studies and supervision in education.

Unlike many Texas Tech students just starting their college journey, Graves was down that road. She’d earned a bachelor’s degree in Tyler and was working toward a master’s degree.

In mid-1950s, she established the Mary & Mac private preschool for African American students in Lubbock, when private schools for African Americans were rare.

“She was taking those classes to be a better educator to youths who didn’t have the same opportunities as she did.”

“She was taking those classes to be a better educator to youths who didn’t have the same opportunities as she did,” said Lynn Whitfield, the university archivist at the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library in a 2016 Texas Tech Today story.

When she stepped on campus as a student, Graves ended more than a year’s worth of efforts to integrate the university by Graves, local leaders and members of the NAACP.

University leaders pledged to treat all applicants equally.

“All we can say is that we will treat (their applications) like any others,” the Toreador quoted C.I. Wall, then chairman of the Board of Directors, in a statement to the Associated Press. “I would not say this is a lot to be excited about. If they apply and meet the qualifications, they will be accepted like anyone else.”

The paper went on to say, “The decision of the Board followed findings that the original charter of the college, on file at Austin, did not include any provision for the college being only a white institution,” and college officials stressed the admittance of African American students “was being handled in a routine manner ‘without any fanfare.’”

It may have also helped that J. Evetts Haley was no longer on the Texas Tech Board of Directors.

Haley unsuccessfully ran for governor in 1956 on a platform endorsing segregation, among other issues.

There were still many hurdles Graves said she had to overcome while working on her degree. While many students in her audiovisual class were open to working with Graves, she recalled one woman refused. She also faced issues in her other class, which was mostly comprised of men and focused on the public school system instead of practices in private schooling, which she had hoped to study further.

Graves’ success was one of the many contributions she’d make to the Lubbock community during her lifetime. Among other highlights, The Handbook of Texas lists Graves:

• As a founding member of the Greater New Light Baptist Church and the Delta Sigma Theta sorority chapter in Lubbock.
• A leader for Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and a 4-H Club at Mary & Mac School.
• Service on the Small Business Administration advisory board, the Barbara Jordan Senior Citizens group.
• Precinct chair for the Democratic Party.

At its peak, the Mary & Mac private school served about 120 students. It closed shortly after Graves passed away in 1993.

T.J. Patterson, who eventually enrolled at Tech after serving in the military, became Lubbock’s first African American City Council member, a weekly newspaper publisher and equal rights advocate.

He remembered his aunt’s impact:

“The steps that you leave in life…you don’t what they’re going to lead to and take advantage of what God has given you. I learned that lesson that day, never forgotten that,” he said.

Sources:

• Texas Tech African American history: Lucille S. Graves
• A timeline of Diversity and Inclusion at Texas Tech

1964: Ophelia Powell-Malone First African-American to Get a Degree

Ophelia Powell-Malone blazed a trail at Texas Tech, then called Texas Technological College, becoming the first African American to graduate in 1964.

Getting her diploma in home health nursing and health care was a hard-earned accomplishment. She had transferred from Austin’s Huston-Tillotson College, a private, historically black university.

“It required hard work, study, set goals and determination to accomplish these goals,” she told The Manhattan Heights Times, a Lubbock African American newspaper, in June 1964. She credited her friends and family, dean and student teacher-adviser for their support.

In 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court extended its historic 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling, ending segregation in public schools to include public colleges and universities.

That didn’t mean things changed immediately. The University of Texas integrated in 1956. Texas Tech followed in 1961, the University of Houston in 1962 and Texas A&M University in 1963.

Three years before Powell-Malone graduated, Lucille Sugar Barton Graves became the first African American student.

The month after Powell-Malone graduated, the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.

“She truly believed that anyone can make anything of themselves if they want to succeed.”

Powell-Malone’s brother, Maurice Powell, told Texas Tech Today in 2014 that his sister, who died in 1979 at 48, wanted to prove “that if she could graduate in spite of her conditions, then anyone can. She truly believed that anyone can make anything of themselves if they want to succeed.”

Powell-Malone was born near Austin in 1931. She graduated from Anderson High School before going to college.

After she graduated, she began her career in Coldspring, Texas, and Hobbs, N.M., in public schools, at Langston University in Tulsa, Okla., as a dietician and in nursing homes in Houston and Lubbock, said the Texas Tech Today piece.

Her legacy of determination and educational achievement lives on at Texas Tech through a mentoring program, Mentor Tech, named for her and Dr. Lauro Cavazos, Tech’s Hispanic president from 1980-1988.

The program advocates for and supports underrepresented students through programming, services and opportunities for campus and community involvement.

Cory Powell, no relation, a cofounder of the program, said in the 2014 Texas Tech Today story, “It is important we recognize we owe Ophelia Powell-Malone for proving it was possible for people like me — a first-generation college student and African American coming from an urban background — to graduate from college and succeed in my career. There were no services like Mentor Tech when she was here, but she made it. We can now help students traverse the path that must have been so scary for her.”

1967: Danny Hardaway Becomes First African-American Athlete at Texas Tech to Receive a Scholarship

Six years after Lucille Sugar Graves became the first African American student at Texas Tech, Danny Hardaway became the first African American to receive an athletic scholarship to the university.

Hardaway had 38 scholarship offers for football and 10 for basketball after starring in four sports in high school in Lawton, Oklahoma. Hardaway was also rankled 12th in his class and sophomore class president.

On Feb. 14, 1967, he signed with Texas Tech, spurning the Oklahoma Sooners and a basketball offer from UCLA during the program’s run of ten titles in a dozen years.

“I was hesitant at first, but I didn’t let it bother me,” Hardaway told the University Daily newspaper of the distinction, adding he’d previously attended an integrated school and had gotten along with his peers there. “Trouble has been kept to a minimum: it’s pretty hard for a person to rouse me.”

“They probably felt I could answer any challenge without too many problems.”

In another, later, interview, he said, “It was the first time I had a white roommate. It was different, but I was brought up as an Army brat. I could deal with it. Maybe that’s why (Tech) chose me. I had a background in a white school that had a large black population. They probably felt I could answer any challenge without too many problems. Racism was certainly around…I’m sure a lot of people didn’t like the idea of me being around, but I didn’t see a lot of it…not in my face, so to speak.”

At Texas Tech, Hardaway continued to excel, playing three years for the Red Raiders as a wide receiver, running back and halfback, lettering in football in 1969 and 1970 and becoming a charter member of the university's first black student organization.

In 1969, he led the team with 483 yards rushing and 659 total yards.

Hardaway credited his coaches and teammates for making his time at Tech less stressful, naming coaches J.T. King, Burl Bartlett, Bob Bass, Corky Oglesby and Jess Stiles, he said in a 2011 Lubbock Avalanche-Journal story. The article focused on Hardaway’s return to Lubbock to speak as part of Texas Tech’s Black History Month program.

“Those guys really led in making sure that I was protected and made (it) as smooth a transition as possible,” Hardaway said. “If it weren’t for them and also some of the kids I met, I probably couldn’t have made it. I went through hell, but I caught more hell when we went to other schools. My teammates, almost all of them, really protected me and sheltered me from all that stuff when we were at home,” he told the newspaper.

“I was a product of the Civil Rights movement and a product of Martin Luther King,” Hardaway said in the article, “because I was here on campus in ’68 when we got the news he was assassinated. I was in that group…who fought for change in my small little way. I think that’s what was meant for me to do.”

Hardaway transferred to Cameron University in Lawton for his senior year after having a falling out with new head football coach Jim Carlen.

“I had problems with Coach Carlen,” Hardaway told the Avalanche-Journal in 1999. “I guess he didn’t feel I should be getting all the praise and attention I was getting.”

What really stung was Carlen took number 44 – the number Tech legend Donny Anderson wore – away from Hardaway and gave him 31.

“I had been very proud to wear the jersey Donny Anderson wore,” he said in the interview. Hardaway wasn’t excited about Carlen’s offensive changes and decided to transfer.

Regardless of how his time at Tech ended, he’s proud of his role as a pioneer. “Of course, I wasn’t thinking about that back then — I’m an 18-year-old kid — but I knew I was put on this earth for something. When I had the opportunity to come to Tech, I was really honored that they thought I was the guy to do it,” he told the A-J in the 2011 interview.

Sources:

• Texas Tech African-American History: Danny Hardaway
• Former Tech football player honored for pioneering role

1980: Lauro Cavazos Becomes First Alum, First Hispanic to Be Tech President

Dr. Lauro Cavazos Jr. was a man of ambitions and dreams, not just for himself and his family, but for his state and his country.

Along his way to national prominence, he served Texas Tech as president from 1980-88, becoming the first Hispanic and alum to hold the post. He became the 10th president of Texas Tech University and the third president of Tech’s Health Sciences Center. (Before 1996, Tech’s president was also president of the Health Sciences Center.)

When he died in early 2022 at 95, Tech president Lawrence Schovanec mourned the loss of a man.

In a statement, Schovanec called Cavazos “a dear friend. His impact on this university cannot be overstated, nor can his embodiment of the values we hold dear to this day: the value of education, the importance of determination and the significance of giving back.”

His obituary on Texas Tech Today said Cavazos:

• Focused on making the campus more beautiful.
• Preserved history through the growth of the National Ranching Heritage Center and restoration of the Dairy Barn.
• Helped launch the School of Nursing and the School of Allied Health — or as it is now — the School of Health Professions.
• Oversaw more than $27 million in facility development across all four Tech campuses.
• Worked to improve external relations, enlisting Texas Tech’s friends and supporters to increase visibility in Austin.

Increased the number of alumni chapters from seven to 75.

Launched the university’s first major capital campaign, which exceeded its $75 million goal.

Improved academic quality, built endowments and emphasized research, beginning the process for Tech to be recognized as a national research institution.

When Cavazos left Tech in 1988, President Ronald Reagan named him U.S. Secretary of Education. Cavazos was the first Hispanic to hold a U.S. Cabinet position.

Cavazos, a Democrat, served under Reagan and President George H.W. Bush, both Republicans.

He assumed the role when some politicians and administrators were working to abolish the U.S. Department of Education. Even Reagan had called it “a waste."

“We must awaken America to a renewed commitment to education. We must all work together. We must care for every person, the highly motivated, achieving child; the undereducated; the dropout; the illiterate and the handicapped.”

In accepting the appointment, he vowed to strengthen the federal role in education: “We must awaken America to a renewed commitment to education. We must all work together. We must care for every person, the highly motivated, achieving child; the undereducated; the dropout; the illiterate and the handicapped.”

Bringing every person to their greatest level of education would make them responsible citizens who “will contribute to a better America,” he said.

Reagan welcomed Cavazos and the scholarship and academic experience he brought to the cabinet position. He cited his work in international and national organizations, especially at the grassroots level.

Cavazos’ “life and career pay tribute to the unending possibilities of education,” Reagan said at the time.

Cavazos served as cabinet secretary until 1991, when according to his obituary in the New York Times, he was asked to resign. The Education Department’s civil rights division had ruled scholarships designated solely for a racial minority were discriminatory and illegal. Further, federal aid would be withheld from colleges who offered them.

The White House reversed the ruling and appointed former Gov. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee to replace Cavazos.

But in the two years and three months he served, he worked to bolster educational achievement for Hispanics through increased funding for the Head Start preschool program, offering parents abilities to choose the best schools for their children and through an executive order calling for support for educational excellence for Hispanics nationwide. Bush and three more presidents have signed the order. The order created the President's Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for Hispanics, and for the first time created an organization that would highlight the needs of Hispanic students and work to overcome barriers.

In a 2016 Corpus Christi Caller-Times interview for his autobiography, “A Kineño’s Journey,” Cavazos pointed out between 1990 and 2012, dropout rates for Hispanics declined from 32 to 13 percent and continued to improve.

The workers and residents on the sprawling South Texas King Ranch were called Kineños, or kings men.

Cavazos was born on the ranch, one of the largest in the country, on Jan. 4, 1927, to Lauro Sr. and Tomasa (Quintanilla) Cavazos. The oldest of five siblings, Cavazos was the sixth generation of his family who’d lived on the ranch. They settled there before Texas statehood in 1845.

His father was foreman for the ranch’s showcase cattle. His mother was related to Francisca Alavez (Alvarez), known as “The Angel of Goliad,” a heroine of the Texas war of independence from Mexico.

His parents instilled the importance of education in their children.

Although Cavazos started school in a two-room schoolhouse on the ranch, his father persuaded the school board to allow his children to attend the white school in Kingsville. The schools there were segregated, one for Anglos, one for Hispanics and one for African Americans. Cavazos was the first Hispanic at the Anglo school.

Although he endured prejudice, as he described in his memoir, he persisted and graduated high school in Kingsville. He served in the military at the end of World War II and then enrolled in what is now Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

Cavazos majored in journalism, but soon fell in love with biology and followed his favorite biology professor to Texas Tech where he earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in zoology. He earned a doctorate in physiology in 1954 at Iowa State.

He married his college sweetheart, Peggy Ann Murdock, in 1954 and they had 10 children. His brother, Bobby Cavazos, was a football star at Tech and another brother, Ricardo Cavazos, became a four-star general in the U.S. Army.

Cavazos taught anatomy for a decade at the Medical College of Virginia. In 1964 he joined Tufts University School of Medicine as a professor and chairman of the anatomy department. He was dean of the medical school there from 1975 to 1980. After his tour at Tech and then as a cabinet secretary in D.C., he returned to Tufts as a professor of public health and family medicine.

In Cavazos’ obituary in the Lubbock-Avalanche Journal, Texas Tech Chancellor Emeritus and former U.S. Rep. Kent Hance said he served in Congress while Cavazos served in the Cabinet and the man was his friend.

“The thing I liked about him is, he was positive. He believed he’d could do whatever he needed to do, but the people he surrounded himself with, he always tried to make sure they realized they could achieve great things. I think he’s a great example for Hispanics in the state of Texas — all that he did and all he accomplished. He faced some discrimination, and he faced some tough times, but it did not faze him or his brothers. They just kept going.”

Cavazos’ family was one of the best examples of the grit and fortitude that makes great Texans, Hance continued.

“They were people of faith and people who worked hard and didn’t feel sorry for themselves. They just worked harder anytime there was an obstacle and went to the top,” he said.

Sources:

• Memoir details life of first Mexican American secretary of education
• Whatever Happened to Lauro Cavazos?
• Lauro Cavazos, First Hispanic Cabinet Member, Dies at 95
• Caprock Chronicles: Cavazos is first Mexican-American Texas Tech president
• University Statement on the Death of Former Texas Tech President Lauro F. Cavazos Jr.
• Cavazos Discusses Groundbreaking Career in Education, Government
• A Texas Tech trailblazer: Former University President, Cabinet Secretary Lauro Cavazos dies at 95

2014: Katharine Hayhoe, Tech’s Famed Climate Scientist, Named to Time’s 100 Influential List

Katharine Hayhoe’s work on climate change led Time Magazine to name her one of the 2014’s 100 Most Influential People. Actor Don Cheadle wrote the following about Hayhoe, who came to Texas Tech in 2005, where she teaches graduate classes, does research and runs the university’s Climate Center.

There’s something fascinating about a smart person who defies stereotype. That’s what makes my friend Katharine Hayhoe — a Texas Tech climatologist and an evangelical Christian — so interesting.

It’s hard to be a good steward of the planet if you don’t accept the hard science behind what’s harming it, and it can be just as hard to take action to protect our world if you don’t love it as the rare gift it is. For many people, that implies a creator. Katharine and her husband, evangelical pastor Andrew Farley, have authored the defining book for the planet-loving believer, “A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions.” I got to know Katharine as we worked on Showtime’s climate documentary “Years of Living Dangerously.” But we are all getting to know and benefit from her work.

Hayhoe grew up in Toronto and became an atmospheric scientist.

“I don’t accept global warming on faith: I crunch the data, I analyze the models, I help engineers and city managers and ecologists quantify the impacts.”

“I don’t accept global warming on faith: I crunch the data, I analyze the models, I help engineers and city managers and ecologists quantify the impacts.

The data tells us the planet is warming; the science is clear that humans are responsible; the impacts we’re seeing today are already serious; and our future is in our hands,” she has said.

A climate science class she took changed her life.

“I didn’t realize climate science was based on the exact same basic physics – thermodynamics, non-linear fluid dynamics, and radiative transfer – I’d been learning in astrophysics. And I definitely didn’t realize that climate change wasn’t just an environmental issue – it’s a threat multiplier. It takes the most serious humanitarian issues confronting climate change today – hunger, poverty, lack of access to clean water, injustice, refugee crises and more – and it makes them worse,” she said.

Advanced degrees and more research on climate change followed.

At Tech, Hayhoe is a Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professor and the Political Science Endowed Chair in Public Policy and Public Law in the Department of Political Science at Texas Tech University. She’s also an associate in the Public Health program of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

She’s also:

• Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy
• Principal investigator for the Department of Interior’s South-Central Climate Adaptation Science Center and the National Science Foundation’s Global Infrastructure Climate Network.

She makes numerous talks, has been widely published, is involved with many organizations and has received endless honors for her work.

Some of those honours (as Canadian Hayhoe spells it on her website) are:

• Foreign Policy’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers
• National Center for Science Education’s Friend of the Planet
• Texas Tech Chancellor’s Council Distinguished Research Award
• FORTUNE’s World’s Greatest Leaders
• Working Mother’s 50 Most Influential Mom

Hayhoe also received an honorary degree from Colgate University.

She loved that Colgate’s nickname is the Raiders.

“Our Texas Tech mascot is the Red Raider – so no switch in allegiance needed,” she wrote.

“What means the most to me personally, though, is when just one person tells me sincerely that they had never cared about climate change before, or even thought it was real: but now, because of something they heard me say, they’ve changed their mind. That’s what makes it all worthwhile,” she said.

2019: Texas Tech Becomes a Hispanic Serving Institution

When Lawrence Schovanec became President of Texas Tech University, Hispanic enrollment hovered a little higher than 20 percent.

The university system Board of Regents wanted to see that number rise to 25 percent making Tech a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in a state where the Hispanic population is about 40 percent.

“It was important to the board and that was conveyed to me,” said Schovanec.

“Access and opportunity have always been fundamental to our mission and in light of the demographics in Texas, it was only natural we strive to be a Hispanic Serving Institution,” said Schovanec.

The university made it a priority.

“We implemented a number of changes in how we recruit our students, support given to students and such. We were intentional in trying to grow our Hispanic enrollment,” he said.

Hispanic enrollment passed 25 percent in September 2017, which was verified the following May.

“We did it really fast. We went up about 3 percent in my first year as president,” he said.

When Schovanec talked about Tech’s improvement for this story in 2022, undergrad Hispanic enrollment was 29.2 percent and overall 27.2 percent.

In 2020, Tech had fewer white students than it had in 2010 but grew by more than 9,000 students in that decade.

“Think about that. Wow,” said Schovanec.

Insight Into Diversity magazine has named Tech a Higher Education Excellence in Diversity winner for ten straight years.

“HSI was about addressing a fundamental priority to provide opportunity and access. But it is also a distinction helping us in other ways. Now we can claim we are one of 20 Carnegie R1 research institutions that is also an HSI institution,” said Schovanec.

Five other Texas schools are part of the 20 with Tech in the national Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Institutions – the University of North Texas, UTEP, UT Arlington, University of Houston and the University of Texas.

Becoming a Hispanic Serving Institution is just part of Tech’s diversity efforts.

In 2018, Tech received the Senator Paul Simon Spotlight Award for comprehensive internationalization from NAFSA: The Association of International Educators.

Bringing in students from other countries and cultures is also part of Tech’s diversity efforts, said Schovanec.

The university also has a Division of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.

The president says he hears from people who have concerns about Tech’s diversity efforts being nothing more than part of a wave of political correctness in America.

“This state and nation are incredibly diverse…but I see that as an incredible strength.”

“I tell those people if you have a concern about this, think of it as a business decision. We have to go to where our customers are. This state and nation are incredibly diverse…but I see that as an incredible strength,” said Schovanec.

2020: Patrick Mahomes, Super Bowl MVP Quarterback for Kansas City Chiefs, Named to Time’s 100 influential List

After leading the Kansas City Chiefs to the Super Bowl LIV title, quarterback Patrick Mahomes was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020.

New York Yankee legend Derek Jeter wrote the following for Time about the former Texas Tech quarterback and Super Bowl MVP:

When Patrick Mahomes steps onto the football field, all eyes are drawn to him. It’s not just that his combination of athleticism, creativity and vision is fun to watch. What his play really showcases is his love of the game and the commitment he’s made to his teammates and coaches, and it’s clear that is the true foundation of his success.

That joy and loyalty drive his work ethic and the hours of practice and studying he puts in to be the best he can be. It drives his ability to stay calm, steady and focused when challenges arise, whether in the middle of the biggest game or over the course of a long season. And most important, it drives his competitive fire and strong leadership qualities, which just continue to grow.

“That joy and loyalty drive his work ethic and the hours of practice and studying he puts in to be the best he can be.”

There is a lot more promise in Patrick Mahomes’ future than just on-field accolades. He already has started to build a legacy as one of the most impactful athletes of his generation, and I, for one, am excited to see what is next.

Mahomes played three seasons at Tech for Kliff Kingsbury before becoming a first-round pick by Kansas City in the NFL Draft.

After the 2016 season – his last at Tech – Mahomes won the Sammy Baugh Trophy, given to the nation’s top quarterback and was named an Academic All-American, one of ten in Tech history.

His name is in the Tech record book dozens of times. Just a few:

• Most yards (734), attempts (88), completions (52) against Oklahoma in 2016 – a 66-59 loss to Oklahoma and Baker Mayfield.
• He’s third in career yardage, touchdowns, attempts and completions – behind Graham Harrell and Kliff Kingsbury, who each played one year more than Mahomes.
• He owns eight of the top 30 passing games in school history.

His ability to scramble, coupled with his arm strength led to touchdown passes that sometimes seemed impossible halfway through a play but left Tech fans exalting.

Mahomes led the Chiefs to the NFL title in his fourth season, third as starter.

The Chiefs were favored by 1.5 points but trailed the San Francisco 49ers 20-10 with 8:33 left in the game when Mahomes started a drive at his own 20. Mahomes hit Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce twice on third-and-long passes before a touchdown made the score 20-17 with 6:13 left.

After a 49ers punt, Mahomes led the Chiefs 65 yards for a go-ahead touchdown, completing all five of his passes during the drive.

The Chiefs added a final touchdown to win 31-21 for the franchise’s first title in 50 years – back to a 1970 win over the Minnesota Vikings where Tech legend E.J. Holub won his Super Bowl ring.

Since Mahomes left Lubbock, his number five Tech and Chiefs jerseys are seen at games. He’s been a huge supporter of his alma mater, showing up at the 2019 Final Four, other games and on “hype” videos during games at Jones AT&T Stadium.

The former Red Raider has become well known for the many commercials he’s done for national companies and recently helped open a Whataburger in Kansas City.

“It’s great to bring a gift from my first home to my second home,” he said about the restaurant.

1939: Texas Tech Foundation Created

In 1939, Texas Tech’s Board of Directors approved creating the Tech Foundation.

More than 80 years later, the foundation now works under the Texas Tech University System to raise, manage and invest private gifts aiding all the system’s universities.

Tech’s generous donors make it possible for the system’s numerous institutions to address challenges facing Texas and the world through higher education, health care, research and outreach.

The foundation supports every part of the system, including its five universities:

• Texas Tech University.
• Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.
• Angelo State University.
• Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at El Paso.
• Midwestern State University.

The foundation raises and stewards funds, works with the Board of Regents on investment and oversight and other duties. The foundation is run by officers and a 30-plus person Board of Directors, who are a who’s who of Texas Tech.

2000: Jerry Rawls Makes Historic $25 Million Donation, then Does More

Jerry Rawls went to the Oregon coast in 2001, where world-renown golf-course architect Tom Doak was building Pacific Dunes.

“We walked Pacific Dunes, which was not open yet. He explained what he did and the fabulous piece of ground he had to work with,” Rawls said.

They sat down in a nearby bar.

“Tell me more about your project,” Doak asked Rawls.

“We want a campus golf course at Texas Tech and we want the best.”

“We want a campus golf course at Texas Tech and we want the best,” Rawls told him.

Doak asked about the piece of land where the course would be built.

“What’s the elevation difference?” from one end to the other, Doak asked.

“18 inches,” Rawls responded.

“That’s impossible,” Doak said.

“Come see it,” Rawls said.

Doak was intrigued. He wanted to build a university course and didn’t get the job building Karsten Creek for Oklahoma State.

Doak came to Lubbock and found out Rawls wasn’t lying about elevation change on the Llano Estacado. Doak has a reputation as a minimalist, moving as little earth as possible to unveil a golf course. That philosophy didn’t work in Lubbock. Doak’s crew moved 1.3 million cubic yards of dirt, building berms around part of the course to give the feeling of being down in the topography of the nearby caprock.

A few years later, the Rawls Course at Texas Tech opened and has been considered one of the top college golf courses in America.

Rawls agreed to recruit Doak along with donating $8 million to build the course.

Oh – and he also gave a then-record $25 million to build the Rawls College of Business.

As Texas Tech’s golf facilities improved, so have men’s and women’s programs. Tech men finished in the top eight in 2022 and the women in the top 25.

Jerry Rawls loves his alma mater.

He came to Tech from his native Houston to study engineering because the nicest houses in his neighborhood belonged to engineers.

The kids from his high school who wanted to go to the University of Texas were not the people he wanted to hang out with. Texas A&M was still only men.

“I had developed an affinity for girls,” said Rawls.

Rice University in his hometown had a respected engineering program but he wanted to go away to college.

Welcome to Lubbock.

He was on the Red Raider basketball team, but behind Dub Malaise, so knew he’d never get to play. He played intramural sports, represented engineering in the Student Senate, served as student body business manager and unsuccessfully ran for student body president.

Rawls was always busy with school, friends, activities and his Phi Gamma Delta fraternity.

“I arrived as a 17-year-old and left at 22. I matured a lot, grew a lot and learned how to solve problems. Texas Tech and my frat did a good job for me. They got me started,” he said.

The engineering grad, who added an advanced degree from Purdue, eventually created Silicon Valley-based Finisar, which built a faster and cheaper way to transmit data between computers.

It became a massive success and a worldwide company with 14,000 employees.

That success allowed Rawls to be generous with his alma mater.

He’s lived in California for decades but remains a passionate Red Raider sports fan.

Going to the 2019 Final Four is one of his favorite Tech sports moments, along with the 2004 Holiday Bowl. Aaron Rogers-led California was complaining about not going to one of the top bowl games.

“Tech beat ‘em like a drum,” said Rawls.

Sonny Cumbie outdueled Rogers, throwing for 520 yards as Tech won 45-31.

2000s: The Long Family is All In on Texas Tech

Mickey Long committed to play football for Jim Carlen at Texas Tech in 1972, but plans changed when his father passed away from a stroke – and a week after Mickey graduated from Monahans High School.

His older brother was already at Angelo State University and it made sense for the brothers to be at the same college.

“My sister was the only family member who attended my graduation because my dad was so sick in the hospital,” he said.

Mickey played football for the Angelo State Rams as a tight end and linebacker, playing in the first game at Gordon Wood Stadium in Brownwood – named for the legendary Texas high school football coach who won nine state titles.

His Rams and Howard Payne were the first college teams to play in the new stadium and the Rams won.

“That was a great game,” said Mickey.

Mickey met his wife Renee in college at Angelo State. He fulfilled his dream of being a coach in Post, while Renee taught school and started their family.

But after a few years of coaching, Mickey got into the well servicing business in the Permian Basin. He led a successful career in the oil & gas industry for many years.

Mickey and Renee are long-time Texas Tech Athletics supporters making contributions for more than 30 years to various programs, initiatives and priorities. They’ve also given significant contributions to Angelo State University.

Both are proud of the students they’ve helped along the way and Mickey still believes in the importance of supporting schools to provide necessary resources for student-athletes to compete at the highest level, both in the classroom and in competition.

Mickey was named to the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents in 2009 – close to the time his alma mater joined the system – becoming the first Angelo State University grad to be a Tech System regent. He was appointed by Governor Rick Perry to the board and later reappointed by Governor Greg Abbott in 2015.

He served two six-year terms on the Board, chairing it from 2013-16.

After retiring from the energy business in 2018, Mickey and Renee made a permanent move to Lubbock to be with their two daughters and their families, including four granddaughters.

The family enjoys getting together at sporting events or Sunday night dinners. Mickey has instilled the importance of family into each of his children and that’s very clear when spending time with both him and Renee.

Moving Into the Oil Business

When Mickey left coaching for the energy business, it wasn’t the first time he worked in the oil patch.

Mickey developed his renowned work ethic in Monahans.

“I started working at about 14 years old on a pulling unit or pole rig. I graduated up to a rental tool company my senior year in high school, which is when you really learn the oil business,” he said.

He first opened a yard in Kermit and then moved to San Angelo to work for another well servicing business before Mickey and two others started their own company – United Well Service in Odessa.

The Longs lived in nearby Midland.

Eventually Mickey sold United Well Service and formed another partnership with a Midland-based group working all over West Texas. He spent more than 35 years in oil and gas as a leader and innovator in well servicing and successfully managed and cultivated growth within the industry during that time.

Connecting with Tech Football

Even though Mickey grew up in West Texas, he didn’t attend a Tech football game until he was a senior in high school.

“We played Estacado here in Lubbock and that night we saw Tech play New Mexico – in the rain. We paid $1 to sit in the end zone,” said Mickey.

When Spike Dykes took over the Red Raider football program, Mickey got tickets. Mickey’s brother – who coached for 38 years – coached for Spike in Midland.

Their seats were next to Kent Hance, future Texas Tech System Chancellor. Mickey’s daughter Andrea got to know Hance, eventually working for him in development and is now the Senior Associate Athletics Director/Development at her alma mater.

Back then, Mickey also got to know Athletic Director Gerald Myers and later football coaches and staff – Ruffin McNeill, Bennie Wylie and the late Carlos Mainord and Tommy McVay.

“They all became good friends. Ruffin and I were kind of Bennie Wylie’s projects,” said Mickey about the strength and conditioning coach who’s now at USC, who he calls the most in-shape guy he’d ever seen. “He was going to get us into shape. So we worked out a lot together – Bennie, Ruffin and I.”

Mickey and McNeill still text very often.

His two favorite two memories from all those years of watching Tech football are ones shared by many Red Raider fans:

• The Zach Thomas interception against Texas A&M to win the game in 1995.
• The Michael Crabtree catch from Graham Harrell to beat Texas in 2008.

Then he added one more – when Dykes’ Red Raiders beat Texas in Austin in 1989, 24-17. It was one of the few times Tech had beaten the Longhorns in Austin. Dykes went on to bag two more Austin wins in 1993 and 1997.

Mickey is proud of the work he has done with Texas Tech Athletics and believes in Kirby Hocutt and his leadership.

“Kirby puts every student-athlete first and I am so proud of him as a father, husband, and leader of these young men and women who work so hard every single day,” he said.

A Dozen Years as a Regent

There were many accomplishments during Mickey’s dozen years as a regent including critical capital projects in Athletics, ASU and across the System as well as the creation of the Texas Tech University School of Veterinary and the Woody L Hunt School of Dental Medicine.

But he’s very proud of one tied to his alma mater.

“We expanded the Carr Scholarship at Angelo State University. In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s Mr. and Mrs. Carr left $2 million of oil holdings thinking they could fund a few scholarships at Angelo State. The Carr Scholarship now has more than $150 million. We expanded it so more students could get the scholarship.

“It wasn’t just me involved. It was the president of Angelo State, the chancellor – everybody was involved. That was a real highlight of my time – blessing so many students with the opportunity of an education,” he said.

Mickey also served on more than a dozen search committees – “everything from chancellor to president to provost,” he said.

He’s worked with a lot of leaders, but after his time as a regent he was left with a deeper appreciation.

“I have become such an admirer of our professors, staff, leaders and coaches who impact students every single day. They are truly committed to shaping their future and I am so proud of how hard they work to educate these next generations,” he said.

In talking to administration around the System, Mickey is known for his leadership, clear perspective and kindness to everyone. Many shared how he treats everyone with respect and believes everyone has an opinion worth hearing.

Mickey was an impactful member of the Board of Regents. Many who worked closely with him shared stories about his strong leadership and ability to bring people together to focus on the goal and move forward.

“As a regent, you can easily get bogged down in a lot of things, but the end game is our students – to make sure our students have the best education possible, in a healthy environment, that prepares them to be leaders in their families and communities,” he said.

‘I Am Most Proud of my Two Girls’

Renee retired from teaching after 27 years and the couple has been married for 47 years.

“There’s a lot of things you’re inspired to do in your life, but my number-one thing that I am most proud of are my two girls,” he said of Texas Tech grads Amy King and Andrea Tirey.

“They are both great wives and mothers. And that’s what we all aspire to do as parents,” he said. “We have four granddaughters and each of them bring us more joy than I can share,” he said.

“…Texas Tech has been a special part of our family for a very long time and I am happy about the foundation we built over the past 30 years and will always be proud to be a small part of our history.”

“I am proud of Angelo State University and the Texas Tech University System. I am proud of Texas Tech Athletics and every student-athlete who wears the Double T. Texas Tech has been a special part of our family for a very long time and I am happy about the foundation we built over the past 30 years and will always be proud to be a small part of our history,” he shared.

2000s: Terry & Linda Fuller have a vast love for all of Texas Tech

Terry Fuller knew it was over before it was over.

“When I’m at track meets, I have a little score sheet. I keep up with how many points we’ve scored versus how many I was projecting we might score and the scores of the other teams close to us in the competition,” he said.

Terry was sitting in a motorhome a short walk from Jones AT&T Stadium the day of a 2022 Texas Tech football game. But he was talking about the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Austin, when Texas Tech’s men’s team won the national title – the first men’s team title in school history.

“I realized before the final event that we were going to be national champions before it was official. We’d scored enough points that even if we didn’t score a single thing in the last event, the team in second place could not catch up to us,” said Fuller.

Terry called his wife Linda in Lubbock at a Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center event.

Linda asked Terry if he was sure.

“I’m absolutely sure because I’m standing right here with Coach (Wes) Kittley. He and I are looking at the same notes and saying we are the champions,” he told her.

After it was official, Kittley gave Terry a banner saying “national champions” with a big Double T on it.

“So we got a picture of Coach Kittley and I holding the banner and sent it to Linda,” said Terry.

Linda hurried over to Chancellor Emeritus Kent Hance, who relayed the information to Chancellor Tedd Mitchell, both at the TTUHSC event.

Loud applause followed the announcement, said Linda.

The Fullers became supporters of the track and field teams about the time Kittley came to Lubbock in 2000 from Abilene Christian University, where he already had a successful coaching career. The couple watched him elevate a program to one that’s consistently in the top ten nationally.

So being there to see the Red Raiders capture the title was satisfying – even more because of where it took place.

“What made it most fun for me was winning a national championship on the home turf of that school down in Austin,” said Terry, who celebrated on the University of Texas field with the coaching staff and team.

He also thought about his dear friend, the late Corky Oglesby, who passed away in 2017.

“There was definitely a moment of looking up and knowing Corky was looking down and smiling at the events going on. Coach Kittley and I spoke briefly about how proud we were to be there representing Texas Tech and knowing Corky was the guy who laid the groundwork for many, many years with a struggling track program. It was just a really special evening,” he said.

The home for Kittley’s men’s and women’s teams is the Terry and Linda Fuller Track & Field Complex, just south of the baseball team’s Rip Griffin Park.

It’s not the only time the Fullers – both proud Tech grads – have invested in their alma mater.

Their impact spreads across Tech’s Lubbock campus and beyond.

‘I don’t know him – but I know him’

The Fullers both came to Tech from Amarillo but didn’t meet until around the time Terry graduated in 1977.

A $500 scholarship helped Terry study petroleum engineering.

“My family had little financial means and it made a huge difference in my life. I graduated with no debt and felt very blessed as a student at Texas Tech,” he said. “I never forgot it and my responsibility to pay that back.”

As Terry was wrapping up his education, he interviewed with different oil and gas companies. Linda was working for one of those companies as a college recruiting coordinator. Terry’s paperwork from the campus visit came across her desk in Dallas.

She noticed they’d both gone to Palo Duro High School and both worked at the Ross Rogers Golf Course in Amarillo.

“So I said, ‘I don’t know him – but I know him,’” she said.

Terry received ten job offers – one via a phone call from Linda.

Terry decided to take a job with a different company in Midland. He called Linda, though, to thank her for the opportunity.

“She said, ‘sometimes these jobs don’t turn out to be exactly what you think they’re going to be and we’re really interested in getting engineers out in the field, which is what you want to do. So if it doesn’t work out, keep me in mind and call me back,’” Terry said his future wife told him.

When Terry reported for work after graduation, things had changed and the company didn’t want engineers in the field.

“So I go to work for a company that doesn’t want me to do what I wanted to do and I hated my job from day one,” he said.

A few months later, Terry was back on campus for a football game and visited some of his mentors/professors in the Petroleum Engineering Department. They told him if he was unhappy, he had a bunch of offers and to call some of those people back.

“I remembered this conversation I had with this woman in Dallas. I called up Linda and told her the job didn’t work out to be what I thought it was going to be and would they consider giving me that opportunity again?” he said. “She kinda slow played me and said, ‘well, let me see if we have that job available.’”

Terry hung up the phone and thought he’d blown it. But the next day Linda called back with the same offer she made months earlier – and in Midland.

After starting work at Linda’s company, Terry went to a school the company put on at its Dallas headquarters.

“The first day of class, Linda comes walking down to the front of the classroom and introduces herself. So the very first time I see her in person is at this class and I thought, ‘Man, I could have saved myself a lot of time and energy if I had met her in person instead of on the phone,’” he said.

In addition to her recruiting role, Linda helped assign engineers to their first regular assignment. Before the class, they were in training.

Terry eventually ended up Denver as a drilling engineer.

More than a year later, Linda became human resources manager for the Rocky Mountain District, working in the same location with Terry. Another year later they were married and have been for 42 years.

Linda retired after their son was born.

‘They All Deserve our Support’

Fifteen years after graduating, Terry started Phoenix Petrocorp in McKinney, which he still runs.

The company was successful and he started paying back that $500 scholarship, endowing engineering and football scholarships.

“As the business became more successful, we endowed a scholarship in every sport. It’s the gift that gives forever. We wanted to do it for the long term,” Terry said.

There are also endowments in every college.

“It’s a university – they all deserve our support,” he said, saying he’s prejudiced toward Engineering and his wife has a soft spot for English and Psychology, which she studied at Texas Tech.

Linda’s experience at Tech drove her to want to help more than a few colleges or programs.

“When I was here as a student, my greatest experience was the opportunity to interact with students from across the university. I worked part time in the Electrical Engineering Department and it was a great experience,” she said.

“…I want them to come here and get outside of their own comfort zone just a little bit, broaden their experiences, thoughts and learn to be critical thinkers.”

“One of the main takeaways I had from my university experience was you could go to the rodeo, see baseball or football, go to a performance of theater or music – it was a broadening experience for me. I want that for our students. I want them to come here and get outside of their own comfort zone just a little bit, broaden their experiences, thoughts and learn to be critical thinkers,” she said.

The Fullers started helping with facilities about 20 years ago when they pledged a gift to the west side suites project at Jones AT&T Stadium before helping the track & field program.

In 2014, the Terry Fuller Petroleum Engineering Research Building opened and Fuller was able to thank Herald Winkler in person during his remarks for that $500 scholarship, two years before Winkler passed away at 91.

“I told him the building was my down payment for the opportunities he provided me,” Fuller said.

The Fullers have also endowed scholarships for the Masked Rider and the Goin’ Band from Raiderland drum majors.

Linda points out Tech’s Masked Riders do more than ride during football games and attend events.

“They get up in the morning and take care of the horse. Then they do their classwork and come back and take care of the horse,” she said.

Same with the drum majors.

“Like the Masked Rider, they have responsibilities beyond just marching on the field and leading the band. There are a number of things they take care of behind the scenes,” said Linda.

The couple’s financial support helps the drum majors not have to take jobs in addition to the work they do for the band and their classwork.

“I always remind people that all of those band members are volunteers and just being in the band doesn’t get you a scholarship,” she said.

And recently the Fullers gave an endowment to the Infant Risk Center in the Laura W. Bush Institute for Women’s Health at Texas Tech University’s Health Sciences Center.

“It’s a program where they have nurses who can answer questions on the phone. They also have small, mobile vehicles that can go through the Panhandle and serve remote areas,” said Linda.

Linda’s also served on the Texas Tech Alumni Association Board of Directors, the Texas Tech Club Board of Governors and Tech’s Athletic Council along with involvement in different colleges and programs.

The Fullers have also supported Tech alumni chapters.

Celebrating With Their Scholarship Recipients

The couple hold a reception for students who’ve benefitted from their scholarships.

Students tell them the support means – in addition to classwork and other university events – they may only need to work 20 hours a week to support themselves instead of 30 hours.

“That makes a huge difference in the life of a university student. It doesn’t sound like much, but it is,” said Linda.

The Fullers recently celebrated the graduation with one of their engineering scholarship students and his family. That student is now a petroleum engineer.

“He sent me pictures yesterday. He’s on his first assignment at a drilling rig down here in West Texas. He took pictures of the rig and where his living quarters are gonna be and said, ‘Hey, I’m finally here. This is like what you described to me.’ He was so proud and happy. I was happy for him,” said Terry.

Students’ families are not only appreciative of the financial support, but involvement with the students, said Linda.

“That’s part of it, too – the encouragement you can give,” she said. “It’s like your own children. You want them to have the opportunities to be successful and be positive influences in society going forward.”

‘We’re Not Just a Local or Regional University Anymore’

They’re impressed with their alma mater’s development into a world-class university.

“I think a lot of people saw it as a local or regional university when we were here,” said Linda.

Various leaders – she specifically mentioned Hance – have taken Texas Tech beyond that perception.

“We have graduates who have built companies from the ground up like Jerry Rawls…” she said.

“…or run companies like Ed Whitacre,” interjected her husband.

“That alone shows you we’re not just this local or regional university anymore,” said Linda.

She credited former Chancellor Robert Duncan’s work to establish the veterinary school in Amarillo.

“He listened to the people of this region and in surrounding states who said we need a program to focus on large animal care,” she said.

They’re also happy with recent successes in Athletics.

“The leadership we have gotten from these coaches, the way they run their programs, the student athletes they have brought to Texas Tech to represent our university has been a great thing. We’re very competitive with anybody in the state and most universities around the country with our major programs at this time,” said Terry.

And he’s very excited about Joey McGuire.

“The recent change in this past year to Joey McGuire and regime here at Texas Tech football is fantastic. It’s very easy to just sense when you come into the community in Lubbock the impact he’s having already with the enthusiasm level of students, young alums, old alums like ourselves. The enthusiasm for the program is better than it’s been for well over a decade. That’s a very positive thing for the Athletic Department and for Texas Tech University,” he said.

Linda sees it during games.

“We’re on the east side so we can see our bench during football games. You can see a different way these current Red Raiders hold themselves even when we are not winning, even when there’s been a problem,” she said.

Terry pointed out most of the players on the 2022 team were on the team the season before.

“The change in attitude is very obvious. They have now bought into the system that they are being taught and part of that is the expectation that you can do this,” he said.

A Family Full of Red Raiders

Terry and Linda are not the only Red Raiders in their family.

• Their son Clint graduated from Tech’s Rawls College of Business.
• Clint met his wife Casey – a cheerleader – at Tech.
• Terry and Linda’s two granddaughters – Cambrey and Cathryn – are also Red Raiders.
• Linda’s dad – Robert Schlinkman – was from the Texas Panhandle town of Dumas and came to Tech in the 1930s. His younger brother, Walt Schlinkman, came to visit Robert while on his way to play football for Texas A&M. “My dad introduced him to the coaching staff and they persuaded him to stay here and play for the Red Raiders,” said Linda. Her uncle went on to play pro football for the Green Bay Packers and had a 20-year career as a college and pro coach. Robert graduated from Tech in 1940 with a Civil Engineering degree. He served in both the European and Pacific theaters in World War II, working on bridges to support tactical maneuvers, but mostly on construction for troops to have clean water. He ultimately worked for the Texas Highway Department.

2008: Famed Business Leader Ed Whitacre Donates to College of Engineering, Athletics

Growing up in Ennis, Texas, Ed Whitacre thought he’d work for the Southern Pacific railroad, one of two major jobs in Ennis – the other working for a company making tags for cotton bales.

His mom insisted he go to college.

Engineers get pretty good jobs, he thought, and he was good at math.

Whitacre graduated from Tech with an industrial engineering degree in 1964. He was a Delta Tau Delta with future Tech Chancellor Kent Hance. He met his wife Linda when one of his frat brothers asked if he could drive her to Fort Worth on his way to Ennis because she had a late final.

He got a job with the phone company. About 25 years later, he was CEO of Southwestern Bell in the late 1980s.

“I knew I didn’t want to be an engineer. I wanted to deal with people.”

“I knew I didn’t want to be an engineer. I wanted to deal with people,” he said.

Whitacre changed the name of Southwestern Bell to SBC Communications so potential growth wouldn’t be limited with a regional name. He also moved the company from St. Louis to San Antonio. Eventually the company bought AT&T and took that name.

He stayed connected to his alma mater – making an impact with his time, leadership, connections and checkbook.

• He facilitated a $20 million gift for renovations at Jones AT&T Stadium and $14 million from the SBC Foundation for endowed scholarships. The stadium added SBC to its name, which later changed to Jones AT&T Stadium.
• In 2007, AT&T pledged $5.35 million to the Texas Tech College of Engineering for nanophotonics research as a tribute to his commitment to higher education.
• A year later, the Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering was named for him after a $25 million gift from AT&T and Whitacre’s friends.
• Whitacre donated $8 million for the Ed Whitacre Center for Athletic Administration, which cleared the way for the Dustin R. Womble Football Center to start construction in 2022.
• People and companies Whitacre has worked with have given millions of dollars to Tech in his name.
• In 1985, he was named a Texas Tech Distinguished Engineer.

Whitacre was chair of Texas Tech’s Board of Regents in the mid-1990s, which was looking at creating a university system.

Whitacre targeted State Sen. John Montford to be the system’s first chancellor. He told Whitacre no – as chair of the Senate Finance Committee he could do a lot for West Texas. Whitacre persisted until Montford said yes.

“I want you to put that school back on the map,” Whitacre told Montford.

Then the new chancellor made Whitacre national campaign chairman for Texas Tech’s Horizon Fundraising Campaign – when United Supermarkets Arena was built and plans for the West Side project for Jones AT&T Stadium started.

Whitacre knew SBC had to grow.

“If we didn’t get bigger, we wouldn’t survive,” he said.

They bought Pacific Bell, Bell South and wireless companies, starting to put AT&T back together the government broke into eight companies in 1984.

In 2004, SBC’s Cingular Wireless bought AT&T Wireless because he needed its network.

But Whitacre got a call saying a European company had outbid SBC. Whitacre was up all night trying to rally a comeback.

“I called my board at 3 in the morning and said I need another nickel a share – a lot of money,” he said.

They got the purchase.

A few months later, they bought AT&T, which was much smaller by then.

“When I said, ‘let’s buy AT&T,’ all my management reports disagreed. I said ‘sorry, get it done,’” he said.

The reassembled AT&T more than doubled over its original size with a massive cellular network and satellite cable company.

That cellular network played a big role in Whitacre’s deal with Steve Jobs and Apple.

Jobs had a phone that did what flip phones did, but with applications that set the foundation of the modern smart phone.

It was a huge investment.

“It was a close as I ever came to betting the company,” Whitacre said. “We had the network and Jobs had the phone.”

An exclusive five-year deal was set up and it was a good bet for Whitacre and AT&T.

“You’ve got to be willing to take a risk,” he said.

Through international deals, he’s worked with Nelson Mandela, the late president of South Africa and Mexican businessman Carlos Slim.

Whitacre has served on the boards of Exxon Mobil, the PGA Tour Anheuser-Busch, May Company and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe. His dad and grandfather worked for the railroads and he thinks they would have enjoyed knowing that.

While in an Exxon board meeting, Whitacre got a call from the White House asking if he could help bring General Motors out of bankruptcy. It had been a few years since he retired from AT&T.

Whitacre told the caller he knew nothing about the automobile industry – they pleaded with him to do it as a service for his country.

Whitacre took what he called a complicated, confused, bureaucratic company without a lot of responsibility at any level and returned it to profitability.

GM had a massive policy manual Whitacre ignored and told people to focus on this statement: Design, build and sell the world’s best vehicles.

GM was called impossible to fix.

“They were wrong. It was very fixable,” said Whitacre. “And I wanted to see those folks win again.”

2018-2023 Dusty Womble & Cody Campbell Step Up with Record Gifts for Basketball & Football

Dusty Womble and Cody Campbell have made headlines:

• Nov. 8, 2017: Texas Tech announces $10 million gift for The Dustin R. Womble Basketball Center
• Oct. 8, 2021: Texas Tech announces largest one-time gift in Athletics history…$20 million to fund and name the Dustin R. Womble Football Center
• Dec. 2, 2021: Texas Tech announces record $25 million gift for Jones AT&T South End Zone project from former player Cody Campbell

Womble built a fortune in technology after getting his management information systems degree from Texas Tech.

Campbell built his fortune in the energy industry after graduating from Tech with three degrees – a bachelor’s in finance and another in economics and a master’s in economics.

Both graduated with honors and have honored their alma mater. Their record-breaking gifts helped inspire plans announced in July of 2022 to combine the football center and South End Zone into a stunning and historic $200 million project scheduled to open by the 2024 season.

Both men are members of the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents.

Even though Campbell’s $25 million set a new one-time record for an Athletics gift, he acknowledged his fellow regent, saying he still hopes to catch up to Womble’s total giving.

Womble

Womble’s love of Tech sports goes way back.

He remembers going to Tech games when he was five years old:

Watching the Red Raiders upset a ranked Arkansas basketball team in the old Municipal Coliseum.

Sitting on the North End Zone grass watching Tech’s football team and his favorite player, running back Donnie Anderson.

Womble met his wife Leisha when they were both students at Tech, surviving a disastrous blind date.

He’s only missed one Tech football home game since 1977 and that was in 2006 for his daughter’s college visit.

While still a student, Womble started Interactive Computer Designs. He sold his company to Tyler Technologies in 1998 and retired in 2016. Tyler’s publicly traded and its value in mid-2022 hovered around $15 billion.

“I love Texas Tech unconditionally. I love the opportunity it provided for me.”

“I love Texas Tech unconditionally. I love the opportunity it provided for me,” he said in 2021.

So, he’s invested.

“Dusty loves Texas Tech and shares the vision of being the absolute very best athletics department in the country,” said Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt. “Remember, he did not invest in the Womble Basketball Center – the gold standard – after we went to the Final Four. He believed in that vision well before. He’s here again investing in the future of Texas Tech football because he believes in what’s going on in this program and the vision for the football program in the future.”

Womble’s seen the basketball center’s impact on recruiting and development.

“I think it’s the centerpiece of their recruiting story. But there are a lot of components to selling that program. The program’s success, the coaches, United Supermarkets Arena, the university, the conference we’re in and the practice facility,” said Womble.

“Coach Mark Adams wants players who will play tough defense and want to develop their game to hopefully play in the NBA. The center is designed to help players develop 24 hours a day, seven days a week where before they would have to leave the arena if there was a concert or another team needed the space,” he said.

As for football, the existing facility is not an embarrassment, he said.

“I don’t think it kills us in recruiting, but I don’t think it helps us either. It’s just not where we want to be to compete with the premier programs in the country. It’s not there in size, in functionality. We want to force people to compete against our facilities,” he said.

The Womble family’s total investment puts them in the same category as Jerry Rawls, Ed Whitacre, Jim Sowell, the Cash Family and others who’ve invested multi-millions in the university.

Campbell

Campbell is a fourth-generation Red Raider who grew up in Canyon and became a National Merit Semifinalist along with playing football.

His dad Cliff was a Red Raider offensive lineman in the 1970s, his brother played baseball for Tech, his wife, mom and grandmother all went to Tech.

Then there’s his great-grandfather, Boyd Vick, part of Tech’s first class in 1925 who also played football.

Vick lived to 101 and one his grandsons, Paul Foster, donated $50 million in 2007 to help create the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso.

So, the progeny of a man from Tech’s first class have given $75 million to Texas Tech.

And Campbell’s son Carson wants to play football like his dad and granddad.

Campbell was an offensive lineman who protected quarterback Kliff Kingsbury and lettered four years, along with multiple All-Big 12 and Academic Big 12 honors.

He played for the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts before starting Double Eagle Energy Holdings with former Red Raider teammate John Sellers.

A few years ago, the pair sold 71,000 acres of Permian Basin mineral rights for $2.8 billion, making them two of the richest Texans under 40. Then they started another company and sold for it for $6.4 billion to Pioneer Natural Resources.

He credits his alma mater for his success.

“Coming here and the lessons I learned as I developed as a person – work ethic, toughness – has benefitted me tremendously in my personal life, my family and business life.”

“Coming here and the lessons I learned as I developed as a person – work ethic, toughness – has benefitted me tremendously in my personal life, my family and business life. I use those lessons every day. I want to give back because it was so big for me,” said Campbell, who lives in Fort Worth.

Campbell sees his donation as an investment.

“When I first started making some money, a really smart guy sat me down and said, ‘when you’re thinking about charitable giving, you need to think about it like a business deal, like an investment,” he told the Dec. 2 audience.

Make sure the gift yields a return, he was advised.

“So, I took a look at the Texas Tech football program. This is a pivotal time. I’m looking at the commitment the administration has made to this program,” he said, in terms of operational and facilities budgets.

“So, this money is going to be leveraged because the administration is thinking about it the right way. This is a true turning point,” he added.

Hocutt added:

“We’re not taking a back seat to any other program. We’re making a significant investment in Texas Tech football. Our investment into Texas Tech football is accelerating and is our primary focus,” he said.

Part of Campbell’s gift includes having the field at Jones AT&T Stadium stamped with his name.

“As a former player it’s really meaningful. I can’t play anymore; my eligibility is exhausted and so is my body. But the guys playing now are my brothers. There’s a special bond with folks who played Texas Tech football and I can be out there with them in a way,” he said.

Last Pieces on CFFC

Womble and Campbell’s investments helped spur the final facility in Tech’s Campaign for Fearless Champions, that’s developed more than two-dozen projects impacting all 17 sports.

The price tag on this last one matches what’s been spent on all the others.

Hocutt talked about sitting with Campbell and Womble at a lunch before the announcement of Campbell’s gift.

“We were talking about how things are going to change in the coming years. The Big 12 conference is going to evolve, the college football playoff is going to evolve. Our goal is to be a part of that evolving landscape and be at the top of the Big 12 conference, to be relevant nationally and be a participant in the college football playoff,” he said.

Sources:

• Stories from Red Raider Sports magazine

2022: Gordon Davis Gives Record $44 Million to CASNR

Six-year-old Gordon Davis watched Al Falk drive onto his family’s farm in Deer Park, Washington – not far from the Idaho border.

Falk’s truck carried a .22 rifle and his tools on his annual visit to slaughter a hog and steer for the Davis family to use for food.

“Little Gordie,” as Davis called himself recalling the story, watched Falk shoot and eviscerate the animals process, then followed him to a locker plant where he cut up the animals.

Every year, Falk processed animals Davis helped raise from birth. Being around animal carcasses was something he grew up with.

When Davis went to college at Washington State University, he heard about meat judging. Davis was already on some other Washington State judging teams when he was told he should meet Dr. Gary Smith, who coached the WSU meat judging team.

Davis found Smith – who he described as a “short, bald guy.”

“I understand you have some kind of meat judging team here,” Davis told Smith, who became his career-long mentor.

“He’s best single teacher I’ve ever been around,” said Davis. “We won contests. It was the first time I’d been on a winning meat team. I liked the cooler. I liked the subject matter,” he said.

A meat cooler – with hanging beef, pork and lamb carcasses – is a fascinating laboratory, for Davis.

“Fat ones, short ones, long ones. I’ve seen fat on some animal carcasses that ranges from a tenth of an inch on some of these animals to over two inches of fat. I’ve seen a yellow and orange lamb carcasses. Every time I go into a meat cooler there’s something different you haven’t seen before,” he said.

Davis followed Smith to Texas A&M, where he got advanced degrees and a front-row seat to watch Smith turn Texas A&M into the dominant national force in the sport of meat judging.

Smith took his students on a tour of meat facilities in Texas – the first time then-grad student Davis visited Lubbock. It left a good impression.

A few years later, in 1979, Davis returned to Lubbock after he was recruited to join the faculty and lead the Red Raider meat judging team.

He had three goals and met them.

• Have the national meat judging contest in Lubbock – 1984.
• Build a new meat laboratory – 1988.
• Win a national title – 1989.

“It took nine years to win the national championship. It was much harder to do than the other two goals,” said Davis.

Unlike other college sports where students can compete for a school four years – there’s a new team every year in meat judging.

“We went through nine sets of kids,” he said.

The new meat laboratory helped with recruiting.

“The teams that were winning national championships had new meat laboratories,” said Davis.

“We had an older meat laboratory at Tech. We made it work, but a new lab would help,” he said.

The new meat laboratory had nice bright lights, fresh paint.

“It’s a nice place to practice. Not kind of a gloom-and-doom place. A more positive air in the room,” said Davis, adding it was not cheap to build.

“It’s kind of like ‘Field of Dreams’ – build it and they will come.”

“It’s kind of like ‘Field of Dreams’ – build it and they will come,” he said.

After guiding Tech to its first national title, Davis left for private business.

Since then, Texas Tech has become the dominant nation force in meat judging with 16 national titles.

Davis is proud to see what’s grown from that first title.

Meanwhile, his foray into private business was very successful. In early 2022, it led to the largest single gift in Texas Tech history -- $44 million to agriculture education at the now-named Gordon W. Davis College of Agriculture Sciences and Natural Resources.

“I wanted to give back to agriculture. I’d been in agriculture since I was three years old,” said Davis.

Davis grew up driving his family’s diesel tractor. He loved the smell of the Eastern Washington soil, the dew on the morning grass, feeding the calves, milking the cows. As he got older, he tackled bigger farms tasks on the tractor. He got involved in the Future Farmers of America.

After his time as an ag science major at Washington State, Davis got advanced degrees in meat science and muscle biology at Texas A&M, then taught at the University of Tennessee before coming to Lubbock.

When he left to start CEV – a Lubbock company “bringing the expert into the classroom,” he said – the first subjects were agriculture.

The company sold VHS tapes, then DVDs to educators. When people started making copies of CEV’s products to save money, the company created a subscription service using Netflix as its model.

Davis almost sold the company a few years ago.

When the COVID pandemic hit, CEV gave teachers free subscriptions to more than 100 courses when education went online and provided professional development.

“We took a risk,” said Davis, the company missed out on potentially seven figures of revenue.

“We thought the content was good enough that the schools would reward us,” when schools came back after the summer of 2020, he said. “The people who tried it loved it and wanted to buy it and put it in their teaching program.”

CEV tripled their business. Davis sold the company in late 2021, which allowed him to make the historic gift. It breaks down like this:

• $25 million endowment to directly benefit the college.
• $4 million gift to establish the Gordon and Joyce Davis Endowment for Excellence in Meat and Food Science.
• $15 million gift from the Gordon W. Davis estate to benefit future educational efforts within the college.

2022: Huckabee Family Gift Makes Big Impact on the College of Architecture

Chris Huckabee and Robin Davis were best pals as Texas Tech students about 30 years ago.

“We did everything together,” said Chris.

That included going to the hospital when Robin sliced her finger working on a model for an interior design project.

“I was using a knife and steel ruler. I looked up at David Letterman on TV for two seconds and the knife slipped,” said Robin, referring to a late-night show.

She called Chris.

“She says ‘I’m sitting on my bathroom floor. I have my finger in the sink and I can’t look at it.’ I was like oh my God,” he said.

Finger injuries were common for interior design students – who used sharp X-Acto knives to cut materials for models. It was the same for architecture students like Chris.

“They teach you in architecture school where to take people – I’m not kidding. We knew where to go,” said Chris.

Robin’s finger needed stitches and they were in the emergency room for a long time.

“I couldn’t use my finger to finish my project, which was still due,” she said.

Chris made the rest of the cuts for Robin so she could put it together.

“I didn’t get any blood on it. So that was a positive of the night. You don’t bleed on your project. That’s a win,” said Robin.

Chris and Robin were very close but not a couple.

“She had a serious boyfriend and I had a serious girlfriend,” said Chris.

Toward the end of their time at Tech, it became obvious they were meant to be together – even if it hadn’t been obvious to them for a few years.

Chris talked to his girlfriend.

“She exclaimed rather loudly, ‘I knew it all along!’” he said. “Maybe other people knew it. We were buddies. We did everything together but it hadn’t worked out for us to actually date.”

They’ve now been married more than 30 years with three children and an ongoing love for the school where their relationship was born.

Chris grew his family’s architecture firm into MOREgroup – an architecture, design and engineering company with more than 700 employees in 21 offices across America.

The Huckabees have shared their success with their alma mater:

• The College of Architecture was recently named the Huckabee College of Architecture after a generous gift from the family.
• Chris is leading the Womble Football Center/South End Zone project planned to be ready for the 2024 football season.
• He was a regent for the Texas Tech University System and served as chair two of his six-year term. During that time, Chris helped guide Tech through the global pandemic. He assisted with creation of the School of Veterinary Medicine, the Woody L. Hunt School of Dental Medicine and oversaw the rebirth of the Dairy Barn.
• In 2002, Chris established the Timothy Terry Memorial Endowed Scholarship for Architectural Students at Tech.
• In 2007, he established the Huckabee Student Lounge – now called The Corner – in the College of Architecture.
• He’s served on the Texas Tech Foundation board.

‘Different Reasons for Arriving at the Same Place’

Chris came to Texas Tech from Andrews, about 100 miles southwest of Lubbock.

“I went there because that’s where everybody in my family went,” said Chris.

Robin grew up in Houston.

“She went to Tech because it was the furthest place away from Houston that had a public university in Texas,” said her husband. “We had very different reasons for arriving at the same place.”

Chris was two years older than Robin when one of his Sigma Alpha Epsilon brothers introduced them her freshman year.

Chris intended to be a lawyer and started at the business school.

“I made two dean’s lists my freshman year. My sophomore year I pledged a fraternity and made a 0.7 GPA. I don’t know why anyone would have made me a regent if they checked my grades,” said Chris.

His dad – an architect – was not pleased.

“My father, who did not suffer fools was paying for my education. I had to come up with something to convince him to allow me to stay and not put me into hard labor on our ranch,” said Chris. “I made up the story I wanted to be an architect because I wasn’t enjoying business school.”

“I neglected to tell him it had more to do with pledging a fraternity,” and having fun, said Chris. “He agreed.”

Chris started architecture school the second semester of his sophomore year, made a 4.0 GPA and found his place.

“It was the greatest thing I’ve ever done and never looked back,” he added.

When Robin started at Tech, she was not sure what she wanted to do.

“I ended up taking two tests that tell you what you’re interested in at the end of my sophomore year. It was either interior design or architecture. I settled on interior design and loved it,” she said.

Chris and Robin further bonded by being in design schools.

“We’re going through the same thing at the same time in very tough degree programs. We did our projects together,” said Chris.

Robin was in Kappa Alpha Theta and a Sigma Phi Epsilon sweetheart.

“We just hung out and did everything together,” said Chris, which included going to football games and other Tech sports.

Joining the Family Firm

Chris joined his dad’s architecture firm and became the fifth employee.

Tommie Huckabee was born in Lubbock and attended Texas Tech in the 1950s before going to Andrews to design their schools. That’s where he met his wife, Sylvia, a teacher.

Tommie and Sylvia raised their three children – Tim, Phyllis and Chris – in Andrews before moving to their ranch in Stephenville.

The firm was in Stephenville when Chris joined after graduating from Tech.

After a few years, the company had grown to ten. Chris bought out his dad in 1995 and moved the firm to Fort Worth.

“My dad retired,” said Chris, adding Tommie wasn’t interested in making the company bigger.

The firm specializes in creating successful spaces for education, building on his dad’s focus. They’ve also acquired separate companies that work on health care and government.

‘We Wanted to Have Kids Young’

Chris and Robin had son Andrew about a year after they married and Robin decided to stay home and raise their children.

“We knew we wanted to have kids young. I did not go into interior design. I did our house and helped friends, but never went into it professionally,” said Robin.

“What she’s not telling you,” said Chris, “is she has a successful business doing animal portraits.”

After son Andrew came daughters Mason and Harris.

Mason graduated from Tech’s School of Art.

“Our middle daughter went to Tech – so she’s our favorite. We say that when she’s introduced,” said Chris, laughing.

Andrew went to Trinity University in San Antonio but is a big Red Raider fan. Harris went to Baylor after originally wanting to go to Tech.

“I talked her out of going to Tech,” said Robin. “The girls are only 13 months apart. She needed to go someplace and be her own person. It really turned out best.”

Andrew and Mason both work for the family company and Harris – the Baylor Bear – works for a competing architectural firm in Nashville.

“She’s our rebel,” said her dad, adding both girls have the same degree a year apart but Baylor cost four times as much.

“We consider Tech to be quite a value in our family,” he said.

The Huckabee children grew up going to Tech games and really wanted to run on their field when the No. 7 Red Raiders beat No. 1 Texas in 2008 after the Graham Harrell to Michael Crabtree pass in the final seconds.

“We were in the front row and they were so mad we didn’t let them run on the field. They were young and they kept saying, ‘can we go on the field?’ And we’re saying no – but we wanted to go on the field too,” said Chris.

Meanwhile Tech students kept going past the Huckabees onto the Jones AT&T turf.

“The Tech students were so polite. They’d walk up to us and say, ‘excuse me,’ then jump onto the field,” said Chris. “It was the greatest. It had a huge impact on our children.”

When Chris was a regent, he was on campus more often and it was fun for the couple.

“Part of the excitement when I became a regent, was we got to go on campus and pretend like we were dating again. It was a lot of fun wandering around campus,” he said.

Besides coming back for games, they brought their children to events like the Carol of Lights.

“We wanted our kids to have that experience we had,” he said.

Making Sure the Double T Scoreboard Survives

When Chris agreed to chair the new Red Raider Facilities Foundation that eventually merged the Womble Football Facility and the South End Zone project he had specific orders from Robin – the Double T scoreboard must survive.

“When I took this job, I said if I want to maintain my 30-year marriage we have to be sensitive to the scoreboard,” said Chris.

When the first draft of designs came in, they were “not sensitive to the scoreboar