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Guns Up:
The hand sign of Texas Tech is the "Guns Up" which was created in 1972 by a Texas
Tech Graduate who was attending law school. The sign is made by extending the index finger outward while extending the
thumb upward and tucking in the middle, little and fourth fingers to form a gun. The idea is that the Red Raiders will
shoot down their opponents. The Guns Up sign is the widely recognized greeting of one Red Raider to another. It is also
the sign of victory displayed by the crowd at every athletic event.
Football
UNDEFEATED:
The 1938 squad remains as the only Texas Tech football team to go through the entire regular season unbeaten.
Under coach Pete Cawthon, the 10-0 squad lost to St. Mary's (Calif.), 20-13, in the Cotton Bowl.
TIE:
Texas Tech was involved in one of the strangest games in college football history. A 0-0 tie with Centenary in 1
939 was played in a driving rainstorm and featured an NCAA-record 77 punts (67 on first down!). Interestingly,
Field Scovell (featured earlier under Scovell) was a game official in the game, which was played in Shreveport,
La. Charlie Calhoun still owns the NCAA record for number of punts in a single game. He punted 36 times for
1,318 yards in the game.
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The Masked Rider:
The Masked Rider is the oldest and most popular mascot of
Texas Tech University that still exists today. Originally the Masked Rider started as a dare in 1936 and was
then called the ghost rider, because no one knew the rider's identity. These ghost riders circled the field
at home football games and then disappeared.
The Masked Rider did not become an official mascot until 1954, when Joe Kirk Fulton led the team out onto
the field at the Gator Bowl. Fulton, wearing Levi's, red shirt, a black cape and mounted on a black horse
awed the crowd as the team made one of the most sensational entrances ever.
Today the Masked Rider, with his or her guns up, leads the team out onto the field for all of the home games.
The Masked Rider is one of the most visible figures at Tech. |
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