The Texas Tech Red Raiders and Lady Raiders are the athletic teams that represent Texas Tech University, located in Lubbock, Texas, United States. The women's basketball team uses the name Lady Raiders, while the school's other women's teams use the "Red Raiders" name.
The university's athletic program fields 17 varsity teams in 11 sports all of whom have combined to win 77 conference championships as well as 4 national championships. The Masked Rider and Raider Red serve as the mascots representing the teams, and the school colors are scarlet red and black. Texas Tech athletics teams compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level and is a founding member of the Big 12 Conference.
From 1932 until 1956, the university belonged to the Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association. Texas Tech was admitted to the Southwest Conference on May 12, 1956. When the Southwest Conference disbanded in 1995, Texas Tech, along with the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, and Baylor University, joined with all eight former members of the Big Eight Conference to form the Big 12 Conference.
The university's athletic director is College Football Playoff committee representative Kirby Hocutt. Bob Knight, the most notorious coach in men's Division I basketball history, coached the Red Raiders men's basketball team from 2001 to 2008. Following Bob Knight's retirement in 2008, his son Pat Knight assumed head coaching duties. The Red Raiders football team, which has been coached by Mike Leach from 2000 to 2009, is a member of the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision and has appeared in the 19th-most bowl games of any team. Tommy Tuberville was named head coach in 2010 following the firing of Mike Leach and remained in the position until 2012 before resigning. He was replaced by former Texas Tech quarterback Kliff Kingsbury in 2013. In 1993, led by coach Marsha Sharp, the Lady Raiders basketball team won the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship. Following Sharp's retirement in 2006, Kristy Curry was named Lady Raiders head coach. Red Raiders baseball coach Larry Hays, who is one of only four coaches in NCAA baseball history to win 1,500 career games, retired in 2008. In 2019, Track and Field Director Wes Kittley won the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships to secure the first men's NCAA national championship in the school's history.
History On February 24, 1925, an article published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram suggested Tech's athletic teams be called the "Dogies" explaining that "a Dogie is a calf whose mother died and is forced to look out for itself" and "If ever anything had to rustle for itself, it was West Texas and Tech College."
Varsity sports Baseball Basketball Basketball Cross country Cross country Golf Football Soccer Golf Softball Tennis Tennis Track and field Track and field Volleyball
Baseball
Behind football and men's basketball, baseball is the third oldest sport at Texas Tech. The initial team organized in 1925 and the first game, an 18–9 victory over West Texas State Teachers College, was played in 1926. In the following game, the team suffered its first ever loss, 14–9 to the team it had previously defeated. The teams' 100th game came on April 20, 1963, defeating New Mexico Highlands 10–6 in Lubbock.
E. Y. Freeland was the first coach of the Red Raiders, though the team was known as the Matadors at the time. He remained in the position for three years before R. Grady Higginbotham took the role. Higginbotham coached for only two years. From 1930 to 1953, Tech did not field an intercollegiate baseball team. When the program returned in 1954, Beattie Feathers became the head coach of the Red Raiders and remained until 1960. He was followed by Berl Huffman (1961–1967), Kal Segrist (1968–1983), and Gary Ashby (1984–1986). Upon Ashby's departure, Larry Hays became the head coach of the team. On April 2, 2008, Hays became just the fourth coach in NCAA baseball history to win 1,500 career games.
Larry Hays took over the Red Raiders baseball team in 1987. Under Hays, Texas Tech endured only two losing seasons, his first and last, and enjoyed their greatest success in baseball. Hays took Tech from having a losing tradition to being a national contender. When Hays started with the Red Raiders, the team's overall record stood at 550–576. By the time he left, he was the fourth-winningest coach is college baseball history and the team's record had improved to 1,365–1,054–9. The Red Raiders reached eight straight NCAA tournaments from 1995 to 2002 and again in 2004, three of which were held at Dan Law Field. They also won two conference championships, in 1995 (while still in the Southwest Conference) and 1997, and two conference tournament championships, in 1996 and 1998.
Cross Country and Track & Field
Texas Tech's cross country and indoor/outdoor track & field teams are coached by Wes Kittley.
At the 2005 Outdoor National Championships, Tech qualified 31 men's and women's athletes, more than any other school in the country. Under Kittley's tutelage, Texas Tech has produced 16 national champions, seven Olympic Medalists, over 200 All-Americans and over 119 Big 12 Champions.
From 1990 to 2006, the men's team garnered 91 All-America awards, 20 Big 12 championships, and one individual national title. In the same time period, the women's team won 32 All-America awards, 29 Big 12 championships, and five individual national titles. During the 2007/08 season, the women had another strong showing behind Sally Kipyego, who won four individual national titles (cross country, indoor 3000 m and 5000 m, outdoor 10,000 m) and placed second in her bid for a fifth title in one academic year (outdoor 5000 m). Kipyego added three more national titles (cross country, indoor 5000 m, outdoor 5000 m) and one more second-place win (outdoor 1500 m) during the 2007/08 season. Under Kipyego's leadership, the women's team captured its first title in 2008. Their success was followed by another national championship appearance in 2009 and 2010.
Kennedy Kithuka followed up on the prior success of the program by winning the 2012 NCAA Cross Country Championship, being the first in the men's program to do so. For his accomplishments, Kithuka was named the 2012 National Male Athlete of the Year for cross country. In 2015 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships, Jacorian Duffield and Bradley Adkins won 1st and 2nd place respectively in the high jump event. Other notable track and field athletes from Texas tech include Sam Hurley.
Football
The Red Raiders football team is a member of the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-A). Texas Tech played its first intercollegiate football game on October 3, 1925. The contest, against McMurry University, ended in a controversial 0–0 tie. Tech's Elson Archibald seemed to have kicked a game-winning 20-yard field goal but the referee ruled that the clock had run out before the score. It was later reported that the referee made the call to get revenge because he wanted to be the team's first head coach but the job was instead given to Ewing Y. Freeland. Through the 2019 season, the Texas Tech Red Raider football team has amassed a 571-458-32 record in 95 seasons (1925–2019).
In 1932, the program joined the Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association. Five years later, the team won its first conference championship and was invited to the Sun Bowl. The game was played on January 1, 1938, and resulted in a 6–7 loss to West Virginia. Texas Tech suffered four more bowl losses before getting their first postseason win in the 1952 Sun Bowl. Before withdrawing from the Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1956, the Red Raiders won a total of eight conference championships and one co-championship, the most titles held by a Border Conference team.
In 1960, Texas Tech was admitted to the Southwest Conference (SWC). The Red Raiders won conference co-championships in 1976 and 1994. The team remained in the SWC until the conference ceased operations in 1996. Following the dissolution of the SWC, the university became a charter member of the Big 12 Conference.
In the Big 12 Conference, the Red Raiders competed in the South Division from the athletic conference's formation until the 2010 season when the divisions were eliminated.
The Red Raiders, coached by Mike Leach from 2000 to 2009, earned 56 wins from the 2000 through the 2006 season. During the same period, only three other Big 12 teams had more victories—Oklahoma, Texas, and Nebraska. In fourteen of its last fifteen seasons Tech finished with a winning record, before suffering a losing season in 2011 under then-head coach Tommy Tuberville.The Red Raiders moved to fourth in 2008 when the Michigan Wolverines had a losing season. Tuberville resigned his position and was replaced by Kliff Kingsbury in 2013. After 6 seasons as the head football coach of his alma mater, Kingsbury was replaced by Matt Wells prior to the 2019 season, and then by Joey McGuire before the 2022 season. The Red Raiders have made 38 bowl appearances (14–23–1) which is 21st most of any university.
Golf
2007 saw the men's golf team compete in its first back-to-back National Championship tournaments since 1960. The team, coached by Greg Sands, qualified for the tournament after finishing 7th in NCAA Central Regional.
The Red Raider Men's golf team has made multiple appearances in the NCAA tournament since then. Head Coach Greg Sands has led the team to 19 consecutive NCAA regional and 10 NCAA championship berths. Sands has racked up 18 seasons as head coach of the Men's golf team at Texas Tech, in those 18 seasons Sands has led the team to 19 tournament titles and made a name for himself. The Red Raider Men's golf team is the most successful sport at Texas Tech as it has made the most appearances in the NCAA tournament.
On the other side is women's golf JoJo Robertson, has been the head coach of the Women's golf team for Texas Tech since 2009. Coach Robertson has been with the Red Raiders for 10 seasons, in those 10 seasons she has managed to reach the NCAA regional nine times, of those resulted in two trips to the NCAA championships. Robertson has led the Raiders to regional play nine of the ten seasons since she had been named the fourth head coach of the team. Under her guidance the Red Raiders have claimed 13 team titles.
Soccer The Red Raiders played their first match against Hardin-Simmons in September 1994, defeating the Cowboys 5–0.
Men's basketball
Basketball came to Texas Tech only two years after the school was founded and the program has since won 18 conference titles, the last one being in 2019. Most of which have been won while the Red Raiders were in their Border Conference and Southwest Conference tenures, while the most recent was in the Big 12 Conference. The inaugural game was a 37–25 loss to Daniel Baker College. Tech would lose two more games before finally clinching their first ever victory—35–21 at Sul Ross University.
Grady Higginbotham was the first coach, earning a 14–18 record over two seasons. At .438, Higgenbotham was the only Tech basketball coach to garner an overall losing record during his stay. Following Higgenbotham's departure, Victor Payne led the Matadors (as the school's teams were known until 1936) from 1927 to 1930. His final tally stood at 32 wins and 20 losses. W. L. Golightly coached only one season, bringing in an 11–9 record. Dell Morgan held the head coaching job from 1931 to 1934, chalking up 42 wins to 29 losses. He was followed by Virgil Ballard. Though Ballard coached only a single season, it was during his time that the team won their milestone 100th game, a one-point victory over House of David. Ballard left with a 15–9 record.