Texas Tech

Texas Tech's athletic teams are all known as the Red Raiders with the exception of the women's basketball team, the Lady Raiders. Texas Tech is a member of the Big 12 Conference and competes in Division I-A. The university was a member of the Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association from 1932 to 1956. Texas Tech became a member of the Southwest Athletic Conference in May 1956 and remained so until the conference was disbanded in 1995.

Of the varsity sports, Texas Tech has had its greatest success in women's basketball. The Lady Raiders, led by player Sheryl Swoopes and head coach Marsha Sharp, won the 1993 NCAA Women's Basketball Championship. The men's basketball team has made 14 appearances in the NCAA Men's Division I Tournament. Coach Bob Knight has served as men's basketball coach since 2001. On January 1, 2007, he become the winningest coach in men's NCAA Division I basketball history, when Tech defeated New Mexico, 70-68. The Red Raiders football team has made 30 bowl appearances, which is 19th most of any university.

In addition to varsity sports, the university offers polo, rugby, lacrosse, fencing, soccer, and ice hockey through campus intramural sports organizations. In 2006, the Red Raiders beat the Texas A&M Aggies to win the United States Polo Association National Intercollegiate Championship.
Mascots
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The Masked Rider Logo
The Masked Rider is the Texas Tech's oldest mascot. Starting as a dare in 1936, "ghost riders" circled the field at the beginning of home football games. The Masked Rider became an official mascot in 1954, when Joe Kirk Fulton led the team onto the field at the Gator Bowl. The sensational entrance awed the crowd. Texas Tech's Center for Campus Life explains:

According to reports from those present at the 1954 Gator Bowl, the crowd sat in stunned silence as they watched Fulton and Blackie rush onto the football field, followed by the team. After a few moments of stunned disbelief, the silent crowd burst into cheers. Ed Danforth, a writer for the Atlanta Journal and a press box spectator later wrote, "No team in any bowl game ever made a more sensational entrance."

Today the Masked Rider, with guns up, leads the team out onto the field for all of the home games. This mascot, adorned in a distinctive gaucho hat like the ones worn by members of the marching band, is one of the most visible figures at Tech. Kevin Burns, a junior Animal and Food Science major from Clovis, New Mexico, will represent Texas Tech as the Masked Rider during 2007-2008.

Tech's other mascot, Raider Red, is a more recent creation. During the 1971 football season, the Southwest Conference created a rule that forbade the bringing of live animal mascots to away games unless the host school permitted it. Since the Masked Rider's horse would fall under this rule, an alternate mascot was created. Jim Gaspard, a member of the Saddle Tramps student spirit organization, created the original design for the Raider Red costume, basing it on a character created by Lubbock cartoonist and former mayor Dirk West. Though the Masked Rider's identity is public knowledge, it has always been tradition that Raider Red's student alter ego is kept secret until the end of his or her tenure. The student serving as Raider Red is a member of the Saddle Tramps or High Riders.