Texas Tech University - La Ventana Yearbook

“Texas Tech and La Ventana Celebrate 60 years and - Still Going Strong Some things never change, though. From the start, Tech students have eaten, slept and dreamed Matador and Red Raider foot- ball — whether the team has posted a win- ning season or not. The 1925 Matadors had a 6-1-2 gridiron record. (Hey — Can those guys still suit up?) The first Tech football game ended in a 0-0 deadlock with McMurry College as " Archie " Archibald ' s perfect dropkick through the crossbars was a second too late. In 1984, though, Longhorn Jeff Ward ' s field goal was three seconds too soon as Tech fell to then-nationally ranked Texas. The traditional road trip began that first season. A group of students traveled by train to watch the Matadors play Howard Payne in Brownwood. The Matadors lost, and perhaps prophetically, a Toreador editorial lambasted students for lack of spirit. The football program has matured, and Texas Tech has grown up. It ' s a university often leading the way in Southwest Confer- ence athletics. It ' s a university represented by students from all 50 states and 97 foreign countries. But most important, it ' s a univer- sity catering to the student — whether that student is from Muleshoe or Iran, is rich or poor, or is Baptist or Jewish. Times have changed, and some former Tech students probably wouldn ' t know what to make of computers, video display terminals, Huey Lewis, Bruce Springsteen and MTV. Whoppers and Big Macs are stan- dard fare today, but students in the ■50s didn ' t know what a Taco Bell combination burrito was. Past students might gaze in wonder at a 300-plus-member Coin ' Band from Raiderland, a Masked Rider tearing madly around Jones Stadium on a majestic black horse or Saddle Tramps rolling out red carpet and wildly ringing cow bells. Tech and Lubbock haven ' t lost their West Texas flavor and friendliness. A small cot- ton town has blossomed into a city of 186,000 people, but Lubbockites and Tech students still display that homespun West Texas charm that characterized Texas Tech- nological College in the beginning. Lubbock is not Austin, Dallas or New Orleans, but Lubbock is unique. Where else can students dress for snow in the morning and 80-degree temperatures in the afternoon? Together, Lubbock and Tech offer di- versity — movies and plays, symphonies and rock concerts, the Canyon Lakes Raft Race and all-nighters in the Rec Center. Sixty years have seen drastic change and improvement, but Texas Tech University still is young. The future of the once small college on the plains looks nothing but bright. The University of Texas and Texas A & M may thumb their noses at Tech. but Tech doesn ' t need to defend itself. Its im- pressive record quietly speaks for itself. — Camille Wheeler Celebrating 60 Years — 9 ”