Even after Texas Tech joined the Big 12 Conference, it remained a team located in an outpost (Lubbock) that was somewhere in the middle of a cotton field. Yes, Lubbock had stoplights. It even had a McDonald's. But it took the hiring of Mike Leach, who was followed by Bobby Knight, to give Texas Tech and Lubbock an identity. Leach brought his crazy passing game that puts up outrageous numbers, and now CNN, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times have found the way to Lubbock. The success has been reflected in the athletic budget, which next year will total about $43 million. Ten years ago, it stood at about $12 million. "It's a whole different era now," athletic director Gerald Myers said (registration).
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Now All Roads Lead to Lubbock
Even after Texas Tech joined the Big 12 Conference, it remained a team located in an outpost (Lubbock) that was somewhere in the middle of a cotton field. Yes, Lubbock had stoplights. It even had a McDonald's. But it took the hiring of Mike Leach, who was followed by Bobby Knight, to give Texas Tech and Lubbock an identity. Leach brought his crazy passing game that puts up outrageous numbers, and now CNN, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times have found the way to Lubbock. The success has been reflected in the athletic budget, which next year will total about $43 million. Ten years ago, it stood at about $12 million. "It's a whole different era now," athletic director Gerald Myers said (registration).
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5 comments:
manhattan, kansas may become similar with Bobby Huggins and what promises to be a huge recruiting class.
That's pretty harsh treatment for a town that gave the world Dr Pepper and Buddy Holly.
TT the only West Texas football I-A program? Everybody and his mother always seems to forget UTEP...
Leach and his Pirate stuff, classic. That article about him in the New York Times magazine was great.
actually, Dr. Pepper is from Waco, not Lubbock.
Well, Lubbock does have stoplights. In fact, Lubbock is a city of more than 200,000 people.
Also, West Texas is where Lubbock is. That whole western panhandle thing where El Paso is, is something else altogether, and El Paso is not even America, folks never think about UTEP - and it's not in a major conference.
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