University of North Texas Athletics
Green Gang: Can We Learn From Red Raider Fever?
8/3/2009 12:00:00 AM | Return to Play
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| By Stephen Howard, August 2, 2009 - 11:18 p.m. |
My girlfriend and I packed up the car this weekend and headed out west for a friend’s wedding. I was fortunate enough to grab a quick nap around beautiful Runaway Bay, but when I awoke we were relegated to the land of broken down farm equipment, tired bush trees and red dirt.
What can you say about Lubbock, Texas? A place not exactly known for its scenic beauty, this overgrown sandbox houses the Buddy Holly Museum (which is pretty cool, actually), thousands of cotton fields and the rabid obnoxious fan base of Texas Tech University.
Let me get this out of the way before I get much further. There isn’t an institution in this country that I abhor more vehemently than Texas Tech. Between their pirate loving coach and the intolerable fans, there is just something about this place I can’t stand.
If you head west of Abilene, you simply can’t escape Red Raider fever. Make no mistake about it, Texas Tech is the official team of West Texas. Every building this side of Dyess Air Force Base has at least one Tech sign or flag. EVERYONE went there and EVERYONE is wearing their gear. The Dallas Cowboys might be a Sunday afternoon pastime, but Texas Tech owns the other six days of the week.
I’m lucky enough to be dating a Lubbock transplant. A West Texas girl who wanted to escape the madness and found her way to Denton and North Texas. But even she falls prey to occasional Red Raider madness.
In a brief moment of insanity, she once asked me – a proud Mean Green alum – what college was I a fan of. “Do you like Tech or Texas or A&M?”
“North Texas,” I snapped back in disbelief, upset that the good ole Mean Green weren’t included in the choices. “I went to North Texas, why would I be a fan of those other schools?”
But her accidental omission made an inadvertent point about the apathy of most North Texas alums. Most of us ARE fans of other schools, and much of the student body would rather watch the Texas Longhorns on TV than head to Fouts Field.
Why is that? We have had some lean seasons in recent years, but this phenomenon spans back much longer than that. It’s almost like Mean Green fans have had a total sense of indifference since the inception of athletics on this campus.
Anyone who has been to a game over the last few years knows that the atmosphere both pre to post game has been much improved. Credit that to Rick Villarreal, Paul Batchelder, Jamie Adams and tons of other Athletic Administration folks that have tirelessly worked to change the culture at North Texas.
When I got to Denton in 2000, you could count the folks in the parking lot on both hands. Now it looks like a party, with frats and sororities decked out in green all over the place. You can’t help but have a blast hanging out before a North Texas game.
We are certainly making headway, but are a long way from competing with the likes of Texas Tech. I can’t stand that school, but I have to hand them one thing. The thought of liking another school couldn’t be more of a foreign concept to a Tech alum, where they are taught to “Get your guns up” at age four.
