Longtime PA Announcer Retiring
January 14, 2000 | Football
Jan. 14, 2000
LUBBOCK, Texas - After calling more than 700 Texas Tech athletic events over the last 31 years, Gerald Rogers has decided to step from behind the microphone. The long-time public address voice of Texas Tech athletics, Rogers says he plans to retire from his duties at the end of the current basketball season.
?I hardly know what to say. I feel like I?ve had the ideal part time job for a former athlete and coach,? Rogers said. ?Texas Tech athletics has been an awfully big part of our family?s life for a long time. I wanted to be able to stop before they told me to, while I was still doing it right.?
Rogers, 70, has been doing it right for a long time, announcing 179 consecutive home football games from 1969 through 1999. He was the stadium announcer for J.T. King?s final season as the Red Raider football coach and Bob Bass? first season as head basketball coach.
?We have a motor home and do a lot of traveling, a lot of which is to out of town Tech games,? Rogers said. ?(wife) Babs and I anticipate doing even more travelling when my commitment to Texas Tech is done.?
?We appreciate so much what Gerald has given to Texas Tech basketball. He and his wife Babs have been special to our family during my tenure,? head basketball coach James Dickey said. ?We will miss him, but wish him the best.? Rogers? duties expanded to include the Lady Raider basketball team in 1993, coincidentally the year Texas Tech won the national championship. He has currently been the public address voice for 708 Texas Tech athletic events.
?Gerald has been a big part of Lady Raider basketball for a lot of years and I appreciate his loyalty and consistency,? Lady Raider head coach Marsha Sharp said. ?I consider he and Babs great friends to me and our program.?
Texas Tech athletic director Gerald Myers echoed the sentiments of Dickey and Sharp, saying Rogers ?has been a credit to the university and the athletic department. He has done the job the way it needs to be done.?
Rogers has long been a fixture in the Lubbock community. After leading the nation in field goal percentage as a basketball player at Texas Western (Texas-El Paso) in the early 1950s, he went on to coach basketball at Crane High School before moving to Lubbock-Monterey in 1955.
The long-time voice of Jones Stadium and the Lubbock Coliseum served as a coach or administrator at Monterey until 1965, when he took over as Executive Director of the West Texas Cooperative Audio Visual Services at Texas Tech. From there he moved to the Education Service Center, where he retired in 1989 as executive director after 37 years of service in the public school systems. Rogers has done numerous voice-overs in the last 25 years, 10 of which he was the exclusive voice for Lubbock Power & Light?s television commercials. He also serves as an advisory committee member and master of ceremonies for the annual National Cowboy Symposium and Celebration each year in Lubbock.
?Gerald Rogers is a Texas Tech and West Texas treasure,? said former Red Raider football coach Spike Dykes. ?For 16 years he was the only voice I ever heard over the loud speakers at Jones Stadium. Gerald has the kind of commitment and loyalty you don?t find much anymore.?
Barring post-season competition at the United Spirit Arena, Rogers will call his final Texas Tech athletic event March 1 when the men?s basketball team plays host to Iowa State.