Texas Tech University Athletics
Fearless Fans
October 31, 2014 | Football
There were 15,142 Red Raider students in attendance for Tech's season opener against Central Arkansas - second most students to ever attend a game in school history.
BY BRITTON DROWN
Special to TexasTech.com
It was quite some time ago, during his kindergarten year to be exact, when Reggie Halfmann first felt a draw to Texas Tech. When traveling back through his long tenure of Texas Tech loyalty, he still recalls the day that his best friend entered the small Garden City, Texas classroom wearing a Texas Tech hat.
"That's when I became a fan," he says.
It was the fall of 2001, and the Double-T stuck with him that day. Though it was about one month later, as he tuned into a radio broadcast, that Halfmann would get his first sweet taste of a Red Raider victory.
And it was a sweet one indeed.
The imagery captivated Halfmann as over the airwaves quarterback Kliff Kingsbury picked apart No. 24 Texas A&M for 303 passing yards. And the Red Raider defense was stifling, shutting out the Aggies 12-0 in front of 52,000 fans at Jones AT&T Stadium.
Pandemonium ensued as just more than 100 miles north of Halfmann and his radio, Tech celebrated a crucial Big 12 victory over its bitter rival from College Station.
"Ever since then," he says. "I was sold."
Soon, he started counting down to the one day when he would have the opportunity to attend classes at the university he fell in love with. To be a member of a student body that celebrated football the way the Red Raider fans did that day in Lubbock.
Halfmann made a handful of visits to Texas Tech before high school graduation for both a Red Raider baseball game and football game. He also fell in love with the agricultural opportunities it provided and attended a livestock judging contests as an elementary student.
His fandom culminated in 2012, when Halfmann officially received an acceptance letter from his dream school.
"I put a lot of passion into my application essays and when I got the acceptance letter, I just looked at my parents and said `It was meant to be." he said. "It's been a long time coming for that."
Now, Halfmann is a member of the best student section in the Big 12 Conference and soaking in every moment of it. The junior has missed just one game since stepping onto campus, and is an illustration of the commitment and passion of many of his fellow Red Raiders.
When you get in there, in that stadium, and everybody else is on board and believing with you," he said. "There is just something in the air that just makes people excited about it.
The passion of both Halfmann and the current student body at Texas Tech hasn't gone unnoticed by those outside of Lubbock either. In fact ESPN recently ranked the top-five student bodies in the conference, and tabbed Texas Tech students at No. 1 on the list.
"Jones AT&T Stadium is one of the most difficult places to play in the Big 12," ESPN.com reporter Jake Trotter said in the article. "Thanks in large part to Tech's rowdy students."
In 2013, Kingsbury's first season as head coach, Texas Tech set the single game student attendance record in its early Big 12 battle with TCU. That night, 16,092 members of the student body poured into Jones AT&T Stadium in a sea of red and black that stretch from end zone to end zone for the nationally-televised contest.
The Thursday night showdown marked Kingsbury's inaugural Big 12 game as head coach and the Red Raiders put on a show.
Davis Webb, who came off the bench in the fourth quarter, tossed a 19-yard touchdown pass to Bradley Marquez with just 3:48 remaining to break a tie and eventually push the Red Raiders past the Horned Frogs 20-10.
It's moments like those that keep Halfmann, and his fellow students, coming back game after game to Jones AT&T Stadium to watch their Red Raiders.
"To be a part of what was voted as the best student section in the Big 12 when there are bigger schools that have more students and have a bigger stadium," he said. "To be part of that passion...is pretty special. We can influence a game and it's really pretty neat."
Tech would go on to average 11,249 students per home contest in Lubbock in 2013, setting a new school record in that category as well.
Tech's rowdy and relentlessly passionate student body set new standards in an era when many schools experienced a decline in overall attendance.
Clearly, that is not an issue in Lubbock.
"Red Raider Nation, our fan base and our alumni base is as passionate as any fan base in this country," said Kirby Hocutt, Texas Tech Director of Athletics. "The excitement that they have shown and demonstrated just speaks volumes to the excitement that surrounds this program and this university."
The impressive attendance figures from the 2013 football season didn't slow down either. Tech went on to set facility attendance records in both men's basketball and baseball before announcing in July it had for the first time in school history, sold out of all season tickets for the 2014 football season.
"It was an incredible accomplishment," Erik Book, Texas Tech Associate Athletics Director for Marketing/Sales/Service, said.
Texas Tech opened the 2014 season in front of 15,142 students at Jones AT&T Stadium marking the second-largest student crowd in the 90-year history of Texas Tech football. The crowd in Lubbock that day, 60,778 in all, marked the largest in Texas Tech history for a season opening game surpassing the previous record of 57,528 for the game against SMU in 2010.
One week later more than 14,000 students packed the east side of Jones Stadium as the Red Raiders renewed its rivalry from the Southwest Conference era against Arkansas.
Texas Tech is on pace to again average more than 11,000 students-per game in 2014 and once again go against the national attendance trend.
For Hocutt, now in his fourth year as Tech's Director of Athletics, the passion behind Texas Tech football goes beyond that of a simple football game. Autumns in Raiderland represent far more. A native of Sherman Texas, Hocutt understands the deep-rooted love for football.
As he sees it, the 12-game season, and the pageantry that surrounds it, represents a way of life in this region.
"I think it's our values," Hocutt said. "It's our value-system and our work ethic. We take a lot of pride as Red Raiders, and the West Texas community, in who we are and what we stand for. Football is an important part of our life. It's an important part of our university, and it's an opportunity for us to come together and to create life-long memories and celebrate in so many ways what is important to us. There's not many things in this country that provide those opportunities in the way that Texas Tech football can.
