The Masked Rider is the main mascot of Texas Tech University. This is the oldest university mascot that still exists today. Originally called "Ghost Rider", it was an unofficial mascot that appeared in several games in 1936 and later became the official mascot with Gator Bowl in 1954. The Masked Rider has led the team to the field in almost every soccer game since then. This is the nation's first school mascot to feature a live horse in a football match, in front of Florida's Osceola and Renegade Chiefs and 25 years before USC's Traveler and all other mascots that exist today.
After studying the Masked Riders, another school mimics the idea of ​​a mascot being installed. Florida State started their tradition in 1978, soon after seeing Texas Tech's live mascot in the 1977 Tangerine Bowl pitting both. The Oklahoma State Cowboys copied The Masked Rider in 1984 when Eddy Finley, a Texas Tech alumnus professor of agricultural education at Oklahoma State University, and started the Spirit Rider Program while the two schools were in separate conferences.
The Masked Rider is adorned from head to toe in black, including a black gaucho hat and a black mask. The only other colors present were the red rider's cloak. Horses today are also black, tradition for the past 40 years, although horses before the 70s sometimes have other colors.
Students must pass a rigorous interview and a testing process to be selected for this honor by the Rider's Advisory Advisory Committee. The Masked Rider is available for public appearances at no cost, although donations are encouraged.
In 2000, the Masked Rider tradition was commemorated by the opening of a statue outside the Frazier Alumni Pavilion on the Texas Tech campus. The statue created by Grant Speed ​​is 25 percent larger than life. In August 2013, the statue was wrapped in black Crªªpe paper to mourn the death of the first masked rider, Joe Kirk Fulton.
Video The Masked Rider
History
In 1936, the first rider, George Tate (class 1937), led the soccer team to the football field and left the field. Tate, whose identity was kept secret at the time, was wearing a red satin robe made by the Home Economy Department. He had borrowed the horse from the Tech shed as a joke. Tate was quoted in the November 4, 1984, edition of The Dallas Morning News that Arch Lamb, then head of Saddle Tramps, "dreams of the Red Raider." The joke was drawn several more times that season but did not reappear until the 1950s, when another Tek student was approached to make a mascot.
In 1953, Texas Tech football coach DeWitt Weaver approached a student named Joe Kirk Fulton about being a Masked Rider. DeWitt's Red Raiders 10-1-0 in football and headed to Jacksonville, Florida for Gator Bowl. At that time, Texas Tech hopes to be invited to join the Southwest Conference. All other teams have mascots, and it is thought DeWitt believes making mascots for Texas Tech can help school opportunities to get into the conference. Fulton agrees to ride a horse named Blackie in a bowl game.
Texas Tech Center for Campus Life explains:
According to reports from those present at Gator Bowl in 1954, the crowd sat silent as they watched Fulton and Blackie rush to the football field, followed by the team. After a moment of distrust, the silent crowd cheered. Ed Danforth, a writer for the Atlanta Journal and a press-box audience then wrote, "No team in the bowl game ever made the entrance more sensational."
Beginning in the early 1960s, Texas Tech's marching bands have been playing compositions written expressly for the mascot. "Ride, Raider, Ride" (commonly known as The Horse Music) was done in quick time as the horse ran around the sidelines of the stadium. A very passionate tone was composed by faculty members Richard Tolley, Professor of Trumpet and Deputy Director of the Band, 1959-1991.
Incident
- In 1963, the horse, Tech Beauty, was kidnapped and spray painted with the letter "AMC" before the Tech football game against rival Texas A & amp; M.
- In 1974, the election of the first female masked driver, Ann Lynch, caused widespread controversy.
- In 1975, the horse was kidnapped and received chemical burns after being painted with orange paint before a Tech football game against Texas.
- In 1982, the Masked Racer was involved in hurting an opponent's cheerleading school. Ten years later, the Masked Racer was involved in the abuse of a referee.
- On September 3, 1994, an accident involving Masked Riders resulted in the death of the Texas Tech mascot, a black American Horse Quarter named Double T during Lubbock football games between Texas Tech and New Mexico Lobos. After a 3rd-quarter tech score by Mas, then Masked Rider, Amy Smart, fell from the horse after the saddle of the horse broke out during the usual post-score races around the stadium grounds, and the horse finally ran unimproved toward the tunnel out where it was unintentionally colliding with the dying stadium walls instantly.
- In 2001, the Masked Rider horse trailer was involved in a car accident. The horse, Black Phantom Raider, suffered serious injuries that caused his euthanasia.
- In 2006, the Masked Racer appeared as No. 24 on CollegeFootballNews.com "25 Biggest College Football Enchantment".
- The horse, Midnight Matador, served as the Rider of the Masked from 2002-2012. Midnight Matador has retired during the 2012 season after a foot injury, having been the longest serving in position in school history.
Maps The Masked Rider
Raider Red
Around the 1971 football season, the Southwest Conference created a rule that prohibited bringing live animal mascots to a distant game unless the host school allowed it. Since the Masked Rider horse may be banned from traveling to some games under this rule, an alternative mascot named Raider Red was created; Raider Red is a person who wears a normal mascot costume.
References
External links
- Texas Tech Center for Campus Life: The Masked Rider
- Official Texas Tech Athletic Site: Masked Rider Tradition
- The Masked Rider movie in 1954 Gator Bowl
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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