Tales from the Texas Tech Red Raiders Sideline

Tales from the Texas Tech Red Raiders Sideline will examine the games, stories, and players that have enriched the Red Raiders’ 79-year history. College football fans will get an inside look, as told by the school’s all-time most winningest coach, at one of the nation’s highest-scoring and most-dangerous dark-horse programs, along with a glance back at the players and coaches who helped build the Red Raiders’ successful tradition. Texas Tech legends Donny Anderson, who scored a touchdown for the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl II, and E. J. Holub, Texas Tech’s first consensus Division I-A All-American, will be profiled, along with more recent stars, like the record-setting Kliff Kingsbury and B. J. Symons and All-Americans Tracy Saul, Byron Hanspard, and Zach Thomas.

William Taylor Dykes, the Texas legend, is best known as Spike. Although he came to Texas Tech as a defensive coordinator in 1984, his 13-year tenure as head coach of the Red Raiders was filled with offense, a few one-liners, and, most importantly, wins—a school-record 82 to be exact. He became Texas Tech’s 12th head coach following the 1986 season and took the Red Raiders to seven bowl games in 13 years, including a 1994 appearance in the Cotton Bowl. He turned out two Doak Walker Award winners in Byron Morris (1984) and Byron Hanspard (1996), while linebacker Zach Thomas was a Butkus Award finalist in 1994. Dykes resides in Horseshoe Bay, Texas.

Dave Boling is a veteran columnist for the Tacoma News Tribune.

Bill Little, a native of Winters, Texas, is an award-winning journalist who has been involved with college football in the Southwest for more than 50 years. The author of seven books on Texas sports, he has worked in media relations in both the Southwest Conference and the Big 12 since the 1960s. He has also has been a sports writer for the Associated Press, Austin American-Statesman, San Angelo Standard-Times, and Abilene Reporter-News.