Nov 1, 2014; Lubbock, TX, USA; The Texas Tech Red Raiders masked rider enters the field before the game with the Texas Longhorns at Jones AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
Texas Tech fans had to boycott a major retail store to be admitted to the Southwest Conference.
Texas Tech played in the Border Conference along with New Mexico, New Mexico State, Arizona, Arizona State, Northern Arizona, UTEP, Hardin-Simmons, and West Texas A&M beginning in 1932. Tech would win seven conference championships from 1932 – 1952, the most in the conference’s history.
However, Tech was applying to join the Southwest Conference in 1930, two years before the joined the Border Conference. Yet, Tech was repeatedly denied admittance to the SWC due mostly to behind the scenes politics.
Southern Methodist University was the team most adamant about keeping Tech out of the SWC. Therefore, the citizens of west Texas took matters into their own hands…or should we say scissors.
After being rejected by the SWC for the eighth time in 1952, word spread that SMU was stonewalling Tech. At the time, Stanley Marcus, the founder of Dallas-based department store Neiman Marcus, had close time to SMU.
Texas Tech fans began cutting up their Neiman Marcus credit cards and mailing them to Marcus’ office. After receiving too many of the destroyed cards, Marcus convinced the powers to be at SMU to back off of their stance of keeping Tech out of the conference.
In 1956, Tech was officially admitted to the SWC causing residents of Lubbock to celebrate in the streets. This moment was about more than athletics; it was a sign that the rest of the state could no longer ignore Texas Tech. Tech was now a colleague of Texas, SMU, TCU, Baylor, and Texas A&M, rather than being the forgotten orphan university out in the badlands where the wind never stops blowing.