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Texas Tech Football: Looking back at memorable season openers

By Matthew Conner

STILLWATER, OK - SEPTEMBER 25: The Texas Tech Red Raiders flag flies outside the stadium before the game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys September 25, 2014 at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The Cowboys defeated the Red Raiders 45-35. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images)
STILLWATER, OK - SEPTEMBER 25: The Texas Tech Red Raiders flag flies outside the stadium before the game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys September 25, 2014 at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The Cowboys defeated the Red Raiders 45-35. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)
(Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images) /

1955: Texas Tech 20 – Texas 14

The next year, Texas Tech opened the season by beating its other hated in-state rival, Texas.  In the first ever night game in Texas Longhorns history, the Red Raiders stunned the 47,000 in attendance at Memorial Stadium handing the Horns their first loss ever in a season opener.

The 1955 Texas Tech team revolutionized the game in a way familiar to modern Texas Tech fans.  Using the forward pass as a major component of its offense, the Red Raiders led the nation in scoring under head coach Dewitt T. Weaver.

Behind star quarterback Jake Kirkpatrick, Tech went 6-3-1 in the regular season before falling 21-12 in the Sun Bowl to Wyoming.  On the season, Tech surpassed the 25-point threshold four times, a rare feat in that era of the sport.

The win was also the first ever in Austin for the Red Raiders.  As we have come to know, finding success in the state capital has been challenging for the Texas Tech football program as is has won just there just seven times since 1927.

The 1955 season would prove to be the final year in the Border Conference for the Red Raiders because in 1956, Tech joined the Southwest Conference.  Thus, the 1955 win to spoil a historic moment for the Longhorns certainly sent a message to the Red Raider’s future conference rivals.

One other interesting note from the 1955 season involves Kirkpatrick.  His grandson, a Lubbock Cooper product also named Jake Kirkpatrick, is currently a freshman defensive back on the 2018 Texas Tech football team.

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