Today, let’s look at what the all-time Gerald Myers era Texas Tech basketball team might look like because some of the best players in program history played under the long-time head coach.
Though there were some excellent Texas Tech basketball teams and players prior to the Gerald Myers era, when the former head coach and athletic director took over the program in 1971, it signaled the dawn of the modern era of Red Raider hoops. So let’s spend some time today as we self-quarantine and look at what an all-time team might look like from the Myers era which spanned from 1971-91.
Born in Borger, Texas and a product of Lubbock High School, Myers is as synonymous with Texas Tech basketball as perhaps any man in the school’s history. As a player from 1955-59, he was Tech’s first-ever All-Southwest Conference honoree.
He returned to the South Plains in 1970 as an assistant coach under Bob Bass. But in 1971, he took the reins and over the next two decades, he would lead Tech to four NCAA Tournaments (in an era when the field was much smaller than it is now) and five SWC titles.
With an overall record of 326-261, he has 78 more wins than any other coach in Red Raider history. What’s more, from 1971-72 to 1986-87, he had just one losing season before ending his run on the bench with four straight seasons below .500.
But for generations of Texas Tech fans under the age of 50 (such as yours truly), the Myers era of the program might as well be the dark ages. That’s why it is important to look back on what an all-time team from his era might look like because many of us need to learn about this important period in Tech history since it was when the program was arguably the best and most consistent in Texas and the SWC for the first time since basketball became a varsity sport at Tech.
Of course, Myers’ time as head coach began ten years prior to my birth and by the time he stepped aside, I was just in the 5th grade. So for that reason, if there are any notable omissions from this team, I ask for the forgiveness of those who were actively following the program for those two decades.
Still, what I know for certain is that Myers was as gritty and tough as any other legend in Texas Tech athletics history. His icy demeanor and furrowed brow made him one of the most intimidating figures to ever walk the Red Raider campus, even during his time as an administrator.
I had the fortune of playing high school basketball for one of Myers’ most successful players, Bubba Jennings. During that time, Coach Jennings loved nothing more than to mix it up with us in practice and he took no prisoners.
In fact, one day he even gave one of my friends a black eye thanks to a wayward elbow that was unleashed during a scramble for a loose ball. Amazed by the fact that our head coach would get that physical in an offseason pickup game, I relayed that story to our athletic trainer, who also went to Tech during the Myers era, and he said, “Bubba played for Gerald Myers. What do you expect? I’m surprised a black eye was all the damage he did.”
At the time, I had no idea who Gerald Myers was but over the years, I’ve head enough stories and red enough tributes to understand just how hardhanded the Red Raider legend was. But that was the mentality that Texas Tech basketball had to possess in the halcyon days of the Southwest Conference when so much of the program’s success came against teams like the Phi Slamma Jamma Houston Cougars.
In a sense, Myers was a grinder much in the same style as Chris Beard. And as we look at the all-time Gerald Myers team, we will see that most of his stars were the type of blue-collar and underdog talents that fought and clawed for everything they earned.