This 1987 Southwest Conference Game of the Week was brought to the viewing public by Raycom Sports featuring Coach Bud Wilkerson (Oklahoma legendary head coach) and Merle Harmon, the legendary sportscaster whose career spanned nearly 40 years on the mike covering MLB, NFL, NCAA football and NCAA basketball.
This SWC contest featured a long-standing football rivalry between the Longhorns and the Red Raiders….which was fueled by the that fact that many of the players who played for Tech or Texas dang near every year….were raised in West Texas….a place where football was KING….where rival high school teams would travel long distances to play each other (Odessa Permian vs Abilene Cooper or Midland Bulldogs vs El Paso High)….so, many of the players on each of these college teams had a “rivalry factor” that was already built-in before they faced each other on the gridiron in the SWC.
An interesting factor about this 1987 Texas vs Texas Tech game was that Longhorn Head Coach David McWilliams….was in his 1st year at Texas…..after being hired away from Tech….where he had been the coach of the Red Raiders in 1986….as Tech then hires 1st year Head Coach Spike Dykes…..who led the Red Raiders to a 7 – 5 record in 1987….which was the same record that McWilliams had at Texas in 1987.
Any way you cut the pie….the Longhorns and the Red Raiders always put on a tough battle when they face each other….whether it was back in the day like in this video herewith….or whether it be 2017 when Tech beat the Horns 27 – 24.
