Just saw where the Powerball lotto is up around 150 million dollars. Not a bad little tax problem to have I must say for a dollar “investment”. I rarely play but for some reason it will occasionally grab my attention and dollars. I don’t even pretend it goes to public education any more. I just figure I’m buying a “dream” and paying a “stupid tax”.

Let’s say today though that you did hit the lotto and suddenly had the kind of millions to bestow on Texas Tech that many Red Raiders wish they had. I hear a lot saying that if Tech had a T. Boone Pickens the school would get a lot more out of it than Oklahoma State has so far. . .

So, what would you do with your cash? What would you fund at Texas Tech? Would it be sports-related? Would you do something for the school or college you got your major in? I’m interested to see how creative y’all can get with this today.

Don’t forget that if you live outside the Hubbaplex you can catch our show every day live via www.1340thefan.com where you can also download the smart phone app for SportsRadio 1340 The Fan. I also encourage all of you to give our podcast a FREE TRIAL right now. That’s the best way to never miss a segment, an interview or any discussions about your Red Raiders, Lubbock and West Texas news. Click on any podcast on the front page of our site and begin the journey.

Have a great Sunday and we’ll talk to you on the radio come Monday.

Ryan Hyatt

I wish I could put into words tonight everything I’m feeling with the passing of Texas Tech broadcasting legend Jack Dale. I wish I could, but I can’t right now. He meant so much to me as an inspiration to get into the business, as a mentor once I was crazy enough to try broadcasting, and then later as a great friend and co-worker.

Instead, I’ll leave you to the link and the story Don Williams crafted tonight for the Avalanche-Journal. I know they’ll be many more tributes to come for Jack, and I’ll have my own writings later this weekend when the pen inside my brain gets ready to write again, but for now I just want you all to know that there was no finer gentleman, no honestly kinder soul in this cut-throat business than Jack Dale.

Thank you, Jack. I don’t have the words. . .

Ryan Hyatt

It is hard for me to believe that it has been a decade since we all suffered along with the Oklahoma State family in their loss of ten members of their men’s basketball program in a plane crash on the snowy plains outside of Boulder, Colorado. So much has changed in that time, but one thing remains constant for me and that is the moment in time I realized how very much connected all of us involved in college athletics are on some very basic, human levels.

The day the OSU plane went down the Texas Tech Lady Raiders were traveling to Norman for a Sunday date the next day with the Sooners. It was a bitter cold day in Lubbock with lots of ice and wet stuff falling from the sky. We wondered at the airport if we’d be going by plane or by bus. After a long day of waiting, spending over an hour on the plane waiting for clearance to leave on that cramped, cold plane, being deiced not once but twice, we finally got word that we were clear to go to Norman. At the time it seemed like we’d really been put out. We’d find out later how selfish we were in our complaints of delays, missed shoot-around time and late supper. . .

After finally getting to Norman we headed straight to Outback for a late meal before getting the team down for a noon tip the next day. I don’t know why, but over the years I made it a habit to be the last one off the bus whether it was practice, team meals or whatever. So, as got ready to get off the bus that night I realized Tech Head Coach Marsha Sharp will still in her customary front seat, on the phone, talking in hushed tones with another of our coaches near by.

For some reason I held back just a bit, not wanting to intrude when she wrapped up the conversation with a blank look on her face.

“They lost a plane today,” she said.

“Oklahoma State’s men’s team is missing a plane coming back from Colorado,” She added.

Before I could even begin to process and ask what lost meant she told someone else that they didn’t think or weren’t sure at that point if there were any survivors.

From that moment on that night it would be an evening starting out with the slightest of hope only to learn that the worst would be confirmed. All ten on the plane killed. All ten lost doing the very thing all of us had just done and would do tomorrow at about 4 p.m. Get on a plane and go home. . .

That night was an emotional one for anyone involved. Whether it was the OSU family or all of us extended members of the college basketball family. From coaches to players, from trainers to doctors, radio and TV and media relations directors; we could all share in the connectedness.

We all sat there not really eating watching the first TV reports out of Oklahoma City confirming what we’d been privy to just a few minutes early. No one really even had to say it. We all knew and all understood that night that it could have been any of us, at any time. To say that as a program that night everyone understood exactly where basketball ranked in life would be a sad understatement.

Not that it mattered but for some of us in the business we could relate even more perhaps. At OSU, as in most places that used multiple small planes to ferry the travel party of up to 25 or 30 on a given trip the groupings usually were the same. The plane that went down for OSU was the slower traveling plane with a few players, but mainly support group personnel like their young media relations employee, some reserve players, their director of basketball operations and their radio play-by-play man. It was not an uncommon grouping of folks and it wasn’t a deliberate caste system that put them on that plane, it’s just the way travel was and is still done a lot of times.

Obviously for me it hit home that night because I’d been on “that plane” any number of times. It didn’t matter, but it did. No matter who was involved it still was a horrific moment, but for some of us we related maybe a little closer to that group of people and said our prayers that night knowing that at any time in the past or any time in the future it might have been or could be our families getting that awful call.

The memories of those men still are rightfully celebrated and more importantly honored by the safeguards put in by many universities when it comes to travel these days. For that, everyone involved in the business of college athletics owes them a debt of gratitude every time they head to the airport for an away game.

Beyond that though for me, that night galvanized a feeling that one day I wouldn’t want to get on a plane again and one day that would probably contribute to me not doing sports play-by-play, at least the way I did it for two decades.

I had always had a fear of flying. It was part of the job though and even though we all accept it I never could accept it as an “acceptable risk”. I hated it.

Ten years ago when we were all struck by the OSU tragedy I was single. I had just met the woman I’d marry and have a wonderful son with. Ten years ago on this night though I knew even then that my days of calling games and flying for six months of the year through snow storms, ice storms and everything else would probably come to an end in part because I hated flying so much.

I think that to this day that night had a profound affect on so many not just involved in the program at OSU, but around the league and basketball in general. To this day I think it played a large role in Eddie Sutton’s battle with alcohol and painkillers. I know he made some bad choices afterwards, and that’s on him, but I’ve always tried to cut some slack to a guy I know had to make ten of the hardest phone calls a man will ever make in one night. I feel the same way for Sean Sutton and issues he’s dealt with. I even know how personally affected men like then Texas Tech coach James Dickey was affected, having been a part of Sutton’s staff at one time and still a great friend.

As I write this tonight I don’t want you to think it is from the self-serving perch of woe-is-us who have or had to travel. Lots of people do. Mainly I want to write it from the standpoint of letting folks know what what happened that day in Colorado wasn’t a singular incident that just affected the Oklahoma State program or family. It changed all of us in the business that day.

I would call Texas Tech games for another eight years after that season. I never got on another plane when I didn’t think about those ten men, those ten men that died doing something they loved but left so much more life out there ahead of them.

I have so many good friends still on staff at Texas Tech, around the Big 12 and beyond. As the seasons go on now I think about them each time I get a release that says they’re going a road trip. I think about them each time I see on facebook they’re heading to the airport for a quick-trip to fill-in-the-blank. I think about them and I say a prayer that every last one of them makes it back every single time, because ten years ago tonight I learned that life doesn’t always work that way.

For me now, I fly when I want to and not when I “have” to. Since I stepped down calling the Tech games after the 2009 season I’ve been on exactly two planes.

And yes, both times I thought about sitting on that bus outside a Norman, Oklahoma steakhouse hearing the words that would forever change the way I looked at my involvement in college sports. No, we won’t forget you:

Kendall Durfey- Broadcast engineer

Bjorn Fahlstrom- Pilot

Nate Fleming- Player

Will Hancock- Sports info. director

Daniel Lawson- Player

Brian Luinstra- Trainer

Denver Mills- Pilot

Pat Noyes- Administrator

Bill Teegins- TV director

Jared Weiberg- Manager

All of us in or out of the business will always know that we’re just one of you guys. . .and we’re glad y’all were “one of us”.

Ryan Hyatt

It’s a busy day on the show this afternoon. We’ll get you started by helping you set your fantasy football line-up with the help of NFP.com’s Joe Fortenbaugh. If you’re not following him on Twitter, you should be by the way.  .  . great stuff.

After that Lady Raider Head Coach Kristy Curry joins us before the season opener at New Mexico this week.

We’ll also take a look at the Texas Tech defense and see if they can do to Oklahoma what they did to Missouri. Don Williams has the write-up in the A-J today on what worked so well last weekend.

There’s also that little Cam Newton story brewing in the SEC. It is just another reminder that the two slimiest sports out there ( after cycling ) are men’s college basketball and college football. Nothing else is even close. No matter what the truth is on the Newt0n-Auburn story is, all whole bunch of folks are lying somewhere and playing with fire. This will only get uglier. Of course, that’s just a normal Wednesday in the SEC.

Get your calls in today starting at 3 on The Fan by dialing 1-866-984-5326.

Hyatt

It was a great weekend to be a golf fan. Whether you were rooting on former South African farm-boy Louis Oosthuizen, former Texas Tech QB Billy Joe Tolliver in the celebrity challenge in Tahoe or just the local guys in the Lakeridge Stampede you had plenty of great moments.

With Tiger Woods matching two of his biggest droughts without a major leaving Scotland without the Claret Jug or a top-ten finish we can ask today’s question. What is the toughest record in sports to break? Is it Jack Nicklaus’ 18 majors? Is it Nolan Ryan’s 7 career no-hitters? What about that little 56-game hit streak Joltin’ Joe had? Look around and tell us what you think the toughest record in sports is to break today and we’ll read your answer on the show tonight. Of course you can call-in from anywhere at 1-866-984-5326 starting at 3.

We will also look at Texas Tech’s decision to end the PSL program at the United Spirit Arena for Lady Raider and men’s basketball. A great move, to be sure, and maybe one that comes a year too late.

We’ll also check in on some early high school football with the A-J’s George Watson and we’ll look at a productive weekend for the Texas Rangers, even if Cliff Lee is learning what like was like for Nolan Ryan with the Astros in 1987 . . . and that ain’t a good thing.

We’ll see you at three!

Don’t miss interviews like today’s with Tech Pres. Dr. Guy Bailey and Tech A. D. Gerald Myers.

Take The Show where ever you go. Sign-up today and keep up with your Red Raiders and everything else you love about Lubbock and West Texas. You’ll be glad you did~

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There aren’t many times I’d say it is a great day to be in Kansas City in mid-March but this is one of those times. With the Tech men taking on #1 Kansas and the Lady Raiders getting Kansas State in the Big 12 Tournament for the first time since an emotional semi-final win in Dallas back in 2003 you’ve got a day of drama and hope.

With their win over Colorado yesterday the Tech men proved they haven’t quit or the season or their coach. It was an important win for Pat Knight to show that his team was still working hard and hadn’t tuned him out. It was debatable after last weekends no-show in Boulder when the Red Raiders looked like a team ready to go on Spring Break.

Now with a first round win in K.C. I think Tech’s played their way into the N.I.T. I hate the N.I.T. but someone from the Big 12 has got to play in it so it might as well be Tech.

As for their chances against Kansas, just look back to a year ago and what Baylor did with their upset. Since then the Bears have been on a tear. winning 30 games. Not saying Tech pulls off what might be the biggest upset in school history or at least since 1970, but anything can happen in March.

The Lady Raiders can take the confidence of having beaten Kansas State in Manhattan a few weeks ago before free-falling during their final three games and putting themselves firmly out of the NCAA Tournament going to K.C. Right now it would most likely take a win today and a win over undefeated Nebraska to get back into the NCAA Tournament picture. The bubble on the women’s side is just as soft as the men’s side when it comes to teams getting in. If Jordan Murphree, Ashley Roberson and Kierra Mallard all show up today Tech will get their shot at Nebraska. If not . . .

If you happen to be reading this in Kansas City I heartily encourage you to head over to Arthur Bryant’s BBQ for some great eats. They also have some of the best fries you’re going to get anywhere. Make sure you go to the original by the way. That’ll be one of the things I’ll miss most about the Tournament up there this year. (That and a certain craps table at Harrah’s, but that is a different story for another day!)

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HYATT