New book about Texas Tech Masked Rider available
Long Live the Matadors: The Fearless History of Texas Tech’s Masked Rider is a gorgeous must-have 250-page coffee table volume for Red Raider fans.
Author Stacy Stockard Caliva and Texas Tech University Press have teamed up to produce an elegant, impressive, illustrated history of the Masked Rider program.
And at a very affordable price — $29.95 – thanks to a sponsorship grant from the Helen Jones Foundation.
The Masked Rider tradition dates back 70 years to the Gator Bowl football game on Jan. 1, 1954, when Tech stunned Auburn 35-13. The Red Raiders were led onto the field by Joe Kirk Fulton riding Blackie.
Fulton would be the first of now 62 students selected for the honor of being the Masked Rider, including the author of this book. Stacy Stockard (now Caliva) was the rider in 2004-2005, the 50th anniversary of the program.
Caliva relates the experiences of these student riders, and the horses they rode, in a very readable style. This is one of those coffee table books that you will want to actually read, not just look at the pictures.
The Masked Rider is featured not just at football games but in about 350 public appearances spanning around 15,000 miles in their one-year term.
At the end of the book, Caliva lists all 62 riders (a few earlier ones served more than one year), their hometown, their academic major, and the horse they rode.
