There is no symbol as recognizable and synonymous with Texas Tech as the Double T. While credit for the creation of the emblem has never been officially claimed, history points to Tech’s first football coaches, E.Y. Freeland and Grady Higginbotham, who presented the 1926 team with sweaters featuring the symbol. As reported in the school newspaper, The Toreador, in 1926:
Coach Freeland kept the boys in suspense as to what was on the sweaters by telling of the difficulties in selecting the letter. When Captain (Windy) Nicklaus stepped forward for his sweater, Coach held it so that the letter could not be seen. He told of some wanting an M (for Matadors), some a T, while he thought a P (for Plains) would be symbolic of the great surrounding country of the college. When Windy unfolded the sweater, he revealed two black outlined T’s on the front of a solid scarlet body.
The Double T was added to both sides of the Texas Tech black shell football helmet for the first time in 1964, and then graced the side of a white shell for a short time from 1970-74 before returning to the original black shell. The Red Raiders and Under Armour are drawing inspiration from this iconic era in the early 70s by bringing back the white shell helmet with a red Double T outlined in black. And, pulling from a version of the helmets only worn previously by the 1974 team, the present-day Red Raiders will have two red stars on each side of the helmet and red facemasks when they face off against TCU on October 11.
Other uniform features include white gloves with the red Double T outlined in black, white pants with a red stripe between two black stripes, and a white jersey with red Texas Tech lettering and red numbers boldly outlined in black.
While throwback in appearance, these uniforms are anything but a retrogression in performance. They are built to be the toughest uniforms in football, powered by UA’s innovative, proprietary ArmourGrid technology. Fans interested in purchasing throwback-inspired Texas Tech gear can visit UA.com and Texas Tech fan gear retailers.
