(Photo: Colgin Hirschel/WCSN)
In 1936, an unknown man wearing a scarlet cape and riding a black horse led the Texas Tech football team onto the field before promptly exiting to start the game. Initially, George Tate and Arch Lamb organized the prank for one occasion, but it stuck around a few more times that year before vanishing.
Seventeen years later, Texas Tech head coach DeWitt Weaver encouraged Joe Kirk Fulton to bring back the scarlet cape and black horse to lead the 10-1 Red Raiders on the field for the 1954 Gator Bowl against Auburn. Texas Tech won the game 35-13, and since then, the Masked Rider has led them out before every game.
“That never gets old,” Texas Tech alum Barry Brown said. “That’s such a cool thing to see that horse shoot down the field, galloping at full speed. That still gives me chills.”
Brown and 60,000 other Red Raider fans experience those chills in the stands at Galaxy Stadium for every home game thanks to Texas Tech’s largest spirit organization, the Saddle Tramps.
Lamb founded the Saddle Tramps in 1936, the same year as the prank, intending to bring school spirit to the Lubbock campus.
“At the time, a lot of the spirit here was unorganized,” current Saddle Tramp Thatcher Bartlett said. “There were students doing random things, just random acts that didn’t signify Texas Tech at all.”
Lamb got to work quickly, changing the way school spirit looked at Texas Tech. Also in 1936, the Saddle Tramps and Texas Tech began their tradition of ringing victory bells after each victory.
For the 90 years since Lamb founded them, the Saddle Tramps have been in charge of preserving and creating all the pageantry surrounding Texas Tech.
“You’re going out there, and you’re doing something that’s a huge part of campus life,” Bartlett said. “It’s a huge part of Lubbock, and it’s a huge thing that people love.”
The Saddle Tramps organize a pregame bell circle, a midnight pep rally and the Homecoming Bonfire.
All helped to draw Bartlett to the Saddle Tramps, but the most important was a sense of community with his fellow members.
“I’m a third-generation student here at Texas Tech,” Bartlett said. “My dad knew who they were, and so did my grandad. I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll look into it and see what it’s about.’ Then I joined.”
When rushing as a freshman in 2025, Bartlett got to know Quinn Hilliard, another freshman planning to join the Saddle Tramps seeking community.
“It’s also a good time to bond with each other,” Hilliard said. “I’ve made some of my best friends in this organization. Some of them will be at my wedding, then some will eventually be at my funeral.”
The Saddle Tramps’ attention to the university’s traditions has helped to mold its local community and future generations of Saddle Tramps.
“I grew up in Lubbock my whole life,” Hilliard said. “I had always been a Tech fan, and I’d always seen them on the field.”
Growing up, Hilliard also saw the statue of Cherokee-American actor Will Rogers and his horse, Soapsud, wrapped in red crepe paper before every home game. The Saddle Tramps began doing this after Texas A&M painted the statue maroon following a 1969 matchup between the two schools.
Even with the threat of vandalism gone, the Saddle Tramps still wrap the statue in red because of its place in the community.
“That’s a sense of unity,” Bartlett said. “Everybody knows that statue. When the students wake up and they see it’s wrapped in red, it means so much.”
While the wrapping signals a home football game, the constant bell ringing sounds success for Texas Tech football.
“Every time we get a first down, we hit our bells on the stand, and that’s when you get wood flying off,” Bartlett said.
Each member has a gold bell on the end of a dark brown piece of wood with Texas Tech’s trademark double-T logo at the end of the handle.
Hilliard’s bell features the silhouette of Will Rogers’ statue, the school’s famous double-T logo and a signature from UFC CEO Dana White. His bell is in near-pristine shape, with white tape on the handle.
Meanwhile, Bartlett’s bell is damaged extensively. The wood holding the bell broke into pieces, which Bartlett fixed with grip tape meant for a baseball bat, of course colored in Texas Tech’s own scarlet and black.
“Mine’s a bit beat up,” Bartlett said. “I’ve had it a while now.”
At one point, former Texas Tech players Brendan Sorsby, David Bailey and Jacob Rodriguez all signed the bell, but through constant usage, the signatures became indecipherable black smudges.
By the end of the homecoming parade, Bartlett’s bell had completely snapped off the wooden post holding it, but he was still there ringing it loudly and proudly.
“Coming into this, I wanted us to be known,” Bartlett said. “People are knowing more and more who we are, what we do, what we stand for and why we’re so important.”
