A flour tortilla flew onto the courtroom during the 2019 NCAA Men’s’ Basketball Championship, briefly pausing the sport and puzzling not less than half the gang contained in the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis — and presumably, the vast majority of the nationwide TV viewers.
The longtime custom of Texas Tech — that originated someday between the late Eighties and early Nineteen Nineties — prompted nationwide news protection from Yahoo News to Time Magazine and USA Today, who simply needed to unravel it. None appeared able to singling it down to at least one easy reply.
Now, almost 4 years later, the origin of the tortilla toss remains to be up within the air.
But earlier than I’m going additional, let me introduce myself: I’m Brandi D. Addison, the regional agriculture and pure assets reporter for the USA TODAY community in West Texas, and that is the introductory column to our latest collection, “Weird West Texas.”
Each week, we’ll discover among the most odd, eccentric and simply plain bizarre issues in our area — from the state’s northernmost city of Booker down into the Big Country, westward to the Permian Basin and all the way in which into the Rolling Plains.
This week, we’re exploring the origin of Texas Tech’s tortilla toss.
Related:Weird West Texas: What’s the story behind Cadillac Ranch?
The historical past of the tortilla custom
Archivists, historians and even lifelong tremendous fans have tossed round a number of tales to accompany Tech’s tortilla custom. For essentially the most half, we had been in a position to slim the standoff down to 2 lasting theories.
The less-exciting model states the unique custom emerged in 1989 when college students would take away the lids from their fountain sodas and throw them onto the sector, in response to Viva the Matadors, a Red Raider fan web site. Quickly after, fans’ drinks had been now not equipped with lids, so as an alternative, they tossed tortillas.
The higher model — for my part — is linked to the rivalry in opposition to the Texas A&M Aggies (which is smart when paired with the Will Rogers and Soapsuds principle). Legend has it that an ESPN announcer, earlier than a Tech-A&M soccer sport in 1992, mentioned Lubbock had “nothing but Tech football and a tortilla factory.” Consequently, fans introduced tortillas to the sport and tossed them at kickoff — and the custom lived on.
A sophisticated relationship between tortillas and Texas Tech
Perhaps probably the most controversial traditions at Texas Tech, even the college web site would not present a lot assist during analysis. Certainly not the worst custom of all school fanbases, the tortilla toss has lengthy been frowned upon by the NCAA (and probably Tech, although measures have not been strictly enforced lately).
In 2018, Tech’s Daily Toreador pupil newspaper asked students and faculty their position on a ban of tortilla-tossing. An archivist with the college mentioned then that it is controversial as a result of most college students like it, however it’s not an official college custom, and she or he believes it displays dangerous sportsmanship. The pupil sources had been largely supportive and defended their rights to toss tortillas, asserting that the contraband tortillas have by no means significantly injured anybody on the sector, together with Tech’s beloved horses.
Though this declare has not but been refuted or confirmed incorrect, that does not essentially imply the custom is totally innocent. In a couple of sport, officers have needed to halt a sport as a result of an abundance of tortilla remnants posed a risk to athletes — and generally, Tech acquired a penalty after the NCAA established a “tortilla penalty” rule in 2001.
It by no means actually stopped fans from sneaking in tortillas in essentially the most inventive methods doable, however nonetheless, college students created a petition in 2018 addressed to former U.S. President Donald Trump, NCAA, Tech President Lawrence Schovanec and Tech Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt.
More than 7,500 supporters signed the petition, which incorrectly labeled the preliminary ban as “xenophobic” earlier than sharing an inaccurate origin of the custom: “(It) dates back to the beginning of time and the founding of the Matadors, who used to only eat tortillas. We throw them on the field to symbolize feeding the matadors, to power our team to glory.”
That story, in addition to others that query whether or not the custom has origins stemming from racism in opposition to the Hispanic group, linger on.
It stays unsure precisely how the tortilla toss custom received began, however it seems many Red Raider fans embrace merely for enjoyable and video games.
Brandi D. Addison is the Agriculture and Natural Resources Reporter for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. She additionally compiles the weekly “ICYMI” column — rounding up the largest news from the week prior every Monday — and the biweekly “In Ag. and Eco,” which explores news about agriculture and setting from across the U.S. Find her on Twitter @BrandiDAddison.
If you are inquisitive about one of many many oddities or quirks in our area, submit your query through electronic mail to [email protected] with “Weird West Texas” within the topic line or through textual content at 806.496.4073 .
story by Source link