Twenty years ago, the curtain rose on the Big 12 Conference with a Texas Tech-Kansas State football game. In the years since, Tech has grown in enrollment, budget, sports facilities and fan base. Though the first Big 12 game was played in 1996, the blending of the old Big 8 and four members of the Southwest Conference happened — and was announced publicly — in February 1994.
For the 20th anniversary of the first Big 12 opener, A-J Media this week talked separately with four of the key figures on Texas Tech’s end — former chancellor John Montford, former athletic directors Bob Bockrath and Gerald Myers and former football coach Spike Dykes — to get their recollections.