Cartoonist Dirk West was clever about creating colorful college football mascots and giving them funny things to say, but sometimes even he could be stumped.
In this cartoon from Oct. 23, 1990, he made a rare departure from his customary style of mascot and depicted the University of Miami Hurricanes as a dark and threatening storm cloud.
When the Tulsa Golden Hurricane came to Lubbock in 1983, Dirk drew the mascot as a tornado-shaped cloud with arms and a face, but it didn't speak. Miami was less personified than that.
Texas Tech was 2-5 and was coming off a 42-21 loss to Rice when the No. 8-ranked Hurricanes came to Lubbock. Dirk drew bullet holes in the boat as well as the Red Raider's hat.
The game was played on Oct. 27, 1990, and the 'Canes had an easy time with the Red Raiders, dominating them 45-10.
TCU had a great beginning to its 1990 season. After losing their opener to Washington State, the Horned Frogs beat Missouri, Oklahoma State, SMU, Arkansas and Rice. They were 3-0 in Southwest Conference play when the cartoon was printed.
However, TCU's season ended even worse than Dirk predicted it would. The Horned Frogs lost all five of their last games and finished the season at 5-6.
Tech had a 4-7 season mark in 1990. It was the worst record of the Spike Dykes era and one of only three losing seasons in Dykes' 13 years as coach. The others were 5-6 records in 1988 and 1992.
