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By Joe Gulick
Avalanche-Journal
Texas Tech was 7-1 and ranked 12th in the nation in 1973 when the Red Raiders took on the TCU Horned Frogs in Fort Worth.
TCU was struggling and on its way to a 3-8 season, but the “Frog Face Boy” had one thing on the Red Raiders — a two-game winning streak.
In this Dirk West cartoon from Nov. 9, 1973, the Red Raider was talking about senior quarterback Joe Barnes and the other seniors. Tech coach Jim Carlen, who was in the fourth of his five seasons at Tech, was quoted along the same line that week that his seniors had never beaten TCU.
True, Tech had beaten TCU in 1970, but the 1973 seniors were either redshirted or playing that year on the freshman team, which was called the Picadors, and weren’t part of it.
TCU had beaten Baylor 34-28 in Waco the previous Saturday. As for keeping an eye on Arkansas, the Razorbacks were 5-3 at the time, and Dirk was reminding readers that Texas Tech still had to play them in Arkansas. The Red Raiders whipped TCU 24-10 and beat the Hogs 24-17 two weeks later.
Note Moss’ name on the barker’s podium. Moss had not yet appeared as a character, but Dirk had a running joke going of putting his name in various places.
Tech finished the season with a 10-1 record and defeated Tennessee 28-19 in the 1973 Gator Bowl for a final ranking of No. 11 in the national polls.
Previous Dirk West Cartoons
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