EDITOR’S NOTE: Texas Tech victories over the University of Texas have been rarer than Red Raiders fans would like. The wins have been punctuated by some of the most memorable plays in Tech football history. Four men responsible for some of those raise-the-hair-on-the-back-of-your-neck moments shared their recollections.

On YouTube, a person can find Anthony Manyweather’s dramatic contribution to the Red Raiders’ 1989 victory in Austin. There was the touchdown catch, a 65-yarder on an out-and-up that gave the Raiders the lead for good in a 24-17 victory.

Texas Tech's Eddy Anderson, left, celebrated with teammate Tyrone Thurman after Anderson's touchdown helped the Red Raiders beat Texas in 1988.

And then came one of the most vivid end-zone celebrations in Tech history. Actually, Manyweather set up shop behind the end zone, turned to face the UT crowd straight on and began … well, shadow boxing or something like it.

“I guess I was basically, I don’t know, getting back at the crowd,” said Manyweather, who was a junior flanker in 1989. “It was a spontaneous reaction, giving it to the fans.”

Back story: The week of the game, Manyweather had a friend shave “Beat UT” into the hair on his head. The Longhorns’ student section got a load of that, Manyweather recalled, and got after him pretty good.

Hence, the zestful celebration.

“It’s a great memory,” he said. “Something I’ll never forget. It’s something I can tell my son (10-year-old Justin) about. Matter of fact, he watches it sometimes.”

Funny thing, Manyweather wound up living and working in Austin from 1996 through 2001 before moving back to his native Los Angeles County, where he’s been a sheriff’s deputy the last two years.

Manyweather was a walk-on, and the TD to beat UT was only his 10th career reception and just his second touchdown.

“That was the hardest catch I ever made,” he said. “I was by myself. You had 82,000 people looking at you. I was thinking to myself, Hurry up, ball. Come down. Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up.’ Fortunately for me, I caught it.”

And boy, did he enjoy the moment.

***

Mickey Peters caught 196 passes in his college career, but he might be best remembered for a pass he threw to wrap up Tech’s last win over Texas.

The final touchdown in Tech’s 42-38 victory in 2002 came with 5:21 to go. The most talked-about play came later, when Peters hit Wes Welker with a flea-flicker pass on third-and-9, allowing the Red Raiders to run out the clock.

Welker, who had been on the sideline the play before, talked coaches into the call. Then he came chugging into the huddle to tell Peters.

“Wes came running up to me and said, Take your gloves off,’ ” Peters said. “I didn’t know what he was talking about. He said, We’re going to throw it.’ I was like, Well, I don’t need to take them off.’ By that time, I was throwing with the gloves.”

Bunched on the right side with Trey Haverty and Welker, Peters stepped back to take a lateral from Kliff Kingsbury, then squared himself and turned it loose just before a couple of Longhorns hit him. He didn’t see how his pass ended up, but he couldn’t have missed the crowd noise as Welker grabbed it and ran 35 yards down the home sideline. Six plays later, the Raiders had run out the clock.

“Later that year, I think somebody gave coach (Dana) Holgorsen a picture of (the play) and he gave me a copy of it,” said Peters, now a land man in Dallas. “It’s actually hanging on the wall right now. … It’s not very pretty form. You could tell I was just trying to get the ball out.”

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Published by The A-J in 2001, “Greatest Moments in Texas Tech Football History” features a cover photo of a completely horizontal Billy Taylor sailing into the end zone above a cadre of Texas Longhorns.

Taylor scored twice in Tech’s 31-28 victory in 1976, both diving over the goal line.

No reason he shouldn’t have.

“I was always a good basketball player,” said Taylor, who was dubbed “The B.T. Express” after a 1970s funk/disco group. “I could dunk a basketball at the time, so when I leaped over the line they called it the express.’ I think I led the intramural team in dunks at Texas Tech.”

The snapshot of Taylor’s takeoff over the ‘Horns – and quarterback Rodney Allison in the background, signaling touchdown – is about as famous as they come in Tech lore. Visitors to Tech’s football building can see it in life size – it covers an entire wall panel.

On a return trip to Lubbock in 2004, Taylor had his picture made in front of the giant photo of his famous play. More gratifying than that, he said, was seeing the boom of the campus and the football program.

“Now everybody hears about Texas Tech,” he said. “That’s the thing I appreciate.”

***

Texas Tech finished 5-6 in 1988 and was only 2-4 when the Texas Longhorns came to town. It turned out to be a milestone afternoon – Tech’s 33-32 win, after trailing by 32-15 to start the fourth quarter, was the largest comeback in school history at the time.

Eddy Anderson caught a 46-yard touchdown pass with 2:36 left in that game, but he remembers that day more for its big-picture implications.

“The biggest thing about that game is that I think we managed in our minds to start believing that the playing field was even,” said Anderson, who now works in financial services in Greenville. “That we were just as talented, that the mystique of the Longhorns was not something to overshadow what we were able to accomplish. That was the day we kind of put everything together. It kind of validated that we had enough talent to be successful and when we played together, this is what we could accomplish.”

Anderson was recruited in the midst of Jerry Moore’s five straight losing seasons. But sure enough, in 1989, the Red Raiders went 9-3 and fortunes began to turn, permanently, for the better.

Billy Joe Tolliver threw a game-winning, two-point conversion pass to Travis Price after hitting Anderson with the TD pass that they mapped out in advance. Anderson ran a slant route, like he’d been doing all game, then turned it into a flag pattern and blew by cornerback Mark Berry.

“I remember telling Billy Joe that, Man, they are all over this hot route, so if you pump fake it, I’ll turn it into a corner route, and we’ll score seven,’ ” Anderson said. “We had developed a trust with each other over the years. This was he and I pulling each other to the side, saying this is what we’re going to do. We didn’t OK it with the coaches. This was us, spur of the moment, getting on the same page.”

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