By Don Williams
Lubbock avalanche-Journal
In the front row of Jones AT&T Stadium, pirate flags waved and members of the Goin’ Band waited, anchored in front of their seats to do their post-game duty and play. All the rest of their fellow students had abandoned them – pouring over the walls once, twice, three times – in delirious celebration.

The biggest lived up to its billing.

Texas Tech's Colby Whitlock celebrates after tackling Texas' Chris Ogbonnaya for a safety, giving the Ted Raiders a 2-0 lead.

Some 84 seasons after E.Y. Freeland sent out the first Texas Tech football team, the Red Raiders staked a first-time claim as kings of college football Saturday night with a 39-33 victory over top-ranked Texas. Yep, around here, they’re royalty, all right.

Royalty? Some might say that’s premature, Tech being only halfway through this four-game meat grinder on the schedule. No. 9 Oklahoma State and No. 4 Oklahoma could end the euphoria – dreams get shattered every week in college football. But it won’t take away, nor ever erase what happened Saturday night and all week leading up to it.

It sure looked like a transformation: The phenomenon of Raiderville, a tiny South Plains community that’s thriving on an economy of barbecue, pizza and video games. An inaugural visit from ESPN’s “College GameDay.’’ And then came a game with an ending too crazy for Hollywood.

The biggest lived up to its billing.

Being a good judge of such things, since I grew up among them and as one, a bunch of old West Texans were wearing wider grins than they’d ever dreamed possible as the goalpost under the double-T scoreboard was coming down. Of course, to make those smiles permanent, Tech fans had to weather some UT lightning strikes – a punt-return touchdown in the third quarter, a long-bomb touchdown in the fourth and, finally, agonizingly, a march to a go-ahead touchdown.

Then Tech quarterback Graham Harrell restored the smiles. Nationally, there’s new discussion: Harrell just thrust himself into the Heisman Trophy discussion, no doubt. Is he front and center? In Tech circles, there’s new discussion, too: Did Harrell just pull up a chair alongside Rodney Allison for best clutch quarterback to sport the double-T?

Harrell had 88 seconds and one timeout in his pocket when his history-making drive started and a touchdown pass to Mike Crabtree when it ended.

“It is the biggest catch I ever made,’’ said Crabtree, who caught his 28-yard game-winner at the UT 5-yard line, then spun away from a defender and into the end zone, sending a record crowd into pandemonium.

The biggest lived up to its billing.

Anyone have to pop a nitroglycerine?

Tech coach Mike Leach revealed this week that he was in the midst of reading a book on Sir Winston Churchill. A reporter was joking, sort of, when he asked Leach if this could be the Red Raiders’ finest hour.

I should say so.

From the moment defensive tackle Colby Whitlock stuck his nose in the chest of a UT running back and devoured him for a safety on the first snap, the Raiders handled the spotlight. By halftime, the offense had practically as many yards on UT’s defense as the ’Horns typically give up in a game. One of the toughest rush defenses around didn’t keep Shannon Woods and Baron Batch from doing what they do. The Tech defense executed as good a plan as anyone has all season on Colt McCoy, keeping him in the pocket and sacking him four times. No big penalties killed drives. Heck, Matt Williams made two field goals, and Donnie Carona made one in the fourth quarter.

But if you’re going to take down No. 1 and make your own assault on the summit, it shouldn’t be easy. The Longhorns saw to that with a remarkable comeback.

And still, Tech deserved to win. The Raiders dominated for three quarters, had an advantage of more than 200 yards after four. Had Vondrell McGee’s touchdown with 1:29 left stood up as the winning points for Texas, emotions of Red Raiders everywhere might have been as unsalvageable as a trailer home in a hurricane.

A lot of gray-haired West Texans who never thought they’d see the day don’t have to deal with that, at least not this week. Now, the challenge is to hold it all together. After their performances the last two weeks, the Raiders look capable.

And, at the risk of endorsing anarchy, the residents of Raiderville need to keep up the community building. Hey, what’s a semester of college? Ship those kids more pizzas and don’t let them pull up the tent stakes. No. 9 comes to town next weekend.

Long after midnight Saturday, they and many like-minded souls had traffic jammed all up and down University, their honking horns piercing the night.

Yes, indeed, biggest lived up to its billing.