But the football fans hooting and hollering in victory in the newly expanded stadium were wearing maroon.

“This is great – thanks and gig ‘em for that one,” Texas A&M student Kendra Kruse said with an excited laugh.

Hundreds of Texas A&M fans were among the record-setting 57,733 at the stadium for the Aggie victory over Texas Tech.

Texas Tech fans file into one of the new sections at Jones AT&T Stadium before Tech's game against Texas A&M Saturday, Oct, 24, 2009 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Geoffrey McAllister/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

Texas Tech fan Lynn Oconnor enjoys his seat from the highest row in section 115, one of the new sections at Jones AT&T Stadium Saturday, Oct, 24, 2009 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. "These are good seats," said Oconnor, who liked this seat more than sitting behind the end zone. (Geoffrey McAllister/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

Texas Tech fans file into one of the new sections at Jones AT&T Stadium before Tech's game against Texas A&M Saturday, Oct, 24, 2009 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Geoffrey McAllister/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

Texas Tech fans file into section 113, one of the new sections at Jones AT&T Stadium before Tech's game against Texas A&M Saturday, Oct, 24, 2009 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. (Geoffrey McAllister/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

Kruse said she wouldn’t have missed the game, which featured the unveiling of a 6,100-seat expansion to the stadium’s north end. The expansion increased capacity at the stadium to about 59,000 from just less than 53,000.

“It’s just such a big game that we had to make the drive here for it,” Kruse said of her fellow Aggies who made the seven-hour journey from College Station.

Not as pleased with the game were the tens of thousands of Tech fans who filled the gray, concrete stadium with red and black.

Hundreds of people in the crowd shouted “No more Potts” after Red Raider quarterback Taylor Potts threw an interception into the end zone at the end of the first half.

“That’s not right,” Tech fan Brian McGee yelled back to the crowd while standing near his seat in the northwest section of the expanded stadium.

McGee was quick to defend his support for Potts as his team went into the half time down 14 to 28.

“I think he’s made a couple of bad throws, but if he’s our kid out there, I’m going to cheer for him,” he said.

But McGee said he understood the fans’ frustration.

“I think the fans expected we’d kick the hell out of them,” he said.

The Tech fan was still optimistic for a Red Raider victory at half time. Though he said he liked the look at size the expansion gave the stadium, McGee said his complaints were more with aesthetic details of his seat than the Red Raiders’ performance.

“The biggest upset is you can’t hear the band because you’re so high up,” he said.

Like McGee, Tech student Matthew Graham said he was glad to see the expansion.

Before the game, the Tech junior and his friends praised the new seating for including a student section.

“And you know what the best part is – we’ll be able to stay seated, but we can’t see Raider Vision,” Graham told his friends, referencing the seat’s position facing away from the giant screen.

Fellow Tech student Kevin Thomas said he was hopeful the extra seating would allow for more fans to aid the Tech defense.

“Maybe we might be able to get up to the home-field advantage that the Longhorns and Oklahoma have in terms of being loud,” he said.

Returning alumnus Britt Allen came to the game hopeful to see a Tech victory and to see the stadium’s facelift.

“It’s just amazing to see how much Jones Stadium has grown since I first saw it,” he said. “It makes the Double T out in the field look so small … But It’s good – it looks like a stadium that belongs in the upper echelon of college football.”

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Coming out of Garland High School 46 years ago, Turner was a walk-on, too. But he was hardly preferred, and even the term “walk-on” doesn’t have the same connotation now that it did then.

“In 1963, I don’t think there were any limits on how many scholarships were given,” Turner told a crowd at the Memorial Civic Center Friday night. “All the teams in the Southwest Conference gave about 60 scholarships. So if you were a walk-on, you were somebody no one wanted.”

Yet, Turner somehow blossomed, from scorned walk-on, to honorable mention all-America center in 1967 to member of the Tech Athletic Hall of Fame.

He was among seven honored Friday night in the annual Tech Hall of Fame/Hall of Honor induction ceremonies. The Hall of Fame additions were Doug McCutchen, Bake Turner and Jerry Turner from football; Angie Braziel from basketball; and Chuck Harrison from baseball.

Former basketball player and assistant coach Charley Lynch was inducted into the Hall of Honor, and Bob Sweazy received the Dave Brown Award, which goes to a non-Tech graduate who makes a significant contribution to Tech athletics.

This is the second year the Hall of Fame and the Hall of Honor are separate. The Hall of Fame recognizes outstanding athletic performance, and the Hall of Honor rewards those who make significant non-financial contributions, according to the Double-T Association.

Jerry Turner gauged himself to be the most improbable of all the honorees.

“Vividly, I recall the team meeting we had in one of those classrooms at the south end of Jones Stadium,” said Turner, who is now a Tech regent. “They had written up there the depth chart. I kept looking and I found my name – fifth-team center … on the freshman team.”

But he rapidly earned an advocate in an assistant coach Berl Huffman and turned into a three-year starter from 1965 to 1967. In between, he was put on the scholarship rolls.

“This is a great honor tonight,” he said. “That was a greater honor.”

Bake Turner, no relation to Jerry, tickled the crowd with funny stories, such as how he decided as an Alpine High School senior to sign with Tech instead of Texas A&M.

“My dad whispered to me, ‘Texas A&M is not coeducational,”’ Turner said. “I said, ‘Dad, I only need one education.’ He said, ‘No, they have no girls.’ I said, ‘Tech, where do I sign?”’

Bake Turner enjoyed a nine-year pro career, the highlights of which included a 1963 Pro Bowl appearance and playing on the New York Jets’ Super Bowl III championship team. He said he was honored when Joe Namath’s daughter wanted to name her son Bake after Turner. That was much to Turner’s astonishment and to Namath’s dismay.

“He called (his daughter) over and she said, ‘Yes,’ but Joe wouldn’t let her,” Turner told the crowd.

As a Tech letterman from 1959-61, Turner was known as an exceptional all-around athlete in track as well as football. He played receiver and running back, not to mention punting for three years but also setting a school record for career punt-return yardage.

Turner mentioned several of his heros, one of which was Tech quarterback Ken Talkington with whom he teamed up for Turner’s then school-record 444 receiving yards in 1959.

“Ken Talkington set the record,” Turner said. “I just caught the passes.”

McCutchen became Tech’s first 1,000-yard rusher, piling up 1,068 yards in 1970, and finished his career with 2,222, second in school history at the time.

The “Bronte Bruiser,” as he was called, thanked numerous Tech coaches, among them his backfield coach Art Baker.

“Coach Baker really did encourage and believe in me, and that meant so much,” said McCutchen, who is athletic director for the San Angelo ISD. “Every year, they brought in faster people than I was and probably more gifted people. Yet, he believed in me and gave me the encouragement to hang in there and be the competitor that I needed to be.”

Braziel was an All-American for the Lady Raiders in 1999, capping a two-year career in which she averaged 17.4 points, third-best in Tech history.

Braziel, now coaching at her alma mater Odessa Permian, thanked her mother, who presented her Hall of Fame medallion, and former Lady Raiders coach Marsha Sharp.

“It’s very overwhelming,” Braziel told the crowd.

Lynch, who played on Tech’s first SWC teams in the late 1950s, served as an assistant to head coach Gene Gibson in the 1960s. Lynch died in January and his daughter, Jennifer Todd, spoke on his behalf.

“It’s truly an honor,” she said, “and I promise you it goes to a very honorable man.”

Harrison, regarded as Tech’s first bona fide baseball star, wound up playing 10 pro seasons, including parts of seven with the Astros and the Royals.

He came to Tech from Abilene High’s powerful football program and played center for the Red Raiders as well as setting home-run records in baseball.

Sweazy, a former Wichita State football player who joined the Tech faculty in 1970, spent 24 years as the school’s faculty athletic representative and held high-ranking positions in the NCAA. In that capacity, he said he met nearly every president, athletic director, conference commissioner and coach in Division I-A.

“My best memories and best people I ever met and dealt with are right here at Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas,” he said. “I was privileged to work with and learn from a lot of you, and I hope you know that and believe that.”

Former Tech baseball All-American Keith Ginter was voted into this year’s class. But since he’s still playing pro ball and involved in winter baseball, he couldn’t attend Friday’s ceremonies.

All the honorees will receive an on-field recognition today shortly before kickoff of the Red Raiders’ game against Texas A&M.