Many Texas Tech football fans are still asking the question cartoonist Dirk West raised back in 1978 regarding when Tech would be a national power.
The Red Raiders have made the post-season Top 25 rankings for four of the past five years and were ranked No. 2 in the nation for several weeks in 2008, so they seem to be getting closer to that dream.
Junior Samples was a slow-talking country comedian who was a regular on the television series "Hee Haw" and portrayed himself as a dim-witted character.
This cartoon was first published on Oct. 5, 1978 - two days before Tech played Texas A&M in Aggieland. The Boo Bird's misgivings turned out to be correct, and the Aggies easily won 38-9.
The Raiders were coming off a 24-7 home loss against Texas that Moss was lamenting. His prognostication turned out to be as accurate as the Boo Bird's - Oklahoma beat the Longhorns 31-10 in their annual showdown.
Baylor was 0-3 at the time of the cartoon with losses to Georgia, Kentucky and Ohio State. The Bears had a 3-8 season record in 1978, but two of their three wins were big ones against Texas and Texas A&M.
Tech finished the 1978 season with a 7-4 record. It was Rex Dockery's first season as Tech coach.
Dirk portrayed all Tech head football coaches in his cartoons over the years, but this cartoon was probably the only one where he drew a Tech assistant coach. Dirk liked to kid Bob "Pumpkin" Patterson, a defensive line coach at Tech, about his big appetite. He also mentioned him in several other cartoons.
