[12] Research projects in the areas of pulsed power, strengthening national security, grid computing, resilience and adaptability, energy, advancing One Health, rural and urban development, and atmospheric sciences are among the most prominent at the university.

[17] However, the bill was repealed two years later during the next session after it was discovered Governor James E. Ferguson had falsely reported the site committee's choice of location.

After new legislation passed in the state house and senate in 1921, Governor Pat Neff vetoed it, citing hard financial times in West Texas.

[19] On February 10, 1923, Neff signed the legislation creating Texas Technological College, and in July of that year, a committee began searching for a site.

Speakers at the event included Governor Pat Neff; Amon G. Carter; Reverend E. E. Robinson, Colonel Ernest O. Thompson; and Representative Richard M. Chitwood, the chairman of the House Education Committee, who became the first Texas Tech business manager.

[28] The Faculty Advisory Committee suggested changing the name to "Texas State University", feeling the phrase "Technological College" did not define the institution's scope.

[34] In the 1960s and 1970s, the university invested US$150 million in the campus to construct buildings for the library, foreign languages, social sciences, communications, philosophy, electrical and petroleum engineering, art, and architecture.

[65] Texas Tech has seven regional campuses in Texas—in Amarillo, the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, El Paso, Fredericksburg, Junction, Marble Falls, and Waco.

[71] The largest academic division on campus, the College of Arts & Sciences offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in a wide range of subjects from philosophy to mathematics.

The National Wind Institute, which includes 56,000 square feet (5,200 m2) of indoor laboratory space, is focused on research, education, and information outreach.

[88][89][90][Note 1] Texas Tech has partnered with NASA to perfect methods for growing fresh vegetables in space and to determine the most efficient ways to recycle wastewater.

[91] In 2018, faculty member Seiichi Nagihara and his team analyzed data from the 1970s lunar missions and found that incremental changes in the moon’s surface temperature during the 1970s were caused by the astronauts themselves.

Nagihara’s Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity, or LISTER, is a tool that can drill into the moon’s surface and measure underground temperatures.

The university offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees, as well as a graduate certification preparation program, at the regional sites of Amarillo, Dallas/Fort Worth, El Paso, Fredericksburg, Junction, Marble Falls, and Waco.

[115] The museum is home to over eight million objects and specimens and houses the Moody Planetarium, art galleries, a sculpture court, and a natural science research laboratory.

The site has evidence of 12,000 years of use by ancient cultures on the Llano Estacado (Southern High Plains), and allows visitors to watch active archaeological digs.

Structures represented at the center include a linecamp, a dugout, a bunkhouse, a blacksmith shop, a cowchip house, a schoolhouse, corrals, shipping pens, windmills, chuckwagons, and a coal-burning locomotive.

The Texas Tech Lady Raiders, led by player Sheryl Swoopes and head coach Marsha Sharp, won the 1993 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship.

On January 1, 2007, he set the record for most coaching victories in men's NCAA Division I basketball history when the Red Raiders defeated the New Mexico Lobos, 70–68.

[149] Since 1999, Texas Tech has played home basketball games at United Supermarkets Arena, a 15,020-seat multipurpose facility which cost $113 million in 2023 dollars[150] to build.

The $11 million project also includes a significantly upgraded jumbotron with a new sound system, a Spanish Renaissance-themed colonnade, and a north end zone concourse that connects the two stadium halves.

Ed Danforth, a writer for the Atlanta Journal who witnessed the event, later wrote, "No team in any bowl game ever made a more sensational entrance.

The event begins with a carillon concert, from the 46 bells in the west tower of the Administration Building followed a torch-light processional by the Saddle Tramps and High Riders spirit organizations.

[181] In 1959, Texas Tech University Board of Directors member Harold Hinn planned and provided the funding to cover the Science Quadrangle and Administration Building with 5,000 lights.

[182] The tradition has since grown to include decorations like the 38-foot lighted Christmas tree, 3,000 luminaries lining the sidewalks of Memorial Circle, and a 21-foot fresh pine wreath hung on the Physics/Geosciences building built by Women's Service Organization.

Before every home football game, the Saddle Tramps wrap it with red crêpe paper, a tradition dating back to 1969 and a loss to Texas A&M after which the statue was found covered in maroon paint in an apparent prank.

[188] According to one campus legend taught to students during freshman orientation, the statue was originally intended to be positioned with Will Rogers facing due west, so it would appear he was riding into the sunset.

However, that position would cause Soapsuds' posterior end to face due east, a dubious greeting to visitors entering by the main eastern campus entrance where the statue is placed.

[188][189] Modern surveys and satellite imagery have determined the statue's posterior end actually points roughly equidistantly between College Station and Austin, home of another rival team, the Texas Longhorns.

[202][203][204][205][206] Scott Pelley, anchor and managing editor for CBS Evening News and correspondent for 60 Minutes, is a graduate of the College of Media & Communication.