Team Leach Supporters Left with Plenty of Anger
By: Mitch Carr
Updated: January 14, 2010
Mike Leach was fired on December 30th. Thursday was January 14th. It's been two and a half weeks since the initial incident. In that time Texas Tech has won a bowl game and hired an experienced new head coach.
So you might think some of that anger would have simmered down or that folks here might just quietly accept what has already happened. Well any impressions that that was the case were shattered when Team Leach took over Memorial Circle at 1 pm. The crowd responded NO like the goraning of the deck of an old, wooden pirate ship. Hodges gave a knowing reply, "I didn't think so." Hundreds of supporters flooded Memorial Circle on the Tech campus Thursday afternoon in support of Mike Leach, their anger still red hot at the administration that dismissed their favorite pirate. One man dressed in an eyepatch and a shirt that read, "Oh Captain, My Captain," had some venom to spray toward Tech Chancellor Kent Hance. "It's like a member of the family has died." But Team Leach proved to more than just a motley crew of locals mixed in with some students on a break between classes. Randy Brown is a Tech grad who drove 750 miles from Phoenix, 14 hours on the road to be a part of Thursday's rally. "It was worth it because I got to see that there was support for honesty and integrity," Brown said. Nicole Cox made the two our drive from Amarillo to be sure that she was heard. "For something like this to happen, there needs to be answers for it and the administration needs to step up," Cox said. All around angry fans demanded answers. Roger Lopez, who had taken a day off work from the post office to be there, came up with his own solution.
The rally's organizer Charlie Hodges took the mic dressed in a suit with a Texas Tech-colored tie.
"Did this school strive for honor in the way that it canned Mike Leach?" he asked, referencing the final lines of the school song.
"I think Kent Hance is a liar. And I think he's a disgrace to this university."
Another Tech fan, sporting facepaint that might have been overkill at a Halloween party, summed it up this equally as morose.
"If we have to remove some guys from the administration, let it be. Somebody has to walk the plank," Lopez said.
