This past August, I attended Texas Tech’s Centennial launch event. It was filled with school spirit; it made me excited to have earned two degrees and 16 years of employment here. The event reflected on the university’s early days, and it hit me – my family has been here since the beginning. My mind started working and got me thinking – if the university is going to spend the next year celebrating its centennial, I’m going to celebrate my family’s presence here too.

Our family history at Tech started with my great aunt, Mabel Howell. She was home economics education graduate in the class of 1930 – a time when going to college was a rare privilege for most, and almost unheard of for young women. My great grandparents were very hard working people, and had been buying farms in Knox County, so they were able to send their girls to college. They wanted their kids educated, and they also insisted their girls buy a farm before they could get married. Aunt Mabel worked in the Home Economics Cottage and was a member of the Home Ec Club.

A few years later, her kid sister, Mary (we called her Mimmie), became a Matador. Mary’s calling, like mine and my husband’s, was in journalism. She worked for the yearbook, LaVentana, and the student newspaper, the Toreador, where she interviewed Eleanor Roosevelt. I so wish I could find a photo of this event, and I have looked and asked around, but no luck. She told me many times of this huge moment in her career. She was involved in Student Council and was named to Who’s Who. To the left is a screen shot of her profile in La Ventana. She was involved in a little bit of everything. She graduated in 1936. 

Fast forward to the 60s and 70s – my mom and her two sisters attended Tech, all three from what is now the College of Human Sciences. Mom (1972) and my Aunt Becky (1970) majored in home economics education, and my Aunt Doris (1976) majored in social work. Becky was in the class that did not get their graduation ceremony because of the 1970 tornado in Lubbock. My mom got married at 19 years old, moved to Oklahoma and went to college for a little while there. But she realized her heart was at Texas Tech, so she and Dad moved to Lubbock so that Mom could finish her degree here. Below are the three girls: My mom on the left, Aunt Becky in the middle, and Aunt Doris on the right.

Nearly 40 years ahead of me, my uncle, Clint Jones, got his degree in agricultural education. He graduated in 1974. I couldn’t find him in La Ventana and don’t have a great photo of him as a young guy.

My mother-in-law was also a graduate of the College of Human Sciences, majoring in clothing and textiles (1967). Although they met and dated some in high school, Texas Tech is where she and my father-in-law, Albert (1967), decided they were the perfect match. They got married while she was finishing her degree.

The late 80s hit and my twin sisters-in-law became Red Raiders. Somehow Tori made it into La Ventana twice as a freshman in addition to her panel picture. Tori majored in biochemistry (1992), Tara in early childhood development (1993). Tara’s husband, Brett is also a College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources graduate, agricultural economics, in 1993.

In the fall of 1993, my husband Scott enrolled and became a Saddle Tramp. He rang the victory bells so many times, he took a victory lap. He started working at KAMC and finished his journalism degree in 1998. The picture on the right below is the Saddle Tramps rush recruitment poster from 1995, and it still hangs in our garage. Scott is sort of on the front row, fourth from the right, kind of hiding.

Three Irlbeck cousins attended Texas Tech: Amber (journalism, 2000), Alyssa (ag economics, 2004), and Ben (mechanical engineering, 2008). To my mom’s delight, my cousin Kenzie Knoll found her way to Tech through friends and a debate scholarship. She graduated in 2003 with a degree in English. I could go on with second and third cousins, just know there are a lot of family connections here. Other Irlbeck/Middleton cousins have or are currently attending Texas Tech, two are my fellow College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources faculty members: Marty Middleton and Kelly Lange.

As a recent, proud, loyal, and true Oklahoma State ag communications graduate, I came to Lubbock to work as the ag reporter at KLBK. Scott was the ag reporter at KAMC. He saw me as competition and wanted nothing to do with me. But then the stations merged, and his desk was next to mine. I grew on him, we eventually started dating, and finally got married in 2003. Through a series of jobs, I realized I wanted to make a career change and start working in corporate communications, maybe for Bayer or BASF. But everyone that had those jobs had master’s degrees. Seeing that I needed additional education, I enrolled at Texas Tech in 2006 to pursue my master’s degree and was awarded the very first Master of Science in Agricultural Communications from TTU in 2007. During my master’s program, Cindy Akers asked me to take the lead on the video production class – I loved it. I also liked conducting my own research, so I decided to stick around for a doctorate. I earned my Doctor of Education in Agricultural Education in 2009 and started as an assistant professor three weeks later. I was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2015, then professor in 2020.

When I moved to Lubbock to take that job at KLBK in 1998, I had no idea how much Texas Tech University would mean to me. Yes, I always knew that my mom’s side of the family were alumni, and yes, Scott’s family is a pack of Red Raiders. But when I enrolled here, received my diplomas, taught hundreds of Red Raiders of my own, and forged tight friendships with my co-workers this university became part of me. I seriously love these people that I work with, and they have become another form of family for me.

We are now looking to the next generation of Red Raiders with two nephews, one niece, and several cousins and family friends currently attending. So, let’s do the math. Counting me, there are eight alumni on the Howell/Goss side of the family. We’ll go ahead and assume the nephews and niece will graduate, that’s 12 alums on the Irlbeck side. That’s 20 Red Raiders, y’all.

This institution is my life’s work, my research, my friend base, my family. It has been part of my family for nearly 100 years, and will remain that way for the next 100 years.

Here’s the fancy video I edited: