(Richardson, Texas - Novermber 19) On the sixth of October at the Texas Tech Homecoming game against Iowa State, this writer most likely performed as the oldest cheerleader on the football fields of Texas, maybe even America! Texas Tech hosted a reunion of all ex-cheerleaders complete with reception, recognition, TECH tee-shirts and a full two quarters cheering opportunity on the field.

My cheering did not start at Texas Tech but at Richardson High School. When my family moved into the area, we built in one of the first subdivisions in Richardson. I walked from our home on Lois Lane to the new high school then located at Highland and Abrams Road. That was long before the high school moved to its new building on Belt Line Road in West Richardson. The old senior high school became Richardson Junior High and now houses the Math/Science/Technology Magnet School. I graduated from RHS in 1959.

Almost five decades removed, the scene at Texas Tech was déjà vu, well, almost. The new Texas Tech stadium in Lubbock is a far cry from the sixties grand round. Replete with elegant design, the colossus magnifies the dramatic Spanish architecture that flows throughout the unique campus buildings. With state of the art speakers and field turf carpet, a 300-member marching band, an electrified athletic team, and sky box viewing, the gargantuan stadium held most of the screaming 30,000 students and patriotic half of Lubbock roaring to the flying Matadoress, a Zorro look-alike with lipstick this time.

Cheering ‘til we were hoarse, the generation that could still do lifts and pom dances were fresh out of college while the rest of us far from freshman days were grateful we could lift our arms and shout “GO, TECH!” Several athletic types proved to themselves that they could still turn upside down; I proved to myself that my heart would hold out running onto the field and climbing fifty steps to exit.

(Jan Payne Pierce: Third from the right)

Where were my team mates of yore as I held up the Raider standard? Not a one showed. Possibly they were too proud, too old, too fat, too sick or too-too to show up. For years I too had neglected the invitation to come back. This time I was so blue that I needed some red and black back in my life. The month before I had buried my Texas Tech college sweetheart, and I needed some cheer to dry the tears.

When I first met Ed Pierce, he told me that he noticed me cheering on the field and finally got up the nerve to ask me out. That was my junior year and soon we fell in love, forgetting homework, skipping classes, and hanging out at the SUB way too much.

One day while walking to class, I passed my cheer partner, Bobby Mueller, who asked why I had not signed up for head cheerleader. After all, I was next in line with the most experience. At twenty, I had cheered four years at Richardson High School, instructed five years with the National Cheerleaders Association, and this was my second year as a Texas Tech cheerleader.

But—due to spring fever and Eddie Pierce pox, I had missed the hallowed signup deadline. Rules were rules and the powers in charge followed them to a Double T.

Resigned that my cheer days were setting in the West Texas sun, I threw up my hands and sighed, “Well, if I can’t cheer for Tech, I might as well get married!” And so we did. Eddie died the night before our forty-fifth anniversary.

In Lubbock we had married our senior year. Upon returning this brilliant autumn weekend, I rediscovered our first apartment remodeled for the umpteenth time for the next married college sweethearts, the church where we vowed ‘til death us do part, the dance studio where I taught to pay my way through college, and even snuck in an exercise class with my ballet mentor, now eighty-two years and still gracefully moving. It was a first class homecoming weekend.

Texas Tech beat Iowa State by thirty points. The tears finally gushed when singing the school song of my alma mater. Who says you can’t go back? I just got back from the future that God planned for me. HIT ‘EM, WRECK ‘EM, TEXAS TECH!!

About the writer:
After sweltering in South Texas for forty years, Jan has returned to her roots in North Texas. She lives in a hamlet called Paradise, “halfway to Heaven.” She and Ed raised four children who gave them bragging rights over seven grandchildren. An educator, Jan taught in public, private, and home school settings. She speaks and writes with a passion about the hand of God in Texas History (www.GodandTexas.org), producing curriculum and providing articles to local newspapers.

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