Hometown heroes: Lubbock ISD stars realize dreams with Tech Hall of Fame inductions

Even though he made it to Major League Baseball as a pitcher, Matt Miller insisted he wasn't the most talented of the Texas Tech Athletics Hall of Fame class of 2022 inductees.

Miller might top anyone else, though, when it comes to realizing a lifelong dream. After all, he went to Waters Elementary, Atkins Middle School and Monterey. A self-described "kid on 80th Street" was a ball boy for Gerald Myers' Tech basketball teams from 1985-87 and he grew up to be an all-America pitcher for the Red Raiders.

Going on stage Friday night at the induction banquet marked a crowning achievement.

"This is everything," Miller told emcee Robert Giovannetti. "This is a pinnacle for a guy that grew up in this town and rooted for all the different teams in every sport. The fact that I got to put on the uniform, the fact I got to play in front of my parents and grandparents, people that you grew up in front of, this was the ultimate to me."

Miller, a slender lefthander, reached the majors in 2001 and 2002 with the Detroit Tigers, who drafted him out of Tech in the second round. Former Tech coach Larry Hays, in a video tribute, marveled about how Miller developed after he first watched him as a 140-pound pitcher on the Monterey junior varsity.

"For him to end up pitching in the big leagues, that is some kind of a story," Hays said.

Seven former Red Raiders athletes were inducted in the Tech Athletics Hall of Fame during the banquet at the Overton Hotel & Conference Center, and longtime Red Raiders football director of operations Tommy McVay was inducted posthumously into the Tech Athletics Hall of Honor for distinction among non-athletes. In separate ceremonies Saturday at Jones AT&T Stadium, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was inducted into the Tech Athletics Hall of Fame and the Tech football Ring of Honor.

Miller wasn't the only homegrown standout honored Friday night. Joining him in the Hall of Fame was Kevin Curtis, the Coronado graduate who was a two-time second-team all-America safety for the Red Raiders. Curtis was unheralded as a recruit, to the point defensive backs coach Dean Campbell, whose son was a Coronado teammate and best friend of Curtis's, had to push Spike Dykes to offer him a scholarship.

"Coach Campbell stuck his name out for me," Curtis said. "I was a wing-T quarterback at Lubbock Coronado, and he gave me the opportunity, so I'm very thankful to him."

Miller and Curtis were the first Lubbock ISD products selected for the Tech Athletics Hall of Fame since Estacado graduate Larry Isaac in 2014. It was the first time for two Lubbock ISD graduates to be inducted in the same Tech Hall of Fame class since the 2007 group that included Carl Ince from Lubbock High and Ron Reeves from Monterey.

Friday's other inductees were golfer Oscar Floren, track and field thrower Patience Knight, basketball players Gene Knolle and Norman Reuther and volleyball player Chris Martin.

Whereas Miller might have had the Tech dream from the youngest age, Reuther waited the longest from the end of his Tech career to Hall of Fame induction. He'll soon turn 79. Aside from his marriage and the birth of his daughter, Reuther said receiving Tech athletics' highest honor is the greatest thing he's ever experienced.

"I felt like I belonged, but that alone won't get you there," he said. "I had a lot of people that advocated for me. ... I was afraid that my time had passed, but it all came to pass and I'm thrilled."

A 6-foot-7 forward, Reuther averaged 16.6 points and 8.1 rebounds for his three-year career, playing on Tech teams that went 46-24 from 1963-66. Reuther's teammates, Dub Malaise and Harold Denney, and coach Gene Gibson preceded him into the Hall.

"I'm biased, but there's a school of thought that our '65 team was one of the best ever," he said.

Martin, when she came to Tech from high school in Arizona, said she experienced culture shock, but quickly got over it. "I knew I made the right decision," she said. "I loved every minute here."

In a Tech career from 1988-91, Martin helped the Red Raiders' volleyball team to the program's only 30-win season and to the second round of the NCAA Tournament twice. She was a second-team honoree on the Southwest Conference all-decade team for 1983-92 and still ranks among the top 10 among Tech players for career blocks, digs and aces.

"I'm over the moon," she said of her induction. "It's an amazing honor."

An intense competitor, Martin said her sister and her sister's friend, both freshmen on their high-school varsity when Martin was a senior, nicknamed her "J'Oscar," a combination of "jock" and "Oscar the Grouch," the Sesame Street character known for his surly disposition.

Martin wasn't the only inductee to humor the crowd by confessing to a bad temper. So did Floren, the Red Raiders' three-time all-America golfer from 2004-06.

"Second tournament my freshman year, I threw my driver and broke it right in front of coach (Greg Sands)," Floren said, "so he comes up on the next hole and takes my 3-wood. I had to play the last 11 holes with my irons only. ... Yeah, I get mad. I have a few clubs in water hazards around the world."

Sands corroborated the story, saying "If you break one, I take one." The longest iron left in Floren's bag that day was a 2-iron.

From that beginning, however, Floren became one of the most decorated Red Raiders' golfers and an important one. He started a pipeline of strong players to come to Lubbock from Sweden, the most recent star being Ludvig Aberg, who won the Ben Hogan Award last season as the nation's top collegian.

Since Sands took over the program in 2001, Tech has made NCAA regional play 20 times and advanced to the NCAA championship final tournament 10 times. Players from Sweden have played key roles.

"I don't know how he's so successful with the Swedes," Floren said of Sands' recruiting, "but I'm very proud to be a part of it. I'm very proud to open, maybe, the doors for him."

Knight competed for Tech from 2006-09, winning four Big 12 championships in the shot put and achieving all-America status three times. Her titles came after she was diagnosed in 2007 with Hodgkin's lymphoma and underwent about nine months of treatment via chemotherapy and radiation.

"She had a rough time overcoming that," Tech throws coach Cliff Felkins said in a video tribute, "but when she overcame that cancer, her last two years were historic."

Knight, 35, graduated from Tech with a dual degree in range and wildlife management. She's worked ever since at Alabama A&M in the forestry department as a forestry research technician and a field coordinator.

She said she's had no further issues since she was declared cancer-free.

"You'd be surprised by my reaction, actually," she said upon hearing her diagnosis, "because I'd had a tumor taken out of my side when I was a younger child, so I thought that's what it was again, and I just found it inconvenient. Really, I was like, 'Can we wait after the meet to finish this up?' "

Knight said physicians found a tumor the size of a fist behind her heart.

"It took a couple of surgeries later before I realized it was cancer," she said. "Then I just felt like it would become part of my testimony and journey. I wanted to earn my keep, because the coaches invested in me, gave me a full scholarship, so I wanted them to know they weren't wasting their money. I didn't want to take that scholarship for granted."

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Hometown heroes: Lubbock ISD stars realize dreams with Tech Hall of Fame inductions