Love for Chiefs Kingdom burns bright in Patrick Mahomes’ Texas college town
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Editor’s Note: This is a dispatch from our Red Kingdom Road Trip. We’re connecting with Chiefs fans across the country ahead of the Super Bowl — share your story with us using this form. Read more from our journey to Las Vegas for the Super Bowl here on KansasCity.com, in our newsletters, or on The Star’s Instagram.
Today’s Red Kingdom Road Trip dispatch comes to you from Lubbock, Texas, the home of Texas Tech University where Patrick Mahomes played college football and lit it up as a junior.
We traveled across Lubbock trying to answer one simple question: How much has this tight-knit college town — population 260,993 — embraced Mahomes as the pride of Texas Tech?
Meet the muralist painting Mahomes into Lubbock history
When you drive through Lubbock, Texas, the tight-knit college town of Texas Tech University, it won’t be long before you come across two vibrant, spray-painted murals of Patrick Mahomes.
These often-visited murals were painted by Joey Martinez, 45, a Lubbock native who’s a lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan. Recently though, he’s had a big reason to root for the Chiefs — and it has everything to do with the Texas kid who has lit the NFL on fire since becoming Kansas City’s starting quarterback in 2018.
It started when Martinez, who was getting his Bachelor of Fine Arts at Texas Tech, bumped into Mahomes on his way to practice.
“I was like, ‘Patrick! Patrick! Dude you’re killing it. You’re going to kill it when you go pro,’” Martinez remembers telling Mahomes, who was the starting quarterback for the Red Raiders at the time. “I would’ve never guessed that he’d be doing as good as he’s been doing.”
The first time Martinez painted Mahomes in public was the night in 2020 when No. 15 led the Chiefs to their first Super Bowl win in 50 years. As players and coaches hoisted the Lombardi Trophy, Martinez spent the night spray painting a black-and-white close-up of Mahomes in the shadow of the Texas Tech logo.
The next mural of the Chiefs QB came after last year’s Super Bowl win. Martinez was commissioned to paint Mahomes on the side of a taco shop across the street from Texas Tech’s campus. This time, though, he “didn’t want him in uniform.”
“I wanted something people could relate to,” Martinez explained in front of the bright mural, which depicts Mahomes rocking his signature Oakley sunglasses in a patterned Hawaiian shirt.
Now, as Mahomes heads to his fourth Super Bowl in five years, Martinez, too, is getting to work, finishing a canvas of Mahomes in the sleek, black Texas Tech uniform. He hopes to add the finishing touches after the Super Bowl, namely the Super Bowl rings to Mahomes’ fingers.
“I would love it if Patrick Mahomes could own this,” he laughed.
‘Lubbock proud’: Meet the Texas muralist paying tribute to Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes
Texas, birthplace of the Kansas City Chiefs
When his family moved from Northeast Kansas City to Lubbock, Texas, 14-year-old J.R. Morales knew one thing would stay the same: He’d always, always remain a Kansas City Chiefs fan.
Texas is, after all, the original birthplace of Kansas City’s team, Morales, now 60, is quick to point out. Born as the Dallas Texans in 1960, the Chiefs moved up to KC when Lamar Hunt bought the team three short years later.
And since then, Morales’ family have been “die-hard Kansas City Chiefs fans,” he says. Morales grew up going to games at Arrowhead Stadium, and remembers times when the now-jam-packed stadium was hardly half-full.
“I was one of the ones who suffered through that 50 year drought,” he joked when we met up with him at Caprock Cafe, a local bar in Lubbock he frequents to catch games on the big screen.
Morales has lived in Lubbock since he moved here as a teen, graduating from Texas Tech University and eventually helping run his family’s business. But the red-and-gold-hued string that connects him to KC runs as strong as ever.“
As I’ve gotten older, I have less and less ties to Kansas City. I got married here, I have children here. My kids and grandkids are all Dallas Cowboys fans,” he lamented.
“But there’s just so many cool things about Kansas City that people don’t even realize.”
Mahomes loved it, so we tried it
As our Red Kingdom Road Trip to Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas made its stop in Lubbock, Texas, home of Texas Tech University where Patrick Mahomes played college ball, we wondered: What was Mahomes’ favorite place to eat when he was in school?
Sure enough, Mahomes told ESPN what his favorite local restaurant was back in 2016: Spanky’s, a beloved hole-in-the-wall where everything’s fried, including his favorite order, their famous fried cheese.
Or as the Kansas City Chiefs’ star QB put it, their “legendary” fried cheese, which comes 6 for $10.50.
“The fried cheese has always been one of our staples,” owner Lisa West said. “And it’s exactly the same” as it was when the restaurant opened 42 years ago, right across the street from Texas Tech’s main campus.
We tried Patrick Mahomes’ cheat meal in college. It was ‘legendary’
Join the Red Kingdom Road Trip
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Keep following our trip here on KansasCity.com and on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. Here’s where we’ll be stopping over the next several days:
Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Wednesday, Feb. 7
Scottsdale, Arizona, on Thursday, Feb. 8
Sedona, Arizona, on Friday, Feb. 9
Flagstaff, Arizona, on Friday, Feb. 9
Las Vegas, Nevada, on Friday, Feb. 9
