Texas Tech History Lesson: Michael Crabtree Catch

The final entry in the Texas Tech History Lesson Series, Crabtree's Catch!

By Conner Crisp Aug 31, 2015, 9:00am CDT

Was there ever any question as to which Texas Tech Athletics moment would wrap up this History Lesson series? Less than one week remains before Tech opens up their season in Lubbock against Sam Houston State. There is no better choice to excite for a new football season than using the most iconic moment in Texas Tech football history! Let’s take a look back to November 1, 2008. When ESPN’s College Gameday was in Lubbock to broadcast a game between two undefeated teams from Texas.

(Bob Knight, Lee Corso, and Guns on the same stage. Scary.)

It had been an exciting back and forth game between #1 Texas and #7 Texas Tech. With 8 seconds remaining the Red Raiders found themselves on the wrong end of a 33-32 score. I’ve rewritten this paragraph multiple times trying to describe the enormity of the play and the emotions seen after it. However, each time I tried, it didn’t seem to do it justice. I’ll just let the video speak for itself.

(I miss Brent Musburger on the big game calls.)

I remember thinking, Michael Crabtree, please, go out of bounds so we can try to kick the field goal for the win. While I have no doubt that Tech would have converted that FG attempt, I’m glad that Crabtree went into the end zone to create the best moments in Tech football history, especially with it over the Longhorns. I also remember seeing 1 second left on the play clock and thinking that how are those fans going to get off the field so the game can be completed? I’m just glad they did and Tech was able to finish off the game!

(Full game broadcast. Be sure to watch the post game interviews!)

Thank you to all the VTM readers for checking in, weekly, for this Texas Tech History Lesson series. I had a blast getting to research some of these topics that I did not know and reliving some of the ones I did! I hope you enjoyed this series too. I wish I would have been able to get to a few more major Texas sports topics, Donny Anderson, 2014 World Series Team, Sheryl Swoopes, etc., but I think we were able to get a majority of the big topics covered. While the odds are that this year’s Red Raiders will not make the College Football Playoff, the promise of a rebound season is there. I’ll be at The Jones for the kickoff this Saturday and I hope many of you will be able to make some games too! If you see me, be sure to say hi and we can reminisce about the great moments in Texas Tech Athletics that have occurred and dream about the ones yet to come. GUNS UP!

Previous History Lessons:

Mike Leach

Masked Rider

Zach Thomas' Pick-Six