Texas Tech has banned the tradition of flinging tortillas onto the field at Jones AT&T Stadium to avoid increased fines and 15-yard penalties — fearful if one of those penalties cost the Red Raiders a game and a chance to get into the College Football Playoff.
Fans mourned the tradition’s loss on social media.
Just for loving, not throwing. Credit: Screen capture of X post.
But what does this mean to people who make tortillas?
One national tortilla maker had fun with the ban on social media and a Lubbock-based shop is disappointed after starting to sell specially marked “Gameday Tortillas” this season.
Mission Foods, a nationally known tortilla maker, took to X.
@MissionFoodsUS lamented, “Texas Tech this, Texas Tech that, but is anyone asking how we feel?”
To which @TexasTech said, “Sorry about that. You good?”
@MissionFoodsUS responded, “We’ll be okay. Just grieving the end of a scared tradition.”
Mauricio Lira during Teams video call
Mauricio Lira, the social media manager for Mission based in Irving, is a Texas Tech graduate and used to work in the university’s communications office. The Tech response on X was his favorite.
“I think that would probably be the most meaningful to me, just because I worked in the office and I worked running the account,” Lira said.
How did Lira get the idea for this comment on Mission’s X account?
“It’s a common online trope — people say, ‘no one asked how I feel.’ We played into that lighthearted meme,” he said.
Mission Foods told LubbockLights.com the tortilla crackdown will not likely impact sales.
“There were multiple people in the comments saying that they’re going to buy more Mission tortillas,” Lira said.
How did we get here?
If you’ve been living under a tortilla, here’s what’s happened.
1980s or 1990s: No one knows for sure when the tradition started. Some speculated a sports announcer said in 1993 there’s nothing in Lubbock but Tech football and a tortilla factory – prompting an airborne pushback from fans at subsequent games. An Avalanche Journal article speculated this form of food flinging went back to the 1980s when folks chose to throw tortillas instead of drink lids.
August: The Big 12 Conference votes 15-to-1 “solidify an existing game management policy related to the throwing of items onto the playing surface.” The first two incidents would bring warnings, the third a 15-yard penalty. Kirby Hocutt, Tech Director of Athletics was the one vote, saying tortilla tossing can continue for the opening kickoff.
Last week: Tech and Kansas are both fined $25,000 for incidents during Tech’s 42-17 win Oct. 11 in Lubbock. The Red Raiders also received two 15-yard penalties following tortilla tossing. Also, the Big 12 increased penalties to $100,000 for things thrown during games.
This week: Hocutt announces the ban. Tech leaders on social media implore fans to follow the ban starting with Saturday’s home game against Oklahoma State, saying it’s not worth a six-figure fine or losing an important game when the Red Raiders are 6-1 and hoping for post-season success.
Villas Tortillas ‘Game Day Tortilla’ Credit: Courtesy photo.
Local tortilla maker Juan Villa has a different perspective.
Villa was attending a Texas Tech football game a few years ago when he discovered the tradition of flinging tortillas during kickoffs.
One hit him on the head.
That inspired him. Villa moved to Lubbock from Roswell to open Villa’s Tortillas shop on 34th Street.
“It was great seeing the tortillas flying all around,” Villa said.
Villa was proud to see his “Gameday Tortillas” airborne at Jones AT&T Stadium sold four to a pack. He sold a lot of his Gameday Tortillas to people coming from out of town for a game – some of them parents coming to see a game with their kids at tech.
Villa says he’ll sell fewer tortillas now but expects his business to be fine, though he’ll miss the tradition.
Meanwhile, in Mexico
Tortilla makers in Mexico are in trouble. “Cecilia Ruiz, who makes and sells tortillas in downtown Tijuana, told the El Sol Newspaper her sales are down by almost 50 percent as clients such as restaurants and taco stands are placing smaller orders,” said an article Thursday on EverythingLubbock.com.
Fuel and transportation costs were to blame – not football.
Lubbock Lights editor Terry Greenberg contributed to this story.
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