LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – The Masked Rider was named to the Top 10 of USA Today Sports\u2019 Reader\u2019s Choice Awards for Best College Mascot, finishing as the No. 4 mascot in the country.<\/p>\n
In addition to its top-five national finish, the Masked Rider was ranked as the No. 1 mascot in the Big 12 Conference and the No. 1 live mascot in the nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing recognized by USA Today is an incredible honor for the Masked Rider Program,\u201d Stephanie Rhode, Texas Tech Spirit Program director, said in a statement. \u201cThis recognition confirms what Red Raiders have known since 1954: The Masked Rider is one of college athletics\u2019 most iconic mascots. We are proud to see this Texas Tech tradition celebrated on a national stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Masked Rider has served as Texas Tech\u2019s official mascot for more than 70 years. The dramatic pregame entrance, featuring the rider leading the football team onto the field, remains a staple of Red Raider home games. Each year, the university holds a Transfer of Reins ceremony to welcome the new rider, who dons the program\u2019s signature mask and black cape.<\/p>\n
For the 2026-27 academic year, Houston native Sofie Jones is serving as the 65th Masked Rider. Jones is a member of both the Honors College and the Texas Tech Rodeo Team. She is also a third-generation Red Raider, with more than 20 members of her family holding degrees from the university.<\/p>\n
The nominations for the Reader\u2019s Choice Awards were selected by a panel of USA Today sports editors before being put to a public vote.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – The Masked Rider was named to the Top 10 of USA Today Sports\u2019 Reader\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[315,319,251,168,170,169,1769,873,145424,299],"class_list":["post-417590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-big-12","tag-kcbd","tag-local-news","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news","tag-texas-tech","tag-texas-tech-university","tag-the-masked-rider","tag-ttu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}