The Band of Brothers of Texas Tech Basketball Fight On
Texas Tech Basketball faced off against No. 11 Iowa State on Wednesday night in Ames and played valiantly in a 51-47 loss while only dressing seven players for the game.
The Big 12 Conference opener for the Red Raiders more resembled close quartered hand to hand combat than a basketball game and it gave way to calling the team The Magnificent Seven for taking on the daunting odds they faced in Ames.
The reports and rumors coming out for the Red Raiders home game against Kansas on Saturday made me think of a different group of outnumbered and outgunned men from a different time immortalized by William Shakespeare.
In Shakespeare’s play Henry V there’s a famous speech from the King that is one of the most moving and memorable speeches written in the English language with a stirring in your soul to face the dirty French.
“He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian:’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.”
- Henry V, Act 4, Scene 3
For all the talk of running through walls this speech will be enough to make any red blooded man run through a garrison of 15th century French soldiers.
The happy few of Red Raider Basketball will take on a fresh Kansas Jayhawks squad Saturday in Lubbock and with the great feats done with the remaining Red Raiders on Wednesday there’s likely more tales to be told with another close game or even an improbable victory.
Allen Corbin grew up in Lubbock, lives in Utah, writes for Raiderland and makes use of all his English classes on a semi-daily basis!
