Before playing at United Supermarkets Arena, the Texas Tech basketball team called the Municipal Coliseum home. Before that was The Barn, a small, noisy venue that gave them a significant home-court advantage.
Texas Tech’s most highly-regarded player during Byrne’s time at the university was 6-foot-4, 195-pound forward Jim Reed. He averaged a double-double for his career, earned All-American recognition and led coach Polk Robison’s teams to the Red Raiders’ first two NCAA Tournament appearances. Reed was inducted as one of the seven founding members of the Texas Tech Basketball Ring of Honor in 2019.
Reed died Friday at age 90. His family said he had been battling cancer for about two years and had been in hospice care for the past few days. He had been a Brownfield resident since 1963.
Reed averaged 17.8 points and 14.0 rebounds per game from 1952-1956, 10th and second in Tech history, respectively, and his two career rebounds of 1,333 and 27 rebounds per game remain school records.
“Times change, and everyone says, ‘back in the day,’ but you’re judged by the era you played in,” said Kent Hance, former president of Tech University. “To average a double-double four years in a row is unheard of.”
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Reed ranks in the top six in Tech history in rebounds per game across a span of 23-27.
He once explained his rebounding prowess by telling a story about growing up at a boys’ club in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where there were only two basketballs for 20 to 30 kids. He said you had to have a good feel for the rebound to make a shot.
“I guess I was a little more competitive than some of the other guys,” Reed said during his Ring of Honor ceremony, “I had a pretty good jumper and our team liked to play fast breaks, so we shot a lot, which resulted in a lot of rebounds.”
The Red Raiders began 1956 by scoring over 100 points in four straight games, setting a major collegiate record.
During Reid’s four seasons, Tech went 14-10, 21-5, 18-7 and 13-12, winning the Border Conference championship his final three years and making appearances in the NCAA Tournament in 1954 and 1956. Reid led the Red Raiders in rebounding all four seasons and also led them in scoring his final three seasons.
He was named to the Border Conference First Team and District 6 All-Team three seasons a year and was named All-America twice. He was inducted into the Tech Athletics Hall of Fame in 1967.
The Red Raiders were nearly unbeatable, compiling a 33-1 home record in Reid’s four seasons at The Barn.
“I was in middle school,” Hans said, “and the first game I went to was at The Barn, and it was packed and hot. It was a big deal to be able to go to a Tech game. There wasn’t much space, but it was packed and it was loud. It was awesome.”
“We can hold 2,500 to 3,000 people at full capacity,” Reid said in 2019. “The crowd was so overflowing that sometimes you couldn’t throw the ball unless you had one foot on the out-of-bounds line because people were standing there covering it.”
“The fire chief tried to turn people away. There were fights and riots and people couldn’t get in. All of this happened so they had to build a bigger place. At the Coliseum, you had to wait three to five years to buy season tickets for the first few years.”
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Tech began playing games at the Municipal Coliseum in the 1956-57 season, the year after Reed graduated. It was a significant time in Tech athletics history, as Southwest Conference members finally voted in May 1956 to admit Tech, a long-held desire.
“The football team beat Auburn in the Gator Bowl and my team beat A&M, TCU and Texas on their home court,” Reid said, “and after that year they couldn’t shut us out. So they finally voted for us my senior year.”
Reed was born in Slaton, Arkansas, but lived in Pine Bluff, Arkansas from the third grade through high school. After graduating from Pine Bluff High School, he chose Ole Miss University, but also had a lot of family in West Texas.
“My senior year of high school, we won state championships in football and basketball,” Reed said, “so I was recruited pretty hard and signed to go to Ole Miss.
“But I came here in the summer with my brothers, and while I was here I got scouted by Polk Robison, Buster Brannon at TCU, A&M and a few other schools that I’d never been scouted by before. So they convinced me to stay here, and thanks to my brothers and sisters, I agreed. So I enrolled at Tech.”
