FEATURE: A conversation with our broadcast team

You’re going to hear and see them all season again. Their voices coming through the radio during Texas Tech basketball games, relaying what’s happening, providing context and increasing excitement. Their interviews and twitter posts bringing you insight into the coaches and players that go beyond stats and results. They connect with the program because they’re part of the program. For the seventh season, Chris Level and Geoff Haxton will be calling Red Raider basketball games together.

Level, who arrived in Lubbock as a Tech student in 1994 is entering his 13th season as the program’s analyst, called his first game in 2010; Haxton, who graduated from Oklahoma State in 2001 and called games for Oral Roberts before moving his family to Texas, came down for the 2016-17 season.

Like our athletes. Like our coaches. Level and Haxton have their own unique stories of how they got to where they’re at. This isn’t their biography. That isn’t our point here. They developed a passion for sports in their youth long before they discovered their talents for broadcasting. Combine the two and it brings us here, a place where they’ve been connecting with Red Raider Nation audiences ever since.

Haxton: My love of all things sports is directly connected to my father. Our relationship was built around running routes in the front yard. We had about half an acre of land just west of Duncan, Oklahoma out in the country. He would come home from being a CPA and we would run routes or hit off the tee. We would always play catch and he also bought us a soft-toss machine. No one else had that back then in the 80s where I was from. That was pretty cool to have a machine like that where you hit it into the net. My moments growing up with my dad built the love I for sports.

Level: My grandfather’s love of the Dallas Cowboys is probably where I began loving sports. Tom Landry was the coach. I realized sports was like a religion and had a huge impact on people. I used to sit at home when I was young and even in high school and memorize the sports pages in the newspaper. I’d read it over and over. Why? I have no idea. I’d read the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Dallas Morning News every day like there was a test coming.

Haxton: I grew up always wanting to be a Division I baseball player. Never thought about being a professional player. Being a Division I baseball player was my goal. It hit me like a freight train when I was 17 that I wasn’t going to be good enough. That was a crushing day. I knew I still wanted to be involved with sports and started thinking of ways to stay around the games. My dad was a coach but I didn’t want to do that. It seemed like a struggle. I found out about broadcasting and thought it was something interesting that I could do and it would keep me in the game. One dream ended. But another started.

Level: I remember playing basketball in the YMCA league. They would give these little stickers that were of a missile. If you made a basket, you got a missile sticker. I remember wanting to get as many stickers as I could. That’s third or fourth grade. I loved basketball even before then, but that really motivated me for some reason. I wasn’t tall yet but I loved the game and being around my friends.

Haxton: My family needed the radio badly back in the 80s to listen to games. We had three television stations where I grew up and games were rarely on. You could catch the occasional game but there wasn’t much. We’d point the antenna towards Wichita Falls, Lawton or Oklahoma City to try and catch games. It started getting better as the years went on. The radio is where I connected to sports growing up though.

Level: There really wasn’t a time in my life where broadcasting was something I knew was going to be my career. I watched everything. Brad Sham and Eric Nadel were big for me because I grew up in the Metroplex. Broadcasting wasn’t why though. It was the game.

Haxton: Bob Barry, Sr. was a really big influence on me. He was huge in Oklahoma. Inevitably, people get asked about their inspirations and most of the times broadcasters point to big national names. I didn’t know those guys existed. I listened to local radio and hoped our antenna would pick up some games for the tv. College athletics was everything to me. Bill Teegins was my mentor in college before he died in the OSU plane crash and Rex Holt. Those were my guys that I looked up to.

Level: I’ve never really been star struck by much, but one year we played in Kansas and Bill Raftery was doing the national broadcast. I went up to him and shook his hand. That was a nerdy thing, but he is someone I had always looked up to. Same with Ernie Johnson when we met him at the Final Four. They do a tremendous job.

Haxton: We had a class in college that really got me going in this. It was very rudimentary. It was called Broadcast Play-By-Play Practicum. We would record into a cassette player. My first game ever was an Oklahoma State basketball game. It was at Gallagher-Iba Arena and I climbed up into the gondola that overlooked the floor. You were hanging right over the court back then. It was Oklahoma State against Nebraska. We just called it like we were on a real radio station. That’s the first time I put on the headset. I took that cassette and played it in my car. I heard myself and the crowd noise. I knew it was what I wanted to do.

Level: My first radio job was with Robert Giovannetti in 2005. I also used to go on Jack Dale’s show. He would interview me about football and basketball. In October of 2005, we got the call asking if we wanted to start a radio show. That was a one-hour show on a news talk station. We had a great time doing it and loved getting to talk about Texas Tech athletics. This is my first year not doing a radio show after 17 years every day.

Haxton: The first game over the air I did was in 1999. Medford versus Timberlake. Class C 8-man football. It was the state championship in Enid, Oklahoma. It was rainy, sleeting and just a really cold day. The press box windows kept fogging up. I had never been on the radio before. They needed someone to fill in and I was available. It was a really cool experience. My dad had come with me to support me. I was nervous and he knew that. He told me after that he thought I could be pretty good at it. That meant a lot to me. We drove home and I remember thinking that it was a lot of fun and that I wanted to get better at it.

Level: Andy Ellis had been doing my job before me. I had never done it before and never really thought about doing it. He just told me to say what I see. My brain didn’t work like that then. I felt like I wasn’t going to be prepared. Kind of just jumped into it. My first game was the Texas Tech season opener in 2010 (an 86-67 win over Louisiana-Monroe). I was extremely nervous and just tried to do the best I could. I didn’t know what I was doing but I did have fun. It was the first time I had ever called a game. Not sure if I’d want to go back and listen to that game again though.

Haxton: Texas Tech rolled in the first game I called for the program (a 93-67 win over Houston Baptist on Nov. 11, 2016). Honestly, I felt like I had rolled too. I got some nice feedback right away that made me feel comfortable and welcomed. That’s important in this job. There was a really cool moment for me when I first got to the table where I was supposed to sit. It had my name on a sheet. That was a big deal to me from where I’ve come from. It was a great night.

Level: That non-conference win against Nevada a few years ago is one of my favorites. Zach Smith went up and blocked a shot right in front of me. I think it won the game. Nevada was a top-10 at the time. It was a big even though maybe we all really didn’t understand at the time. It really sparked all the success we’ve been having.

Haxton: The win at Iowa State in 2019 was really big for me. It was their senior night. If we won we knew we’d share the Big 12 championship. That was a huge game. The team got of to a sluggish start and then Davide hits a 3 before the halftime buzzer. Then you power through to win and get the hardware. All of us were standing in the back of the plane taking photos with the trophy. That was a true honor for me.

Level: The win at Kansas was awesome too. I was starting to think there would never be a day where Texas Tech went into Kansas and won on their home court. We did it though. It wasn’t a fluke either. I’ve called games there were we lost by 40 or 50 points, so that was a day I was pinching myself when we got back in the bus.

Haxton: Never in my wildest imagination did I think I would call one game in Madison Square Garden. I’m a country boy and it felt like I had made it. I graduated with 30 people in my high school and 11 years at Oral Roberts after six years of being a news director at KNID in Enid. We’ve been back multiple times now and I still can’t believe it.

Level: I can’t forget about playing Duke at Madison Square Garden either. That was a big stage and a lot of fun. Jimmy Butler was sitting over there. Duke with all those dudes on their team that are now in the NBA.

Haxton: The NCAA Tournament games we had in Tulsa were emotional for me. They were where I had worked for so long and to be on that stage back there was special for me. Being a part of a special program like this there are so many big ones that we are allowed to do. Keenan Evans hit a step back at the top of the key was one of the calls I’ll never forget. ‘Horns Down, Horns Down’. There was also ‘Winner, Winner, Cardinal Dinner’ after they beat No. 1 Louisville. ‘Best in the West’ to make the Final Four while our equipment was falling apart is memorable for me. I also said ‘Bang’ at ORU after a 3. When I got here I started thinking of what I could do. ‘Guns Up 3 Ball’ has worked really well. I know a lot of people enjoy it. I can’t remember exactly what I said but back in my first year Anthony Livingston hit a 3-pointer near the buzzer for a one-point win over top-10 West Virginia. That was a really big night.

Level: To see where this basketball program is right now compared to when I started and a lot of those years is incredible. I’ve seen it up close and how they did it. There’s this spectrum that I’ve had the honor of being around. If you tell me in 2010 that I would be calling a national championship game for Tech basketball I wouldn’t have believed you. Anything is possible though.

Haxton: Everyone has made us feel like we are part of this basketball family. It’s our duty to them to help communicate to the most passionate fanbase in the country that lives and breathes with everything they do. We’ve got to be a connection when they are listening. To serve in that role is a real responsibility to me. I love it.

Level: We try to provide more than a snapshot. We want to provide context and explain why things are the way they are. That’s our goal. Storytelling for the fans is important. We better know our stuff because if not they’ll eventually figure it out and tune us out.

Haxton: I think Level and I work well together is because we allow each other to be ourselves. I know his strengths and he knows mine. I try to help him scream those strengths out. He has done the same with me. He’s a likeable guy and that helps me. I’ve been comfortable with him from the beginning. I felt immediate acceptance from him. That was important to me since he had been doing things for Tech for so long. We are both invested emotionally. Good things happen on the radio when both people are genuinely in love with what they’re doing.

Level: It sounds corny. But this job of broadcasting basketball games for Texas Tech is an honor. This is my alma mater. That’s not lost on me. I don’t think I’d want to do this job anywhere else. I have a passion for athletics, but it’s really grown into a passion for Texas Tech for me. I have zero desire to do this anywhere else. I think that’s unique. I probably get too excited about the wins and disappointed about losses, but that’s who I am. I’m invested in Tech athletics. I don’t shy away from that. I’m riding the wave just like the fans.

Haxton: I’m dedicated, loyal and passionate. I think that’s helped me in this role here at Texas Tech. Our fans are exactly the same way. I fit here. I connect with them. The person that I am is the Texas Tech type. I embrace the Double T like they’ve embraced me. This is a big-time place and I’m honored to represent the basketball and baseball programs.

Level: I honestly still don’t know if I’m good at this. I do know that I care about Tech though. I care about the programs, the coaches and the players. I think that helps me in this. I work hard to get to know the coaches and the players every year because they’re what keeps this going. Our fanbase is incredible and I hope I do a good job in helping tell the stories of these guys. 

Haxton: Level got me with, ‘If you came here for salvation, you came to the wrong place’ before the Texas game last year. He also said, ‘The moment you think you know the answers, Mark Adams changes the questions.’ That’s pretty good stuff.