Texas Tech to celebrate cotton at Saturday's game

LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) - The Texas Tech Red Raiders will be taking on the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs on Saturday. Kick-off is at 6 p.m. at Jones AT&T stadium.

Fans are encouraged to wear white to Celebrate Cotton.

And when you come out to the Jones to cheer on the Red Raiders on Saturday, you'll notice a collection of 500-pound cotton bales, 56 of them, to be exact - all in an effort to promote a major economic driver for West Texas.

"Cotton is such a huge part of the economy in West Texas," says Eric Wanjura, vice president of administration for Farmers Cooperative Compress. "It's really important for us to showcase what we do."

While fans get all dressed up in their favorite white-out gear to cheer on Tech Wanjura says it's important for folks to connect with these 500-pound bales.

"I'm a proud Red Raider myself. I've grown up in Lubbock and West Texas, been around cotton all my life."

Just one bale of cotton can make 215 pairs of jeans, 1,217 men's t-shirts, 1,256 pillowcases, or 313,600 $100 bills.

"All of the fans that are out at the game, can get to see the cotton," Wanjura says. "They see it up and down the highway all summer long, the green plants. But, those green plants are slowly transformed into these bales of cotton. It's great for our fans to be able to look and feel and touch the bales, and, be proud of the cotton that's grown in West Texas."

The bales represent the hard work producers put into their crop.

"We need to do everything we can to keep the cotton producers strong and healthy," he says.

So that fans can enjoy putting on their white out essentials.

"We need to do everything we can to produce good quality cotton merchandise," he says. "So, it's something we're really pushing for and proud the cotton t-shirts are going to be proudly displayed at Jones AT&T stadium."

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