PK is their happy place

By Steve Nussbaum

Pictured left to right:  Texas Tech Athletic Director, Kirby Hocutt; wife, Diane; son, Brooks; family friend, Cooper Scott, and son Drew, enjoying an afternoon at Lush Resort.

The demands of an athletics director at a major university can seem endless these days.

After all, the college sports landscape is changing rapidly, and these historic changes include the transfer portal for athletes, the “name, image and likeness†(NIL) licensing, conference realignments and huge budgets – and all while requiring a high level of overall performance in every sport.

Texas Tech University’s director of athletics, Kirby Hocutt, understands these demands more than almost anyone else, and whenever he takes a break from these constant challenges, he and his family enjoy their “down time†at their property on Possum Kingdom Lake.

Hocutt and his wife, Diane, are the parents of two boys. Their oldest, Drew, is 20 years old and a walk-on football player at Texas Tech, while their youngest, Brooks, is a senior at Frenship High School just outside Lubbock.

The family tries to spend as much time as possible at PK – but, as Hocutt put it: “That doesn’t always happen, and not nearly as much as they’d like.â€

Hocutt grew up in Sherman, Texas, and spent much of his youth at Lake Texoma. His spouse, meanwhile, grew up in Kansas City and spent a lot of time on lakes in that area.  Hocutt said his entire family loves the lake, but noted it’s his wife who probably enjoys it the most.

Hocutt became Texas Tech’s athletic director in 2011, after having held the same position at the University of Miami. He and his family made small trips to the lakes around Lubbock, but he kept hearing about Possum Kingdom Lake during conversations with friends and colleagues.

Finally, in spring 2015, the couple’s two boys were playing league soccer in Dallas, and the Hocutts decided to visit Possum Kingdom on their way back to Lubbock to see what the buzz was about. They made a reservation at The Cliffs, but arrived late at night and couldn’t really see any of the lake.

The next morning, the couple walked out to the edge of the cliff and up the observation deck at the resort, and Hocutt said they couldn’t believe how gorgeous the place was.

“We thought this is the most beautiful lake we’d ever seen,†he said.

By the fall of 2015, the couple had bought their family retreat at PK. Hocutt said they ended up buying the first house they looked at, and it’s been their “happy place†ever since. For the entire Hocutt family, the lake is where they can turn off their television and cellphones. All of them enjoy spending time with extended family at PK – and the many Red Raiders who call PK home, too. The boys enjoy surfing behind the family’s boat, fishing off the dock and jumping in the lake, while Hocutt’s fondest memories are sitting around the fire pit with family and friends.

Relaxing at PK doesn’t always go as planned for Hocutt, though, especially in the ever-changing world of college athletics.

The COVID-19 pandemic that roared through the United States in 2020 posed a tremendous challenge for the world of college athletics, as university administrations faced an uncertain future with canceled events, heightened safety precautions at sporting events, and lost revenues. Despite those hurdles, Hocutt managed to navigate Texas Tech through those difficult times in fairly good shape.

A return to normalcy appeared to be on the horizon in 2021, but that turned out to be a mirage for Hocutt and Texas Tech. 

On April 1 of last year, men’s basketball coach Chris Beard announced his departure from the Red Raiders to take on the same position at the University of Texas. Beard’s squad had made an appearance in the national championship game in 2019 and had made Tech a contender in the Big 12. At the same time, the university was getting ready to open the Dustin R. Womble Basketball Center, a state-of-the-art facility with a price tag of $32.2 million. Hocutt quickly hired West Texas native Mark Adams to lead the team after Beard’s departure, and the new coach beat Beard’s Longhorns twice in 2022 while guiding the Red Raiders to a nice run in the NCAA postseason tournament before falling to Duke. The Red Raiders finished the season ranked 12th in the nation.

In May of last year, Texas A&M made a strong push to hire longtime Red Raiders baseball coach Tim Tadlock. Tadlock had built one of the best baseball programs in the country, with the Red Raiders being frequent participants in the College World Series. Hocutt locked down Tadlock’s contract and was able to keep him in Lubbock.

Then, in July 2021, news broke that the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma were leaving the Big 12 conference to join the Southeastern Conference. This was one of the biggest sports stories of 2021, and Hocutt was right in the middle of it, because Texas Tech had been in the same conference with UT since 1958, and the Red Raiders have been in the Big 12 since its inception in 1996.

On the morning the news broke, Hocutt was with his family at their  beloved  lake  house,  trying to get in a week of rest and relaxation, and he had left his phone at the dock to take a ride on a Sea-Doo personal watercraft. When he got back to the dock, he immediately knew something was up and spent the rest of the day on his phone. He told his wife that he needed to get back to Lubbock, and she understood the urgency of the situation.

For the next several weeks, Hocutt spent time sporadically at PK, but he was still working even when he was at the lake – so much so, in fact, that longtime PK resident and Red Raider Scott Dueser offered up his home office at the lake for Hocutt to take many of his important calls.

Hocutt was assigned to the small committee relegated to forming a new Big 12. As a result, the committee and the remaining Big 12 members welcomed Brigham Young University, the University of Houston, the University of Cincinnati and the University of Central Florida to the conference. In the short term, these new members outperformed the two schools leaving in both football and basketball, and Hocutt was instrumental in stabilizing the conference and the future of Texas Tech athletics.

The fall of last year brought some disappointing results for the Red Raiders in football, so Hocutt decided it was time to make a midseason change at head coach. Matt Wells was dismissed and replaced by interim head coach Sonny Cumbie, who guided the team to a bowl win and a 7-5 record. Hocutt then hired Baylor assistant Joey McQuire to lead the program.

McQuire is a high-energy coach that has seemed to unite the Texas Tech fan base.

At the time of this article, the Red Raiders had the No. 1-ranked recruiting class heading into the upcoming season, and it appears that McQuire will get the university’s football program back on the right track. Hocutt has also overseen well over $100 million in facility upgrades committed this year.

With all the changes in college athletics, Hocutt remains confident the university will do its part to stay ahead of the curve. He’s still bullish on college athletics and touts the great opportunities it provides all the student-athletes.