LUBBOCK, Texas — As the 57th Masked Rider for Texas Tech, Lyndi Starr was used to having all eyes on her. But it wasn’t until she caught the eye of John Brown that she realized how being the Masked Rider could shape her life.
Starr transferred to Tech her junior year and joined the ranch horse, horse judging and equestrian teams. She had been around horses her whole life and knew that she wanted to continue riding in college. Starr said she wanted to be the Masked Rider since she was first accepted to Tech.
“I told myself I’m going to be the Masked Rider one day,” Starr said. “I want to be able to represent Tech like that in the highest degree that I possibly could.”
Masked Rider, meet Raider Red
Starr became the Masked Rider for the 2018-2019 school year. The Masked Rider is the official mascot of Tech, Starr said, and at the first spirit meeting is when she met fellow mascot, John Brown. Brown served as one of two Raider Reds during the 2018-2019 season.
The first time she saw Brown, he was wearing a straw cowboy hat that was wrongly shaped, Bermuda khaki shorts, dad-style sneakers. It was a funny and awkward meeting, Starr said, because the spirit directors told them to meet now that they were going to be mascots.
“I was like, what, what is this?” Starr said. “But he was really nice and he had a good smile. He was really shy actually, at that time. I was shy too, because I mean, a whole, huge program was fixin’ to be given to me.”
Brown and Starr started their relationship as friends because they attended multiple appearances together throughout the season. They talked for hours and eventually began picking on each other at appearances, Starr said.
Their first date (wait for it) was a wedding
Slowly through their year of representing Tech, the chemistry between them grew. Tech fans would say there’s no better duo than the Masked Rider and Raider Red, Starr said. Little did fans know that the pair was dating outside of their costumes.
“Our first date was the West Virginia football game,” Starr said. “I invited him to my roommate’s wedding that was later in the day. I didn’t think he was going to say yes, but he did. It was his birthday that day, and his family was in town, and I was like, wow, I didn’t even know. That was like our first date and after that just started dating.”
At appearances, the relationship between Brown and Starr grew. They would attend events together like Tech Parent’s Weekend and Casino Night. The pair had a tortilla fight at an appearance, Starr said, and she couldn’t believe the relationship was really real.
Starr said most of her close friends and family knew that Brown was Raider Red. People close to the couple figured it out because the chemistry between the pair at appearances was easy to pick up on.
“We didn’t officially announce our relationship till after the transfer of reigns ceremony,” Starr said. “Then a lot of people, people that were friends that I had classes with and graduated with, they had no idea that we were dating. They knew I was dating John Brown, but they didn’t know I was dating Raider Red.”
It’s hard for mascots to date
Although their relationship was called a ‘super Red Raider couple’, Starr said sometimes it was hard being mascots and dating. As the Masked Rider, Starr attended 324 appearances and Brown is close to that many.
The couple had to be used to spending time apart, Starr said, since both were on the road for appearances much of the time. If the pair had dated other people, Starr said they wouldn’t be able to understand the time commitment that mascots have.
“It made it more special, I guess, that I got to experience this with someone that I’m close with,” Starr said. “It’s like your best friend, that you’re dating, and going to appearances with.”
Once the pair’s time as mascots ended, the relationship changed. They had to relearn how to be together, Starr said, which was not something they planned on. The couple had to learn how to date normally now that they weren’t traveling all the time.
She knocked him out one time
Ashley Adams, Starr’s close friend, knew that Brown was Raider Red after Starr let it slip that he was at an appearance with her. Adams said she would see Brown with Starr at the equestrian center from time to time.
“When she was getting the horses ready out at the center, there was always a guy tagging along,” Adams said. “It was funny to watch from a distance at first, then I realized it was always the same guy with her. He kept coming, like he kept coming out and she kept throwing him to the wolves, but he would always come back.”
Brown is not as familiar with horses at Starr. Once she hit him in the head with her saddle’s stirrup and almost knocked him out. I thought he knew to get out of the way of someone saddling a horse, but I guess he didn’t, Starr said.
Brown learned more about horses and helped Starr get ready for appearances, Starr said.
“I don’t know if he’ll say it, but I was his first girlfriend and first official relationship,” Starr said. “So, he always tries to go above and beyond. He’s really, really sweet.”
Starr currently works at the Texas Tech equestrian center after graduating this past May. Brown is currently studying abroad in Germany.
Use the video link above to see Starr telling the whole story of this Red Raider romance.
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