Every young baseball player has dreamt of stepping out of the dugout or the bullpen for the first time and heading into his first MLB game. Making "The Show" is the dream of so many, but it is a goal achieved by very few. With the Red Raiders playing baseball from 1926-1929 and then taking a hiatus until 1954, Red Raiders finding their way to professional baseball didn't pick up steam until the 1960s. 

Chuck Harrison, a native of Abilene, Texas,  became the Red Raiders' first professional player in 1962 when he signed with the Houston Colt .45s as a free agent, and Tech's first MLB player in 1965 when he moved up to the newly renamed Houston Astros as they christened their new ballpark, the Astrodome. Harrison, spent five seasons split between the Astros and the Kansas City Royals as a first baseman. He was inducted into the Texas Tech Hall of Fame in 2009.

Jerry Haggard, a second baseman who played for the Red Raiders from 1966-1969, was named Second Team All American by the American Association of College Baseball Coaches (1969) and was a two-time All-Southwest Conference performer as well (1968, 1969). He became Texas Tech's first MLB Draft pick as he was taken in the 27th Round of the 1969 MLB Draft by the Cleveland Indians. Haggard advanced as high as the AAA Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League that same year at the age of 23. He was inducted into the Texas Tech Hall of Fame in 1987.