--- title: Why Someone Threw That Flying Tortilla at Texas Tech description: There's a perfectly good reason someone threw that flying tortilla at Texas Tech. canonical: https://time.com/5566536/tortilla-throwing-at-texas-tech/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-04-09T13:54:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:58:34.021Z og:title: There's a Reason Why Someone Tossed a Tortilla Onto the Court og:description: It happened during the national championship game og:url: https://time.com/5566536/tortilla-throwing-at-texas-tech/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt14691806a87b02a3/698947f7e76ad2c1b1634724/tortillatosstexastech.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Texas Tech Tortilla Toss og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: There's a Reason Why Someone Tossed a Tortilla Onto the Court twitter:description: It happened during the national championship game twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt14691806a87b02a3/698947f7e76ad2c1b1634724/tortillatosstexastech.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's Why There Was A Flying Tortilla During the National Championship by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Apr 9, 2019 1:54 PM UTC  Picture of "Tlayuda" tortillas taken at the 20 de Noviembre market in Oaxaca, Mexico, on February 23, 2017\. / AFP PHOTO / Omar TORRES (Photo credit should read OMAR TORRES/AFP/Getty Images) Picture of "Tlayuda" tortillas taken at the 20 de Noviembre market in Oaxaca, Mexico, on February 23, 2017\. / AFP PHOTO / Omar TORRES (Photo credit should read OMAR TORRES/AFP/Getty Images)OMAR TORREAFP/Getty Images by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Apr 9, 2019 1:54 PM UTC Leave it to a piece of food to crash the [national championship game](http://time.com/5565272/college-basketball-team-ban-cellphones/). Someone flung a [tortilla](http://time.com/4937297/empanada-dog-viral/) onto the court during the national championship in Minneapolis on Monday night, and apparently it’s not the first time an incident like this has gone down. As the Virginia Cavaliers faced off against the Red Raiders on the hardwood during the first half, a tortilla landed in the Texas Tech section to be picked up by Virginia’s Kyle Guy who gave it to a referee. The game even had to be paused. People were – it may not surprise – surprised to see the tortilla enter the arena. > [](https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/1115434083126001664) > [](https://twitter.com/davidmeyers2858/status/1115446224067239936) > [](https://twitter.com/GoodmanHoops/status/1115433191546843136) > [](https://twitter.com/ChuckCarltonDMN/status/1115433946412503040) > [](https://twitter.com/GoodmanHoops/status/1115433191546843136) Who throws a tortilla? And why? ## Here’s why [tortilla throwing at Texas Tech](https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2019/04/08/texas-tech-fan-throws-tortilla-national-championship-game-virginia) is a thing. The genesis of the obscure tortilla toss fan “sport” began when Texas Tech football students started flinging the plastic tops to their sodas on the field [back in 1989](https://www.vivathematadors.com/2015/4/7/8354569/an-ode-to-throwing-tortillas), according to _Viva the Matadors_. ## Tortilla throwing at Texas Tech endures Then the tradition morphed into tortillas for a --- > “” --- Evidently, the flat tortillas were “cheap, and fairly easy to hide on your person.” But the disruptive tortilla wasn’t the only flatbread in the house. And multiple tortilla-holding fans had their traditional tokens confiscated. > [](https://twitter.com/oskargarcia/status/1115433833267126273) The Virginia Cavaliers defeated the Red Raiders 85 to 77\. But shout out to the tortilla, a real most valuable player shaking up the night. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5566536/tortilla-throwing-at-texas-tech/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5566536/tortilla-throwing-at-texas-tech/"},"headline":"Here's Why There Was A Flying Tortilla During the National Championship","datePublished":"2019-04-09T13:54:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:58:34.021Z","description":"There's a perfectly good reason someone threw that flying tortilla at Texas Tech.","url":"https://time.com/5566536/tortilla-throwing-at-texas-tech/","keywords":["Newsfeed","onetime","Sports"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt14691806a87b02a3/698947f7e76ad2c1b1634724/tortillatosstexastech.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt14691806a87b02a3/698947f7e76ad2c1b1634724/tortillatosstexastech.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Texas Tech Tortilla Toss","caption":"MEXICO-GASTRONOMY-CORN","creditText":"OMAR TORREAFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5566536/tortilla-throwing-at-texas-tech/","name":"Here's Why There Was A Flying Tortilla During the National Championship"}}]}] ```