Texas Tech football coach Joey McGuire’s career arrow is pointed up, coming off an 8-5 finish in his first season and having signed the Red Raiders’ highest-ranked recruiting class since 2011.
A case can be made, though, that McGuire isn’t the most accomplished person in his immediate family. Without question, his daughter, Raegan McGuire, has a greater claim to fame.
Joey, 51, has coached at Crowley, Cedar Hill (where he won three state titles), Baylor and Texas Tech. Raegan, 27, earned a Bachelor’s degree in Apparel Design and Manufacturing at Texas Tech in 2018 and is a senior designer for the AMUR fashion label in New York City.
Joey’s Red Raiders beat both Texas and Oklahoma last season. Impressive, sure, but Raegan’s career recently produced a mic drop milestone that practically announced: “Hold my sketchbook, Dad.”
Raegan designed the yellow dress Taylor Swift has been showcasing throughout her The Eras Tour. Sure, Dad’s football team has a large and passionate following, but to be associated with arguably the most idolized person on Earth? Touchdown, Raegan.
“I could never NOT talk about it,” Raegan said with a laugh when The Dallas Morning News apologetically asked about the dress during an interview about her father. “I’m a huge Swifty.”
Last fall, Swift’s stylist reached out to AMUR with a photo of the dress that Swift wore in her 2019 music video to “Lover” and asked whether a similar dress could be replicated for Swift’s tour.
“Being a Swifty, I feel like I was able to know what they needed,” Raegan said. “But they are extremely confidential. We didn’t know if they were going to use it. We send dresses out all the time and sometimes nothing happens.”
In early April, Raegan flew to North Texas to attend one of Swift’s three concerts at AT&T Stadium.
“I turned to my friend when the concert was starting and was like, ‘How cool would it be if she came out in my dress during “Lover”?’ I was picturing it, hoping I could manifest it.
“And it happened.”
Swift’s 100-plus-show world tour began in March in Arizona and is scheduled to conclude next August in London. Last week The Wall Street Journal reported the tour is on track to potentially become the first in history to gross $1 billion. The first 22 dates alone grossed more than $300 million. Several of her original costumes from the tour are part of a current exhibition at the Arlington Museum of Art.
Raegan returned to North Texas in early May, specifically to Little Elm, where she married Joe Tocco — naturally wearing a dress that she designed.
In late May, Raegan attended one of Swift’s three concerts in New Jersey’s Metlife Stadium, during which the yellow dress again was spotlighted as part of the Lover House staging.
While Joey McGuire is the face of the Red Raiders football program, and his son, Garret, is a rising star assistant on Nebraska’s staff under Matt Rhule, Midlothian High product Raegan is a beacon for Tech’s Apparel Design and Manufacturing program. Before her senior year, she interned at fashion brand Milly in New York.
AMUR — A Meaningful Use of Resources — launched in 2017 as a sustainable brand, using only natural or recycled fibers in its dresses.
Joey McGuire boasts about both of his kids’ accomplishments at every opportunity. It was in Houston last Dec. 27, the day before Texas Tech beat Ole Miss in the TaxAct Texas Bowl, where Raegan learned that Swift’s stylist loved the dress and asked if Swift could keep it and add to her collection.
It so happened that Raegan and her mother, Debbie, were attending a gathering of Texas Tech coaches, staff members and families. Raegan’s cellphone rang and the caller I.D. included the words “Taylor Swift’s stylist.” Raegan stepped out of the room to take the call.
Debbie recalled to The News: “She was like, ‘Oh my gosh, Mom, I’ve got to take this.’ Please don’t tell anybody who it is.”
When Raegan returned to the room, her heart was pounding and her face was flush — Raider red hue, of course.
“Let me tell you, I was keeping it low-key,” Raegan said. “I stepped back into the room, whispered it to my dad and said, ‘But don’t tell anyone.’
“And he proceeds to stand up and tell the entire room. There was like a hundred people in there.”
Twitter: @Townbrad
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