Hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year’s celebration. It was nice just to sit at home and watch television and go to bed at our usual hour.
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I do remember the good old days when we used to gather with a few friends for a nice quiet celebration. But today I want you to think of Bill Snyder, the Football Coach for the Kansas State Wildcats. The team will be playing at the Cotton Bowl in Arlington, Texas, this Friday against the Arkansas Razorbacks.
I wonder how many people remember Bill Snyder when he taught Spanish and was the assistant football coach for Gallatin High School? I believe it was his first year of teaching after graduating in 1962 from William Jewell College. We don’t remember him as much as an assistant football coach as we do being our daughter, Kathy Ann’s, Spanish teacher in 1962-63. He was only there one year when he went on to assistant and full time football coaching. When he became famous for coaching the Kansas State’s football team, I began paying more attention to their games than I had before.
Coach Snyder, 72, retired at the end of the season this year for the second time. His first retirement was in 2005, convinced that he was through with coaching college football. He wanted to spend more time with his family, making up for all his five children’s ballgames and ballets while building Kansas State’s football team to unprecedented heights. When he went to Kansas State University to coach in 1989, they were a very loosing team. In 93 years they had 299 losses out of 510 games they played. When Coach Snyder took over they had 27 winless games, but in five years they had made the most success of any team in college football history. This year he had a son as assistant football coach and a grandson playing on the team.
Bill Snyder was picked as the AP ‘s Big 12 coach of the year for the third time this year. He was also national coach of the year in 1998.
After his retirement in 2005 he never strayed far from the program and kept an office at the athletic complex that was named after him (as was a four-lane highway that runs into town). So when the team floundered under Snyder’s replacement, the school didn’t have to look far for a savior.
It took just two years for Snyder to return Kansas State to a bowl game, the Pinstripe Bowl, last December in New York City and another 12 months to place Kansas State Wildcats among the nation’s elite. In two decades the Wildcats have never been embroiled in a major scandal like some other schools, and their graduation rates are among the best in the big 12. The number of players who have gone on to the NFL under Snyder are staggering.
Kansas State Athletic Director John Currie said, “We’re fortunate to have his leadership, and I think college football is fortunate to have an example of leadership like Bill Snyder.”
Coach Snyder was identified as “Billy Dean Snyder” in the 1962-63 Bulldog. It’s worth noting that the head football coach he worked under was long-time Gallatin Coach Richard Roda. We’ll bet Bill got some good mentoring under Coach Roda. Our hats are off to them both!