K-State, city prosper since Snyder's arrival 25 years ago
Ken Corbitt| Topeka Capital-Journal
MANHATTAN— The late 1980s were troubling times at Kansas State University. Enrollment was dwindling, private donations were at a bare minimum and there were numerous shortcomings in academic programs.
Oh, yes, football was a disaster. The Wildcats couldn’t win games and low attendance provided no revenue. There was a distinct possibility K-State could lose its membership in the Big Eight Conference.
Those were the issues facing Jon Wefald when he became K-State’s president in 1986. Football could help turn things around, he believed, but there were more pressing issues.
“The number one priority that alums and the regents talked about was getting enrollment up,” Wefald said. “We had fallen from 19,000 in 1980 to 16,500 when I got there, and the former administration thought we were going to fall to 11,000 or 12,000 students.
“We had the worst library in the Big Eight. In 1986, (the University of Kansas) probably had three times the number of volumes we had. Our research was marginal and our faculty said we had to emphasize that. We were raising $3-4 million a year in private giving. We were the only school in the Big Eight that didn’t have an art museum.
“Football wasn’t even close to my number one priority. No one came up to me and said we had to turn football around. I was speaking at a Kansas City Downtown Rotary Club meeting and talked about it and was told to never bring up football.”
Wefald, however, recognized that athletics— football, in particular— was the front porch to a university’s public image.
After back-to-back winless seasons under Stan Parrish in 1987-88, the Wildcats were again looking for a head coach. Not so much a savior, just someone who could bring respectability and competitiveness to a program dubbed “Futility U” in a 1989 Sports Illustrated article that described the Wildcats as “America’s most hapless team.”
Steve Miller, K-State’s athletic director at the time, and associate AD Jim Epps were politely and rudely turned down by a handful of head coaches. Adjusting their search toward the assistant coach ranks, they came upon the offensive coordinator at Iowa.
Bill Snyder wasn’t a household name nationally, but he had played a key part in turning around programs under head coach Hayden Fry at North Texas and Iowa.
As Miller said at the time, “The light went on.”
“I think Steve was struck by Bill Snyder’s intelligence, work ethic and integrity and his quiet determination,” Wefald said. “We had to talk Bill into it and convince him that the administration would support him and rebuild the entire football structure.”
On Nov. 30, 1988, Snyder— a 47-year-old whose only previous head coaching experience had come at the high school level in California— was introduced as the 32nd football coach in Kansas State history. Calling the job both a “monumental task” and “the greatest challenge of my life,” Snyder accepted it because he saw an “amazing parallel” between K-State’s program and the one he joined at Iowa in 1979.
And because he saw amazing possibilities.
“The opportunity for the greatest turnaround in college football exists here today,” he said at his introductory news conference.
No one knew it at the time, but in that moment the fates of K-State’s program, athletic department and university were forever changed. “Futility U” soon would be transformed into “Prosperity U.”
“I didn’t think there would be anyone who could turn that thing around,” said Dennis Mullin, Chairman/CEO of Steel & Pipe Supply Co., and a Manhattan resident since 1973. “I don’t think they could have found anyone in America who could pull it off like Bill did.”
THE TURNAROUND
How close was K-State to being run out of the Big Eight?
“Oklahoma and Nebraska were tired of coming to Kansas State and playing in front of 15,000 people,” Wefald said. “Their stadiums by 1986 are around 70,000 and they come here and play before a handful of people. Barry Switzer brought Oklahoma here one year and they were ahead 35-0 at halftime and their top 22 guys came out the second half and their shoulder pads were off. If we had sun chairs there, they would have been in those.
“If we keep losing games through 1993, we’re probably dismissed from the Big Eight. Frank Broyles, the AD and coach at Arkansas, had said in 1978 that Arkansas was prepared to leave the Southwest Conference and replace Kansas State— he actually said Kansas State— in the Big Eight. For whatever reason they decided not to do that but, nevertheless, the pressure was on.”
An empty KSU Stadium provided little atmosphere or excitement with an average attendance of 20,975 in the 1988 season to watch an unexciting and unsuccessful product on the field. The crowd at K-State’s final home game in 1988— a 17-6 loss to Iowa State that was the penultimate setback in a campaign that pushed the Wildcats’ nation-worst winless streak to 27 games— was 10,850.
“You could drive into the parking lot five minutes before the game and go right to your seat,” Mullin recalled. “I went to games when there was an average of 15,000 people in that stadium, and that was only helped by the fact that Nebraska sold it out.”
Now, the parking lots are filled with group and individual tailgate parties hours before kickoff and season tickets are sold out months in advance of the season to pack the 50,000-seat stadium. The Wildcats have played before 13 consecutive home sellouts and expect a complete seven sellouts this season.
Mark Janssen, sports editor of the Manhattan Mercury from 1981-2009 and sports director of KMAN Radio in Manhattan from 1970-81, questions the reality of the Big Eight dismissal threat. He readily admits, however, that K-State’s sagging football program was on the verge of threatening the athletic department’s future.
“I think that’s been exaggerated, but I don’t have any proof of that,” Janssen said. “With the movement to the Big 12 (in 1996), I don’t know if they would have been in that mix had things not turned around. A case could be made for that. I think being thrown out of the Big Eight was maybe more of a scare tactic, but it makes a good story today.”
It was enough to scare K-State into pumping resources into its facilities, including a new press box to replace the one infamously known as a 25-year-old temporary structure.
“It leaked terribly so if there was much more than a drizzle it would drip on your workspace,” Janssen said of the press area and coaches booths. “Windows would frost over so it was tough to see out of. For the guys in the upper level, there was a spiral staircase and if you weighed over 230 you were going to have a tough time getting up and down.
“On the plus side, we were four or five levels lower than today and the view was much better.”
CASHING IN
Snyder enters his 23rd season as K-State’s coach — he retired for three years before returning to the sideline in 2009 — with a 178-90-1 record, two Big 12 Conference championships and 15 bowl game appearances.
“As a student in 1987 and 1988, we didn’t win a football game,” said Dave Dreiling, a 1989 K-State graduate who is owner of GTM Sportswear and several Manhattan restaurants. “All you had to do was look at history and the track record of failures and I don’t think anyone — other than Jon Wefald and a few others — really had a lot of hope.”
The Wildcats began winning football games, donations began pouring in and suddenly the campus and the city of Manhattan were energized and transformed into a thriving, bustling community with a renewed sense of pride.
“I would say Bill Snyder is more responsible for the (economic development) in Manhattan the last 25 years than any other person,” Dreiling said. “Winning games started bringing fans back, and that brought pride back and that carried over to the university as a whole.”
Snyder isn’t solely responsible for the vitalization of the community, but the impact of the football program is undeniable.
“When you look at it economically, it’s pretty easy to see,” said Lee Borck, chairman of Innovative Livestock Services and a Manhattan resident for 15 years. “You can start with the highway structure coming in from the interstate with the traffic we have that is directly attributable to the football program. The four-lane highways are multi-million dollar improvements getting in and out of Manhattan, and that has led to economic activity. The impact has been unbelievable.
“On the social side, it has changed Manhattan all together. The university builds activities scheduled around football weekends. Football is at the center of it, but it has spawned a plethora of activities around the community.”
In 1997 there were approximately 600 hotel rooms in Manhattan. Today, with two new hotels recently opening, there are 14 properties providing 1,375 rooms, according to Karen Hibbard, vice president of the Manhattan Convention and Visitors Bureau. The seven or eight home football weekends each season are a financial windfall for the entertainment industry in the city with restaurants seeing a 20-percent increase in sales, Hibbard said.
“Retail sales skyrocketed as success started coming,” Mullin said. “A friend of mine who is a car dealer told me that after a win, car sales spike. He said you can chart it: Lose, sales are down; win, they are up. He said you would never guess the emotional impact on people with a successful program. I think about things like that and it’s just phenomenal.”
In the late 1980s through 1992, retail sales in Manhattan were constantly around $400 million a year and have steadily climbed to just over $1 billion in 2013, according to John Pagen, economic development director of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce. About 10,000 employees have been added to the city’s workforce since 1990, according to the Kansas Department of Labor, due in part to growth at the university as well as Fort Riley military base.
According to U.S. Census Bureau figures, Manhattan has grown from a population of 43,084 in 1990 to its current figure of 56,143. From 2000 to 2010, the population increased 16.6 percent from 44,831 to 52,281. K-State’s enrollment has risen from 19,301 students on campus in 1988 to a 2013 figure of 24,581.
Snyder was named Citizen of the Year by the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce in 1995. A highway leading into town from I-70 is named for him, as is K-State’s football stadium. A statue of the coach was unveiled last year as part of ongoing stadium improvements that benefit Wildcat players and fans.
Snyder downplays his importance but appreciates what has transpired over the past quarter century.
“I have an immense amount of pride with the impact our program has had on the university, the academic environment at our university, the community of Manhattan, the state of Kansas and Kansas State people across the board,” Snyder said. “That’s been significant in our tenure.”
MARKETING MAGIC
A little logo was the foundation of bringing it all together. Snyder wanted an image to identify his program and turned to K-State art instructor Tom Bookwalter for the design.
Bookwalter went through several concepts before coming up with the Powercat, which initially didn’t have a name.
“I just called it a logo,” Snyder said. “I have limited terminology.
“At the time, I said I just wanted that for football. People embraced the Wildcat logo at the time and I didn’t want to disrupt that. I don’t like to be disruptive to something of value, which that was. They allowed me to present the logo under that concept that it would be a football-only thing. Then it grew and became an athletic department thing and became a university logo. I take some pleasure in that, seeing it all over the country and the world.”
The athletic department has transferred rights to the university for the Powercat, which is emblazoned on shirts, caps, license plates and numerous marketing items. The current K-State athletic budget accounts for $4 million in K-State sports properties and $775,000 in licensing revenue. Proceeds from the Powercat license plates, totaling more than $2 million over the years, fund scholarships for K-State students.
Nearly 40 schools in 18 states use the Powercat as a symbol for their athletic teams.
“The Powercat is one of the most popular logos in the country,” Borck said. “Look at what the Jayhawk does for KU. It’s very well recognized, and the Powercat is doing the same thing for K-State.
“There were a lot of folks who thought it was the wrong thing to do to begin with, but you would get very little argument today that it was a stroke of genius.”
KICKOFF TO SUCCESS
Snyder certainly isn’t solely responsible for what has become known as the “Miracle in Manhattan.” There are numerous K-State administrators — past and current on the academic and athletic fronts— Manhattan civic leaders and, of course, Wildcat players and coaches who joined forces to create the fabled turnaround on and off the field.
Every game, though, begins with a kickoff and Snyder was the person who put the ball on the tee.
“I think he outworked everybody,” Dreiling said. “I’ve told him that I think 80 or 90 percent of his philosophy also applies to business. One of the things I learned from him is it’s not where you start from, it’s your rate of improvement every day compared to your competition.”
The 2013 season saw the opening of the West Stadium Center, an $81 million project that includes private suites, improved concession and restroom facilities, a student-athlete dining area and a hall of fame area. When the 2014 home season concludes, the Vanier Complex— which houses the football offices, locker room, weight room and meeting rooms— will come down to make way for a new $65 million building.
This and other athletic facility projects are made possible by a $20 million portion from a university-wide gift from the Jack Vanier Family as well as $16.5 million donations to the Ahearn Fund in the 2014-15 budget.
Twenty-five years ago, K-State took a gamble on an unknown assistant coach and struck gold with a man who did what no one before him could accomplish.
“Bill is a guy who knows his job and is totally dedicated to it,” Mullin said. “You cannot fathom the effect he’s had. I have nine (business) operations, but we’re headquartered in Manhattan because of the environment and it’s such a wonderful town to live in. If we didn’t have Kansas State and quality sports — not just football, but all sports — we wouldn’t be here. It’s part of the ambiance of the city.”
