Coaches
The 1996 season saw K-State finish with a 9-3 record, while more than 45,000 Wildcat fans painted Dallas purple for the Southwestern Bell Cotton Bowl, Kansas State’s firstever New Year’s Day Bowl. Despite a 19-15 loss to No. 5 BYU, the support and respect for the K-State program grew to unprecedented heights. In 1995, Snyder guided K-State to a 10-2 record, including a 5-2 Big Eight mark to tie for second place behind national champion Nebraska. Following a 54-21 blitzing of WAC champion Colorado State in the 1995 Holiday Bowl, the Wildcats finished the season ranked sixth in the USA Today/CNN coaches poll and seventh in the Associated Press poll. Both rankings were the highest ever attained by a Kansas State football team to that point. In 1995, the Wildcats finished tied for second in the Big Eight and their 5-2 league mark gave K-State two consecutive 5-2 Big Eight seasons. In the last three years of the Big Eight, the Wildcats defeated or tied every team in the league except Nebraska. Since the inception of the Big 12 in 1996, K-State is 53-27 in league games under Snyder (10 seasons). In 1993, Snyder guided K-State to its first bowl win in school history and, in 1994, the Wildcats cracked the Top 10 for the first time in school history. In 1998, the K-State achieved a No. 1 national ranking in one of the major polls for the first time in the program’s history. Individually, Snyder produced 45 different All-Americans during his 17 years as head coach, including nine consensus first-team All-Americans: in 1992 (P Sean Snyder), 1993 (FS Jaime Mendez), 1995 (CB Chris Canty), 1996 (Canty), 1997 (PK Martin Gramatica), 1998 (PR David Allen), 1999 (LB Mark Simoneau) and 2002 (CB Terence Newman). Newman became the third Wildcat to win a national award when he was voted the 2002 Thorpe Award, given to the top collegiate defensive back. Gramatica was the 1997 Lou Groza 56 KANSAS STATE FOOTBALL
2009 FOOTBALL MEDIA GUIDE
Award winner, the first major award winner in Kansas State history. Quarterback Michael Bishop became the first K-State player to be named a finalist for the Heisman Trophy (finishing as runner-up) while winning the Davey O’Brien Award. The foundation for K-State’s turnaround was laid in 1989 during Snyder’s first season in Manhattan. Although the season yielded just a 1-10 record, it became evident to everyone involved in the program that something special was happening. Most important, Snyder instilled a winning attitude and a healthy dose of self-respect and enthusiasm to a program that had been given up for dead. In 1990, Kansas State was one of just four teams in the country to improve its record by four games with a 5-6 mark, including its first Big Eight Conference wins in four seasons with victories over Oklahoma State and Iowa State. Snyder again beat those two schools in 1991, while adding Kansas and Missouri to the list of his Big Eight victims to finish at 74 for K-State’s first winning season since the Independence Bowl season of 1982. Heavy graduation losses on the offensive side of the ball resulted in a 5-6 mark in 1992, but the Wildcats were still able to hang their hats on their first perfect home season (50) since 1934. Of course, it should come as no surprise that Snyder would be this kind of architect for a building program. At Iowa, he played a key role in the renaissance of a Hawkeye program that went from 17 consecutive losing seasons to eight straight bowl appearances. Snyder was the mind behind Iowa’s potent offensive attack. The Hawkeye offense ranked first in passing efficiency and third in passing yardage nationally in Snyder’s last five years of direction. In his final Iowa season, the Peach Bowl team led the Big Ten, and ranked seventh nationally, with 277 passing yards per game. That team was second in the Big Ten with 416 yards of offense per game. Snyder also served as quarterback coach at Iowa and helped develop some of the best quarterbacks in NCAA history, including NFL players Chuck Long (second in Heisman voting
with over 10,000 passing yards in Iowa career), Mark Vlasic and Chuck Hartlieb, who wrapped up his career as the first Hawkeye to throw for 3,000 yards in back-to-back seasons. Snyder began his full-time coaching career in 1964 as an assistant at Indio High School in California. In 1966 he served as a graduate assistant at USC under John McKay before returning to become head coach at Indio High School in 1967. He accepted the same position at Santa Ana Foothill High School in 1969, where he stayed until 1973. In 1974, Snyder became the offensive coordinator on the football staff and head swimming coach at Austin College in Sherman, Texas. He joined the University of North Texas staff in 1976 and helped author an impressive turnaround with a three-year record of 26-7. He left UNT for Iowa in 1979. Over the last three years, Snyder, who was honored as a Big 12 Legend in 2008, remained involved with the university and is currently a member of the Missouri and Kansas Halls of Fame, the Kansas State Athletics and Austin College Sports Halls of Fame while also being inducted into the Holiday Bowl Hall of Fame. The long-time mentor is also still active in the community as he currently is the Chairman of the Kansas Mentors Council and the Kansas Leadership Council, a member of the Board of Directors for Kansas Leadership Center, the Board of Trustees for the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame, the KSU Leadership Studies Advancement Council, the Terry C. Johnson Cancer Research Center Advisory Council, the Manhattan Community Foundation Board of Trustees, the KSU Foundation Board of Trustees and is the Honorary Co-Chairman of the Kansas Masonic Partnership for Life. Snyder, who will turn 70 on October 7, 2009, received his B.A. from William Jewell in 1963. He earned his M.A. from Eastern New Mexico in 1965. As a player, he was a three-year letterwinner as a defensive back at William Jewell. Snyder and his wife, Sharon, have two sons (Sean and Ross) and three daughters (Shannon, Meredith and Whitney). They also have eight grandchildren, Sydney, Katherine, Tate, Matthew, Alexis, Gavin, Kadin and Tylin.