Kansas State Wildcats - Football

Football

Main article: Kansas State Wildcats football See also: 2011 Kansas State Wildcats football team

Kansas State's football team officially began play in 1896. The first game recorded in the team's record books is a 14-0 loss to Fort Riley on November 28, 1896. Despite some shining moments in the 1920s and 1930s, by 1989 the school was statistically the worst program in NCAA Division I with a record of 299–509–41.

Fortunes changed in 1989, when the athletic department hired Bill Snyder as head coach. Success and high rankings followed, culminating in a #1 national ranking during the 1998 season and a Big 12 Conference championship in 2003. Between the years of 1993 and 2003, Snyder's teams went 109–29–1 and attended eleven straight bowl games. Bill Snyder retired following the 2005 season, and Ron Prince was named the new head coach.

In his first season, Prince guided the Wildcats to the school's first winning record (7–6) in three years and a spot in the inaugural Texas Bowl. Prince's second and third seasons both ended with 5–7 records. With three games left in the 2008 season, it was announced that Prince would not return for the 2009 season. Prince was replaced by former head coach Snyder, who returned to the school for a second stint.

The team plays its home games at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, and the KSU Marching Band (also known as the Pride of Wildcat Land) performs at all home games.

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Famous quotes containing the word football:

    “Idon’t enjoy getting knocked about on a football field for other people’s amusement. I enjoy it if I’m being paid a lot for it.”
    —David Storey (b. 1933)

    “...I’m not money hungry.... People who are rich want to be richer, but what’s the difference? You can’t take it with you. The toys get different, that’s all. The rich guys buy a football team, the poor guys buy a football. It’s all relative.”
    —Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)

    “You can’t be a Real Country unless you have A BEER and an airline—it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a BEER.”
    —Frank Zappa (1940–1993)