Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium

Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium is a Football stadium in Manhattan, Kansas and is home to the Kansas State Wildcats. It opened as KSU Stadium in 1968 and has received periodical renovations since including up to date locker rooms, more seating, turf, a five-level press box, and other features to improve the stadium. In 2005, Kansas State officials proposed to rename the Stadium in honor of retiring coach Bill Snyder. Bill Snyder is most remembered for his time at K-State from 1989 to 2005 and later 2009 to 2018 where he brought much success and orchestrated what many believe to be the biggest turnaround any program that college football had seen. 

Bill Snyder would begin his coaching career as a grad assistant at USC. He soon found himself bouncing around California high schools before going to North Texas and then later Iowa where he would be for ten years. During his tenure, Snyder would help turn a bottom dwelling Iowa team into a conference powerhouse and this caught Kansas State’s attention. Snyder would take the job at K-State and would inherit a hopeless program. K-State had cumulative record of 299-510, 1 bowl game appearance in their history, and had enjoyed 4 winning seasons in the previous 54 years. To put it lightly, the program was awful. Bill Snyder would revive the program in shocking fashion. During his time at K-State, Snyder led the Wildcats to two big 12 championships, 19 bowl games, and went 215-117-1 at KSU. What might get overshadowed by football success is the human aspect of Bill Snyder and the way molded the players on his team through his influence and lessons into great humans. A Great coach builds great people, not just great players and Bill Snyder is a great example of how to not only turn a program around, but also build players up off the field. One story that is interesting was that of retired four star general of the U.S. Air Force and K-State Grad Dick Myers. Myers at the age of 74 claims to have learned a life lesson after listening to Bill Snyder address his team after a narrow loss to a high ranked team. Myers states, “What grabbed me was when we were in the locker room, and we lost the game, of course, so were going through all of that kind of stuff, and at the end, Coach said, ‘You know, when we go back to check out of the hotel, I want all of you to write a thank-you note to the housekeeping staff, because they don’t get a lot of thank-yous,’”. This is a great example of how Snyder led his team and the values he was trying to instill in them. It also tells a lot about Snyder and the type of grateful human he is. Snyder, a hall fame head coach, made sure not to forget about the often-overlooked housekeeping staff. This level of thankfulness and gratitude is common to find when looking into Bill Snyder as even the renaming of the stadium after him he chooses to honor others. When K-State choose to rename the Stadium, it was originally proposed to be Bill Snyder Football Stadium. Bill will push to add family into the title as he states that he wanted to recognize his family who had helped him get to the point he was at and for supporting him throughout his life. What is also interesting is that Bill would state he wanted Family to be included because of how he viewed the K-State community as one big family. This is important to understand as Coach Snyder took a moment that was supposed to be all about him and honor him, and he choose to celebrate others rather than himself. Despite Bill Snyder being from St. Joseph, Missouri, Snyder gave K-State and the state of Kansas something to be proud of and reflect on. Through his hard work and dedication, he was able to take a bottom dwelling program and lift them to the highest ranks of college football. On top of the success, Bill Snyder was able to build a dynasty by changing the culture of K-State by instilling character into the program. Going back to the stadium renaming, though his success on the field was a driving force for this decision, there is an argument to be made that his leadership and his impact off the field are just as important. 

Accessed November 29th, 2022. https://sportsforthesoul.com/bill-snyder-success-character/.

Accessed November 29th, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20170831151615/https://www.theplayerstribune.com/bill-snyder-kansas-state-the-teacher/.

Accessed November 29th, 2022. https://www.newspressnow.com/opinion/your_letters/article_189bb22a-a06c-5b4b-9ee3-1004582a9355.html.