Kansas State coaching legend Bill Snyder discusses formative years, greatest Cats ever

Bill Snyder did the impossible.

He took over arguably the nation’s most downtrodden college football program at Kansas State — the first program to 500 all-time losses. That was 1989, and Snyder turned the Wildcats into multiple-time conference champions and consistent winners.

Snyder, then an assistant coach at Iowa, wasn’t interested in interviewing at Kansas State initially, but a trip to the Manhattan campus changed his mind. And the rest is Kansas State (and college football) history.

Snyder, elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2015, discusses his career, his motivation, some of his greatest K-State players and favorite moments during his 27 seasons at KSU ... and what he thinks of the program now.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. The entire Q&A can be heard on SportsBeat KC, The Star’s sports podcast.

You mother, Marionetta, is a good place to start. How influential she was in your life ... I would think you would credit some of your strength to your mom’s strength.

Anything that I have that might be considered positive comes from my mother, I can assure you of that. She was an amazing, amazing women. My mother was 4 foot, 8 inches tall. She never weighed 100 pounds in her life, never weighed 90 pounds in her life, and yet she was the strongest person I ever met.

I was born in St. Joe. My mother and father moved to Chicago — my father was a salesman — then moved to Salina, Kansas. Then my mother and father divorced and my mother took me back to St. Joe. So I spent all my years that I can remember in St. Joe.

We lived in a home that was turned into an apartment building by the owner. But it was one of the largest homes in St. Joe. It was six blocks from where she worked, so it was almost right in, right on, the fringe of St. Joe, Missouri. We lived on the second floor in a one-room apartment. It wasn’t one bedroom: It was one room. My bed was a Murphy bed that came out of the wall. My mother slept on a cot that I would pull off a landing every night and bring in and open up.

And yet ... I thought I was the richest kid in the world. It was just because my mother, because of her presence, as much as anything. She worked 12 hours a day, six days a week, walked to work, walked back. Just an amazing, amazing woman. I could go on forever.

When did sports enter your life?

It was always there. When I was just a young toot there in St. Joe, the street we lived on was Fifth and Robidoux. The street was a brick street and there were a lot of kids in the neighborhood, and we just played sports all the time. We’d play tackle football on the brick streets, played baseball on the brick streets. We’d go to the elementary school, which was six blocks away, to play basketball. They had goals outside. We played all the time, so sports was in my life from the very get-go. I really enjoyed it.

I’d go to the YMCA every day, swim, play basketball, play ping-pong, a lot of different games they had. But they had a competitive swim team, so I learned how swim competitively.

I went to work as a lifeguard at the country club, and the county club had a traveling swim team, So they let me swim on that. When I went to William Jewell College, I was on their swim team. Swimming was a big factor in my life.

You were a pretty good high school football player ...

Well, I was good enough that the coach from William Jewell, named Norris Patterson — an amazing man, amazing person — actually came to see me. Invited me to come to William Jewell. They didn’t have scholarships. You had to pay your way. I told him I couldn’t afford it and I certainly wasn’t going to have my mother go into debt doing that.

He said we’ll work out a job for you, or several jobs, and you can earn your way, and he did that. I worked the whole time I was there. During the summers I’d come home and work at Noma Lites (a factory in St. Joseph where Christmas lights were manufactured) ...

Christmas lights?

Christmas lights, yes. Boxed them up and transported them. It was interesting, now that I think back. That building was close to my house, two three blocks away from our apartment. From the top floor to the bottom, it had a slide that circled it. Everything they manufactured, they put on that —box it, put on that (slide), slide it down for delivery.

That was such a neat idea. I used to go up and side down with them. Fortunately, I never got caught or I would have been without a job.

Your coaching career begins and, after a couple of stops, you become what amounts to a graduate-assistant at Southern California under legendary coach John McKay. What are those memories like?

I didn’t do a whole lot; I just kind of watched, as much as anything. But it was a great experience for me. I idolized John McKay.

Coach McKay had this funny way of walking and moving around the field. I used to follow him around and emulate him. He always had one hand in his pocket and I’d follow around with one hand in my pocket. I’m sure I looked as goofy as one could.

You contacted North Texas coach Hayden Fry out of the blue and he hired you. When Fry took the job at Iowa, you followed. The Hawkeyes got the program turned around, go to Rose Bowl games, and you recruited quarterback Chuck Long, a transcendent player. Tell us about that.

Nobody recruited him. He wasn’t on anybody’s list. I sat down and visited with him, got some his film, liked what I saw. He didn’t have anybody else recruit him, so he came with us. Turned out to be pretty special.

Things are going pretty good for you at Iowa, and you could’ve envisioned yourself staying there. How did Kansas State make contact?

True. I really didn’t know anything about Kansas State and I had no intention of leaving Iowa. I wasn’t looking for a job. I didn’t have a resume. I was there for rest of my coaching time.

One day, a Sunday afternoon out of season, somebody knocks on my door. I answer it. I have no idea who it is. It’s Steve Miller. He introduced himself. He had a fellow with him. I invited them in, and we sat and talked and sat and talked and I shared with Steve how much I really appreciated it. Nobody had gone to that much trouble for me. I just can’t leave. I’m going to be here.

Finally, after he’d been there for about two hours. He said, ‘Coach do you have a extra bedroom upstairs?’ I said, Why do you ask? And he said, and these were his words: ‘I’m not leaving here until you at least commit to coming and looking at Kansas State.’

I thought for somebody to go through this amount of trouble, I can at least tell him, which I did. I said, ‘Steve I’m not going to come coach at Kansas State. But to give you some peace of mind so you can go home, I will come down and visit. But I want to assure you that I’m not going to take the job.’

So, I did. A couple, I don’t know how long after, a week or so, I went down. The first place I went was over here ... was the room called the Legends Room. So, he took me over there. There are 200 people in there. It was full. I said, ‘What’s the occasion?’ I found out very quickly.

During all that time, I pulled Steve aside. I asked if someone could take me around the campus. I’d never seen the campus. Never been on it, never seen it. He got a young lady and she and I got in the car and drove around the campus. I got out and stopped everybody who was on campus that I was around.

I just appreciated so much how gracious, how cordial, everyone was. It was just a group of people coming out of the same system, which it was. So, I left that, went back home, gave some thought to it and said, ‘I’ll do this.’

There was more work to be done here than maybe you anticipated.

Steve Miller is quite a fellow. Steve didn’t show me everything. He certainly didn’t tell me everything. I didn’t even see the locker room when I came to visit. You think they’d show you where you’re going to be. Or an office space, any of that. We never walked across the field.

But when I got here and I saw all those things, everything needed to be re-done. I didn’t want to be one of those guys who came in and spent money. I asked Steve to come over and visit and told him what needed to be done. He said, ‘I’d like to tell you we can, but we can’t. We just don’t have the money.’

I remember distinctly telling him, ‘Steve I’ll pay for it.’ We had already gotten a guesstimate what the cost would be. I didn’t have that kind of money. I didn’t have that kind of money at all. But I said I’ll pay for it. That embarrassed Steve and rightfully so. Steve said, ‘OK, we’ll get it done. You’re not paying for it. We’ll find a way to get it done.’

He contacted Jack Vanier. And Jack came to see me, and again, such an amazing man. Jack said, ‘What do you need?’ And he picked up the tab. He became as good a friend as I ever had, and his family. He was such a down-to-earth guy. Never saw him in anything other than jeans and a flannel shirt. He was my idol. That he could have all he had and just be himself ... Quite a guy.

Those types of things start to get taken care of, the foundational elements. The players who had been here had been beaten down as athletes.

The very first meeting that I had with players over here to introduce myself, I asked each one of they would speak to what their experience had been. I didn’t really know. It knocked a hole in me to hear what they had gone through, the difficult times, and my admiration for the fact they were still there.

Not that it was any one person, previous coaches, anybody’s fault. It was the way it was. ... There were 45 remaining players on scholarship. Not a player in that room had ever participated in a victory at Kansas State University. Not one.

Tell us about your long office hours and the eating habits that became part of your identity.

It wasn’t to do anything other than do what was necessary to get it all done. When you’re in that situation, there isn’t enough time. There truly is not. There is always something more to do: daily improvement and building the program the way you want it to be, and to motivate the young people to become what you become what you hope they become ... It’s ongoing.

My diet is not good at all. I understand that. I was never a breakfast eater. When I was growing up with Mom, she wanted me to eat breakfast, but I loved sleeping. Because I never got any. I’d sleep as late as a I could then hop out the door.

I just learned never to eat breakfast. And when I was at school, I didn’t want to spend my mother’s money. I know at one time, lunch must have been a quarter, because that’s what she gave me. And I saved up all those quarters she would give me, and I would slip them back into her purse, never telling her.

So, I didn’t eat breakfast and I didn’t eat lunch. Then, when I was coaching, and not at home, I stayed in the office. I had learned through staying in the office during lunch, with everybody gone, that I’d get so much work done. Nobody would bother me. It worked so well for lunch, I did it during dinnertime.

It worked so well there. I really took advantage of the time. I knew I had to eat something, so I’d eat when I got home at night. We’re talking about midnight, your one meal of the day. It became such a habit, I always did it. Last thing I’d do before going to bed, and that’s the worst thing you can do from a health standpoint. That was the nature of it.

Michael Bishop arrived in 1997. What did he mean to the program?

Michael came to Kansas State because he was committed to being a quarterback. When you know Michael personally, he’s very proud of himself. No one recruited him as a quarterback ... We were the only school, and I was the only coach, to recruit him as a quarterback.

That made him leery because nobody else would, and I promised him. That was my intent. So many, even people on our staff, said, ‘Great athlete,’ he could step in an play any place right now. But that’s the kind of quarterback I want to build this program on. That’s what we want. That’s our quarterback. So, again, I don’t think until it really happened that he totally trusted that I was telling him the truth.

Same question about Darren Sproles, who arrived in 2001 ...

I was excited nobody else wanted to recruit him, People asked so many times: ‘Why did you recruit him? He’s a tremendous player, tremendous talent, but he’s so small. How is he going to hold up?’ And I said that was probably the major factor in my decision to have him: his height. If he had been 6-foot, I think he’d have been an average player.

His height was such a great advantage to him. I’d get on other side and watch behind the defense. I realized immediately, the first day he was there, you can’t see him. And by the time you do recognize him, it’s too late, and you can’t get to him.

Where does the 2003 Big 12 championship game victory over Oklahoma rank for you?

I don’t know if Kansas State ever played a better game. Oklahoma was probably the better team, and Kansas State a step underneath that. Our players were so motivated for that ballgame. ... And our players were pretty good about getting themselves motivated at the right time to get ready to play.

I don’t know if there was ever a time where they were as motivated as they were for that ballgame. And confident. The confidence was there the moment they stepped on the field.

What went into your decision to step away in 2005, then return in 2008?

I was getting up in years, and I wanted to leave the program in good hands. And I wanted it to be a solid program. I wanted to make sure somebody wasn’t going to have to start over again. They could step in and pick up things.

And ... I wasn’t with my family nearly as much as I should be. Our children were growing up and my wife was having to do everything. That was a big part of it.

(Returning to coach the Cats a second time) was a hard decision. It wasn’t as easy as it seemed. I had missed it, and it was hard when I first stepped down. But after I had been away from it for a while, I was fine. When the call came to see if I would come back, I said no at first. There was a persistence. Eventually, I said ... I understood the need. I didn’t want to see the program take any more hits. I consented to do it. and said It would be short-term, which turned out to not be true.

I never regretted it.

Could you speak to the impact of Collin Klein?

The thing that would come into your mind was that physical toughness. He got beat up and got right back up. He never complained about it, never said anything about it. A coach’s dream.

Your son, Sean, was your first All-America player at K-State. How did he become integral to what you accomplished?

I said so many times, Sean did more for this program than anybody, including myself. You talk about wearing a lot hats. In the long run, I was kind of selfish. He was so good at what he was doing I’d tack on more, and more and more, and yet he did it all so well. And did it with such great loyalty. And everybody recognized it and appreciated him a great deal.

From a coaching standpoint, it allowed me to understand, after I’d see him on the field in that role, it allowed me to see how good we could be on special teams, and the impact that could have on winning and losing in our program.

How much joy did you take in last season’s Big 12 championship, and what’s your relationship with the program today?

I think it’s an excellent staff ... They’ve done an excellent job of bringing in quality players, as well. It’s rewarding to see all that take place.

I have stayed away intentionally. ... I didn’t want to be in position (to hear): ‘How about you helping here ...’ (or) ‘Comment on this?’ I didn’t want to be in that position, I thought they’d do well. I wanted them to do well without somebody looking over their shoulder.