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Kansas State Wildcats
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Kansas State Wildcats | |
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| University | Kansas State University |
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| Conference | Big 12 |
| NCAA | Division I |
| Athletics director | Tim Weiser |
| Location | Manhattan, KS |
| Varsity teams | 16 |
| Football stadium | Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium |
| Basketball arena | Bramlage Coliseum |
| Baseball stadium | Tointon Family Stadium |
| Other arenas | Ahearn Field House |
| Mascot | Willie the Wildcat |
| Nickname | Wildcats |
| Fight song | Wildcat Victory |
| Colors | Royal Purple and Silver
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| Homepage | www.kstatesports.com |
Kansas State University's athletic teams are called the Wildcats, and their official color is royal purple; white and silver are generally used as complementary colors. Kansas State participates in the NCAA's Division I (Division I-Bowl Subdivision in football) and in the Big 12 Conference.
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Kansas State competed in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference from 1890 to 1912; the Missouri Valley Conference from 1913 to 1928; the Big Eight Conference from 1928 to 1996 (known as the Big Six from 1928-47 and the Big Seven from 1947-57), and is now a member of the Big 12 Conference. Entering the 2007-2008 school year, Kansas State has captured 54 total conference championships through the years (not counting competition in the old Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference).
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Athletics at Kansas State University are administered by the University's Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. The department is headed by the Athletic Director. Athletic Directors of note over the years at Kansas State University include:
| Z.G. Clevenger | (1916-1920); first Athletic Director, member of College Football Hall of Fame |
| Mike Ahearn | (1920-1947); considered "Father of Kansas State Athletics" |
| H.B. "Bebe" Lee | (1956-1969); member of National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Hall of Fame |
| Ernie Barrett | (1969-1975); known as "Mr. K-State" |
| DeLoss Dodds | (1978-1981) |
| Steve Miller | (1988-1992) |
| Tim Weiser | (2001-present) |
The basketball teams currently play in Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Kansas.
Kansas State's men's basketball team began competition in 1902. The program has a long history of success. The first two Missouri Valley Conference titles captured by the school were won in the sport, in 1917 and 1919. Kansas State has gone on to capture 17 conference crowns in the sport.
Through the years the team earned the right to participate in 22 NCAA basketball tournaments. Kansas State's best finish at the tournament came in 1951, when it played the University of Kentucky for the national championship. The school has reached the Final Four four times, the Elite Eight 11 times, and the Sweet Sixteen 16 times. Included among K-State's tournament wins are some all-time classics, including a 50-48 win over second-ranked Oregon State University in 1981, and a 83-80 win over Oscar Robertson's University of Cincinnati team in 1958, which Sports Illustrated called "the game of the year."
The best season in the school's history may have been 1959, when the team finished the season ranked Number 1 in the Associated Press Poll. K-State has finished ranked in the Top Ten of the poll on six other occasions, and in the top twenty twelve total times. The team has also posted a winning record at home every year since 1946. In the 1990s, however, the program faded from the national scene, and K-State has not participated in the NCAA Tournament since 1996.
Bob Huggins coached for one season at K-State in 2006 and led the school to a berth in the NIT Tournament and its first 20-win season since 1989. However, on April 5, 2007, Huggins announced that he was leaving to accept the head coach position at West Virginia, his alma mater. Huggins was replaced by Frank Martin. The team started the 2007-2008 season ranked in the AP top 25.
K-State's biggest rivalry in basketball is the Sunflower Showdown matchup against the University of Kansas. The all-time series is in favor of Kansas, 173-89.
A number of notable and successful coaches have led the Wildcats through the years. Following are the most successful coaches (ranked by winning percentage, with at least two seasons at Kansas State):
| Coach | Years at KSU | Record | Conference Championships |
|---|---|---|---|
| Z.G. Clevenger | 1916–1920 | 54–17 (.761) | 2 (1917, 1919) |
| Fred "Tex" Winter | 1953–1968 | 262–117 (.691) | 8 (1956, 1958–1961, 1963, 1964, 1968) |
| Guy Lowman | 1911–1914 | 34–16 (.680) | |
| Jack Gardner* | 1939–1942; 1946–1953 | 147–81 (.645) | 3 (1948, 1950, 1951) |
| Jack Hartman | 1970–1986 | 295–169 (.636) | 3 (1972, 1973, 1977) |
| Lon Kruger | 1986–1990 | 81–47 (.633) | |
| Cotton Fitzsimmons | 1968–1970 | 34–20 (.630) | 1 (1970) |
| * Member of Naismith Hall of Fame |
Kansas State's women's basketball team began intercollegiate competition in 1968. The team is among the top 15 all-time winningest programs in the NCAA.
The women's team has participated in 14 total NCAA basketball tournaments and AIAW tournaments (pre-NCAA). It has reached the Sweet Sixteen 9 times and Elite Eight twice. K-State has finished ranked in the Top Ten of the AP Poll on three occasions (1984, 2003, 2004), and in the top twenty nine total times. Following the 2005-2006 season, Kansas State was crowned champion of the Women's National Invitation Tournament. The team returned to the WNIT Final Four following the 2006-2007 season.
The team currently plays in Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium in Manhattan, Kansas.
The football team began play in 1893. The program had some shining moments in the 1920s and 1930s, including a Big Six Conference championship in 1934. Nevertheless, Kansas State was historically one of the worst programs in the NCAA until 1989, when the athletic department hired Bill Snyder as head coach.
Snyder took over a program that had won only 299 games and lost 510 games in 93 years of play, but presided over one of the most successful rebuilding projects in the history of college athletics.
In 1991, Snyder's Wildcats finished 7-4 and narrowly missed receiving the school's second bowl bid ever. The team also finished with a winning record in conference play for only the third time since winning the conference title in 1934.
In Snyder's fifth season in 1993, Kansas State posted the first victory in a bowl game in school history. Success and high rankings continued over the next decade, including six top-ten finishes in the AP Poll and a perfect (11-0) regular season in 1998 (before stumbling in the Big 12 Championship Game). As the team improved, recruiting also improved, and Snyder was able to bring in athletes such as quarterback Michael Bishop, the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy in 1998, and running back Darren Sproles, who in 2003 led the nation in rushing and holds the current Big 12 all-purpose yards record for a career. The run of success culminated in a Big 12 Conference championship in 2003 with a 35-7 victory over the #1 ranked University of Oklahoma. (The 69 years since the last conference title in 1934 was the longest span between football titles in Division I.)
In his 17 years as head coach at K-State, Snyder won 136 games – as many as his predecessors had won from 1935 to 1988 – and led Kansas State to eleven consecutive bowl games (1993-2003), including six wins. Snyder's legacy at K-State also includes winning or sharing four Big 12 North titles.
In 1998 Snyder was recognized as the National Coach of the Year by the Associated Press and the Walter Camp Football Foundation, and was awarded the Bear Bryant Award and the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award. Coach Snyder was also selected Big Eight Conference Coach of the Year by the Associated Press three times (1990, 1991 and 1993), joining Bob Devaney as the only two men in Big Eight history to be named Coach of the Year three times in a four-year period. Snyder was named Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year twice, in 1998 (Associated Press, coaches) and 2002 (coaches).
The winning attitude under former coach Snyder was represented by a stylized wildcat, called the "Powercat" (shown at top), that was added to the football team's uniforms in 1989. The emblem became so popular that by the late 1990s it had essentially replaced "Willie the Wildcat," a character designed by art department students in the late 1950s.
Snyder retired following the 2005 season, and on December 5, 2005, Ron Prince was named the new head coach. Prince was formerly an assistant coach and offensive line coach at the University of Virginia.
In 2006, Prince's first year at the helm of the Wildcats, he led Kansas State to a 7-6 record and the team's first winning season since 2003. The signature win of the regular season was a 45-42 upset victory over #4-ranked University of Texas on November 11, 2006. Kansas State finished the season with a 37-10 loss to the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers University in the inaugural Texas Bowl on December 28, 2006.
The Wildcats compiled a 5-7 record in the 2007 season. Coach Prince got the team off to a quick start, with a 3-1 record and a #24 ranking in the AP Poll after four weeks – the first ranking for Kansas State since the 2004 season. This start included another victory against a top 10-ranked Texas team, this time by 20 points.[1] However, in the next five games, the team alternated wins and losses. In the fifth game of the season, the Wildcat team was upset 30-24 by its cross-state opponents, the University of Kansas, and fell from the Top 25.[2] The following week, Kansas State defeated the University of Colorado 47-20 and reentered the poll at number 25. K-State fell from the Top 25 permanently the next week after a 41-39 loss to the Oklahoma State Cowboys, despite quarterback Josh Freeman having a career day, throwing for 404 yards and three touchdown passes to Jordy Nelson. A win against the Baylor Bears and four losses followed to close out the season.
Kansas State has participated in 13 bowl games, with an overall record of 6-7. Kansas State had a streak of 11 straight bowl appearances that lasted from the 1993 season to the 2003 season.
Not included in this tally of bowl games is Kansas State's first "post-season" game, played in 1931 against Wichita State as a fundraiser during the Great Depression.[3] Kansas State won that game 20-6. Also not included is the 1992 Coca-Cola Classic game played in Tokyo, Japan against Nebraska as it is considered a regular season game.[4]
| Date | Result | Bowl | Opponent | Score | Head Coach |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12-11-1982 | L | Independence Bowl | University of Wisconsin | 14 - 3 | Jim Dickey |
| 12-29-1993 | W | Copper Bowl | University of Wyoming | 52 - 7 | Bill Snyder |
| 12-25-1994 | L | Aloha Bowl | Boston College | 12 - 7 | Bill Snyder |
| 12-29-1995 | W | Holiday Bowl | Colorado State University | 54 - 21 | Bill Snyder |
| 1-1-1997 | L | Cotton Bowl | Brigham Young University | 19 - 15 | Bill Snyder |
| 12-31-1997 | W | Fiesta Bowl | Syracuse University | 35 - 18 | Bill Snyder |
| 12-29-1998 | L | Alamo Bowl | Purdue University | 37 - 34 | Bill Snyder |
| 12-29-1999 | W | Holiday Bowl | University of Washington | 24 - 20 | Bill Snyder |
| 1-1-2001 | W | Cotton Bowl | University of Tennessee | 35 - 21 | Bill Snyder |
| 12-29-2001 | L | Insight.com Bowl | Syracuse University | 26 - 3 | Bill Snyder |
| 12-27-2002 | W | Holiday Bowl | Arizona State University | 34 - 27 | Bill Snyder |
| 1-2-2004 | L | Fiesta Bowl | Ohio State University | 35 - 28 | Bill Snyder |
| 12-28-2006 | L | Texas Bowl | Rutgers University | 37 - 10 | Ron Prince |
Kansas State's baseball team began play in 1897. The Wildcats earned what is believed to be the school's first varsity championship in 1907 under coach Mike Ahearn. The Wildcats went on to win a Missouri Valley Conference championship in 1928 and Big Six Conference championships in 1930 and 1933.
Other milestones in the team's history include Earl Woods, the father of golfer Tiger Woods, becoming the first African-American baseball player in the Big Seven Conference in 1952, as well as all-time coaching wins leader Mike Clark winning the Big Eight Coach of the Year award in 1990. The Wildcats have not traditionally been competitive on the national scale, as the Wildcats have never participated in a NCAA Tournament. K-State has only qualified twice for the Big 12 Conference tournament in the conference's 11 years. Recently, fifth-year head coach Brad Hill has led the Wildcats to three consecutive years of 30-plus wins, including a trip to the Big 12 tournament in 2007. Hill's teams have also earned national rankings in three of his first four seasons. This upcoming season will see the Wildcats return seven position-player starters, its entire starting pitching rotation, and third team All-American closer Daniel Edwards.
Kansas State began competing in track and field in 1904.
Through the end of the 2005-2006 season, K-State athletes have won individual NCAA national championships 38 times. The program also produced 104 women's outdoor All-Americans, 63 men's outdoor All-Americans, 64 women's indoor All-Americans, and 81 men's indoor All-Americans. Fourteen Kansas State athletes have attended 12 Olympic Games and have won seven medals.
Legendary coach Ward Haylett, who is enshrined in the National Track and Field Hall of Fame, left a strong imprint on the Kansas State program. He was head coach at the school from 1928-1963.
The team currently plays in Ahearn Field House in Manhattan, Kansas.
Kansas State's women's volleyball team began intercollegiate competition in 1974. The team is among the all-time winningest programs in the NCAA.
As of the close of the 2007 season, the team has participated in 11 NCAA tournaments, including ten consecutive tournaments from 1996 to 2005. K-State also participated in the AIAW tournament in 1977. K-State has finished ranked in the top twenty of the AVCA poll four times, and in the top 25 nine times. The team most recently participated in the NCAA tournament in 2007, advancing to the second round.
Kansas State historically has been welcoming to all races. Records show as far back as the 1940's and 1950's (a time regarded by many for its lack of civil rights in the United States), the leadership of K-State Sports took a strong stance in support of racial integration.
In 1949, African-American Harold Robinson played football for Kansas State with an athletic scholarship. Robinson broke the decades-long "color barrier" in the Big Seven Conference playing for head coach Ralph Graham. Robinson later compared Graham to Branch Rickey, the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers who hired Jackie Robinson to integrate baseball in 1947.[5]
In the 1950s, the conference "color barrier" was broken in baseball by another Kansas State program. An indicator of the acceptance of this position is reflected in an article published in The Tulsa World about Earl Woods that occurred in the early 1950s during a baseball game:
- Former teammate Larry Hartshorn recalled an instance when the Wildcats were scheduled to play a spring game against a team from Mississippi. During warm-ups, the Mississippi coach took notice of Earl, and according to Hartshorn, the coach said his team would play the game only if the black player stayed on the bus.
- Instead, K-State coach Ray Wauthier put everybody on the bus. "We just left," Hartshorn said.
--Tulsa World, 8/3/2007[6]
- ^ http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/recap?gid=200709290083&prov=ap
- ^ http://www2.kusports.com/news/2007/oct/07/big_win_little_apple/?football
- ^ http://www.kancoll.org/khq/1940/40_3_evans.htm
- ^ http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/div_ia/big12/kansas_state/yearly_results.php?year=1990
- ^ http://www.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/stories/051306aaa.html
- ^ http://www.tulsaworld.com/sports/article.aspx?articleID=070803_2_B1_hPlay11047
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| North Division |
Colorado Buffaloes • Iowa State Cyclones • Kansas Jayhawks • Kansas State Wildcats • Missouri Tigers • Nebraska Cornhuskers |
| South Division | |