Thirty years ago, not everyone in the world of college football believed that the Kansas State Wildcats were ready for a comeback. 

But Bill Snyder did. 

When Snyder was hired by Kansas State University in November 1988, the K-State football team had not won a game since October 1986 and had a 299-510 record overall. However, what Coach Snyder saw was potential, possibility and opportunity.

By now, almost every Wildcat football fan knows Snyder’s “greatest turnaround” quote, but at that now-famous 1988 press conference, the concept was still just a glimmer of hope.

“It’s a tremendous challenge here,” he said. “And I think [that] the opportunity for the greatest turnaround in college football exists here today, and it’s not one to be taken lightly.”

Snyder certainly did not take that challenge lightly, and he ended up accomplishing exactly what he said he would. And Kansas State University would never be the same.

Snyder is the winningest coach in K-State football history, with a 215-117-1 record overall. Although he has now retired as head football coach, he will transition to a special ambassador role for the university.

“He came here, and stayed here, because of the people,” K-State president Richard Myers ’65 said. “He made us a family — a proud purple family who travel in record numbers to watch him lead the Wildcats to victories, bowls and rankings never achieved before. Coach Snyder has always taken the time and care to turn his players into college graduates, community leaders, successful businessmen and leaders of strong families. Bill Snyder is a legend, and his legacy is one that K-Staters for generations will value and cherish.”

Expect to win

Snyder came to K-State after serving as offensive coordinator, quarterback coach and receiver coach at the University of Iowa.

The February 1989 issue of the Alumni Association’s K-Stater magazine says Snyder was originally attracted to K-State because of the similarity between the university and his past coaching experiences.

“I’ve met the same kind of people at K-State that we met when we came to Iowa,” he said. “They’re tremendously caring and very concerned. The time seems right at K-State.”

This certainly wasn’t the last time Snyder appeared in the K-Stater, as his accomplishments continued to make headlines.

You could fill pages and pages with stats from Snyder’s tenure as coach — he led K-State to 19 of the school’s 21 bowl appearances, won two conference titles, achieved two No. 1 national rankings and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

However, Snyder’s legacy impacted more than just the football field. His 16 Goals for Success — including principles like commitment, unity and self-discipline — provided a code to live by for many K-Staters. He also inspired a university and community-wide revitalization, that included K-State’s enrollment jumping from about 18,000 when he was hired to a record of more than 24,000.

“Coach, thank you!” former player Collin Klein ’11 tweeted after Snyder’s retirement announcement. Klein is now a quarterbacks coach for K-State. “Beyond the lessons, speeches and schematics, watching you live your life daily has been the ultimate privilege. The respect, discipline, attention to detail and caring leadership with how you lived is inspiring. Will always be in your debt!”

“The impact of his time here will never be forgotten,” Amy Button Renz ’76, ’86, president and CEO of the K-State Alumni Association, wrote in a letter to alumni and friends. “His core principles and ideals exemplify the very best of K-State, and his personal touch has reached thousands of members of the Wildcat family, and even other universities.”

From the entire Wildcat community: thank you, Coach Snyder. Because of you, we’ll never give up, and we’ll never stop expecting to win.


— Special thanks to K-State Athletics for supplying information for this article. 

At his introductory press conference as the new head football coach at Kansas State University, Chris Klieman told the crowd gathered to see him speak that he was so excited to be in Manhattan, Kansas, and to visit campus that he was nearly losing his voice.

“I cannot tell you how excited I am,” he said. “I am losing my voice, I am that excited. It is a privilege to be the head coach of Kansas State. It is a dream job of mine to be able to coach at a Power Five school, and I found the right fit at Kansas State.”

Already sporting a purple tie and a Powercat lapel pin at the press conference, Klieman is ready to dive in and lead K-State football into the future as the 35th head coach in the program’s history. 

Klieman was previously the head coach at North Dakota State University. He has an impressive track record in the Football Championship Subdivision, where his teams have won three national titles in the last five years. His overall record as head coach with the Bison is 67-6, and he is a four-time finalist for the Eddie Robinson Award as the FCS Coach of the Year.

“I’m so happy and thrilled to follow a legend in Coach Snyder,” Klieman said after he was first announced as head coach. “I’ve followed him from afar, went to his camps while playing in Waterloo, Iowa, and played against his Kansas State team when I was at Northern Iowa. The opportunity to follow in an icon’s footsteps is something I don’t take for granted and don’t take lightly. I know I have huge shoes to fill, and I’m excited to carry on his legacy.

“I have prepared my entire life for this opportunity and had great experiences at many institutions, most notably North Dakota State, where we’ve had unmatched success over the last eight years. I can’t express how pleased I am and thank President Myers, [Athletics Director] Gene Taylor and the search committee for trusting in me and handing over the keys to this great program.”

Klieman joined the Bison coaching staff in 2011, and succeeded Craig Bohl In 2014. He had previously served as head coach at Loras during the 2005 season. Additionally, he has spent time as an assistant coach at Northern Iowa, Western Illinois, Kansas, Missouri State and Loras.

Coach Klieman has a catchphrase that is already catching on at K-State and is getting fans and players talking: win the dang day.

“You are only guaranteed today,” Klieman said at the press conference, explaining the phrase. “Give everything you can today for yourself and for the guy next to you. If you do that in all aspects of your life, you are going to be able to be successful in order to get to the next day to win tomorrow. We have always talked about, ‘I am a 1-0 for the day guy.’ If you go 1-0 for the day and you stack those Monday through Friday, you have a chance to go 1-0 on Saturday. That is kind of what we do.”

K-State alumni and friends will have the opportunity to meet with Coach Klieman this summer during the Catbacker Tour and at select Alumni Club events. More details will be available soon.

“We are excited to welcome Coach Klieman to K-State, and I look forward to working with him,” said Amy Button Renz ’76, ’86, president and CEO of the K-State Alumni Association. “His passion and work ethic will be a great fit for K-State.”

Read more about Coach Klieman from K-State Athletics.

In December, more than 1,500 students walked across the stage to receive their diplomas from Kansas State University — including more than 1,250 bachelor’s degrees, 160 master’s and 100 doctorates.

If you attended the fall 2018 graduation ceremonies, you might have noticed that not all the students and faculty on stage were dressed alike. Some wore different hats and gowns, or even tassels of different colors. You also might have found yourself wondering why students wear graduation gowns to begin with. And where do those famous mortarboard hats come from, anyway?

There’s actually a long, rich history behind graduation attire, or, as it’s formally known, “academic dress.” Stephen Wolgast ’90, a professor of practice in the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications, is K-State’s own expert in academic dress, and he loves digging deeper into the traditions surrounding the tassels, caps and gowns you find at graduation ceremonies.

“This connection to the past — it has meaning more than just something fancy you wear,” he said.

A brief history

To understand the evolution of the modern-day graduation gown, we have to travel all the way back in time to the medieval period.

Gowns were a popular style of dress at the time, and it’s no surprise that the scholars of the day wore them too. Scholarly dress was influenced by the connection between early universities and the church, and also by the simple fact that heavy gowns, hoods and hats were needed to keep the wearer warm.

Wolgast said it’s also important to remember that in this era, the style and color of clothing people wore was used to send social signals about rank — i.e. the more fabric your clothing used, the wealthier you were.

Even the colors you wore mattered, and scholars were expected to follow certain rules of dress. Dark, somber colors were encouraged — like today’s traditional black graduation gowns, except the natural dyes used at the time would have looked more like dark brown or gray to our modern eyes.

The use of scholarly gowns eventually carried over to the American colonies.

“Scholars kept wearing it because it became part of tradition,” Wolgast said. “It turned into part of what the university experience was.”

Now, fast-forward to the late 1800s, where our modern view of academic dress in the United States begins to take shape. Two men — John McCook and Gardner Cotrell Leonard — are credited with promoting the wide use of traditional black caps and gowns, which today are mainly worn at graduation events.

Pomp and circumstance

Now that you know a little about where graduation gowns come from, why do they look different?

Modern American bachelor’s degree graduation gowns have the plainest style, with straight sleeves.

Wolgast said historians haven’t settled on exactly how the flat board in the famous mortarboard hat came about. The cap’s history started in the church and existed with a smaller square top by the time of the English Restoration in 1660, when the king was restored to the throne and Anglican bishops were given back their seats in Parliament.

“To show their allegiance to King Charles II, many clergy and academics enlarged the top of their caps,” Wolgast said. “With a larger square top, the cap needed stiffening, and the mortarboard became the cap we recognize today.”

The tradition of moving the tassel on the mortarboard from right to left is an American invention, so bachelor’s graduates would have something to do after graduation since they don’t have a hood, like master’s and doctoral graduates do.

A master’s gown has what are known as “closed sleeves” with a hole for the arm to go through and fabric hanging down.

A doctoral gown has three stripes on the sleeves and strips of velvet down the front. Some doctoral holders wear a velvety-like, beret-style hat known as a “tam.”

The different colors on the graduates’ tassels and hoods and the faculty’s academic dress represent the university they graduated from and what field they studied, Wolgast said.

The special gown that university President Richard Myers ’65 wears at ceremonies has four stripes and is considered a “gown of office.”

Symbol of success

Ultimately, Wolgast said academic gowns serve as a symbol of pride for the graduate.

“You’ve finished it, you’ve passed, and this is the symbol you get to wear to show you succeeded,” Wolgast said. “It connects the person wearing it with this long history. It carries on the tradition going forward.”

Wolgast is curious to see how academic dress continues to evolve in the future. He said he would love to see even more purple incorporated into K-State graduation attire. In May 2016, the university began offering a purple gown as an option for doctorate recipients.   

“It’s nice to see K-State show its purple pride on graduation day,” he said.

Want to learn more about the history of graduation attire? Wolgast also serves as the editor of The Burgon Society journal, an organization dedicated to the study of academic dress in terms of design, practice and history.

Alumni Association honors graduates

Once you’ve put away that cap and gown after graduation, the K-State Alumni Association is proud to help you stay connected to K-State.

The K-State Alumni Association partners with the colleges to provide all new graduates with a complimentary one-year membership to the Alumni Association. The Alumni Association also presents undergraduates with a business card holder and graduate students with a lapel pin. 

LEARN MORE about Alumni Association membership.

— Special thanks to the K-State Division of Communications and Marketing for photos from the fall 2018 commencement ceremonies. 

The next time you eat a mango, avocado or quinoa, remember that you might have a K-Stater to thank for that. 

Although you may not recognize the name David Fairchild, you’ve probably tried some of the foods that he is credited for bringing to the United States.

A Manhattan native and Kansas State University graduate in the 1880s, Fairchild was a “food explorer” who traveled across the globe and introduced diverse crops to the United States. His story is highlighted in the book The Food Explorer: The True Adventures of the Globe-Trotting Botanist Who Transformed What America Eats by Daniel Stone. Stone recently visited Manhattan to share more about the book and celebrate Fairchild’s contributions to American agriculture.

Fairchild came to Manhattan, Kansas, at the age of 10; his father was George Fairchild, president of what was then known as Kansas State Agricultural College (in fact, K-State’s Fairchild Hall is named for George Fairchild).

David Fairchild graduated from K-State with a bachelor’s degree in 1888 and a master’s in 1889 — and an insatiable curiosity about the world around him. His globe-trotting adventures would end up changing American agriculture forever. 

Land-grant tradition

In his introduction to The Food Explorer, author Daniel Stone writes that he came upon Fairchild’s story while doing research work for National Geographic. He wondered how certain crops were domesticated and brought to America, and he discovered the story of a young botanist named David Fairchild.

The late 19th century — an age of industry, development and growth — was the perfect time for Fairchild to embrace his curiosity and travel the world searching for new plants. He became a plant explorer for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and eventually managed the Office of Seed and Plant Introduction.

This exploration wasn’t always easy. Fairchild visited more than 50 countries, mostly by boat, before airplanes made international travel simpler. Challenges included being arrested and catching diseases.

Yet Fairchild persevered, and according to the Kansas Science Communication Initiative and K-State Global Food Systems, he ended up introducing crops like avocados, mangoes, seedless grapes, quinoa, kale, dates and more to the U.S.

Fairchild’s legacy is a reflection of K-State’s rich land-grant tradition of research, accessibility and improving quality of life.

“What we eat is no less curated than a museum exhibit,” Stone says. “Fairchild saw the opportunity in a bare canvas to add new color and texture.”

You can read more about Fairchild in The Food Explorer, available now. 

Since she was a sophomore in high school, Sarah Lamm ’18 knew that she wanted to someday work for NASA. 

During her first year at Kansas State University, she was already applying for internships at the space exploration agency. Her K-State graduation cap was even decorated with the NASA logo in rhinestones. 

That passion for space exploration and discovery has paid off — as a Northern Arizona University doctoral student, she is a member of NASA’s Curiosity mission team, helping search for signs of life on Mars.

NAU has a lab where students and professors can direct Curiosity — a car-sized rover — around the surface of Mars. Lamm is involved with the rover’s ChemCam: an infrared laser and camera that serves as Curiosity’s “head” and “eyes.”

According to NAU, Lamm’s research includes looking at pictures of rocks shot with lasers and analyzing their chemical composition. The end goal is to determine whether life could have existed on Mars by examining if the necessary conditions were ever present for life to survive.

Although the surface of Mars is a long way from Manhattan, Kansas, Lamm thanks K-State for giving her the tools she needed to reach her dream.

“K-State prepared me to think critically, to be bold, and to search for opportunities,” she said. “If there was not an opportunity, then I needed to create one myself.” 

From K-State to NASA

Lamm said that when she was originally looking at colleges, she narrowed it down to either K-State or KU. After visiting the two schools and meeting with faculty members, she decided on K-State.

During her junior and senior years of high school, she also was a full-time community college student and graduated with an associate of science in engineering and an associate of arts in political science the same weekend as her high school graduation. She arrived at K-State as a junior with approximately 70 credits. Since it was going to be hard for her to be a full-time student with so many pre-existing credits and only one major, she decided on not two but three different majors: chemistry, geology and geography. 

She knew an internship during her time at K-State could help open the door for her to work at NASA. However, one internship she was interested in required a letter of recommendation from a geology professor, and at that time, Lamm had only taken one geology course at K-State — so it would have to be that professor writing the letter.

That professor was Matthew Kirk, a geomicrobiologist in the Department of Geology. He agreed to send a letter of recommendation, and he also mentioned he had a colleague who worked on the Curiosity rover. He offered to send Lamm’s resume to Nina Lanza at Los Alamos National Laboratory, who was on the ChemCam team. She was impressed by Kirk’s recommendation and Lamm’s resume.

Lamm was eventually offered an internship for the summer of 2016, and Lanza has been her mentor ever since.

“None of the departments I was in had a focus in planetary science — but I didn’t let that stop me from trying,” Lamm said. “I got my LANL internship by being bold and asking a professor I barely knew at the time for a letter of recommendation.”

From NASA to Mars

Lamm said one of her favorite parts of working with Curiosity is being involved with operations.

“I am fully trained to be the ChemCam science downlink lead,” she said. “Which means I download the latest data and make preliminary reports. I love this because I might be one of first people in the world seeing this data, and it’s my responsibility to alert the team to anything unusual I see.”

So, how does the ChemCam work, exactly?

“The laser shoots rocks, vaporizing them into plasma that gives off light collected by spectrometers on Curiosity,” NAU says. “The light gives off different wavelengths that correspond to different elements, and scientists back on Earth compare them with samples of known elemental concentrations. The process allows the team to approximate the chemical composition of rocks on Mars.”

She also signed up for the Curiosity Mission Update.

“Scientists who have volunteered get to write about what Curiosity is doing that day,” she said. “I usually blog on days that I am the ChemCam science downlink lead.”

In the future, Lamm hopes to end up at a NASA facility or at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Her goal is to be a principal investigator on an instrument going to Titan, the largest moon of Saturn.

Wherever her career takes her, she plans to continue exploring boldy.

“Space exploration is exciting because of the challenges of sending spacecrafts and rovers,” Lamm said. “There is so much that goes into planning and designing these missions. Every new analysis from Curiosity is completely new data.”

Read more about Lamm’s work with NASA. 

As college graduates prepare to enter the workforce for the very first time — with their brand-new degree and freshly printed resume in hand — the process can be a little, well, intimidating. 

What’s the best way to answer job interview questions? Where are some good places to network with other professionals in your field? How do you set career goals and find the job that’s right for you?

Thankfully, K-State students don’t have to make this journey alone. K-State alumni have a lot of career advice and expertise to offer, and the K-State Alumni Association is excited to help connect these students and alumni through a variety of mentoring and networking opportunities.

K-State students recently had a chance to learn from successful alumni at the K-State Alumni Association’s Alumni Networking Night. The event was open to members of Wildcats Forever, K-State’s student alumni association. K-State alumni and friends were invited to attend the event and share their experiences and advice with current students.

Sue Simmons ’89, a retired civilian employee with the U.S. Army in human resources, said she had a fun experience chatting with students.

“I read the description of what the evening was intended to be, and I felt this would be an opportunity to give back,” she said. “I wanted to drop in and see how it goes, and see who we meet, and see how it all works.”

Brad Horchem ’80, who retired from the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Environmental Protection Agency after about 40 years, also met with students at the event.

“I’m here just to help out K-State students, and help them develop their careers, and encourage them to try different options,” he said. “That’s all what this is about, I think — developing connections and just finding out (about) other people and what they’ve done.”

WildcatLink

The K-State Alumni Association also is promoting WildcatLink, an online community built to connect K-State students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends through networking and mentoring.

Right now there are about 2,500 users on the platform. K-State alumni and friends are invited to share their expertise by answering questions and speaking with students from majors or industries related to their own. You can be matched directly with an individual student to provide one-on-one mentoring.

WildcatLink is open to anyone who would like to be a mentor — whether you’re a recent grad starting a career or whether you have many years of experience in your field.

Potential mentees are screened by the university before matches are made. K-State’s colleges also are helping to facilitate the best matches between alumni mentors and students.

It’s easy to sign up for WildcatLink — just register with your email address, Facebook account or LinkedIn profile.  

Learn more about how you can give back and help students succeed through WildcatLink. If you know a current K-State student, you can also encourage them to join Wildcats Forever, so they can access future networking opportunities. Gift memberships for Wildcats Forever also are available.

The K-State Alumni Association also offers career services to its members. Learn more. 

Although she’s now the owner of the largest privately-owned boutique in Kansas, Nicole Campos’ dream started small. 

The 2006 K-State grad’s retail chain — Bling Inc. — began with her selling purses out of her basement. She now operates 11 stores, including a location in Manhattan, Kansas, as well as a website. And she doesn’t intend to slow down anytime soon.

“We are continuing to expand,” said Campos, who currently lives in Scott City, Kansas. “We have a lot of exciting growth coming. It’s been a really amazing, exciting journey.”

Bling Inc. offers clothing, shoes, jewelry and other accessories. Every location is unique — tailored to the tastes of the customers in the area.  

Although Campos is celebrating the recent opening of her first out-of-state store in Nebraska, as she looks back over her business history she also remembers times of difficulty.

Before she began her business, she was faced with serious, potentially debilitating health issues. Feeling discouraged, she started selling purses out of her basement as a way to help her keep fighting.

Her business started to grow, and she decided to rent a storefront in Scott City.

“I was hoping I could make it month to month,” she said. “I just had this desire to do the best that I could, to be the best that I could.”

When she started selling clothes, she said the business “just took off like crazy,” and soon she was opening more locations.

Unfortunately, life wasn’t done throwing challenges her way. A devastating warehouse fire several years ago destroyed the entire chain’s inventory.

Although Campos was tempted to give up, she didn’t, and thanks to her perseverance, her business has continued to expand.

K-State connection

Campos sees the lessons she learned at K-State as a key part of her business’s success.

She calls her experience at K-State the best time of her life. In addition to the memories she treasures from football games, Homecoming and just walking across the beautiful campus, she said coming to K-State and being part of a sorority boosted her confidence and enabled her to build lifelong connections.

“I had a lot of really good classes and professors — people who made you work and think and grow,” said Campos, who was a psychology major.  

Although people might not normally think of a degree in psychology as a stepping stone to owning a retail chain, Campos said she’s been able to take the principles she learned and apply them in her field.

When operating a business, it’s important to study and understand human behavior. Campos has learned the benefits of listening to customers, whether it’s in regards to what types of products they want or even where to put future store locations.

“Stay humble — never think that you know it all,” she says, sharing one of the most important lessons her business has taught her. “Always be willing to learn. Never underestimate what you really can do if you put your mind to it.”  

Bling Inc. currently has 11 locations: Scott City, Garden City, Manhattan, Hays, Salina, Wichita (two locations), Overland Park, Great Bend and Emporia, all in Kansas; and Kearney, Nebraska. Learn more.

Did you meet your significant other at Kansas State University? 

We want to hear about your Wildcat “happily ever after”! The K-State Alumni Association is collecting K-State love stories and photos for a special article in the February issue of @K-State e-newsletter.

If you’d like your story to be considered for publication, send your details (and photos!) to APauls@K-State.com by Tuesday, Jan. 15. 

Vern ’79 and Joan ’78 Herbel, of McKinney, Texas, have given a gift to establish the Herbel Family Business Administration Scholarship, creating 15 scholarship match opportunities in the College of Business Administration.

The K-State Family Scholarship Program began as a $650,000 gift received a year ago, and became a $6 million-and-growing investment in K-State students. Loyal and generous donors like the Herbels created matching opportunities for new donors to establish their first endowed gift to the university. Already, 90 students have received these K-State Family Scholarships and new donors can help even more talented and deserving K-State students afford their education.

The Herbel Family Business Administration Scholarship will be used to match at least 15 new gifts for student scholarships. New gifts of $30,000 will be matched with $30,000 from the Herbels’ gift. $10,000 will go into an expendable scholarship fund, making $2,000 scholarships immediately available to students for up to five years. The remaining $50,000 will go into the endowment, ensuring future generations of Wildcats will receive scholarships as well.

Vern Herbel graduated from Kansas State University in 1979 with a degree in accounting from the College of Business Administration. Joan Herbel is a 1978 graduate of the College of Human Ecology with a degree in clothing and textiles. They both serve on the KSU Foundation Board of Trustees.

“Kansas State has been so instrumental in our success, and we wanted future K-State students to enjoy a similar experience,” Vern said. “Assisting students to be in the College of Business is our legacy of giving back to the university that gave us such fond memories and so positively impacted us.”

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Hale rising

For nearly three decades, Hale Library has been the heart and soul of Kansas State University’s Manhattan campus. But in that time, the purpose of a public research university library has evolved to become a hub where all forms of learning and outreach can occur. In order to continue to provide K-State students, faculty and staff with the state-of-the-art facility and resources required to excel, Hale Library will undergo a transformation.

A planned first-floor renovation was to begin in May 2018; however, a fire that occurred in the original Farrell Library part of the building on May 22 caused those plans to change. The damage, mostly caused by smoke and water, enables K-State and library leaders to expand the original renovation plans to other parts of the library, upgrading the whole facility to meet current and future needs.

The children of Joe and Joyce Hale continued their family support for K-State Libraries by giving one of the lead gifts toward the first-floor renovation project, carrying on the tradition their parents started by investing in K-State Libraries in the 1990s.

“We recognize that our world is changing and academics are changing,” said Mollie Carter, daughter of Joe and Joyce Hale. “The way people learn and even the competencies that universities are teaching — all of it is changing, so it seems really important for the infrastructure to keep up with that. It’s not a matter of having books in the stacks anymore. The library is a convening spot.”

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