Oct. 22, 2008
NORMAL, Ill. -
Former Kansas State football coach Bill Snyder is the distinguished speaker for the 2008 State Farm Academic Excellence Banquet, which will be held Sunday, Oct. 26, at Redbird Arena. Snyder will speak to the crowd of Redbird student-athletes, athletics staff, Illinois State faculty, State Farm employees and family members at the annual event celebrating the academic achievements of ISU Athletics.
Illinois State Director of Athletics Dr. Sheahon Zenger served as an assistant coach under Snyder at the beginning of his career and Snyder was an integral part of the development of Zenger's passion for intercollegiate athletics.
"I'm honored to have Coach Snyder speak at the State Farm Academic Excellence Banquet," said Zenger. "Professionally, no one has had a greater impact on my life than Bill Snyder. I have waited three-and-a-half years for the right moment to introduce him to the Illinois State coaches and student-athletes. By capturing the Missouri Valley Conference All-Sports Trophy, posting a department-record grade-point average and three-straight years of 2,000 hours of community service, it was time for the Illinois State community to meet the man behind my message."
The architect of the "greatest turnaround in the history of college football" and a sure-fire Hall of Famer, Bill Snyder (William Jewell '62) retired in November of 2005 after 17 seasons as the head coach of the Kansas State Wildcats.
Named the 32nd head football coach at Kansas State on Nov. 30, 1988, Snyder amassed a 136-68-1 (.666) record with the Wildcats, including a 75-53-1 (.585) mark in Big 8/12 games. His 136 victories are more than triple the man in second place on K-State's all-time coaching victories list (Mike Ahearn, 39 wins).
But to fully understand the turnaround ushered in by Snyder at Kansas State one must only consider that the Wildcats were in the midst of an 0-26-1 run when he was hired. It also took K-State 51 seasons (1938-1988) to total just 130 wins, while the 12 head coaches prior to Snyder's arrival in Manhattan combined to win just 116 games from 1945-1988.
For his efforts, Snyder was named the national coach of the year in 1991, 1994 and 1998. He was also voted by his peers as conference coach of the year five times.
Among all active coaches, Snyder finished his career ranked seventh in career winning percentage and 12th in career victories. Over his final 13 years at K-State, Snyder's Wildcats were even better, posting a 118-42-1 (.736) record from 1993-2005 for the fifth-best overall record in Division 1-A during that span.
Kansas State is also one of just eight programs in the country to appear in a bowl game in 11 of the past 13 seasons and became just the second program in the history of college football to win 11 games in 6-of-7 seasons (1997-2003).
During his tenure at K-State, Snyder's teams were perennially ranked among the nation's elite, including achieving the program's first No. 1 ranking in November of 1998. In all, Kansas State teams finished 11 of Snyder's final 13 seasons ranked in the AP Top-20, including a six-year stretch during which K-State finished each season in the top-10.
K-State's best-ever ranking under Snyder in the final AP poll of the year was sixth, following its Holiday Bowl win in 1999. The Wildcats also finished up sixth in the 2002 final ESPN/USA Today poll and were seventh in the final AP ranking that season.
The 14th-fastest coach in the history of college football to win 100 games, Snyder coached 33 AP All-Americans and produced 42 NFL Draft picks during his tenure at K-State.
