Bill Snyder
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Bill Snyder | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Sport | College football | |
| Born | October 7, 1939 | |
| Place of birth | Saint Joseph, Missouri | |
| Career highlights | ||
| Overall | 136-68-1 | |
| Coaching stats | ||
| College Football DataWarehouse | ||
| Championships | ||
| Big 12 Conference Champion (2003) | ||
| Awards | ||
| College football COY (1998) Big Eight Conference COY (1990, 1991, 1993) Big 12 Conference COY (1998, 2002) |
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| Playing career | ||
| 1959-1962 | William Jewell College | |
| Position | Defensive Back | |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | ||
| 1989-2005 | Kansas State University | |
Bill Snyder (born October 7, 1939, in Saint Joseph, Missouri) is the former head football coach at Kansas State University, holding that position from 1989 to 2005.
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[edit] Coaching career
Snyder had his first collegiate coaching experience in 1966, serving as a graduate assistant coach for the USC Trojans. He next worked as a head coach for several years in the California high school ranks. From 1976 to 1978, Snyder worked as an assistant coach at North Texas State, under Hall of Fame coach Hayden Fry. Snyder and Fry moved together to the University of Iowa in 1979, with Snyder serving as Fry's offensive coordinator for the next ten years. Snyder was hired as the 30th head coach of the Kansas State University Wildcats following the 1988 season.
[edit] Kansas State University
When Snyder arrived at K-State, he took over a program that had lost 510 games and won only 299 games in 93 years of play. The program had been to only one bowl game (the 1982 Independence Bowl), won only one conference title (in 1934) and had enjoyed only two winning seasons in the prior 34 years.
Prior to Snyder's first season in 1989, Sports Illustrated published an article about Kansas State football entitled "Futility U," which labelled the school "America's most hapless team."[1] Snyder won only one game in his first season, beating the University of North Texas, but it was a significant win because it was the first for the team in three seasons. In Snyder's second season, in 1990, the Wildcats improved to 5-6. The five wins posted by the team had been matched only twice in the prior 17 years at the school, in 1973 (5-6) and 1982 (6-5).
The 1991 season saw another breakthrough, when the Wildcats finished with a wining record of 7-4 and narrowly missed a bowl bid. It was only the second winning season at Kansas State since 1970, and the team's 4-3 conference record was only the third winning conference mark since 1934. Two years later, Snyder led the Wildcats to the school's second bowl game – the 1993 Copper Bowl – and their first bowl win ever. The season also marked the second 9-win season in school history and the team's first ranking in the final top 20 poll. The 1993 bowl game was the first of 11 consecutive bowl games during Snyder's 17 seasons at Kansas State, including six wins.
Snyder's legacy at K-State includes winning the Big 12 championship in 2003 – the school's second conference title ever. He also won or shared four Big 12 North titles. During the 1998 season, Kansas State posted an undefeated 11-0 regular season and earned its first ever number 1 ranking in the national polls.
Following the successful 1998 campaign, Snyder's mentor Hayden Fry retired from the University of Iowa. Many considered Snyder the frontrunner to return to Iowa and take over the prestigious Big Ten program. Instead, Snyder chose to remain at Kansas State.
Snyder retired from Kansas State on November 15, 2005, with an overall record of 136-68-1. Snyder held the head coaching position at Kansas State longer than any other coach, and his 136 wins are as many as his 11 predecessors won from 1935 to 1988 combined. His record ranks him first at Kansas State in terms of total wins and fifth at Kansas State in terms of winning percentage.[2]
The day after Snyder announced his retirement, K-State renamed its football stadium Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium in his honor. Ron Prince, formerly an assistant coach and offensive coordinator at the University of Virginia, was named Bill Snyder's replacement on December 5, 2005.
During Snyder's tenure, a number of his assistants became head coaches at other Division I schools. These coaches include Phil Bennett (Southern Methodist University), Bret Bielema (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Jim Leavitt (University of South Florida), Mark Mangino (University of Kansas), Bob Stoops (University of Oklahoma) and Mike Stoops (University of Arizona).
While Snyder was sometimes criticized for scheduling weak opponents, his tenure at Kansas State is still considered one of the most successful rebuilding projects in collegiate history. In recognition of his rebuilding work, Hall of Fame football coach Barry Switzer once stated, "He's not the coach of the year, he's not the coach of the decade, he's the coach of the century."[3]
[edit] Awards
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. Of lesser note, ESPN selected Snyder as its national coach of the year in 1991, and CNN selected him as its national coach of the year in 1995.
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). In 2003, Snyder was named to the Board of Trustees of the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA).
In 2006, Snyder was enshrined in the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame and the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.
[edit] Coaching record
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl | Coaches# | AP° | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kansas State (Big Eight Conference/Big 12 Conference) (1989 – 2005) | |||||||||
| 1989 | Kansas State | 1-10 | 0-7 | 8th | |||||
| 1990 | Kansas State | 5-6 | 2-5 | 6th | |||||
| 1991 | Kansas State | 7-4 | 4-3 | 4th | |||||
| 1992 | Kansas State | 5-6 | 2-5 | 6th (tie) | |||||
| 1993 | Kansas State | 9-2-1 | 4-2-1 | 3rd | W 52-17 Copper Bowl | 18 | 20 | ||
| 1994 | Kansas State | 9-3 | 5-2 | 3rd | L 7-12 Aloha Bowl | 16 | 19 | ||
| 1995 | Kansas State | 10-2 | 5-2 | 2nd (tie) | W 54-21 Holiday Bowl | 6 | 7 | ||
| 1996 | Kansas State | 9-3 | 6-2 | 3rd N^ | L 15-19 Cotton Bowl | 17 | 17 | ||
| 1997 | Kansas State | 11-1 | 7-1 | 2nd N | W 35-18 Fiesta Bowl | 7 | 8 | ||
| 1998 | Kansas State | 11-2 | 8-0 | 1st N | L 34-37 Alamo Bowl | 9 | 10 | ||
| 1999 | Kansas State | 11-1 | 7-1 | 1st N (tie) | W 24-20 Holiday Bowl | 6 | 6 | ||
| 2000 | Kansas State | 11-3 | 6-2 | 1st N (tie) | W 35-21 Cotton Bowl | 8 | 9 | ||
| 2001 | Kansas State | 6-6 | 3-5 | 4th N (tie) | L 3-26 Insight.com Bowl | ||||
| 2002 | Kansas State | 11-2 | 6-2 | 2nd N | W 34-27 Holiday Bowl | 6 | 7 | ||
| 2003 | Kansas State | 11-4 | 6-2 | 1st | L 28-35 Fiesta Bowl † | 13 | 14 | ||
| 2004 | Kansas State | 4-7 | 2-6 | 5th N | |||||
| 2005 | Kansas State | 5-6 | 2-6 | 5th N | |||||
| Kansas State: | 136-68-1 | 75-53-1 | |||||||
| Bowl Games: | 6-5 | ||||||||
| Total: | 136-68-1 | ||||||||
| National Championship Conference Title Conference Division Title | |||||||||
| †Indicates BCS bowl game. #Rankings from final Coaches Poll of the season. °Rankings from final AP Poll of the season. |
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^The Big Eight disbanded following the 1995 season; in 1996, its eight members joined with four former members of the Southwest Conference to form the Big 12, which consists of North and South divisions.
In 1999, Kansas State lost the head to head game with Nebraska, giving Nebraska the North Division title, although both teams finished with the same conference record. In 2000, Kansas State won the head to head game, resulting a North Division title.
[edit] Player accomplishments
During the Snyder era, Kansas State players won the following national awards:
- Lou Groza Award (Outstanding kicker) - Martín Gramática, 1997
- Davey O'Brien Award (Nation's top quarterback) - Michael Bishop, 1998
- Jim Thorpe Award (Outstanding defensive back) - Terence Newman, 2002
Heisman Trophy:
- Michael Bishop, finished second in the 1998 Heisman Trophy voting.
- Darren Sproles finished fifth in the 2003 Heisman Trophy voting.
[edit] Personal life
Snyder is a 1962 graduate of William Jewell College, where he played defensive back (3 letters) from 1959 to 1962. Snyder also received an M.A. at Eastern New Mexico University in 1965.
In addition to his work as the football coach, Snyder was active in raising funds for the library at Kansas State University. Snyder also currently serves as chairman of the Leadership Studies Building Campaign, honorary chairman of the K-State Changing Lives Campaign, and is past president of the Friends of the Libraries organization at K-State.
Snyder and his wife Sharon have five children. They live in Manhattan, Kansas.
[edit] References
- ^ Looney, Douglas (September 4, 1989), “Futility U”, Sports Illustrated, <http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1068750/index.htm>
- ^ College Football Database
- ^ They Said It Couldn't Be Done. ESPN. Retrieved on 2008-02-25.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Lloyd Carr |
Paul "Bear" Bryant Award 1998 |
Succeeded by Frank Beamer |
| Preceded by Lloyd Carr |
Walter Camp Coach of the Year 1998 |
Succeeded by Frank Beamer |
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Snyder, Bill |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Football coach |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 7, 1939 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Saint Joseph, Missouri |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
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