Bill Snyder

He was the head coach at Kansas State for the program's 300th, 400th, and 500th all-time wins.

In recognition of his contributions to the program, Kansas State has named its home field the Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium.

William D. Snyder (born October 7, 1939) is a retired college football coach and former player.

Snyder was born October 7, 1939, in St. Joseph, Missouri, the son of Tom, a traveling salesman, and Marionetta Snyder.

His parents divorced when he was six; Snyder and his mother moved from Salina, Kansas to St. Joseph, Missouri, where they lived in a one-room, second-floor apartment, and Marionetta worked as a sales clerk in a department store while Bill's father lived in Omaha, Nebraska.

That win was also Snyder's 40th victory at K-State, vaulting him past Mike Ahearn to become the winningest coach in school history.

Snyder attended Lafayette High School in St. Joseph, graduating in 1957.

Snyder attended the University of Missouri for one year before enrolling at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, where he earned three letters in football for the Cardinals as a defensive back and halfback.

He helped Fry build Iowa from a program that had not had a winning season since 1961 into a two-time Big Ten champion.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from William Jewell in 1963.

He earned his Master of Arts degree from Eastern New Mexico University in 1965.

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.

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.

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 (6–5–1).

He then served as an assistant football coach, and also coached swimming, at Austin College in Sherman, Texas, from 1974 to 1975.

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 10 years.

The school had been to only one bowl game (the 1982 Independence Bowl), had not won a conference title since 1934 and had enjoyed four winning seasons in the previous 54 years (including two in the previous 34 years).

The program also had not won a game since October 26, 1986, going 0–26–1 in that time.

Snyder was hired as the 32nd head coach of the Kansas State University Wildcats following the 1988 season.

When Snyder was hired at K-State for the first time on November 24, 1988, he inherited a situation that was several times worse than the one he'd found when he arrived in Iowa with Fry.

Kansas State had a cumulative record of 299–510 (.360) in 93 years of play, which was easily the most losses of any team in Division I-A at the time.

He served as the head football coach at Kansas State University from 1989 to 2005 and again from 2009 to 2018.

Prior to Snyder's first season in 1989, Sports Illustrated published an article about Kansas State football entitled "Futility U," which labeled the school "America's most hapless team."

In hopes of distancing K-State from its losing history, Snyder had art professor Tom Brookhalter create a new logo for the team's helmets, a stylized wildcat's head known as the "Powercat."

Snyder won only one game in his first season, beating the recently renamed North Texas, but it was a significant win because it was K-State's first win in three seasons.

The game was especially thrilling, with a touchdown pass coming on the last play of the game.

In Snyder's second season, in 1990, the Wildcats improved to 5–6.

The 1991 season saw another breakthrough when the Wildcats finished with a winning record of 7–4 and narrowly missed a bowl bid.

Two years later, Snyder led the Wildcats to the 1993 Copper Bowl.

It was the school's second bowl game, its first bowl win and the first of its 11 consecutive bowl appearances from 1993 to 2003—of which it won six—a streak matched by only six other teams.

The 1993 season also marked the second nine-win season in school history and the team's first ranking in a final media poll.

During the 1995 season, Snyder led the Wildcats to the first 10-win season in school history.

They also finished sixth in the AP Poll and seventh in the Coaches' Poll–their first top-ten finish in school history.

This included a 41–7 thrashing of then-No.

6 Kansas in what was the only Governor's Cup between two ranked teams until the 2023 contest.

Snyder initially retired from the position from 2006 to 2008 before being rehired.

Snyder was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2015 and won several conference and national coach of the year awards.

Snyder retired for the second time on December 2, 2018, and is serving as a special ambassador for the athletics department.