Kansas State

According to most sources, Kansas State's football team began play on Thanksgiving Day 1893. A team from Kansas State defeated St. Mary's College 18–10 on that date. Other sources name Kansas State's first game as a 24–0 victory over a team from Abilene, Kansas, on November 3, 1894. However, the first official game recorded in the team's history is a 14–0 loss to Fort Riley on November 28, 1896.

In its earliest years, the program had a different coach every year—generally, a former college football player who had just graduated from college. Often, the coaches also played with the team during the games. Some of the coaches during this era include Fay Moulton (1900), who went on to win Olympic medals as a sprinter; Wade Moore (1901), who later was a successful minor league baseball manager; and Cyrus E. Dietz (1902), who became a justice of the Illinois Supreme Court. The pattern changed when Mike Ahearn became the first long-term coach in 1905. Ahearn coached for six seasons, leading the team to winning records each year, and concluding in the 1910 season with a 10–1 mark. Ahearn also won two conference championships in the Kansas Intercollegiate Athletic Association, in 1909 and 1910. Ahearn was followed by Guy Lowman, who led Kansas State to another conference championship in 1912.

Kansas State accepted an invitation into the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1913. After a few years adjusting to the league's eligibility rules and a higher level of competition, the school experienced sustained success in the 1920s and 1930s. Elden Auker was part of a group of excellent athletes who attended Kansas State around the time of the Great Depression, which also included Ralph Graham, Maurice Elder, Leland Shaffer, Cookie Tackwell, Dougal Russell, Henry Cronkite, George Maddox, and Elmer Hackney. These athletes were coupled with a series of Hall of Fame coaches. The first of these coaches was Z.G. Clevenger, who arrived in 1916 when Kansas State essentially swapped head coaches with Tennessee. Clevenger is in the College Football Hall of Fame for his playing abilities, but he was also recognized as a brilliant coach and administrator. Clevenger was followed as football coach in 1920 by Charlie Bachman, who stayed until 1927 and earned his way into the College Football Hall of Fame with his coaching prowess. Bachman was also responsible for permanently endowing Kansas State's sports teams with the nickname of "Wildcats." His successor, Alvin "Bo" McMillin, the coach from 1928 to 1933, is also in the College Football Hall of Fame as a player, but he too was a successful coach who, after leaving Kansas State, was recognized as national collegiate coach of the year and then served as head coach for two NFL teams. After McMillin left, Kansas State hired Lynn "Pappy" Waldorf, who was also later enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach.

With this combination of coaches and players, Kansas State enjoyed what would be its last streak of sustained success on the football field for 60 years. In 1931, the football team was on track for a potential bid to the Rose Bowl, the sole bowl game in the country at the time, until Ralph Graham was injured. In 1934, Kansas State won its first major conference football championship. That same year, the New York Times referred to Kansas State as "an established Middle Western leader." But then Waldorf abruptly left for Northwestern after the season, and the winning stopped. In the midst of the period, the MVIAA split up. In 1928, six of the seven state schools in the MVIAA, including Kansas State, banded together in a conference that retained the MVIAA name. This group would evolve into the Big Eight Conference. Over the next 60 years, Kansas State would experience very little success on the football field. According to longtime Wildcat radio announcer Dev Nelson, part of the problem was that Kansas State was one of the few major schools that didn't make a significant investment in its football program after World War II. Indeed, for many years the Wildcats spent far less on football—and athletics as a whole—than any Big Eight school. For example, in 1987–1988, the University of Oklahoma (the conference's second smallest school) spent $12.5 million on athletics while Kansas State spent $5.5 million. Reflective of the mid-century futility was a 28-game losing streak from 1945 to 1948, the second-longest in NCAA FBS history. Kansas State also had losing streaks of 18 and 17 games in the 1960s. In the middle of posting a 0–10 record in the 1947 season, the Kansas State program slipped below the .500 all-time winning percentage, where it has remained since. However, there were a few shining moments during these decades. (the first televised homecoming game), losing to Nebraska 25–9.

In the mid-1950s, head coach Bill Meek started to rebuild the program he took over in 1951. In 1953, Kansas State posted a 5–3–1 record, the school's first winning season since Wes Fry's 1936 team. Upon starting that season 5–1, K-State also made the school's first appearance in the top 20 polls for college football, at No. 18 in the Coaches Poll on October 28, 1953. The following year was even better, with Kansas State posting a 7–3 record and playing for an Orange Bowl berth in their final game. But Meek left Kansas State following the 1954 season, when the school refused to give raises to his assistants. Bus Mertes got his first college head coach position as the 24th head football coach for the Kansas State Wildcats in Manhattan, Kansas, and he held that position for five seasons, from 1955 until 1959. His coaching record at Kansas State was 15 wins, 34 losses, and 1 ties. As of completion of the 2007 season, this ranks him tenth at Kansas State in terms of total wins and 19th at Kansas State in terms of winning percentage. In seven seasons at Kansas State, Coach Doug Weaver compiled an 8–60–1 record. His final two seasons went without a win. His 1961 and 1962 teams posted a losing streak of 18 games—tied for the 20th-longest streak in college football history.^[] Weaver's best season at K-State came in 1964, when his team went 3–7, with the three wins coming by a combined six points, but he retained his sense of humor. According to a Sports Illustrated article, after he was hanged in effigy at K-State, he said: "I'm glad it happened in front of the library. I've always emphasized scholarship." He was fired following the 1966 season. His career record was 8–60–1 including a 4–43–1 record in conference play.

In the late 1960s, coach Vince Gibson also briefly started to turn the program around. Behind sophomore quarterback Lynn Dickey, the 1968 squad earned the school's first ranking in the AP Poll and shut out the University of Nebraska in Lincoln for the school's first victory over NU in a decade. That same season, Kansas State also moved into newly built KSU Stadium, currently named The Bill Snyder Family Stadium. The 1969 season was even better. The team started 2–0 before second-ranked Penn State University arrived to play in Manhattan, Kansas. Penn State would ultimately finish the 1969 season undefeated, but Kansas State provided them with one of their toughest tests in a 17–14 game. Following the loss to Penn State, Kansas State reeled off three straight victories, including a win over defending conference champion Kansas in the first Governor's Cup game, and a 59–21 blowout of 11th-ranked Oklahoma, which was Kansas State's first win over OU since 1934. (It was also the largest loss in Oklahoma's history.) After the Oklahoma game, Kansas State sported a 5–1 record and a No. 12 national ranking in the AP Poll. This was the high point of the season, as the team lost its last four games to finish 5–5. Nevertheless, in only his third season, Gibson had dramatically improved the program.

Prior to the 1970 season, Gibson was named the pre-season national coach of the year by Playboy Magazine. The season that followed was up-and-down but ultimately disappointing despite a winning record and a second-place finish in the Big Eight. Kansas State won at Oklahoma and defeated eighth-ranked Colorado, but the season was soured by non-conference defeats and a blow-out loss to Nebraska in the final conference game of the year with the conference title on the line. The worst news of the season came on October 7, 1970, when the conference issued severe sanctions against Kansas State for recruiting violations. The Wildcats were placed on three years' probation, including a one-year ban from bowl games and live television. Gibson would never have another winning season, and left the school in 1974. He later said that the sanctions—the product of what he called an immature quarrel between himself and Jayhawks coach Pepper Rodgers—destroyed everything he'd built over his first four years.

Wisconsin assistant coach Ellis Rainsberger returned to his alma mater to serve as head football coach from 1975 to 1977. He started his tenure there winning his first three games, but ultimately compiled a record of 6–27. Rainsberger left Kansas State with the program placed on probation for giving too many scholarships.

The Wildcats wouldn't have another winning season until 1982, when Jim Dickey led a redshirt-laden roster to the 1982 Independence Bowl—the first bowl appearance in school history. However, Dickey was unable to sustain the momentum, and suffered back-to-back three-win seasons in 1983 and 1984. After the team opened the 1985 season with two consecutive losses to I-AA teams, Dickey was forced to resign, leaving Kansas State with a record of 24–52–2.

In 1986, Marshall head coach Stan Parrish was hired as K-State's head coach. Parrish was unable to sustain any sort of success, posting yearly records of 2–9, 0–10–1, and 0–11. The Wildcats bottomed out by going on a 27-game winless streak (0–26–1) that began in October 1986. Following back-to-back winless campaigns, Parrish resigned under pressure after the 1988 season. By then, Kansas State had become the first program in Division I-A (FBS) to lose 500 games and had the worst overall record in the nation. In 93 years of play, the Wildcats had gone 299–509–41 (.370).

Things changed in 1989, when the athletic department hired Iowa's offensive coordinator, Bill Snyder, to replace Parrish as head coach. Snyder took over a program that had the worst record in NCAA Division I-A (FBS) history at the time and had gone 27 consecutive games without a win (0–26–1) dating to October 1986. From 1935 to 1988, the last year before Snyder's arrival, Kansas State had won 137 games in total. Since the 1982 Independence Bowl season, the Wildcats had won a total of seven games. Snyder then presided over one of the most successful rebuilding projects in the history of college athletics, ultimately earning enshrinement in the College Football Hall of Fame for his work at Kansas State.

Considering the dreadful state of the program he'd inherited, Snyder made the Wildcats respectable fairly quickly. In his third year, 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 played in the 1993 Copper Bowl, only its second bowl bid ever. They then pounded Wyoming 52–17 to tally the first bowl win in school history, breaking one of the longest such droughts in Division I-A at the time. Success and high rankings continued over the next decade, including six top-ten finishes in the AP Poll and four consecutive 11-win seasons from 1997 to 2000. The latter included a perfect (11–0) regular season in 1998 (before stumbling in the Big 12 Championship Game against Texas A&M). The game ended on a controversial play in double-overtime, with Sirr Parker being credited a touchdown despite video replay clearly indicating his knee down at the one yard line.

As the team improved, recruiting also improved, in large part because Snyder began tapping the rich talent base in Kansas' junior college system. 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 led the nation in rushing in 2003 and holds the Big 12 record for all-purpose yards in a career. The run of success culminated in a Big 12 Conference championship in 2003 with a 35–7 victory over the No. 1 ranked Oklahoma. (The 69 years since the last conference title in 1934 was the longest span between football titles in Division I history.) In his first 17-year stint 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 11 consecutive bowl games (1993–2003), including six wins. Snyder's legacy at K-State during his first term also included winning or sharing four Big 12 North titles (1998, 1999, 2000, 2003) and six 11-win seasons.

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. 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 during his first term, in 1998 (Associated Press, coaches) and 2002 (coaches). The winning attitude under Snyder was represented by a stylized wildcat, called the "Powercat" (shown in the infobox), 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.

On December 5, 2005, Ron Prince was hired as the 33rd head football coach of the Kansas State Wildcats. Prince was formerly the offensive coordinator at 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 over No. 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.

In Prince's second season, the team featured standout quarterback Josh Freeman and receiver Jordy Nelson, but still slipped to a 5–7 record. Coach Prince got the 2007 team off to a quick start, with a 3–1 record and a No. 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. However, in the next four games, the team alternated wins and losses and fell from the Top 25. Four straight losses followed to close out the season. The 2008 season was Ron Prince's third at Kansas State. Coach Prince led the 2008 team to another 5–7 record. With three games remaining in the season, on November 5, 2008, the school announced that Ron Prince would not return as Kansas State head coach in 2009. Ron Prince finished his career at Kansas State 0–9 against Kansas State's biggest rivals (Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri)

On November 23, 2008, in a surprising move, Kansas State University announced that Bill Snyder was coming out of retirement and was hired to replace Ron Prince as head coach. Snyder initially received a 5-year, $1.8 million contract.

In 2009, Snyder led the team to a 6–6 record, going 4–4 in Big 12 play, and falling one game short of winning the Big 12 North. The team failed to make a bowl game for the third consecutive season. Following a loss to Nebraska Cornhuskers football at Memorial Stadium on November 21, 2009, Kansas State became the fourth FBS teams to lose 600 games, joining Northwestern, Indiana, and Wake Forest. Snyder led the 2010 team to an improved 7–6 record, with a 3–5 record in conference play, good for third in the North division. The season ended with a loss to Syracuse in the 2010 Pinstripe Bowl—K-State's first bowl appearance since Ron Prince led the school to the 2006 Texas Bowl.

In 2011, Coach Snyder led the team to a 10–3 record, a second-place finish in the Big 12 Conference, and a No. 15 ranking in the final AP Poll. The team finished the season with a loss to the No. 7 Arkansas Razorbacks in the Cotton Bowl. It was the first 10-win season and first top-20 ranking for Kansas State since the 2003 season. After the season Snyder was named the Woody Hayes Coach of the Year and the National Coach of the Year, as well as the Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year. In 2012, Snyder's Wildcats won the school's sixth conference football championship, and first since 2003. Kansas State also earned the school's first No. 1 ranking in the BCS standings after starting the season 10–0, before falling to Baylor in its 11th game of the season. The Wildcats earned the conference's automatic berth in the 2013 Fiesta Bowl, where the team lost to the No. 5 Oregon Ducks, 35–17. After the season, Coach Snyder was named the conference coach of the year for the seventh time in his career. He also was awarded the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award for the second time. He and Joe Paterno are the only two-time winners of the award.

In 2013, after completing the regular season with a 7–5 record, the Kansas State Wildcats returned for a bowl game for the fourth straight year, were selected to play in the 2013 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl and played the Michigan Wolverines. Winning this game, Kansas State snapped a five-game bowl losing streak, beating Michigan in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl, 31–14. On January 31, 2013, it was announced that Snyder's contract was extended through the 2017 season. In 2014, the Wildcats were led to a 9–3 record by Snyder with losses to Auburn of the SEC, Baylor and TCU, finishing third in the Big 12. The Wildcats had been ranked in all polls with the highest ranking in the new College Football Playoff rankings at number 7. Kansas State became bowl eligible after winning its sixth game against Texas on October 25. The No. 11 Wildcats were invited to the Alamo Bowl where they fell to No. 14 UCLA in San Antonio, Texas, 40–35.

On December 2, 2018, Bill Snyder announced his second retirement from coaching college football. The turnaround of the Kansas State football program between Snyder's initial arrival in 1989 and second retirement in 2018 is widely regarded as one of the most remarkable in college football history. He retired as the twentieth-winningest head coach in college football history. Snyder finished his career with Kansas State with 215 victories and two Big 12 championships. He has accounted for over 40 percent of Kansas State's all-time wins as of the completion of the 2018 season.

On December 10, 2018, following Bill Snyder's decision to retire again, North Dakota State head coach Chris Klieman was announced as the new Kansas State head football coach. Both schools agreed that Klieman would remain at NDSU while the Bison were participating in the FCS playoffs, then take over as Wildcats head coach once the Bisons' season ended. When he was hired by K-State, Klieman signed a six-year contract worth over $2 million annually excluding incentives.

The Wildcats exceeded expectations in his Klieman's season, finishing with an 8–5 record which included a CFP rank as high as No. 20, a win over No. 5 Oklahoma, and a Liberty Bowl berth, where they lost to Navy. During the 2020 season, Chris Klieman led Kansas State to a 4–6 season and 4–5 in the Big 12, which is good for 7th in the Big 12 standings. The 2020 season was shortened by Covid. On October 5, 2020, K-State and Chris Klieman agreed to a new contract worth $23.5 million over the course of the deal excluding incentives. In the 2021 Season, Chris Klieman and the Wildcats had a bounce back season and ended the season 8–5 overall and another 4–5 in the Big 12. Kansas State beat LSU in the Texas Bowl. In the 2022 season, Kansas State went 10–4 overall and 7–2 in the Big 12. The Wildcats beat then-undefeated TCU to win the 2022 Big 12 Championship. The team was selected for the New Year Six Bowl; the Sugar Bowl, however, lost to a 10-2 Alabama Crimson Tide team. Chris Klieman has 39–24 (62%) overall record and 26–19 (57%) in the Big 12. On May 15, 2023, Kansas State University and Chris Klieman agreed to a new eight-year contract worth $5.5 million annually excluding incentives.

Klieman led the Wildcats to a 9–4 record in 2023. They began the season on September 2 with a 45–0 shutout victory over FCS opponent Southeast Missouri State. After a 42–13 victory over Troy the following week, K-State suffered their first loss of the season in a 30–27 contest against Missouri on a 61-yard field goal as time expired. After a 44–31 win over UCF the next week, Klieman's team lost 29–21 to Oklahoma State. The Wildcats then reeled off three straight wins; 38–21 over Texas Tech, 41–3 over TCU and a 41–0 shutout over Houston. On November 3, Kansas State dropped a 33–30 heartbreaker to Texas in overtime. After a 59–25 win over Baylor and a 31–27 victory over archrival Kansas, the Wildcats closed the regular season with a 42–35 loss to rival Iowa State. Kansas State accepted a berth in the 2023 Pop-Tarts Bowl, where they defeated NC State by a score of 28–19.