Linkon Cure wasn't here this time a year ago. Today, the 6-foot-5, 245-pound sophomore tight end stands smiling, slightly messy hair from the seventh day of Kansas State football spring practice, his mustache trimmed and pulled back while revealing a wide smile, with a grill of white teeth matching the Nike t-shirt he wears over a Catapult tank-top in the Vanier Family Football Complex.
So much will be rolling through the mind of Ted Power when the 71-year-old native of Guthrie, Oklahoma, a right-hander who played five sports at Abilene High School in Abilene, Kansas, and a fifth-round selection by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the June 1976 free agent draft, saunters onto the field and takes the pitcher's mound at Tointon Family Stadium on Saturday. Power, who played for eight Major League Baseball teams during a 13-year career, and who was inducted into the Kansas State All-Century Team in 2000, and who was inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2023, during his K-State playing days from 1974-76 worked that pitcher's mound like no other pitcher in K-State history — a record 19 strikeouts in a single game and a 2.34 ERA during his junior season in 1976 before he turned pro — but there's a certain something poetic about Powers throwing out that ceremonial first pitch on Saturday, commemorating the 50-year anniversary of the 1976 K-State baseball team, as old teammates gather in Manhattan to celebrate one of the greatest stories in K-State history.
Luke Smith was the first Kansas State men's basketball assistant coach to arrive in Manhattan. He pulled open the doors to the Ice Family Basketball Center at around 4:30 p.m., met head coach Casey Alexander in his office, and the two got to work.
Kaleb Patterson is the oldest player in a Kansas State cornerback room that features a pair of talented returners in juniors Zashon Rich and Donovan McIntosh, and that includes promise for the future with three redshirt freshmen and two true freshmen.
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