SE: K-State Football’s ‘Rock,’ Joan Friederich, Retires After 42 Years
Apr 27, 2017 | Football, Sports Extra
For a few minutes, Joan Friederich was back in her element, surrounded by people she loves at a place she's dearly missed coming to every day. She was back in the mix of K-State football, a return to a program she became a fixture in.
Friederich, a longtime administrative assistant for K-State's head football coach, recently retired after 42 years with the program. Before last Saturday's Purple/White Spring Game, she was recognized at midfield, receiving a specially made glass football trophy as thanks for her dedication to the program.
"She's just a special person that cares deeply about this program and we're just happy to be able to do that little, minor honor for her," said K-State senior captain Trent Tanking. "She deserves way more, but we were happy that we got her in front of the crowd and could recognize her."
More enjoyable than the trophy Friederich received were the warm welcomes she was given by many, including head coach Bill Snyder. Numerous K-State players, when they saw Friederich, stopped what they were doing to give her a hug and chat. Others close to the program did the same.
"It was really exciting. Dalton Risner came up and gave me a hug, and it was fun to see him," Friederich, who began working in the football offices in 1973, said. "I'm really going to miss coming to work every day because I truly loved to see the players and the coaches every day."
And they loved seeing her.
Former Wildcat quarterback and current color analyst for the K-State Sports Network Stan Weber called Friederich the "rock" for K-State football. The two first met on his recruiting visit more than 30 years ago, and they quickly became "great friends."
Weber remembers spending countless hours in her office in 1982, the year he suffered a significant knee injury. The two talked about everything, from life, its battles, what it was like working with different coaches — Friederich worked for six different head coaches in her time with the program — and the history of K-State football.
"I was just trying to learn as much as I could," Weber said, "and enjoy our company."
It may seem like Weber's relationship with Friederich was unique, but she created a similar bond with hundreds of players through the years.
"I've met so many guys, who played football in all different eras, who thought they were Joan's favorite player of all time. It happened so often that no one was jealous of anybody else," Weber laughed. "It was just an amazing quality to say, 'Oh, I had a special relationship with Joan and I know I was one of her favorites.' The next person you talk to says the same thing and you see a theme there."
The theme: Friederich cares deeply about K-State football. From the day any player, coach or one of their family members stepped foot into the Vanier Family Football Complex, Friederich became invested into them.
It's no wonder why Friederich became known as the team's football mother.
"I truly enjoyed it. They mean a lot to me and they know that they mean a lot to me. They will sit and visit with me about things and I have always felt like a very special person in their lives," she said. "I am just so happy to have worked there as long as I did. I'm going to miss it a whole lot. I tell everybody I was a lucky old lady to be able to work this long."
Regardless of a player and coach's status, Weber said Friederich made them feel like an important part of the program. "Ex-player, starter, walk-on, scholarship, it didn't matter," he said. "You were one of her boys. She cared so much about the players and helped us a ton."
Her devoted interest into the players' lives was not a four- or five-year commitment, either. She continued to keep tabs on players long after they left K-State.
"When you need anything to do with K-State football, you call over there, you hear her voice and it just gives you comfort and connectivity," Weber said. "You just feel like you're still a player, like you're involved in the program. She was always so happy to hear from everybody and wanting to tell you what was happening with everybody else. She made you feel like you just graduated last year, even if you might have graduated 30 years ago."
"Joan knew every player," added former K-State linebacker and current Holton High School head coach Brooks Barta, whose son, Mason, is now on the Wildcats' roster. "She knew, every time when I walked in, whether my team won. She knew everything about our kids."
Friederich knows just about everything involving K-State football. She became acquainted with hundreds of players, six head coaches and dozens of assistants, using an adaptable personality, a highly-respected work ethic and her love for K-State to help any way she could.
"Her excellence in what she did in helping Coach Snyder and the program is tremendous and pure, but the ability to relate to so many people, stay in touch with them and make them feel comfortable was an added bonus," Weber said. "Joan is an absolute legend in the minds of the people who were inside the building walls of K-State football."
For the majority of her career, Friederich was the gatekeeper to Snyder, whom she's quick to brag on.
"He is absolutely the best. He's a caring person. He doesn't leave anything to the imagination. He's just a good football coach and he finally got our program going, where it was really bad before he got here. That meant a lot because I bleed purple," Friederich, who's lived in Manhattan since graduating from Leonardville, said. "I can't say enough good things about Bill Snyder."
When asked about Friederich, Snyder responded with similar praise.
"Amazing," Snyder started. "She's had an amazing impact on (our program) and it's had an amazing impact on her as well."
To no surprise, Snyder described Friederich as a "people person" who loved to visit with the players. To encourage this and help give her joy, Snyder used put candy on her desk and players would come give Friederich a hug in exchange for a piece.
"They enjoyed that, and she enjoyed the daylights out of it and loved it. She just loved to be around and thinks so highly of our players. And she loves the dialogue with other people. I get thousands of calls in here and she's met, over the phone, probably everybody that I know. She has longer conversations than I do with them." Snyder said, referencing a story in which former Texas Tech head coach Spike Dykes, who recently passed away, called to speak with him at Vanier. "Spike was a good friend and Spike would call all the time, and she talked to him for an hour and I'd talk to him for five minutes. It's that way with so many people."
It was that way with Weber's parents. One Friday evening before a road game in 1984, Weber recalled walking through the hotel lobby, looking to thank his parents for traveling to watch him play. His initial worry that they might be bored soon faded, as he found his parents and Friederich laughing and having a great time.
"The connection she had with my parents… when they'd see each other, they'd run over and hug each other," Weber said. "It was like they had known each other, were great friends and she introduced me to them as opposed to me introducing them to her through football."
Through her job, Friederich saw coaches come in and leave, and return in Snyder's case. She watched facilities transform from eyesores to immaculate images. She witnessed the historic turnaround at K-State, where postseason play is now a plan, not a hope.
"I just feel like I was part of it. We all worked hard. Everyone," Friederich said. "I tell everybody I was born a Wildcat. I've been a K-State fan forever. I've seen us go from Memorial Stadium to our new stadium, and we've gone from not having a lot of people in the stadium to a sell-out crowd. It's just been fun to see how that's all worked out. I'm really proud to call myself a Wildcat and I'm very happy to have had the opportunity to work in the football office as long as I have."
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