SE: How ‘Miracle in Manhattan’ Documentary Came Together, Thoughts from First Public Viewing

Being a K-State fan, the story called to Dan Youngman. To him, turning nothing into something, which he can somewhat relate to, is the American dream. Doing so against all odds and outside expectations is a hero's journey.

Youngman wanted to tell the story. He wanted show why it's important. He wanted illustrate where K-State football was once at — spoiler alert, not good — and display exactly how it climbed into the conversation of the greatest turnarounds in sports history. And he wanted to do it in a way yet to be done.

So, Youngman made a documentary: "The Miracle in Manhattan — Part One — The Foundation." It starts in K-State's dark ages of football, highlighted by 30-straight winless efforts from 1986-1989, and walks through the first stages of the program's resurrection under head coach Bill Snyder.

"I think everyone's drawn to stories of hard work, perseverance, proving people wrong," said Youngman, who used an unlikely journey himself to produce the documentary.

A Topeka native, Youngman graduated from Hayden High School and continued his education at K-State. He chose to pursue a finance degree without much of a plan to use it.

Youngman knew he wanted to end up in Los Angeles, California, and he moved there after finishing his degree at K-State. In the land of stars, he "fell" into a job as a video logger for "Deadliest Catch," which includes sifting through hours of footage to make life easier for editors.

Year by year, Youngman moved up the ladder. He's since worked for television shows like "Ice Road Truckers," "American Hoggers," and "1,000 Ways to Die." His titles have grown in importance, including jobs as a production assistant, associate producer, field producer, development producer and production coordinator, which was his most recent position with "Somebody's Got to Do It."

"I kind of had a somewhat diverse background by the time I was done with that show (in December of 2015)," said Youngman, "and decided I wanted to do something on my own."

About a year before this decision, Youngman started researching the K-State football turnaround. He bought books, subscribed to online newspaper archives and utilized every resource he could find to put together a "sizzle reel," a producing term for what is essentially a rough draft of a project. When he finished it, Youngman showed it to Mike Rowe, host of "Somebody's Got to Do It," in the final week of the show.

"He put headphones in, watched it and when it was done, he looked up at me and said, 'What can I do?'" Youngman recalled. "I said, 'Can you do the narration?' He was, like, "Yeah, it's done. I'll do it, no problem.'"

Youngman now had a compelling story and a respected name to narrate the documentary, which runs just under an hour. His next step was to finish interviews for the piece. K-State's 2016 Purple/White Spring Game was the perfect opportunity to record many of the interviews he did with former players. He also interviewed a number of coaches who were on staff at the time, such as Bob Stoops and Michael Smith.

A year later, after putting a few thousand hours of work into it, Youngman was ready to display the finished product. He did so after K-State's spring game on April 22, renting out two screens at the Carmike Town Center 13 & IMAX.

The reaction from the 500-plus people to view the documentary, during and after, reassured Youngman's confidence in the product.

"It was really cool to hear the crowd react at the appropriate spots," he said. "Hearing some of the emotions of the crowd was the cool part."

Those watching it for the first time unanimously shared an enjoyable and emotional experience. Depending on their age and level of connection to K-State, the documentary impacted them a little differently.

Buddy Greer, a lifelong K-State fan who can't remember the pre-Snyder years, said he had goose bumps the entire film.

"They were terrible at first, but he just stepped right in there and turned it around. He believed more than anybody else did. That had to be pretty hard to do," he said. "I think we take our winning for granted a lot because it used to be so bad. Don't take it for granted, enjoy it. It's family."

Bill Keller, who graduated from K-State in 1972, lived through the magic. He said Youngman's documentary captured it perfectly.

"It's very, very accurate. It tells the story that needs to be told. People need to know it," Keller said. "It's just something that people need to understand. It can be done, it got done, and I know (Snyder) tells his players, even today, don't take this for granted."

For those closer to the program, the documentary was a trip down down memory lane; one that stirred up emotions and pulled out pride in reliving what was accomplished.

Former K-State linebacker Brooks Barta, who was one of the players Snyder inherited when he arrived in 1989, said watching Youngman's finished work was a "deep experience."

"A lot of these guys didn't get the respect at that time that maybe they deserved and now they have a chance to get that," said Barta, who was interviewed for the documentary. "I think we always expected to win and we always expected to get it done. We owe a lot of credit to Coach Snyder and the coaching staff to convince us that with hard work, great things can happen."

Stan Weber, also interviewed for the film, played quarterback at K-State from 1980-84 and got his start covering his alma mater on the radio in 1987. He said viewing the documentary was like watching "my life right before me."

Nearly every person who appeared on the big screen, Weber knew well. All the game highlights that were played, he knew what would come next. Still, he said what Youngman was able to accomplish with the film, which ends with K-State's Copper Bowl appearance in 1993, only left him wanting more.

"I sat there enjoying the heck out of it and then immediately, with the people around me, said I can't wait for the story to continue," Weber said. "When he went right to the Copper Bowl, that wasn't the end. That was the end of this great documentary by Dan Youngman, but (Snyder) just took it to a whole other level."

Youngman, who faced questions of when and where this documentary would be made available for all K-State fans to watch before the show, faced a different question after it.

"When is part two?"

While he plans on putting together a second part of the documentary, he has no definitive timetable at the moment. What he does know is that good work takes time and that this film educated him as much as probably anyone who will watch it.

"In terms of the story, I learned how naive I was to it. I've said this a lot, but you would see before the games, the press conference when (Snyder) said, 'the biggest turnaround in history,' and you think that's pretty cool. You were, like, 'We were really, really bad, and now we're good,'" Youngman said. "I didn't really think that much past it. I was surprised by, myself and everyone else, of how little we knew about it. I do think I'm a different person than when I started it."

Kansas State University Athletics

SE: How ‘Miracle in Manhattan’ Documentary Came Together, Thoughts from First Public Viewing

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