SE: It Feels Like Home

By: D. Scott Fritchen

The most popular question we sportswriters ask is, "How does it feel?"

There was the time Kansas State beat No. 14 Oklahoma 21-7 on Homecoming on Oct. 30, 1993, giving the Wildcats their first win over a nationally-ranked opponent since 1971. And how did it feel? There was the time K-State beat Syracuse 35-18 in the 1997 Fiesta Bowl, as the Wildcats earned their first 11-win season in history. In the postgame news conference at Sun Devil Stadium, I asked:

"How does it feel, Coach?"

"There's more to come," Bill Snyder replied with a grin and a wink.

There was the magical 40-30 win over Nebraska in 1998 (and if a 12-team College Football Playoff existed in 1998, the Wildcats would've won the National Championship hands down) and years later there was the time I saw Collin Klein and wife Shalin blow kisses as he glided down an escalator at the Marriott Marquis and disappeared into the Best Buy Theater for the 2012 Heisman Trophy ceremony.

"Collin, how does it feel to be a Heisman Trophy finalist?"

"I'm just very blessed," Collin said.

There was the time I saw Michael Beasley leap upon the scorer's table and yell and raise his arms high into the air after beating Kansas, and there was the time K-State beat USC for its first NCAA Tournament win in 20 years. There was the time Jacob Pullen kissed the Powercat at midcourt on Senior Day. And there was the time K-State outlasted Xavier in a double-overtime thriller that remains one of the greatest NCAA Tournament games in history.

"Jacob, how does it feel?"

"It's basketball, man," he said. "This is March Madness."

There was the time I followed Erik Kynard Jr. to Eugene, Oregon, and saw him clear 7 feet, 5 ¾ inches at the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials to become the only collegian to represent Team USA in the men's high jump in the London 2012 Olympics. And then I saw K-State baseball win its first league title in 80 years and advance to its first-ever Super Regional in Corvallis.

There was the Big Four for K-State women's basketball — Nicole Ohlde, Kendra Wecker, Laurie Koehn and Megan Mahoney (was that really 20 years ago???) — who seemed to sell out Bramlage Coliseum every night and made four NCAA Tournament appearances.

For nearly 30 years, after every one of these events and after every one of these games, as coaches and their players basked in emotion, I so often asked, "How does it feel?"

There's a story behind all of this, of course. It began on Oct. 12, 1991. A 16-year-old boy and his family flew from their home in Washington, D.C., to attend the boy's first K-State football game. All of his family were K-State graduates, of course. For all of his life, the boy knew that he'd attend K-State as well. At age 10 he also knew that he would be a sportswriter. That October day, the boy spotted Coach Snyder standing on the sideline in the final seconds of a last-minute, come-from-behind 16-12 victory over Kansas in Manhattan — Snyder's first win over KU, and a monumental step for his program. As K-State students tore down the goal posts, the boy pointed to Snyder and announced to his family, "I'm going to write stories about that man someday."

When I returned to K-State to begin my freshman year in 1993, it already felt like I was home.

In 2017, I published "Expect to Win: Stories about Kansas State Football Coach Bill Snyder, His Program and His Players." Over the past year, Coach Snyder and I sat in his stadium suite, drank too much coffee, and wrote his autobiography, "Bill Snyder: My Football Life and the Rest of the Story." Published by Triumph Books of Chicago, the book will be released on November 9, 2021 (Amazon and Barnes & Noble are currently taking preorders — hardback, kindle and nook — with Audiobook still to come). Co-authoring Coach's autobiography was the honor of a lifetime — 150,000 words, 400 pages, and 24 pages of rare Snyder photos.

After a year away from the official role of sportswriter, I'm very grateful for the opportunity and privilege to return to write about K-State, where for nearly three decades I've been fortunate to pen articles about so many wonderful people and wonderful moments in K-State history.

Today is my first day at the K-State Athletic Department as writer for Sports Extra on the official K-State Sports web site. I plan to capture the essence of the coaches and athletes and moments within all of K-State's teams — football, men's and women's basketball, cross country, men's and women's golf, rowing, soccer, tennis, track and field, and volleyball. This is a tremendous honor. I hope you'll enjoy my stories.

Today, people ask me: "How does it feel?"

It's an easy answer.

It feels like I'm home.

Kansas State University Athletics

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