List of Kansas State Wildcats head football coaches

Page last edited 1,948 days ago
From American Football Database
Jump to navigation Jump to search

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at List of Kansas State Wildcats head football coaches.
The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with American Football Database, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination
Bill Snyder, winningest head coach at Kansas State

The Kansas State Wildcats football program is a college football team that represents Kansas State University in the Big 12 Conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The team has had 31 head coaches and one interim head coach since its first official football game in 1896. The current coach is Bill Snyder, who was originally hired in November 1988 and retired after the 2005 season, only to return from 2009 to 2018.

The university adopted the nickname "Wildcats" in 1915 after being previously known as the "Aggies." Head coach Zora G. Clevenger changed the team's nickname to the "Farmers" from 1916 to 1919, but it was changed back to "Wildcats" permanently in 1920 by coach Charlie Bachman.

Kansas State joined the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1913. The school split away from the MVIAA with five others to create the Big Six Conference in 1928. Through the years that conference added two teams and eventually became the Big Eight Conference. The Wildcats became a charter member of the Big 12 in 1996 when the Big Eight disbanded.

Three coaches have led Kansas State to postseason bowl games: Jim Dickey, Bill Snyder and Ron Prince. Four coaches have won conference championships with the Wildcats: Mike Ahearn (1909, 1910); Guy Lowman (1912); Lynn Waldorf (1934); and Snyder (2003, 2012).

Bill Snyder is the all-time leader in seasons coached at KSU with 26, more than triple the next highest. Snyder is also the leader in games coached (320) and total wins (209) through the end of the 2017 regular season. Mike Ahearn has the highest overall winning percentage of any Wildcat coach, at .755 over his six seasons. Sam Francis is the worst coach in program history in terms of winning percentage, as he lost every one of the ten games he coached during his only season at Kansas State. Among coaches who served more than one season, Stan Parrish has the lowest winning percentage (.076) after completing three seasons with a record of 2–30–1. Bill Snyder, Charles Bachman and Pappy Waldorf have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as coaches. Coaches Zora G. Clevenger, Alvin "Bo" McMillin and Sam Francis were inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame as players. Snyder is the only coach to have won major post-season national coach of the year honors while at Kansas State.

Key[edit | edit source]

Key to symbols in coaches list
General Overall Conference Postseason[2]
No. Order of coaches[3] GC Games coached CW Conference wins PW Postseason wins
DC Division championships OW Overall wins CL Conference losses PL Postseason losses
CC Conference championships OL Overall losses CT Conference ties PT Postseason ties
NC National championships OT Overall ties[5] C% Conference winning percentage
Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination
Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame O% Overall winning percentage[7]


Coaches[edit | edit source]

Statistics correct as of end of 2017 regular season.
No. Name Term GC OW OL OT O% CW CL CT C% PW PL CCs National Awards
1 Ira Pratt 1896 2 0 1 1 .250
2 A. W. Ehrsam 1897 4 1 2 1 .375
3 Billy P. Williamson 1898 4 1 1 2 .500
4 Albert Hansen 1899 5 2 3 0 .400
5 Fay Moulton 1900 6 2 4 0 .333
6 Wade Moore 1901 8 3 4 1 .438
7 Cyrus E. Dietz 1902 8 2 6 0 .250
8 G. O. Dietz 1903 8 3 4 1 .438
9 Reuben F. Booth 1904 7 1 6 0 .143
10 Mike Ahearn 1905–1910 51 39 12 0 .765 2
11 Guy Lowman 1911–1914 35 17 15 3 .529 0 5 0 .000 1
12 John R. Bender 1915 8 3 4 1 .438 0 2 1 .167
13 Zora G. Clevenger 1916–1919 30 19 9 2 .667 3 6 2 .364
14 Charlie Bachman 1920–1927 65 33 23 9 .577 17 21 6 .455
15 Bo McMillin 1928–1933 51 29 21 1 .578 15 15 0 .500
16 Pappy Waldorf 1934 10 7 2 1 .750 5 0 0 1.000 1
17 Wesley Fry 1935–1939 45 18 21 6 .467 6 14 5 .340
18 Hobbs Adams 1940–41, 1946 27 4 21 2 .185 2 12 1 .167
19 Ward Haylett 1942–1944 28 6 20 2 .250 3 12 0 .200
20 Lud Fiser 1945 8 1 7 0 .125 0 5 0 .000
21 Sam Francis 1947 10 0 10 0 .000 0 5 0 .000
22 Ralph Graham 1948–1950 31 4 26 1 .145 1 17 0 .056
23 Bill Meek 1951–1954 39 14 24 1 .372 7 17 0 .304
24 Bus Mertes 1955–1959 49 15 34 1 .310 10 20 0 .333
25 Doug Weaver 1960–1966 69 8 60 1 .123 4 43 1 .094
26 Vince Gibson 1967–1974 85 33 52 0 .388 16 40 0 .286
27 Ellis Rainsberger 1975–1977 33 6 27 0 .182 0 21 0 .000
28 Jim Dickey 1978–1985[8] 80 24 54 2 .313 12 35 2 .265 0 1
Int Lee Moon 1985 9 1 8 0 .111 1 6 0 .143
29 Stan Parrish 1986–1988 33 2 30 1 .076 1 19 1 .071
30 Bill Snyder 1989–2005,
2009–2018
320 210 110 1 .656 125 84 1 .598 8 10 2

AP Coach of the Year (1998)
Bear Bryant Award (1998)
Bobby Dodd COY (1998, 2012)
{{nowrap|Walter Camp COY (1998)
Woody Hayes Trophy (2011)
Sporting News COY (2011)

31 Ron Prince 2006–2008 37 17 20 .459 9 15 .375 0 1

See also[edit | edit source]

Notes[edit | edit source]

  1. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (2011). Bowl/All-Star Game Records (PDF). Indianapolis, Indiana: NCAA. pp. 5–10. Archived from the original on August 22, 2011. Retrieved August 21, 2011. 
  2. Although the first Rose Bowl Game was played in 1902, it has been continuously played since the 1916 game, and is recognized as the oldest bowl game by the NCAA. "—" indicates any season prior to 1916 when postseason games were not played.[1]
  3. A running total of the number of head coaches, with coaches who served separate tenures being counted only once. Interim head coaches are represented with "Int" and are not counted in the running total. "—" indicates the team played but either without a coach or no coach is on record. "X" indicates an interim year without play.
  4. Whiteside, Kelly (August 25, 2006). "Overtime system still excites coaches". USA Today. McLean, Virginia. Archived from the original on November 24, 2009. Retrieved September 25, 2009. 
  5. Overtime rules in college football were introduced in 1996, making ties impossible in the period since.[4]
  6. Finder, Chuck (September 6, 1987). "Big plays help Paterno to 200th". The New York Times. New York City. Archived from the original on October 22, 2009. Retrieved October 22, 2009. 
  7. When computing the win–loss percentage, a tie counts as half a win and half a loss.[6]
  8. Jim Dickey resigned at the beginning of the 1985 season, going 0–2. Lee Moon replaced him and finished the season 1–8 (1–6 in conference).

References[edit | edit source]

General
Specific