The 1953 Kansas State Wildcats football team represented

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

in the

1953 college football season The 1953 college football season finished with the Maryland Terrapins capturing the AP, INS, and UPI national championship after Notre Dame held the top spot for the first nine weeks. The No. 4 Oklahoma Sooners defeated Maryland in the Orange ...

. The team's head football coach was

Bill Meek William Meridas Meek (August 14, 1920 – May 28, 1998)''Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014''. Social Security Administration. was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Kansas State University (1947 ...

. The Wildcats played their home games in Memorial Stadium. 1953 saw the Wildcats finish with a record of 6–3–1, and a 4–2 record in Big Seven Conference play, tied for second in the conference. The Wildcats scored 198 points while giving up 116. Kansas State started the season with a 5–1 record, and made the program's first appearance in the top 20 of a national ranking system at #18 in the

Coaches Poll The Coaches Poll is a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football, Division I college basketball, and Division I college baseball teams. The football version of the poll has been known officially ...

on October 28. 1953 was also the first year that Kansas State played on national television, when its game on November 7 against rival

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

was broadcast on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

. The team finished the season leading the NCAA in punt returns (23.8 yards per punt average).

Schedule

References

Kansas State Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

Kansas State Wildcats football seasons

Kansas State Wildcats football The Kansas State Wildcats football program (variously Kansas State, K-State or KSU) is the college football, intercollegiate football program of the Kansas State University Kansas State Wildcats, Wildcats. The program is classified in the NCAA Di ...

{{Kansas-sport-team-stub