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The Kansas State Wildcats (variously "Kansas State", "K-State", or "KSU") are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Kansas State University. The official color of the teams is Royal Purple; white and silver are generally used as complementary colors. Kansas State participates in the
NCAA Division I FBS The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...
(Football Bowl Subdivision) and is a member of the
Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...
since 1996. Previously, Kansas State competed in the
Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference The Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). The KCAC is the oldest conference in the NAIA and the second oldest in the United Stat ...
until 1912; the
Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association The Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MVIAA) was a college athletic conference and the second college conference formed upon its foundation on January 12, 1907.David A. Campaigne and John R. Thelin, "Big Twelve Conference", in ...
from 1913 to 1928; and the Big Eight Conference from 1928 to 1996 (known as the Big Six from 1928 to 1947 and the Big Seven from 1947 to 1957).


Athletics Department overview

Kansas State offers fourteen sports at a varsity level. As of May 2018, Kansas State has won more than 80 conference championships through the years, not counting titles captured in the old Kansas Intercollegiate Athletic Association ( see chart below). Kansas State has not won any team NCAA championships, but has several individual national champions. The Kansas State athletic department is one of a limited number in the United States, and the only one in Kansas, that operates with no monetary contribution from the broader academic institution. The most recent change in athletic teams offered at Kansas State occurred when the school began a women's soccer program in the fall of 2016, and discontinued women's equestrian at the conclusion of the 2015–16 season.


History

Athletic competition began within the first decade after the founding of Kansas State Agricultural College in 1863, as students began organizing and playing games of baseball against locals from
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
. Beginning in 1890, a baseball game between the faculty and the senior class became an annual feature of graduation day. According to most sources, intercollegiate competition began on
Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...
1893, when Kansas State's football team defeated St. Mary's College 18–10. A baseball match against St. Mary's College followed on May 26, 1894. (St. Mary's was a regional athletics powerhouse, whose recent graduates included baseball pioneers
Charles Comiskey Charles Albert Comiskey (August 15, 1859 – October 26, 1931), nicknamed "Commy" or "The Old Roman", was an American Major League Baseball player, manager and team owner. He was a key person in the formation of the American League, and was also ...
and Ted Sullivan.) These matches are not, however, reflected in the school's official histories, and the first official contest recorded is a 14–0 loss to Fort Riley in a football game on November 28, 1896. By the turn of the century, Kansas State was competing in the Kansas Intercollegiate Athletic Association, along with the
University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...
and other state schools. Adopting a more organized approach to athletics, in 1911 an "athletic committee" was created at the school to set policy and schedule contests, among other duties. On the heels of athletic success in the Kansas conference, including a 1912 football championship, Kansas State was invited to join the more prestigious
Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association The Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MVIAA) was a college athletic conference and the second college conference formed upon its foundation on January 12, 1907.David A. Campaigne and John R. Thelin, "Big Twelve Conference", in ...
(MVIAA) in 1913. In 1916 head football and basketball coach Z.G. Clevenger was elected the school's first official
Athletic Director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches an ...
. Clevenger was assisted in that role by former football star
Germany Schulz Adolph George "Germany" Schulz (April 19, 1883 – April 14, 1951) was an All-American American football center for the University of Michigan Wolverines from 1904 to 1905 and from 1907 to 1908. While playing at Michigan, Schulz is credited wit ...
. In 1928, when the "Big Six" members of the MVIAA split away from the smaller schools of the Missouri Valley, Kansas State was included in its membership. The school's commitment to athletics dipped thereafter. According to longtime Wildcat radio announcer Dev Nelson, after World War II Kansas State was one of the few major schools that didn't make a significant investment in its football program, or athletics overall. Indeed, for many years the Wildcats spent far less on athletics than any other Big Eight school. Between 1969 and 1975 the school added women's programs, but also cut four men's sports: men's swimming, wrestling, men's gymnastics and men's tennis. As recently as 1987–1988 the University of Oklahoma (the Big Eight's second smallest school) spent $12.5 million on athletics while Kansas State spent only $5.5 million. In more recent decades, however, the school has recommitted significant resources to athletics, and in 2012 it was the most profitable athletics department in the United States. In 2012–2013, Kansas State became the second Big 12 school to win conference titles in football, men's basketball, and baseball in the same school year. In the 2007–2008 school year, Kansas State was the only school in the nation to have a consensus All-America in both football ( Jordy Nelson) and men's basketball (
Michael Beasley Michael Paul Beasley Jr. (born January 9, 1989) is an American professional basketball player, who most recently played for the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). He played college basketball for Kansas State Univers ...
).


Administration

Athletics at Kansas State University are administered by the University's Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. The department is headed by the
Athletic Director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches an ...
.


Conference membership history

* 1899–1913: Kansas Intercollegiate Athletic Association * 1913–1927:
Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association The Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MVIAA) was a college athletic conference and the second college conference formed upon its foundation on January 12, 1907.David A. Campaigne and John R. Thelin, "Big Twelve Conference", in ...
* 1928–1947:
Big 6 Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Associatio ...
* 1948–1957: Big 7 Conference * 1958–1995:
Big 8 Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Associatio ...
* 1996–present:
Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...


Sports sponsored


Baseball

The Wildcats call
Tointon Family Stadium Frank Myers Field at Tointon Family Stadium is a baseball stadium in Manhattan, Kansas. It is the home field of the Kansas State University Wildcats college baseball team. The stadium's official capacity is 2,331 and opened for baseball in 1961. ...
home. The team's head coach is
Pete Hughes Pete Hughes (born January 11, 1968) is an American college baseball coach and head coach of the Kansas State Wildcats baseball team. Previously he served as the head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners baseball and the Virginia Tech Hokies baseball team ...
. Kansas State's baseball team officially began play in 1897. The Wildcats earned one of the school's first varsity championship in 1907 under coach
Mike Ahearn Michael Francis Ahearn (November 28, 1878 – February 5, 1948) was a British-American athlete and college athletics administrator. Ahearn played and coached American football, basketball, and baseball, and was a college professor and athletics ad ...
. The Wildcats went on to win a
Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the third-oldest collegiate athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the midwest. History The MVC was established ...
championship in 1928, and
Big Six Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Associat ...
championships in 1930 and 1933. The school's most recent championship was the Big 12 Conference regular season championship in
2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...
. Kansas State's best finish at the
Big 12 Conference baseball tournament The Big 12 Conference baseball tournament (sometimes known simply as the Big 12 tournament) is the conference championship tournament in baseball for the Big 12 Conference. Going back to the original format abandoned in 2005, the tournament cons ...
is a runner-up finish in the 2008 tournament. The Wildcats have traditionally not been competitive on a national scale, but in 2009 the team made its first appearance in the NCAA tournament, and it has returned three times since. Former coach Brad Hill's teams also earned the school's first national rankings in the ''USA Today''/ESPN Coach's Poll in the 2009 and 2010 seasons. Other milestones in the team's history include
Earl Woods Earl Dennison Woods (March 5, 1932 – May 3, 2006) was the father of American professional golfer Tiger Woods. Woods started his son in golf at a very early age and coached him exclusively over his first years in the sport. He later published t ...
, the father of golfer
Tiger Woods Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records. * * * Woods is widely regarded as ...
, becoming the first African-American baseball player in the Big Seven Conference in 1952, as well as all-time coaching wins leader Mike Clark winning the Big Eight Coach of the Year award in 1990.


Basketball

The men's and women's basketball teams play their home games in
Bramlage Coliseum Fred Bramlage Coliseum is a multi-purpose arena in Manhattan, Kansas with an official capacity of 11,654. It is the home to the K-State Men's and Women's basketball teams and serves as an alternative venue for K-State Women's Volleyball. The faci ...
, nicknamed the "Octagon of Doom".


Men's basketball

Kansas State's men's basketball team began competition in 1902. The program has a long history of success. The first two major conference titles captured by the school were won in the sport, in 1917 and 1919, in the
Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the third-oldest collegiate athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the midwest. History The MVC was established ...
. Kansas State has gone on to capture 19 major conference crowns in the sport. The program has also appeared in 31 NCAA basketball tournaments. Kansas State lost to the
University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...
for the national championship in 1951, and has reached the Final Four four times, the Elite Eight 13 times, and the Sweet Sixteen 17 times. K-State has finished ranked in the top ten of the
AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broad ...
or
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 officiall ...
on nine occasions (most recently in 2010), and in the final top 25 polls 21 total times. When ''
Street & Smith Street & Smith or Street & Smith Publications, Inc. was a New York City publisher specializing in inexpensive paperbacks and magazines referred to as dime novels and pulp fiction. They also published comic books and sporting yearbooks. Among t ...
's Annual'' listed the 100 greatest college basketball programs of all time in 2005, K-State ranked 22nd. After a lengthy period with little success during the 1990s and 2000s, Kansas State returned to winning under head coaches Frank Martin (2007–2012) and Bruce Weber (2012–present). Following a twelve-year absence, the team was invited to the
2008 NCAA tournament The 2008 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 65 schools playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball as a culmination of the 2007–08 basketbal ...
, and has now appeared in the tournament 9 of the past 12 seasons. Highlights during this era include winning two Big 12 regular-season conference championships (
2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
and 2018–19), and freshman
Michael Beasley Michael Paul Beasley Jr. (born January 9, 1989) is an American professional basketball player, who most recently played for the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). He played college basketball for Kansas State Univers ...
being named an All-American and Big 12 Conference Player of the Year in 2008. The 2009–10 team spent much of the year ranked in the Top 10 of the national polls and finished second in the Big 12. That team went on to advance to the Elite Eight of the
2010 NCAA tournament The 2010 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 65 schools playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball as a culmination of the 2009–10 basketball seas ...
, a feat the program repeated in
2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...
. On March 21, 2022, KSU athletic director Gene Taylor announced that Baylor associate head coach
Jerome Tang Jerome Tang (born October 7, 1966) is a Trinidadian-American college basketball coach who is the head coach for the Wildcats of Kansas State University. He had previously been an assistant coach under Scott Drew from 2003 to 2022 at Baylor, wh ...
had been named the new head men's basketball coach for the Wildcats, starting with the 2022–23 season.


Women's basketball

Kansas State's women's basketball team began intercollegiate competition in 1968. The team is among the top 15 all-time winningest programs in the
NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
. The women's team has participated in 21 total NCAA basketball tournaments and AIAW tournaments (pre-NCAA), the second-most appearances in the Big 12 Conference. K-State has finished ranked in the Top 25 of the
AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broad ...
twelve times, including three rankings in the Top 10 (1984, 2003, 2004). Following the 2005–2006 season, Kansas State was crowned champion of the Women's National Invitation Tournament. The current head coach is
Jeff Mittie Jeffrey Dean Mittie (born June 24, 1966) is the current head coach of the Kansas State University women's basketball team. Career Prior to joining the Wildcats, he was the head coach of TCU Horned Frogs The TCU Horned Frogs are the athletic te ...
.


Football

Kansas State's football team officially began play in 1896 with a 14–0 loss to Fort Riley on November 28, 1896. The program had some shining moments in the 1920s and 1930s, but by 1989 the school was statistically the worst program in
NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
Division I with a record of 299–509–41. Fortunes changed when
Bill Snyder William D. Snyder (born October 7, 1939) is a retired college football coach and former player. He served as the head football coach at Kansas State University from 1989 to 2005 and again from 2009 to 2018. Snyder initially retired from the p ...
was hired as head coach in 1989. Success and high rankings followed, highlighted by a #1 national ranking during the 1998 season, a #1 BCS ranking in the 2012 season, and Big 12 Conference championships in 2003 and
2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...
. Between the years of 1993 and 2003, Snyder's teams went 109–29–1 and attended eleven straight bowl games. Additionally, from 1995 to 2001 the school appeared in the
AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broad ...
for 108 consecutive weeks—the 15th-longest streak in college football history. The team plays its home games at
Bill Snyder Family Stadium Bill Snyder Family Stadium is a stadium in Manhattan, Kansas. It is used for American football, and is the home field of the Kansas State University Wildcats football team. It is named after the family of head coach Bill Snyder. Over the past 31 ...
, and the
KSU Marching Band The Kansas State University Marching Band, also known as "The Pride of Wildcat Land" or just The Pride, is a 400+ piece marching band consisting of woodwinds, brass, percussion, color guard, dancers, and twirlers. It is the official band of Kans ...
(also known as the Pride of Wildcat Land) performs at all home games, selected away games and all bowl games. The current coach is
Chris Klieman Christopher Paul Klieman ( ; born September 27, 1967) is an American football coach and former player, and is currently the head coach for Kansas State University in the Big 12 Conference. He took over from the retiring Bill Snyder after leading ...
, who succeeded Snyder upon his second retirement at the conclusion of the 2018 season. Through four seasons, Klieman has a record of 30-19.


Track and field

Kansas State began competing in track and field in 1904. The team has won 23 major conference championships. Its athletes have also achieved considerable national success. Through the end of the 2015–2016 season, K-State athletes have won individual NCAA national championships 37 times. Twenty-four Kansas State athletes have attended 15 Olympic Games, most recently at the 2016 Summer Olympics, and have won eight medals. The head coach of the program since 1992 is Cliff Rovelto. Rovelto has won a number of coach of the year awards during his tenure at Kansas State, including 2015 Big 12 Coach of the Year for women's indoor track and field. He also served as head coach for the U.S. Track & Field team at the
2011 Pan American Games The 2011 Pan American Games, officially the XVI Pan American Games, was an international multi-sport event that was held from October 14–30, 2011, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Some events were held in the nearby cities of Ciudad Guzmán, ...
, and as an assistant coach for the U.S. team at a number of other competitions including the 2016 Summer Olympics and the
2005 World Championships in Athletics The 10th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), were held in the Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland (6 August 2005 – 14 August 2005), the site of the first IAAF ...
in Helsinki. Former coach
Ward Haylett Ward H. Haylett (September 20, 1895 – November 1, 1990) was an American football, basketball, track and field, and cross country running coach. Haylett served as the head football coach at Doane College—now known as Doane University—in Crete ...
, who is enshrined in the
National Track & Field Hall of Fame The National Track and Field Hall of Fame is a museum operated by The Armory Foundation in conjunction with USA Track & Field. It is located within the Armory Foundation (the former Fort Washington Avenue Armory) at 216 Fort Washington Avenue, ...
, left a strong imprint on the Kansas State program. Haylett was head coach at the school from 1928 to 1963.


Volleyball

The team currently plays in Ahearn Field House in
Manhattan, Kansas Manhattan is a city and county seat of Riley County, Kansas, United States, although the city extends into Pottawatomie County. It is located in northeastern Kansas at the junction of the Kansas River and Big Blue River. As of the 2020 c ...
. Kansas State's women's volleyball team began intercollegiate competition in 1974. The team is among the all-time winningest programs in the
NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
. As of the close of the 2017 season, the team has participated in 17 NCAA tournaments, including ten consecutive tournaments from 1996 to 2005. K-State also participated in the
AIAW The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was founded in 1971 to govern collegiate women's athletics in the United States and to administer national championships (see AIAW Champions). It evolved out of the Commission on Interc ...
tournament in 1977. K-State has finished ranked in the final top twenty of the AVCA poll six times, and in the top 25 on eleven occasions. The team most recently participated in the NCAA tournament in
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. The current head coach is Suzie Fritz. Fritz has led the Wildcats to several NCAA Tournament appearances and the school's first conference title in volleyball in 2003. As of the close of the 2008 season, Fritz also holds the second-highest winning percentage among all K-State's volleyball coaches after compiling a record of 148–70 (.679). In eight seasons as head coach, through the end of the 2008 season, Fritz has coached six All-Americans.


Notable non varsity sports


Rugby

Kansas State rugby plays in the Heart of America conference against traditional rivals from the
Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its f ...
north such as Kansas and Missouri. The Wildcats previously played
college rugby College rugby is played by men and women throughout colleges and universities in the United States of America. Seven-a-side and fifteen-a-side variants of rugby union are most commonly played. Most collegiate rugby programs do not fall under the ...
in the Central Division, where they were champions in the 2009–10 and 2010–11 seasons. In the 2010–11 season Kansas State reached the sweet 16 round of the national playoffs and finished the season ranked 8th. The Wildcats best season was in 1981, when they reached the national semifinals.


Rivalries


Kansas Jayhawks (Sunflower Showdown)

The first recorded meeting between Kansas State and KU in athletic competition was a
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
game in 1898. Since the early 20th century, when the schools began regularly competing in baseball, basketball, and football, the two teams schools and fans have developed a passionate rivalry. ;Men's basketball The rivalry on the hardwood peaked in the 1950s when both teams were national title contenders. A facilities race also began in the 1950s, starting with the construction of Kansas State's
Ahearn Fieldhouse Ahearn Field House is one of the athletic buildings on the campus of Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. It was the former home of the Wildcats men's basketball team, and is currently home to the K-State volleyball team and indoor trac ...
, which was one of the largest basketball facilities in the country with a capacity of 14,000 when opened in 1951. Kansas soon answered with
Allen Fieldhouse Allen Fieldhouse is an indoor arena on the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence, Kansas. It is home of the Kansas Jayhawks men's and women's basketball teams. The arena is named after Phog Allen, a former player and head coach for the Jayhaw ...
, which would seat 16,300. The rivalry continued strong through the 1980s, but faded as Kansas began a 24-game win streak against the Wildcats in Manhattan in 1984. On January 30, 2008 #22 Kansas State upset #2
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 th ...
84–75, winning against Kansas in
Bramlage Coliseum Fred Bramlage Coliseum is a multi-purpose arena in Manhattan, Kansas with an official capacity of 11,654. It is the home to the K-State Men's and Women's basketball teams and serves as an alternative venue for K-State Women's Volleyball. The faci ...
for the first time with the aid of freshmen
Michael Beasley Michael Paul Beasley Jr. (born January 9, 1989) is an American professional basketball player, who most recently played for the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). He played college basketball for Kansas State Univers ...
and
Bill Walker Bill Walker may refer to: Australian rules football * Bill A. Walker (1886–1934), Australian rules footballer for Essendon * Bill Walker (Australian footballer, born 1883) (1883–1971), Australian rules footballer for Fitzroy * Bill J. V. Wal ...
. Kansas State trails in the all-time series, 94-203. ;Football Historically, neither football program has had sustained success. The rivalry intensified for a period in the early 1990s as both teams entered the national rankings. In 1991 Head Coach
Bill Snyder William D. Snyder (born October 7, 1939) is a retired college football coach and former player. He served as the head football coach at Kansas State University from 1989 to 2005 and again from 2009 to 2018. Snyder initially retired from the p ...
gained his first win against the Jayhawks and over the next 12 years Kansas would only beat the Wildcats once, in 1992, until KU finally won again in a home game in 2004. The rivalry intensified again in the 2000s as Kansas returned to relevance under
Mark Mangino Mark Thomas Mangino (born August 26, 1956) is a former American football coach. He served as the head football coach at the University of Kansas from 2002 to 2009. In 2007, Mangino received several national coach of the year honors after leading ...
and the Wildcats struggled under Ron Prince. Since 1969, the two teams have competed for the Governor's Cup. Kansas State leads during the Governor's Cup era 31–19–1, but trails in the all-time series, 51–64–5.


Nebraska Cornhuskers

;Football After the creation of the Big 12 Conference in 1996, through the early 2000s, the Wildcats and
Cornhuskers The Nebraska Cornhuskers (often abbreviated to Huskers) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference, and the Cornhuskers compete in NCAA Divis ...
consistently competed for the Big 12 North championship. Before the 1990s, however, the series was severely one-sided, with Kansas State losing 29 consecutive games to Nebraska until November 14, 1998 when the #1-ranked Wildcats beat #11 Nebraska 40–30. Kansas State subsequently beat Nebraska in 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2004. Nebraska still leads the series 78-15-2. ;Volleyball Nebraska was the Wildcats' biggest volleyball rival before leaving for the Big Ten Conference in 2011. Both teams were ranked in the AVCA Top 25 almost weekly during the Big 12 era, and Kansas State home games against Nebraska were promoted with T-shirts that read "Keep The Red Out."


Civil rights pioneer


Sexual orientation

In July 2017, Kansas State football player Scott Frantz announced to
ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
that he is
gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
. When the
Wildcats The wildcat is a species complex comprising two small wild cat species: the European wildcat (''Felis silvestris'') and the African wildcat (''F. lybica''). The European wildcat inhabits forests in Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus, while the ...
opened their season on September 2, 2017, Frantz became the first openly gay college football player to play at the NCAA's highest level.


Racial integration

Kansas State historically has been welcoming to all races. The university has been open to enrollment by African Americans since its founding in 1863, and as far back as the 1940s and 1950s (a time noted by many for its lack of
civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...
in the United States), the leadership of K-State athletics took a strong stance in support of racial integration on its athletic teams.


Football

In 1949,
African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
Harold Robinson played football for Kansas State with an athletic scholarship. In doing so, Robinson broke the decades-long "color barrier" in Big Seven Conference athletics, and became the first ever African-American athlete on scholarship in the conference. Harold Robinson later received a letter of congratulations from Jackie Robinson, who had integrated major league baseball in 1947 while playing with the Brooklyn Dodgers.


Baseball

In the spring of 1951, the conference color barrier in baseball was broken by Kansas State's
Earl Woods Earl Dennison Woods (March 5, 1932 – May 3, 2006) was the father of American professional golfer Tiger Woods. Woods started his son in golf at a very early age and coached him exclusively over his first years in the sport. He later published t ...
(the father of
golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...
great
Tiger Woods Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in PGA Tour wins, ranks second in men's major championships, and holds numerous golf records. * * * Woods is widely regarded as ...
). An indicator of the controversial nature of this position is reflected in an article published in ''The
Tulsa World The ''Tulsa World'' is the daily newspaper for the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and primary newspaper for the northeastern and eastern portions of Oklahoma. Tulsa World Media Company is part of Lee Enterprises. The new owners announced in January 20 ...
'' about an incident that occurred in the early 1950s during a baseball game:


Men's basketball

In the winter of 1951–1952, Kansas State's Gene Wilson broke the conference color barrier in basketball, together with LaVannes Squires at the
University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...
.


Championships

The Wildcats have won 68 regular-season conference championships and 13 conference tournaments, with the men’s basketball program claiming the most of any sport. Kansas State, along with
Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six re ...
, is one of only two
Power Five conference The Power Five conferences are the five most prominent and highest-earning athletic conferences in college football in the United States. They are part of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA Division I, the highest level of collegiate ...
schools that have never won an NCAA national championship in any team sport. :''* Not counting titles earned in the Kansas Intercollegiate Athletic Association, through the 1912–13 school year. Kansas State captured at least ten championships in the old Kansas Conference, in track (1906, 1908, 1909), baseball (1907, 1908), football (1909, 1910, 1912), and basketball (1910, 1913).''


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* {{Kansas Sports