38 Facts About Bill Snyder

1.

William D Snyder was born on October 7,1939 and is a retired college football coach and former player.

2.

Bill Snyder served as the head football coach at Kansas State University from 1989 to 2005 and again from 2009 to 2018.

3.

Bill Snyder retired for the second time on December 2,2018 and is serving as a special ambassador for the athletics department.

4.

Bill Snyder was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2015 and won several conference and national coach of the year awards.

5.

Bill Snyder was the head coach at Kansas State for the program's 300th, 400th, and 500th all-time wins.

6.

Bill Snyder was born October 7,1939, in St Joseph, Missouri, the son of Tom, a traveling salesman, and Marionetta Bill Snyder.

7.

Bill Snyder's parents divorced when he was six; Snyder and his mother moved from Salina, Kansas to St Joseph, Missouri, where they lived in a one-room, second-floor apartment, and Marionetta worked as a sales clerk in a department store while Bill's father lived in Omaha, Nebraska.

8.

Bill Snyder attended Lafayette High School in St Joseph, graduating in 1957.

9.

Bill Snyder attended the University of Missouri for one year before enrolling at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, where he earned three letters in football for the Cardinals as a defensive back and halfback.

10.

Bill Snyder earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from William Jewell in 1963.

11.

Bill Snyder earned his Master of Arts degree from Eastern New Mexico University in 1965.

12.

Bill Snyder had his first collegiate coaching experience in 1966, serving as a graduate assistant coach for the USC Trojans.

13.

Bill Snyder next worked as a head coach for several years in the California high school ranks.

14.

Bill Snyder then served as an assistant football coach, and coached swimming, at Austin College in Sherman, Texas, from 1974 to 1975.

15.

From 1976 to 1978, Bill Snyder worked as an assistant coach at North Texas State, under Hall of Fame coach Hayden Fry.

16.

Bill Snyder helped Fry build Iowa from a program that had not had a winning season since 1961 into a two-time Big Ten champion.

17.

Bill Snyder was hired as the 32nd head coach of the Kansas State University Wildcats following the 1988 season.

18.

When Bill Snyder was hired at K-State for the first time on November 24,1988, he inherited a situation that was several times worse than the one he'd found when he arrived in Iowa with Fry.

19.

Bill Snyder won only one game in his first season, beating the recently renamed North Texas, but it was a significant win because it was K-State's first win in three seasons.

20.

Two years later, Bill Snyder led the Wildcats to the 1993 Copper Bowl.

21.

Bill Snyder is one of the few coaches to coach in a stadium or arena that is named for him; as previously mentioned, the former KSU Stadium was renamed for him on the day after he announced his original retirement.

22.

Bill Snyder earned his 150th win with a season opening victory over Eastern Kentucky on September 3,2011.

23.

Bill Snyder has held the head coaching position at Kansas State longer than any other coach.

24.

On January 31,2013, it was announced that Bill Snyder's contract was extended through the 2017 season.

25.

On December 2,2018, Bill Snyder announced his retirement from coaching college football.

26.

Bill Snyder finished his career with Kansas State with 215 victories and two Big 12 championships.

27.

Bill Snyder has accounted for over 40 percent of Kansas State's all-time wins as of 2018.

28.

Eleven of Bill Snyder's assistants have gone on to become head coaches at other Division I schools, including: Phil Bennett, Bret Bielema, Jim Leavitt, Mark Mangino, Dana Dimel, Bob Stoops, Mike Stoops, Carl Pelini, Del Miller, Nick Quartaro, and Brent Venables.

29.

On January 9,2015, Bill Snyder was announced as an inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame.

30.

Bill Snyder is only the fourth active coach to receive this honor; under current Hall of Fame rules, active coaches are eligible for induction once they turn 75.

31.

In 1998, Bill Snyder was recognized as the National Coach of the Year by the Associated Press and the Walter Camp Football Foundation and was awarded the Bear Bryant Award and the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award.

32.

In 2011, Bill Snyder was named the Woody Hayes Coach of the Year and the Sporting News National Coach of the Year.

33.

In 2012, Bill Snyder won the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award for the second time in his career.

34.

Bill Snyder was a finalist for the Bear Bryant Award in 1993,1995,2011 and 2012; a finalist for the Sporting News National Coach of the Year Award in 1995 and 1998; a finalist for the AFCA National Coach of the Year Award in 1993 and 1998; a finalist for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award in 2011 and 2012; a finalist for the Bobby Bowden National Collegiate Coach of the Year Award in 2012; and a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year award in 1993,1995,1998,2011 and 2012.

35.

Bill Snyder was named Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year four times: in 1998,2002,2011 and 2012.

36.

In 2003, Bill Snyder was named to the board of trustees of the American Football Coaches Association.

37.

In 2006, Bill Snyder was enshrined in the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame and the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

38.

Bill Snyder currently serves on the Staley School Advancement Council, honorary chairman of the K-State Changing Lives Campaign, and is past president of the Friends of the Libraries organization at K-State.