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Topics - JohnCurrie is Weird/Gross

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1
Essentially Flyertalk / NATHAN FOR YOU
« on: December 10, 2015, 11:36:42 PM »
In this thread we will talk about our favorite moments and quotes from Nathan For You.  The greatest performance art and #acting of our time.  I'll start.

Actress: I love you
Nathan: Again
Actress: I love you
Nathan: Again
Actress: I love you
Nathan: Again

2
Kansas State Football / Tailgate Terrace: Bison Bingeing Insiders
« on: August 21, 2013, 11:26:58 AM »
What is this thing? Free booze? Liquor and beer for sale? I have a ticket to it. Is anyone else planning on doing this?

3
Essentially Flyertalk / Advertising
« on: August 13, 2013, 12:37:36 PM »
Can anyone explain why U.S. companies spend 70 Billion Dollars a year on advertising (just on television). I mean I just don't understand it. I know that smart successful companies wouldn't spend so much money unless they are getting a return on their investments, but I've probably seen that little kid AT&T commerical over 200 times, and I'm still not really sure what it's wanting me to know.     

Coca-Cola spent 2.9 billion in adverstising in 2010, if they spent 1.9 billion would their profits go down? Is this strictly to reach younger consumers that don't have a high awareness of coke and it's products?

Do advertisements influence dumber people more than smart people (dumber people please chime in)?
That Geico Lizard has a pretty boss accent, but when I shop for car insurance I just have my insurance guy find me the best rate and that's what I go with. Do some people consider the lizard vs. that weirdo progressive lady and then make their decision.


4
Essentially Flyertalk / Speeding Tickets
« on: June 25, 2013, 10:51:19 AM »
Got one this weekend driving back from a wedding in Wichita. 82 in a 75  :curse: Cop also gave me a breathalyzer at 11 am (Blew a 0.01). He initially forgot to give me the ticket so I thought I got off with a warning or something, re-pulled me over 10 miles down the road to hand me the ticket. Anybody have any interesting speeding tickets/getting out of tickets stories?

5
The New Joe Montgomery Birther Pit / Does God Exist?
« on: March 31, 2013, 11:40:49 AM »
Probably not, but I'm not for sure. Do you guys know?

6
Do the right thing Will, get the hell out of here.

7
Essentially Flyertalk / Rejected Vanity Plates
« on: March 05, 2013, 08:12:15 AM »
Trim posted a link to this on twitter, these are apparently submitted vanity plate requests that were rejected/banned in Kansas.  Let's discuss our favorites, mine:

http://media.kansas.com/smedia/2013/03/02/12/43/xERLi.So.80.pdf

BREAST
WHTTRASH
WEED
69N4FUN
CATZAZZ

8
Essentially Flyertalk / Bachelor Parties
« on: February 21, 2013, 09:26:04 AM »
My best friend is getting married and I am in charge of the bachelor party. I have been to many and most of them sucked. My aim is to plan and execute one that doesn't suck. All attendees are located in KC and can travel if given enough notice. I would very much appreciate the advice of all you wise and  :gocho: gE'ers.

9
Kansas State Football / Kim Carnes: go Away
« on: December 01, 2012, 10:13:58 PM »
Predictions: trash Posting: trash


Big 12 CHAMPS

10
Trim live tweeted this thing...and it was incredible. (bottom to top)


That's a wrap, folks. As @sonofdaxjones would say, we all visited carlos o'kellys tonight via the internet. #oscar
oscar says he's not patient with bad shots. #oscar
 I might have to stick around town next Monday to take this show in live with @Gooch_goEMAW. #oscar #chokeout
 Lot of luck involved, year after 'ship starters missed 80 games. #oscar #excuses
 Staying at a place, sometimes it's breaks. Reference K-State football. #oscar
 Gene Keady. Gene Keady. Gene Keady. Gene Keady. Gene Keady. Gene Keady. Gene Keady. Gene Keady. Gene Keady. Gene Keady. Gene Keady. #oscar
 His run at Illinois was one of the best in history. Could say something, but won't get into it. #oscar
 oscar says in college basketball in this day & age, you can't stay at one place for long. #oscar
 LOL @Riley_Gates says he and others are "good people," not like those naysayers who don't like Webber because he got fired. :gocho: #oscar
 Editorial Note - good thing Webber didn't have to interview for our job, what a horrible communicator. #oscar
 Bill Gutheridge came to town last week. #coacheswhopiggybackintosuccessasheadcoaches
 oscar didn't know Jack Hartman, but knew Gene Keady. #oscar #JHGD
 Lynn in Salina is back! Also, @Riley_Gates is on hold. That should be good. #oscar #youngtuck
 Coaches said today "maybe we should do more offense in practice!" after watching michigan tape. #oscar
 oscar cites his national championship team. And Purdue. #oscar #seff #FYGK
 oscar can't understand the question. #oscar
 Caller's concern is defensive intensity down the road. #oscar
 Caller says oscar has instilled confidence in the kids, making the offense jell. #oscar
 Caller says he's been a Frank Martin fan for a long time. #oscar
 We're at a commercial break, but rumblings that oscar just remarked that this is the best mexican food he's ever had. #oscar
 DJamer had declared his major to be chemistry/pre-med. #oscar
 Carlos o'kellys is "inspired mex." #oscar
 Both fired/discharged. oscar OUT RT @TopekaTalls @TrimGoEMAW Did you know @TheWildcatMask is a big #oscar fan?
 DJamer's still getting used to motion offense. #oscar
@K_STATE_FAN He hasn't called. Normally, he's first up. #oscar
 Orris' favorite color is purple. Good job @CoachLoweryKSU! #oscar
 DJamer & Orris are guests now. #oscar
 The 1st oscar Webber TV Show will be this Saturday at 10:30. Take a shot each time his voice cracks to start your big 12 'ship pak. #oscar
 I guess Lew from Cincinnati is no longer #EMAW now that Huggins/Frank gone. #oscar
 Lynn in Salina! Turns out he's from Illinois. #oscar
 Haven't had much practice, had to play 2 exhibition games. #oscar
 oscar mushed her so there's that. #oscar
 Some lady is calling asking if there's a game tonight. #oscar
 oscar cited Collin Klein as an example for Orris to follow. #oscar
 His mic is broken. #oscar
 1-866-577-8228 = call-in line for #oscar @Winters4ksu
 Editorial Note - I hate him. #oscar
@lifeofmamafitz It's killing me, but I will tough it out for our goEMAW customers.
 Casey Scott mention! #oscar #freekellz
 Editorial note: This assistant coach rundown has all been one run-on sentence. #oscar
 Alvin Brooks' dad was good, and our Alvin's a nice guy. #oscar
 Daily flights to Dallas. #oscar
 [Chris Lowery's resume] (firing omitted) #oscar
 His wife wants more communication. #oscar
 It's the oscar Webber Show! I will tweet things of note. #oscar

12
Jerome Tang Coaches Kansas State Basketball / ESPN3
« on: November 12, 2012, 12:05:58 PM »
This is the only way to watch the game tonight, correct? I'm trying to log in right now with my time warner account and it looks like the system is down  :curse:

Anybody have experience going laptop to TV via HDMI? Does it look decent?

13
Kansas State Football / MESHAK
« on: November 12, 2012, 09:38:32 AM »
4:10

My goodness, that might be the most impressive play of the season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWpVsvaUrI4&feature=BFa&list=PL38avj5OyLMic4AogKW9sdaDnJKIzZi6K

14
Kansas State Football / Judge
« on: November 08, 2012, 08:10:25 AM »
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/11/07/3905891/its-all-about-family-for-k-state.html

MANHATTAN, Kan. -- Mother and father were in pain. Their first-born child had just died before the age of 2. They desperately wanted to be parents again, but the thought of losing another child was unbearable.
As carriers of the sickle-cell anemia trait, future heartbreak was a risk. So they faced a difficult choice. Ultimately, they decided to have another child and prayed it would be born healthy. They even had a name picked out for a boy.
This time, they insisted he would be named after his father. Somehow, they knew that would help.
Sure enough, Arthur Brown Jr. was born free of disease.



The story behind Arthur Brown Jr.’s name is so important that his father’s voice cracks as he tells it.
“He was a miracle,” Brown Sr. says 22 years later.
The son’s perfect health persuaded the parents to give him a brother, Bryce. When he, too, was born disease-free — neither of them carry the sickle-cell trait — emotions ran wild.
“They are the blessings of all blessings,” Brown Sr. said. “They completely defied the odds.”
Today, Arthur Brown Jr. is one of the best linebackers in the country and the star of Kansas State’s defense. He has made 67 tackles, grabbed two interceptions and is in contention for national awards.
He has always been talented. His speed and strength and work ethic made him a top recruit. He had his choice of colleges.
As a senior at Wichita East, Brown decided he would attend the University of Miami, a tradition-rich program in a vibrant city by the beach. It was all he thought he ever wanted. Thing is, he accomplished next to nothing while in South Florida. He made 17 tackles in two seasons and was quickly labeled a bust.
It wasn’t until he transferred to K-State and reconnected with his family that his game and life blossomed. And it wasn’t until he was brave enough to embrace his full name that the Wildcats became national championship contenders.
Brown is quiet by nature. His teammates long ago nicknamed him “The Judge” because he prefers to speak through actions. But the family culture at K-State slowly changed him.
“They cracked my shell,” Brown says.
So much that he finally asked for something he had long desired: To wear his full name on the back of his jersey.
K-State’s response: Of course.
He now takes the field with the letters “A. Brown Jr.” on his back.
“That made me so happy,” Brown said. “I have always wanted to play with my full name on my jersey. It’s a great way to honor my father and my whole family. But, for whatever reason, I never asked. I was afraid they would say no. I guess I just feel at home here. It turned out to be a really simple thing.”



When Brown left for Miami, his family was happy. Though it was tough to see him go, Brown’s father thought the distance between them could help his son mature.
“When you leave and go into an unfamiliar place it does one of two things,” Brown Sr. said. “It makes you grow up and become more responsible. Or it can cause you to regress and not be successful. I wanted him to have the option to find his way and become the young man he wanted to be.”
Brown Jr. felt both sides of the experiment.
His younger brother Bryce, a running back who now plays in the NFL, briefly committed to Miami, too, but later switched his commitment to Tennessee.
Brown’s father recalls visiting Junior “three times at the most” while he was at Miami. It was simply too far away.
Brown doesn’t like talking about Miami. Special-teams duty didn’t treat him well, and he didn’t live up to his potential. But his time away helped him mature. It prepared him for his return to his home state, and made him realize the value of family.
“It taught him a lot of life lessons,” Brown Sr. said. “It helped shape and mold him into the man he is today.”
Still, it wasn’t easy to watch him struggle.
Brown thought he was the best linebacker on the team, which raised the question: Why wasn’t he playing?
Maybe it had to do with his priorities. Looking back, he didn’t choose Miami for the right reasons. Family friend Brian Butler remembers asking Brown what it would take for him to consider a nearby college.
His reply: A beach.
“He really wanted to be in warm weather,” Butler said. “That was at the top of his list.”
Or maybe time would have taken care of the problem. He was in line to start for the Hurricanes as a junior. But Brown’s family didn’t want him to wait that long. They could tell he was homesick. They urged him to transfer.
“We started to recognize things that were going on with him emotionally,” Brown Sr. said. “It came to a point where we felt we couldn’t be supportive being so far away. He grew up under a support system that was there for him all the time. It had nothing to do with football. It was based all on where we felt he was as a young man, developing. We felt like he needed to be closer to his family.”
Father even convinced Bryce to transfer from Tennessee to K-State, too. Both moves created national headlines, and brought unwanted attention to the Brown family when Tennessee refused to grant Bryce a release, but they were worth it. The whole family was together again. After a year off per NCAA transfer rules, the Brown brothers would reunite on the football field in 2011.
First, they moved into an off-campus apartment with fellow Wichitan Chris Harper. They were two hours away from their parents. Arthur Jr. loved it.
He visited his family several times a week and made new friends. His dad still drops by unannounced all the time.
“He’s so close,” Brown Sr. said. “It feels like a drive across town.”
Not even a year off and the mid-season departure of his brother could make him second-guess his decision. Brown could have entered his name in the NFL Draft after helping K-State reach the Cotton Bowl last year, but he wanted to stay — badly.
“Unfortunately, Bryce got to the point where he no longer wanted to play college football,” Brown Sr. said. “He lost that love and desire, but Arthur didn’t.”
Not by a long shot. Teammates were so impressed by Brown that some said he was the best linebacker in the Big 12 before he played his first game. Now he is a captain and a fan favorite.
Everywhere he goes in Manhattan, people ask for a picture or his autograph. Usually he gives them more.
“He stops and has conversations,” Butler said. “He treasures everyone in and around the program.”



About an hour after K-State defeated Texas Tech to improve to 8-0 last month, coach LHC Bill Snyder was on his way to his office.
As he opened the doors to K-State’s football complex, he spotted Brown’s father standing in the lobby.
“Bless you A.B.” Snyder told him as he shook his hand.
“No, bless you Coach Snyder,” Brown Sr. replied. “Thank you for all you’ve done.”
Ever since Brown Jr. met Snyder while on a recruiting visit, they have learned from each other. The first time Brown was recruited, he considered more than 20 schools. The second time, he was sold right away.
“It seemed like Kansas State picked me,” Brown said. “It was a great opportunity for me and my family. I have watched Coach Snyder and seen how he operates as a coach and how passionate he is. He cares so much. I’m thankful. He helped me grow.”
In turn, he has helped K-State’s defense. Snyder wishes he had more time left with him.
“He is a tremendous player,” Snyder said. “But he is a far better person. He is awful strong with his faith. He is a humble young guy and helps us in a lot of different ways. He has opened himself up to his teammates in a leadership role. He did it because he cares about his teammates, even though it was out of character for him.”



Chris Cosh will always remember the sounds.
Whenever the South Florida defensive coordinator, who coached Brown for two years at K-State, would head to his office after practice, he could hear the faint sounds of shoulder pads hitting training sleds.
The first time he heard them, he went to his window to see what was going on. No one was supposed to be on the field. But there was Brown, then a member of K-State’s scout team while he sat out his transfer year, pounding away.
“All the lights are off and Arthur is still down there going at it,” Cosh said in a phone interview. “The thing I admired about him was the way he brought people together. Everyone else saw that. After a while, we had lots of kids staying after practice.”
Cosh could go on. He says he has coached two elite linebackers in his career. The first was Dana Howard, who won the Butkus Award at Illinois and played in the NFL. The other is Brown.
“He’s a giver,” Cosh said. “That’s the best word to describe him. He gets more excited in other people’s success than his own.”
From the start, Cosh realized Brown had leadership qualities. Only problem was, no one had ever asked him to lead.
“At Miami as well as in high school, it was always just go play,” Butler said. “That’s all coaches asked him to do. Arthur is a person who follows directions. So when he was given the direction to become more of a vocal leader, he took that responsibility and did it.”Challenge accepted. The year before he took the field, the Wildcats couldn’t stop a straightforward run. Now they have the 36th-ranked defense in the nation.
“He changed that defense,” Cosh said. “… I can’t say enough good things about him.”



It’s hard for Brown’s father to imagine his son used to be shy. He is willing to talk about anything now.
“He is a lot happier now,” Harper said. “This is what he wanted.”
Outside of football, Brown Jr. enjoys cooking, watching obscure movies and playing the piano. He is also deeply religious. Recently, he has shown skills as a carpenter.
For years, Brown Sr. thought his son would earn a living with one of those skills. He was always quiet and made good grades — just a normal kid. It wasn’t until high school that he realized football might be his future.
“He was more into school,” Brown Sr. said. “That’s where his focus was. I saw him doing something musical. He really likes that. He has a voice. He can sing.”
Football didn’t became a priority until Brown Jr. viewed it as his ticket to college.
His parents didn’t know if they could afford to send him to school. Brown’s father never played organized football, opting to get a job at Pizza Hut as a teenager to help support his family.
Brown Jr. helped his family by pushing himself on the football field, even though he had other interests. That attitude hasn’t changed now that he is projected to be an early-round draft pick.
“It’s a dream,” he said, “but it’s not my focus.”
His focus is helping K-State win its first Big 12 championship since 2003, and possibly playing in its first BCS championship game.
Such possibilities seemed impossible 22 years ago when mother and father made their decision. Then again, they didn’t seem likely when Brown Jr. was at Miami, either.
Now that he is reunited with his family, is wearing his full name and is part of a team that truly cares for him, nothing seems out of reach.
He is finally comfortable enough to be himself.
“He is at home,” Brown Sr. said. “Kansas State is no different than being in Wichita, sitting in the living room at our house. He is so close. The feeling of this place, just the whole dynamic of it and the people, he appreciates it. He has broken down his shield and allowed people to see him for who he really is.”

15
Kansas State Football / LHCBS Post Game Interview
« on: November 04, 2012, 07:22:25 PM »
I know LHCBS would never hit a woman but he seem to come pretty close last night. 1 hour 2 minutes 30 seconds in.

http://youtube.com/watch?feature=plpp&v=JPDRHA0K83Y

16
Essentially Flyertalk / Daylight Savings Time
« on: November 02, 2012, 11:00:55 AM »
I agree with Chuck but Claire makes a good point. L Journo World never shies away from hot button issues and controversy.

http://www2.ljworld.com/onthestreet/2012/nov/02/what-your-opinion-daylight-saving-time/

What is your opinion of daylight saving time?
Asked at Massachusetts Street on November 2, 2012
Browse the archives

 
“ Pretty good. You can stay up late. ”

— Chuck Crawford, works at a training center, Ottawa

 
“ I think it’s stupid. One of the main reasons it was instigated by the government was so farmers had longer daylight hours. At the time 90 percent of the population lived in rural areas.”

— Claire Webb, works at an architecture firm, Milwaukee

 
“ I like it when there is more daytime. ”

— Danielle Hamrick, unemployed, , Lawrence

 
“ I used to live in Arizona and they keep the same time all the time. It was the way to go.”

— Nick Nepveux, graduate student, Lawrence

.

17
Essentially Flyertalk / Long Reads
« on: October 25, 2012, 02:13:33 PM »
I am a very big fan of long form journalism. I was hoping to post a few articles I've enjoyed recently and others would do the same in this thread. TIA


UCLA Student tells parent's he's sightseeing in Egypt, Fights with Libyan Rebel's Instead

http://news.yahoo.com/spring-break-libya-133500440.html

Heartbreaking story about a high school baseball player that was killed in a car accident and it's affect on the town.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1206189/1/index.htm

Crazy story about that guy that kept all those wild animals at his farm, let them all out, and shot himself.

http://www.esquire.com/features/zanesville-0312

18
Essentially Flyertalk / DADBONER!
« on: October 19, 2012, 03:21:10 PM »
Hey got fired, you guys   :bawl: (Bottom to Top)

Karl Welzein ?@DadBoner
I don't even really know what I did at work anyway. Who does? Just wasting my precious time when I could be rockin' or rollin'.

Karl Welzein ?@DadBoner
They won't get away with this. I'm mother f-ing Karl Welzein. And I'm sick of bein' neighborly.

Karl Welzein ?@DadBoner
Got in the 'Bring, top down, lit a cig, cranked the Stranglehold, let the double middle freedom rockets fly to glory, and peeled out.

Karl Welzein ?@DadBoner
On the way out, I told Ken, "Later tater. By the way, I smoked your old lady with my man meat." Thought he was gonna explode!

Karl Welzein ?@DadBoner
When you get up in someone's face, double middles blazin' with head swagger bangin', it's the ultimate Power Move. Stone Cold said that.

Karl Welzein ?@DadBoner
Walked up to Nosey Lady, gave her the double middles like freedom rockets, and bailed out like a boss player.

Karl Welzein ?@DadBoner
Slowly put my headphones on, cranked up Van Halen's Poundcake on the Discman, and power walked outta there with class and dignity.

Karl Welzein ?@DadBoner
Told the head honcho, "I'm the President & CEO of Bad Boy City, USA. And if you don't like it, I got 2 words for ya. Suck it." Did the move.

Karl Welzein ?@DadBoner
Head honcho said, "Karl, we have to let you go. It's just not working out." I work out all the time doin' 'shups in the john!

Karl Welzein ?@DadBoner
Head honcho said, "Karl, I have some bad news." Told him, "The Tigers un-won?" Went in for a K-Money fist bump explosion. Denied.

Karl Welzein ?@DadBoner
Went to meet with the head honcho. He said, "Karl, nice blazer." I said, "Peep the teal. All my flavors are guaranteed to satisfy."

Karl Welzein ?@DadBoner
Had to go in the gal's john for a hot mustard squirt. Domo arigato, peener was dehydrato.

Karl Welzein ?@DadBoner
Nosey Lady woke me up from a power snooze on the floor. I like to be rested before I hustle for paper. It's an old trick from the streets.

Karl Welzein ?@DadBoner
Layed low at work to get my spirits high and burn off the booze fumes. Smelled like a tire fire made of tires of liquor. Needed 'logne.

Karl Welzein ?@DadBoner
Figured the head honcho would wanna have a guy to guy, pronto, so I pregamed some trunk liquor to get loose and conversational.

Karl Welzein ?@DadBoner
Threw on my Craig Sager teal blazer from Men's Wearhouse and power walked into work with Van Halen's Top of the World blarin' on my discman.

Karl Welzein ?@DadBoner
If your team wins a big one and you don't feel like a big pile of garbage the next day, you're not a true fan, you guys.

Karl Welzein ?@DadBoner
Feel like I drank a thousand beers last night. And took a bottle of Smirnoff to the head. 'Cause that's gone. Whole pack of cigs. And weed.

Karl Welzein ?@DadBoner
Happy Friday to ya, you guys.


19
Kansas State Football / LHCBS
« on: October 19, 2012, 01:26:50 PM »
Pretty great article from Mellinger:

MANHATTAN, Kan. -- LHC Bill Snyder likes to say he enjoyed retirement, but that’s not completely true. People like Snyder don’t enjoy retirement. Oh, sure. He kept busy. The man knows no other way than busy. If his life’s calling was not to coach football, he’d have been the hardest-working engineer or professor or mechanic you ever saw.
So after stepping away seven years ago from the sports miracle he created at Kansas State University, he buried himself in activities. He watched every grandchild play every game he could, discovering new parts of Manhattan in the process — parks and restaurants instead of the office and his house. He read books he’d put off too long. He even played golf once or twice.
But he couldn’t enjoy all of it, either. Not after a year or two, anyway, when the football program he put so much of his life into went off the tracks under his successor.
Games meant a reminder that Snyder no longer had control, and he doesn’t like not having control. Sharon Snyder’s memory of her husband on fall Saturdays is a man standing in a stadium suite, arms folded, stern look on his face and only speaking when asked a question — and even then only a few words.
“It hurt him to not be involved,” Sharon says. “…You’re giving up part of your identity.”
You could say the same thing about Manhattan and the university, as the losses stacked on each other and the football program drifted back toward the irrelevance that Snyder once inherited. They needed a man who’d just turned 69 to come out of retirement and replicate the greatest job of program-building in college football history.
They needed another miracle.



Magical things happen when a man finds his perfect place in the world.
“I concur with your thought,” Snyder says while sitting in his office last week. “Kansas State has just been wonderful for me.”
But to fully understand what one man means to one community, it’s important to go back to the very beginning, a quarter-century ago, a very different time for Manhattan and K-State — back when only a crazy person would’ve thought the football team would someday be coached by a 73-year-old and ranked No. 4 in the country with a plausible path to a national championship.
Those were dark days here, back then. The football program wasn’t just awful but historically awful. The consequences of not getting it fixed were far greater than mere embarrassment or irrelevance.
Powerful men not only talked of booting K-State out of the Big Eight Conference, they had a plan. Arkansas was restless in the Southwest Conference. The Board of Regents considered moving the Wildcats to the Missouri Valley Conference or even dropping the football program altogether.
Nobody wanted to imagine what that would mean to this town.
About 25,000 people lived in Manhattan then, and K-State enrollment dipped 15 percent in the 1980s. The city had one hotel, and you couldn’t get here from Interstate 70 on anything but a two-lane road.
Five or six men laughed when asked about coming here to coach, and who could blame them? Every K-State coach since the Great Depression had a losing record. One quit in the middle of the season. Only the seniors had ever won a game at K-State, and even then only twice. Back then, raising cattle on Pluto would’ve seemed as feasible as building a national football power in this little town.
LHC Bill Snyder did not laugh.
“That first season it was losing, losing, losing, and I was with the (athletic director) and associate A.D. and I said, ‘You guys are so lucky to have my husband here,’” Sharon Snyder says. “Yes I did. I remember that vividly.
“Who knows what they thought?”



Rusty Wilson is calling from Houston. He owns Rusty’s Last Chance and Kite’s, two staples of the Aggieville bar scene, and is finalizing the purchase of a 144-square-foot television screen for them. He wants you to know he wouldn’t be able to do this without Snyder’s football program.
Winning makes people happy, and happy people celebrate at bars. He doesn’t want to think about what life would be like if Snyder hadn’t saved football, again. Maybe Wilson wouldn’t be broke, but he wouldn’t be buying giant TV screens, either.
Various local business owners say that when Snyder retired after the 2005 season and the program lost its way under Ron Prince, their in-season revenue fell by 20 to 30 percent.
Prince’s teams lost 20 games in three seasons before Snyder returned in 2009. The Wildcats only lost 29 times during Snyder’s 11-year run of bowl appearances in the 1990s and early 2000s.
“They say one man can’t make that huge a difference,” Wilson says. “I’m telling you: yes, one man can make that much of a difference.”
It is not enough to say that most people come to Manhattan on LHC Bill Snyder Highway or that the biggest building in town is LHC Bill Snyder Family Stadium, but that’s a good start.
Snyder turned K-State football from big joke to big business. His success brought network television and national magazines. By the time the Wildcats were fixtures in the national rankings in the late 1990s, Manhattan had gone from one hotel to six. That number has since doubled, most with two-night minimums on game weekends.
Attendance at games has more than doubled, and the city’s population has doubled. Enrollment is up 50 percent. The university has constructed nearly 30 new buildings since Snyder’s arrival. The west side of the football stadium is currently undergoing a $75 million makeover.
Even adjusted for inflation, donations to the athletics department have multiplied 17 times since Snyder arrived — after he came back, they reached all-time highs despite the recession.
The $650 million National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility means the area is likely to stay strong. Snyder can’t be given total credit, of course, but reasonable people believe he is the single most important factor in all of it. No wonder people name their pets and even children after Snyder.
“He’s the most influential figure in the modern history of this community and this university,” K-State athletic director John Currie says. “OK? The most transformational figure. And I mean that with great respect to all the people who’ve supported and led the community.”
Snyder is famously understated, typically allergic to speculation, but he has an answer ready for what might’ve happened if K-State had dropped out of the Big Eight two decades ago.
“The one thing I know for sure, had that taken place, Manhattan would not be at all what it is today,” he says. “The enrollment would’ve continued to decline, the community would’ve continued to decline. The economy of the community has grown immensely, and so much of that, a great deal, is truly due to the people who came to support our program.”
The value of Snyder isn’t all hypothetical, you know. They’ve lived through the alternative twice now.
Once before he arrived, and once after he retired.



It’s interesting that everyone involved — Snyder himself, his wife, friends and anyone else who’s been around for both resurrections — says he’s doing it the second time just like he did it the first time. The man doesn’t change. What Snyder did in the 1990s with Kevin Lockett, a receiver who went on to play for the Chiefs, he does today with Kevin’s son Tyler, a standout kick returner.
“It’s all the same,” Kevin Lockett says. “People want to know how he’s different, what he’s doing now compared to what he did with us, and I’m telling you: It’s exactly the same. I hear the same things from my son that I heard from Coach when I was there. It’s unbelievable.”
If there is one critical common denominator between the original Manhattan Miracle and version 2.0, it is a change in attitude. Snyder never talks much about results, only about “getting a little better every day,” because if you’re sweeping up a landfill, you have to take it one pile at a time.
Dragging a university and community from the edge of obscurity is done in the margins, in the details, and nobody does details like Snyder. When he arrived the first time, he changed the offices and the practice schedules and the equipment and the logo and even the color purple.
The old shade was too light, he decided, and light purple looked like a loser. He wanted it darker, and based the uniforms on the Dallas Cowboys. The university supported all of this with money it didn’t really have, an all-in bet on the conservative football coach.
A funny thing began to happen off the field, too. A coach and the community around him began to mesh in a perfect symphony. People in Kansas, particularly the rural parts that make up a large chunk of the K-State fanbase, began to see their best qualities in the head coach.
He dresses predictably and practically, either khaki pants and simple collared shirt or suit and tie. He never makes any promises except to keep working hard, and ohmygoodness, does he ever work hard.
The standard work week around K-State football is around 120 hours. Once, an assistant went to get a drink and returned to a note on his door telling him he’d be fired if he ever left the building again.
The picture of K-State football is whichever Cadillac Snyder is driving at the time parked in front of the facility. He knows that it took exactly 2 minutes and 45 seconds to get from his house to the office, a drive he sometimes jokes his car could make without anyone behind the wheel.
The connection between man and fan came quick. Snyder and everyone in the program he rules put in fanatical hours right now for a harvest at the end. Basically, he takes the farmer’s approach to coaching football. The fans he works hard for can appreciate that.
Watch any game of his, and without recognizing the players, the best way to guess the year would be the video quality. Michael Bishop, the Wildcats’ star quarterback in 1997-98, runs straight ahead, behind his blockers in grainy video. Today, Heisman Trophy hopeful Collin Klein does the same in high-def. Get a little better every day. Keep rowing. Snyder said it in the ’90s, and he says it now.
The only difference is the Cadillac — Snyder drives an Escalade, after years of DeVilles.
“Consistency, man,” Klein says. “He doesn’t just preach it. He lives it.”



Sharon Snyder hears people say that her husband is mellower this time around, but she thinks that’s a bunch of hooey. If anything, he’s more intense now. Maybe it’s the experience of seeing the program drift so quickly after he retired.
Jim Colbert, the former pro golfer and K-State alumnus, sometimes watches practice and makes the distinction that his old friend is “intense without being tense.” Colbert says Snyder carries himself with more certainty knowing what his day’s purpose will be, and that he somehow looks younger now than when he was retired.
“He kind of looks at me funny when I tell him that, but it’s true,” Colbert says.
Maybe Snyder leans more on his assistants now than before, but that’s hard to say because he always leaned on them. He uses film of practices to grade his coaches, and lets them use the film to grade the players. Snyder mostly uses practice to watch, to occasionally teach, and always walks around with that voice recorder to help him make notes later. This is that old lifestyle, the one he chose, the one he felt at least a little lost without.
The magic of Snyder is not in what he does but in what he creates. It’s an environment where his coaches and players are so invested in each other, so bonded by a common purpose that nobody stops to think how crazy it is that a 73-year-old man is working 18 hours and connecting with teenagers to build a national football power largely from the other powers’ leftovers.
K-State fans have seen this movie before, of course. Snyder’s best teams are always built with transfers and overlooked high school kids. His worst teams before he left came after the success and he chased some higher-rated recruits.
So what you have might be the rarest kind of college football coach, a one-of-a-kind. He comes without ego or self-promotion, fundamentally unconcerned with the next job or his salary. He is self-aware enough to know he found his perfect place, and good enough that he’s made it so much better.
If you want to know how a team full of guys with three-star pasts keeps beating teams full of guys with seven-figure futures, that’s as good an explanation as any.



Catch him in the right mood, and LHC Bill Snyder will tell the story of why he decided to coach the worst football program in America. This was during his interview, December 1988, and it’s bitterly cold.
Snyder asks to be left in the middle of campus, outside, for an hour or so. He guesses he stopped 40 or 50 people. He didn’t know any of them, and he didn’t tell anybody why he was there. He just wanted to talk. Random stuff. Small talk. Sometimes he asked for directions, sometimes he just asked how they liked it here.
Every single person Snyder approached stopped in the freezing cold to talk to a complete stranger. So when the hour was up, he said he’d do it. Random, unwitting and kind K-Staters convinced Snyder to come try to make magic. He wanted to be part of that, and neither coach nor community has been the same since.
Together they grow, in beautiful symphony.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/10/19/3874894/bill-snyder-saved-a-town-and-a.html#storylink=cpy

20
RT?@Joel_Jellison Angel called oscar Weber practices "interesting." Said last year's minutes mean nothing with new staff. Have to earn PT

RT ?@JBBauersfeld oscar Weber says he's still trying to get some guys to "buy in." He mentioned Angel Rodriguez by name


FYBW

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K-State Athletics ?@kstatesports
#KStateMBB coach oscar Weber will throw out the first pitch at tonight's Royals-Rangers game at Kauffman Stadium.

I know we have seen oscar Weber throw first pitches right into the ground for the Chicago Cubs 6 years in a row, but I am for one am not going to judge him until he throws a few first pitches for our KC Royals. He may throw a perfect strike right down the middle even though he has never thrown a strike and will almost certainly hit somebody in the stands and ruin first pitches for the Royals for the next 8 seasons. Good luck oscar!  :emawkid:

24
Kansas State Football / Bar in KC Area Showing KSU/Missouri State
« on: August 30, 2012, 10:19:47 AM »
Does anybody know any bars that will be showing the game? Usually go to Lucky's BrewGrille but they said they may not be able to get it due to their new system. TIA

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