In 1996 I was 13 years old and nepotism brought me my first job as a cable puller for the jumbotron camera. I had this dream job that paid $40 per game until late in the 2000 season.
During that run I got to watch peak K-State from the sidelines and it wasn't wasted on me. Pre-game I would go up into the press box for my credentials. Grab an omelet or whatever they were serving, check which bowl game scouts were in the house, and then down on the field to watch warmups. When College Gameday was in town I'd hang out near the stage and one time Lee Corso gave me a cookie because somebody gave him a whole platter as a gift and wtf does he want those for? It was a wild time. As far as I was concerned, Snyder was God, K-State was the center of the Universe, and I had an orange armband that let me freely travel through it.
3rd favorite memory - Being in the end zone during Gramática's 65 yd field goal.
2nd favorite memory - 1998 Nebraska game.
#1 favorite memory (and the night I was fired) - 2000 Nebraska game... The cable pulling crew is a 3-man job and I'd moved up to become the #1 cable puller right behind the camera. A trusted member of the crew. Because of this, I was able to get 2 of my friends on the other spots.
After the game, fans rushed the field which wasn't an uncommon occurrence, but this time was different. Because of the costs to continually replace them, K-State had started installing goalposts that were extremely difficult to bring down. We were covering the crowd shots like normal, but the crowd was getting visibly frustrated by their inability to tear down the goalposts which caused them to get creative.
My friends had been swallowed in the crowd and it was just me, the cameraman, and a few hundred feet of cable laying underneath the feet of thousands of fans. There was quite a bit of tugging on the cable, but it didn't seem like a huge deal until we realized that our cord was being used to loop around the goalpost to aid in the pulling. This enraged the cameraman and he's actually tied to the cable so he was starting to get pulled around pretty good. He told me to go find the other guys to regain control of the cable.
As I got close to the goalposts, I saw the cable snap, and I knew it was over. There was no more job to do. So I did what most 17yo super fans would do and I joined the party for what ended up being a prolonged amount of time. When I finally got back to the production truck, the cameraman had already laid the blame on me and used my celebrating as his proof. I was fired and told I'd never work another game as long as he was running the camera, but nothing could bring down from the high of that game.