pat bosco is one of the most inspiring people i've ever met. his enthusiasm for kansas state university is unmatched by anybody, anywhere, probably at any time.
i will never forget my first visit to k-state in july of 2005. i was coming off the most miserable year of my life. i grew up in NY and was unexpectedly rejected by the only college i applied to. i landed at a small private school in a shitty industrial town in central NY, played college golf on a team full of hockey players, and spent many evenings nursing crap beers with complete losers. i wanted to transfer badly, but had nowhere to go.
then the chiefs, my favorite team then and now, made a big splash in free agency, signing kendrell bell (lol), patrick surtain and later sammy knight, on top of drafting derrick johnson. i had convinced myself that the chiefs were going to win the super bowl and i wanted to watch it up close. and that's when i made the decision to apply to kansas state.
a month later, to my total surprise, i got an email acceptance letter (i didn't know k-state took literally everybody at the time), and immediately began preparing how to tell my parents that i was about to move halfway across the country to a school that i only applied to due to their proximity to the chiefs*
*i didn't know KU was closer.my mom was unconvinced by my pitch, but allowed me to preliminarily enroll and agreed to accompany me to orientation. we arrived to the student union an hour early, and that's when we ran into pat bosco. he stopped us, introduced himself by basically shouting his name, and then asked where we were from. turns out, we all came from the same places. we chatted for a good 10 minutes and my mom thought he was the nicest guy she ever saw. it was a fantastic first impression.
then the orientation proceedings began.
pat bosco marched out in front of a packed room like a rock star. he performed the fight song. he told us how great k-state was. and within five minutes, i swear to god he had my mom thinking this place was fuckin harvard! he would rattle off program after program and tell us where it ranked nationally. and every...single...program...somehow, someway...was in the top 5.
"ANYBODY HERE ENROLLING IN THE ENGINEERING PROGRAM? WELL, IT'S TOP 5!"
"COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE? TOP 5!"
"OUR SCHOOL NEWSPAPER? TOP 5!"
every program, every department, every faculty member, every building, every facility, was somehow top 5! before long, the whole room of potential students and parents were finishing his sentences for him, screaming out "top 5!" to anything that came out of his mouth. my mom kept looking over to me, nodding in approval, of this guy, these programs, this school, this state, this decision! i wasn't just going to a college in kansas. i was going to the best college on earth!
the chiefs went 10-6 but missed the playoffs.