Synopsis
When Bill Snyder arrived as head football coach at Kansas State University prior to the 1989 season, he inherited the worst NCAA Division I football program on planet Earth. In 93 previous seasons, the Wildcat football record was a miserable 299-510-40. The program had earned exactly one league title, that coming in 1934, well before Snyder was born. In the years just prior to Snyderà  s arrival, the Wildcats had slumped to their worst, even by K-State standards. The program had lost 13 games in a row, and except for one tie, and had not rung the victory bell in 27 games. Seventeen years later, Snyderà  s orchestration of the greatest turnaround in college football history defines the American dream of achieving the unimaginable. This is his story, from Bill Snyderà  s unique viewpoint, of the process by which he helped transform a program considered the laughingstock of college football into one that won 136 games over seventeen years including eleven bowl appearances and seven seasons of at least ten wins. Ità  s also the story of Snyderà  s own triumphant journey, one that forced him at a young age to deal with his own lack of discipline and academic shortcomings in a single-parent family, one that saw him climb to the top of big-time college football, and one that ultimately brought him face-to-face with the toughest decision of his life. Bill Snyder: They Said It Couldn't Be Done captures, in Snyderà  s candid, upfront style, the action behind the scenes in running a major college football program, the strategies employed by early K-State coaches to change the culture of losing that had permeated an entire university, and the magic with which Snyder pulled off the Miracle in Manhattan.
About the Author
Mark Janssen has been in the middle of Kansas State Wildcat athletics for the better part of four decades. He has been sports editor of The Manhattan Mercury since 1981, winning six national writing awards from the National Newspaper Association, and eight first-place honors from the Kansas Press Association. Graduating from K-State in 1972, Janssen served as sports director of KMAN-KMKF Radio in Manhattan, earning Sportscaster of the Year honors in 1977 and 1978. He worked alongside the legendary Voice of the Wildcats, Dev Nelson, on the K-State Radio Network, plus hosted several coachesà  television shows. In the first 17 years of Janssenà  s coverage of K-State football, the Wildcats went 46-130-3 under four different coaches. In the last 17 years of Janssenà  s coverage under Coach Bill Snyder, the Wildcatsà  record was 136-68-1. Janssen resides in Manhattan with his wife, Peg. They have two children, Travis and Kelly.
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