KANSAS CITY, Mo. — At Jeff Meyers' house in Shawnee, Kansas, the "Every Man a Wildcat" mantra is quite literal.
Meyers, his wife and their two daughters all graduated from Kansas State University and the shelves of their living room are dotted with pictures from games, Wildcats memorabilia and yearbooks.
"I bleed purple," said Meyers, who served as Olathe East's head coach for 23 years and now is an assistant coach at William Chrisman High School. "My whole family does, so we get excited. We bring this stuff out every once in a while and go through and look at it."
Meyers played fullback at K-State from 1977 to 1981, which was a far from glorious time for the Wildcats football team.
"Overall, it was very much a struggling program," Meyers said.
Former quarterback Stan Weber, who now serves as a color analyst for the K-State Sports Network, also remembers those rough seasons.
K-State did not win a game in his first two years, beginning in 1980.
Things changed in 1989 when Bill Snyder arrived and the "miracle in Manhattan" got underway.
During a practice the night before Snyder's first game, Weber, who started as a broadcaster with the school in 1987, vividly remembers turning to Mitch Holtus, his broadcast partner at the time.
"I said we're gonna win," Weber remembered saying. "I could just tell the way Bill Snyder was coaching the team, not even a game yet, that he was doing everything right. This guy's unbelievable."
Snyder became known for his 16 goals that guide performance both on and off the field.
"No limitations is one goal," Weber said. "I found out all about that when I would've been happy with seven wins a year. He says, 'No, let's keep rolling to 11.'"
Former defensive back Jarard Milo, an Olathe Northwest graduate who played for K-State from 2011-12, frequently uses that list of guiding principles still to this day.
"A couple that stick with me is never give up and toughness and self-discipline," he said.
In fact, there were many more than 16 lessons Milo learned, including the importance of attending class and being on time.
"If you're 5 minutes early, you're late," Milo said. "If you're 10 minutes early, you're on time."
Now, Milo is passing those principles on to his children.
The example Snyder sets is just one of the reasons why Meyers encouraged his high school players to go to Manhattan when they had offers.
"I've had a lot of kids that I helped influence, but they've always said they never could have made a better choice than going to play for Bill Snyder and Kansas State football," Meyers said.
Snyder left a mark not only on K-State football, but on the university and the town as a whole. It's a legacy that will live on even if the man himself is no longer on the field.
"The way he set the tone of how you do things the right way and have success because you do it right, not because you want to win ... it's changed everybody's attitude," Weber said.
