After watching this video, I have to admit that was all tickly and pumped. Still am. But it also made me think of why I went to K-State and how fortunate I was to be there for the greatest turnaround in college football history. Basically, it was a good engineering school (especially for the price) and 2 of my 3 older brothers went there (why KU bro? WHY?). Watching that video made me realize just how lucky I was.
I witnessed alot of KSU games during my time, but there are two in particular that solidifies my faith in the Purple and Silver. The first one was home game against Nebraska where we beat them the first time in forever. The second was the Big 12 Championship game. Both games told 2 different stories on the field as well as off.
The first time that K-State beat Nebraska (Saturday November, 14 1998) in a long time was probably one of the longest outings I have ever experienced. I was living on the 6th floor of Goodnow and the night before the game we did what we usually do: Drink. Well the idea came up to get ready for the game around 2am. So that’s what we did. The defense at the time was referred to as the Lynch Mob. And that’s what we painted our chest with. The Yeti was lucky enough to be painted with the ‘o’ and has since been referred to as the Jiggle-O. Yeah I have way too many nicknames.
After the paint fest, we headed for the game. We were under the impression that we would be the absolute first people there at the game. We were wrong. There was this super old guy with super old school kstate gear and a pennant standing first in line when we got there. In this case, being second there was pretty cool.
The game I think was at 3:30 pm or something. I really don’t remember. I do remember that we took turns sleeping in line. Once the gates opened, we headed down and ended up in the second row somehow. The game was super crazy and all anyone will remember was the non call for the facemask o the Nebraska quaterback. Hey they didn’t call it and K-State won! Storming the field after that has got to be one of the single most exciting moment of my life. I lost a shoe and someone found in the crowd like 15 minutes later. A guy I went to high school with ended up getting photographed tearing the goal post down. It’s hard to top that.
Although it came pretty close to it at the 2003 Big 12 Championship game against Oklahoma. I think the major difference here was that even though K-State were underdogs in both games, the lopsidedness of the victory here will never be forgotten. No one, as you can tell from the video, picked K-State to even come close. It set up the perfect surprise to the end the night.
During the day, we tailgated like champs. Bish (who’s in Iraq now) was the tailgate master as he deep fried a turkey for us while we drank heavy and ate just as heavy. The only other thing I remember was that amazing catch that Mike Williams for USC made during their bowl.
The game itself was blow out central. The exalted joy pumped out during each big run, each interception, each catch just grew and grew and grew. It was kind of like being in a dream. The massive amount of alcohol helped out on that as well. I was so drunk that in the middle of the 3rd quarter I started an ‘Overrated’ chant to the Oklahoma fans. Almost instantly everyone held me back. I think it was the closest I ever got to getting my ass kicked.
From that ass kicking on Oklahoma to finally sealing the deal against Nebraska, my time watching K-State football in person was more than worth it. That’s why I will never waiver as a supporter of the Wildcats. Hopefully this video will pump up the other K-Staters out there who are getting geared up for another huge game going on today against Texas. I hope this helps Ron, Josh, and James. GO CATS!
-Purple Yeti