Marc just got a letter
Marc just got a letter
Marc just got a letter
Wonder who it’s from?
The Parrishes may be Texan. That’s where Linda Parrish was born. But my father Paul Parrish hails from the great state of Kansas.
My grandfather Lee Parrish was the first in his family to go to college, attending Kansas State in 1921. For decades, he was an enthusiastic backer of his K-State Wildcats. Fandom in the sport of football, however, was a challenge. K-State, a school in basketball crazy Kansas surrounded by football dynasties in Nebraska & Oklahoma, was considered “Futility U” for most of the post-WW2 era.
Grandpa was nearing 90 and suffering from dementia by the time I was about to leave for college. My summer job was to care for him, and boy did I learn a lot. Those suffering from dementia don’t want activity, stimulation, frustrating questions, or complex conversation. They want comfort. I comforted Lee Parrish by watching sports with him. The Cubs on WGN, whatever ESPN stuff I could VCR, and a good helping of late summer football. Not K-State football of course; Futility U was never on TV.
In 1989, I was a sophomore at Austin College living in Luckett Hall when Dad called me with the news. Grandpa had passed away. That same year, events were transpiring in Manhattan, KS that would change the landscape of college football. A former Austin College assistant coach named Bill Snyder had taken the reins of the K-State Wildcats and would soon oversee the “greatest turnaround in college football history.” By the time of my AC graduation in 1992, the turnaround was well underway.
The documentary “Miracle in Manhattan” focuses on those early years at K-State, the same years when I was a Roo student in Sherman. The entire documentary is worth watching. But if you want focus on the real impact of Bill Snyder on his players & the program then just watch the emotional 4 minutes from (40:00) to the (44:20) mark. Coach Snyder himself appears in the documentary from the (48:30) to the (51:40) mark.
The first of two Bill Snyder retirements occurred in 2007. He was asked if he might return to the coaching ranks one day. Snyder ruled out the NFL entirely, but did leave the door open to a small college environment. “I was in those schools at William Jewel (his alma mater) and Austin College and have great admiration for those types of colleges. If I ever chose to go back into coaching, I’d have no reservations being involved in a program such as that.”
A lot of us are proud that Coach Bill Snyder has a Roo past. That obviously includes me. I mean, I wrote a doggone book that includes a chapter about the former Roo coach. I thought Snyder might enjoy the read, so I sent him a copy of “Roo Tales: The Stories of Austin College Athletics.”
Coach Snyder, always the class act, was kind enough this week to send me a thank you letter.Coach Snyder’s impact is not just limited to K-State athletics. He was active in raising funds for a new KSU library and is a past president of the Friends of the Libraries organization at K-State. Now retired a second time, Snyder spends his time as chair of Kansas Mentors, a state endeavor to assist the education of Kansas youth. But Snyder is above all a coach. And the best description of Coach Snyder comes from a former Dallas Cowboy: “[Bill Snyder is] not the coach of the year, he’s not the coach of the decade, he’s the coach of the century.”
Hey Grandpa. Just wanted you to know. You’d be thrilled to be a K-State fan today, thanks to a former Austin College Kangaroo. Go Cats.
https://www.facebook.com/marc.parrish.9/posts/10217382457143547
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIkW5da-ma0