The turning point in the development of a program is difficult to pinpoint for sports fans, especially in college football. Sure, Kansas State can point to the day they hired Bill Snyder in 1989 as the biggest turning point ever seen in college football, but when did it turn on the field? When did the Kansas State fans know when to take the paper bags off their heads for good? (Ron Prince era not included).
The Wildcats had suffered through a 0-18-1 stretch against Big 8 opponents from 1986 to 1988 under Stan Parrish before they hired Snyder, who subsequently lost his first 8 games in conference only adding to the pain.
Then he had a breakthrough. The Wildcats defeated Oklahoma State 23-17 on October 13th, 1990—five days short of four calendar years (October 18, 1986, 29-12 over Kansas) between Big 8 conference victories. The win over the ‘Pokes was not the trumpeted arrival of K-State on the national scene, but it showed that pads and helmets had to be securely buckled when playing the Snyder-led team from now on.
The following year, the Wildcats went 7-4 with all four losses coming against Top 20 teams. Now things were officially turned around in the Little Apple and the rest, as they say, is “history.”
The Kansas Jayhawks turning point is even more difficult to pinpoint. The Jayhawks had not fallen as far as the Parrish coached K-State teams of the mid 80’s (2-30-2), but they were awfully bad. After replacing semi-successful coach Glen Mason, Terry Allen was putrid in his 5 years at Kansas only mustering a 10-30 conference record, but is best known for his cupboard-clearing recruiting style.
Things were pretty gloomy when Mark Mangino picked up the reins for a program with little tradition, no talent, little support from fans and the athletic department alike and seemingly no direction. One of the first things he did as coach of the Jayhawks, reportedly, was to get into a spat with officials at one of his son’s high school games—a disastrous headline for a program that did not make headlines unless a lineman got stuck in a drive thru window, or a receiver got shot in the leg. It was dark in Lawrence, and it really did not help that there was perpetual sunshine about an hour west on I-70.
The low point for the Jayhawks came in a 64-0 loss in Lawrence against the previously mentioned Wildcats. That game was the worst loss for Kansas since the 70-0 barn-burner against Nebraska in 1986–the ball just never seemed to bounce KU’s way that day.
The real kick in the teeth was that Snyder put his defensive starters back in the game during a potential Kansas scoring drive in the second half to secure the shutout. Not too many Jayhawks fans remember this because the seventeen that were in attendance went to drown their sorrows at The Wheel at some point early in the first quarter. Memorial Stadium had become a home away from home and a laughing stock for most Big XII teams. It was darker in Lawrence than it had ever been before—which is saying something.
The Jayhawks ended the 2002 season with a 2-10 record and it looked as if many lean years were ahead for Kansas, and, who cared? The basketball team was going to the Final Four and had one of the best coaches in the nation. Everybody was fine with football being second-fiddle to the hoops juggernaut—except Mark Mangino who failed to get that memo.
2003 rolled around and many expected the worst. An opening weekend 28-20 loss against Northwestern on the rain-soaked Memorial Stadium turf only made expectations wane further. (Can negative expectations wane further? If that is possible then that is where KU football “fans” were).
But then, eureka!
The Jayhawks started a winning streak (previously unknown to KU fans). Mangino had his Hawks 3-1 opening up conference play against Missouri at home. This was the game that just felt different going into it. The Tigers were ranked 23rdin both polls and had the phenomenal athlete Brad Smith under center. Not many folks even inside of Lawrence thought the Jayhawks had a shot-except everybody in the west locker room at Memorial Stadium.
KU struck first but missed the extra point and later trailed 14-13 going in to the fourth quarter. As the final stanza started, the Jayhawks got the ball into the end zone and led by 5. Mangino decided that this was the perfect time to call his most effective goal line play in order to get the two-point conversion. Quarterback Bill Whittemore took the snap and sprinted with a moving pocket to his right, planted his feet, turned and lobbed a ball to a wide open tight end Denver Latimore in the end zone to make the score 21-14. The crowd went berserk…the loudest it had ever been in Lawrence to that point, the clouds lifted and the sun started to shine.
Slowly, but surely the belief started to spread throughout the crowd that the Kansas Jayhawks might actually turn their fortunes around.
On the ensuing kickoff Missouri only returned the ball to the 14 yard line because freshman Jon Cornish made a great tackle that sent the crowd into orbit. And then it happened.
The turning point.
ACDC’s “Thunderstruck” was cranked out over the speakers and the crowd went certifiably insane. The clock showed an entire quarter was left to play, but the game was over. The Jayhawks turned into the 1985 Bears on defense and Brad Smith looked like a shell of himself–managing only a handful of yards in the quarter.
Kansas tacked on two more touchdowns on their way to a 35-14 victory and ended a 14-game losing streak against Big XII opponents, and gave KU four straight victories. More importantly, it gave KU fans hope.
Much like after Kansas State’s first conference victory in 28 tries, Kansas drew a line in the sand and stated that they were not going to go back to the depths from which they crawled. The resurgence qualified the Jayhawks for the 2003 Tangerine Bowl—a game they lost, but a Bowl none-the-less.
Kansas went 4-7 in 2004, but were in most games right down to the wire (KU’s record would have been 5-6 if it were not for a “BCS” -funded conspiracy that fitted Vince Young with a Superman cape late in the 4th quarter). They have kept it going too, appearing in bowl games in the 2005, 2007 and 2008 seasons, and are expected to make another bowl appearance in 2009.
If you were to ask any one of the 50,000 Kansas fans in attendance for the 2003 Missouri match-up what they thought of their program’s chances of going to 5 bowl games in the decade would be?, they would have looked at you like you were crazy to even ask that question—at least before “Thunderstruck” came on.
