Under former coach Bill Snyder, Kansas State won two conference titles, finished the 1998 regular season with an undefeated (11–0) record and No.

[9] Some of the coaches during this era include Fay Moulton (1900), who went on to win Olympic medals as a sprinter;[12][13] Wade Moore (1901), who later was a successful minor league baseball manager;[14] and Cyrus E. Dietz (1902), who became a justice of the Illinois Supreme Court.

Elden Auker was part of a group of excellent athletes who attended Kansas State around the time of the Great Depression, which also included Ralph Graham, Maurice Elder, Leland Shaffer, Cookie Tackwell, Dougal Russell, Henry Cronkite, George Maddox, and Elmer Hackney.

After McMillin left, Kansas State hired Lynn "Pappy" Waldorf, who was also later enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach.

With this combination of coaches and players, Kansas State enjoyed what would be its last streak of sustained success on the football field for 60 years.

According to longtime Wildcat radio announcer Dev Nelson, part of the problem was that Kansas State was one of the few major schools that didn't make a significant investment in its football program after World War II.

[citation needed] Weaver's best season at K-State came in 1964, when his team went 3–7,[36] with the three wins coming by a combined six points, but he retained his sense of humor.

The Wildcats wouldn't have another winning season until 1982, when Jim Dickey led a redshirt-laden roster to the 1982 Independence Bowl—the first bowl appearance in school history.

[27] Things changed in 1989, when the athletic department hired Iowa's offensive coordinator, Bill Snyder, to replace Parrish as head coach.

Snyder took over a program that had the worst record in NCAA Division I-A (FBS) history at the time and had gone 27 consecutive games without a win (0–26–1) dating to October 1986.

They then pounded Wyoming 52–17 to tally the first bowl win in school history, breaking one of the longest such droughts in Division I-A at the time.

The game ended on a controversial play in double-overtime, with Sirr Parker being credited a touchdown despite video replay clearly indicating his knee down at the one yard line.

Snyder was able to bring in athletes such as quarterback Michael Bishop, the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy in 1998, and running back Darren Sproles, who led the nation in rushing in 2003 and holds the Big 12 record for all-purpose yards in a career.

The winning attitude under Snyder was represented by a stylized wildcat, called the "Powercat" (shown in the infobox), that was added to the football team's uniforms in 1989.

Kansas State finished the season with a 37–10 loss to the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers University in the inaugural Texas Bowl on December 28, 2006.

In Prince's second season, the team featured standout quarterback Josh Freeman and receiver Jordy Nelson, but still slipped to a 5–7 record.

With three games remaining in the season, on November 5, 2008, the school announced that Ron Prince would not return as Kansas State head coach in 2009.

Following a loss to Nebraska Cornhuskers football at Memorial Stadium on November 21, 2009, Kansas State became the fourth FBS teams to lose 600 games, joining Northwestern, Indiana, and Wake Forest.

On May 15, 2023, Kansas State University and Chris Klieman agreed to a new eight-year contract worth $5.5 million annually excluding incentives.

[85][86] After a 42–13 victory over Troy the following week,[87] K-State suffered their first loss of the season in a 30–27 contest against Missouri on a 61-yard field goal as time expired.

[95][96] After a 59–25 win over Baylor[97] and a 31–27 victory over archrival Kansas,[98] the Wildcats closed the regular season with a 42–35 loss to rival Iowa State.

[102][page needed] Kansas State's first official playing field was an open public square in Manhattan located at Bluemont Avenue and 8th Street, which it began using in 1897.

[9] Construction of Bluemont Elementary School on that plot of land forced Kansas State to move its athletics on campus beginning in 1911.

[104] Following Colorado's announcement that it would rejoin the Big 12 starting in 2024, the two will likely play as regular conference opponents, earlier than the series that was previously scheduled.

In 2009 and 2010, the two schools played neutral-site games at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, and fans and media adopted the name "Farmageddon" for the series.

Since 2008, the school's mascot, Willie the Wildcat, has donned digital US Army fatigues in place of his usual football uniform for this game.

A number of slogans and nicknames are associated with Kansas State, including: In 1992, K-State installed a new press box and 2 Ahearn Fund Donors, Randy Shoemaker and John Badke after the public address announcer would say “x” amount of yards on the play, they would yell and motion, “Good for a Wildcat First-down!” The announcer then caught on and helped start what would become a K-State tradition.

Former KSU quarterbacks Lynn Dickey and Steve Grogan had their jersey number 11 retired by the university to jointly honor both players.

[124] In 2008, a second class was inducted into the Ring of Honor, consisting of Terence Newman, Martín Gramática, David Allen, and Mark Simoneau.

[126] A number of other Kansas State players have received other All-American recognition or notable awards, including the following (second- and third-team All-Americans in italics): Felix Anudike-Uzomah, Brandon Banks, Jonathan Beasley, Monty Beisel, Barrett Brooks, Cooper Beebe, Larry Brown, Jerametrius Butler, Rock Cartwright, Lamar Chapman, Andre Coleman, Jarrod Cooper, Lynn Dickey, Zac Diles, Maurice Elder, Josh Freeman, Yamon Figurs, Percell Gaskins, Steve Grogan, Mack Herron, Darren Howard, Collin Klein, Ben Leber, Ryan Lilja, Aaron Lockett, Kevin Lockett, Matthew McCrane, Jon McGraw, Damion McIntosh, Shad Meier, Ryan Mueller, Frank Murphy, Terry Pierce, Ell Roberson, Josh Scobey, Daniel Thomas, Todd Weiner, Rashad Washington, Jordan Willis, Ryan Young, Ty Zimmerman Kansas State retired the 11 jersey, which honors both Lynn Dickey and Steve Grogan.