Editor's note: Kansas State University is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the historic 1998 Wildcat football team that opened the year 11-0 and was ranked No. 1 in the nation late into the season. The Manhattan Mercury is joining in on the look-back on arguably the best team in KSU history with a series of stories by Mark Janssen during this season.

Michael Bishop, in the words of former Kansas State football coach Bill Snyder, "... was the best sandlot football player to ever play the game."

Bishop, in the words of Snyder, "... was as good of a competitor as he's ever coached."

Competitor.

In a word, that's how those who knew Michael Bishop defined him.

Bishop said it came naturally, and was learned early in life.

"Growing up in a family of seven kids, you had to fight for everything," said the Willis, Texas, native, who now at the age of 32 is a quarterback for the Toronto Argonauts in the Canadian Football League. "I learned about competition at an early age."

Bishop's teammates, all courageously competitive in their own right, also marveled at No. 7's disposition toward the game.

"He had a refusal to lose," said linebacker Mark Simoneau. "That was true if he picked up a basketball, played cards, and definitely with a football in his hands. He wouldn't quit until he got a victory."

"The ultimate competitor," said tight end Justin Swift. "He had a phenomenal arm and could run it as good as anyone, but his competitiveness is still what stood out."

But those in Bishop's life before he arrived at Kansas State already knew of that makeup.

His Willis High School coach Mike Hufstetler used his "one-man show" as a quarterback, safety, punter, kickoff man and return man.

"We played him where we needed an athlete," Hufstetler said. "He's a competitor. There are a lot of guys good enough to win race, but never win. When Michael ran a race, he won."

On to Blinn Community College, it was Willie Fritz's turn to coach Bishop.

"He was as talented a football player at that position as I've ever seen. He would have been a great safety."

Despite the fact that Bishop once threw for 352 yards in a prep game, and 321 yards at Blinn, the 6-3, 195-pounder was recruited by all but one school to play defense.

That one school was Kansas State.

Snyder wanted a quarterback run-game, and that's what God created with Mr. Bishop.

"On a scale of 1 to 10, you would have needed more numbers," Snyder said of Bishop's natural talent.

The first Bishop fable had him lofting the ball 90 yards in the air from a one-step approach.

Laughing at the memory, Bishop said, "The story that was never told is that Damion McIntosh (a Wildcat lineman) threw it 85 yards two minutes later."

Bishop calls his two KSU seasons "... the happiest years of my life."

They were years when K-State posted its first-ever 11-win season in 1997, and then another in 1998. Two of those wins came against Kansas by a combined score of 102-22.

In those two seasons, Bishop defeated every single Big 12 team at least once.

"Michael loved to win," said Snyder. "He wore it on his sleeve. He wanted the football in his hands, not because he was selfish, but because when he touched the ball, he knew his side would win. Just give me the ball and get out of the way. He knew he could win the game, and more times than not, he was right."

Pausing and smiling, "If he couldn't have backed it up, he wouldn't have had any respect."

Bishop didn't need to worry about respect.

"He commanded respect," said running back Eric Hickson. "Michael was Michael. He never sugarcoated anything. It was a no-nonsense huddle. Michael didn't want to hear excuses."

But there were also the  somewhat comical moments.

"Mike would get so excited that he would get confused about a play call," said Swift. "He'd call a play that wasn't even a play, but he always figured out how to make big yardage out of it on his own. I promise you, none of us had an issue with Mike having the ball in his hands."

Linebacker Travis Ochs added, "His competitiveness filtered throughout the team. When Michael was in control, there was never a doubt that he would get the first down. He might have rubbed some people wrong, but you couldn't have asked to have a better leader on your side."

At the end of Bishop's career he had a 441-yard passing game (Louisiana-Monroe) to his credit, three games of four passing touchdowns, and at the time, the most prolific passing season of any quarterback in KSU history with 2,844 yards.

His 475 all-purpose yards against La.-Monroe and his 3,592 rush-pass yards in 1998 are still single-season records.

His two most memorable games were the 35-18 Fiesta Bowl win over Syracuse in 1997 when he rushed for 77 yards and passed for 317, and the 140-yard rushing, 306-yard passing game in a 40-30 victory over Nebraska that snapped a 29-game losing streak to the Cornhuskers in 1998.

"Everyone talked about Donovan McNabb in the Fiesta Bowl," Bishop reflected. "I was the 'other' quarterback. That motivated me."

And the Nebraska game? Now a decade later, Bishop says, "I'll never forget it."

Snyder was known for doing things in his own structured way. But with the multi-talented Bishop, "You had to be smart enough to stay within your system, but also smart enough not to be as restrictive. You stayed within the parameters of your notebook, but you had to give him his freedom to go make plays that went beyond our playbook."

If there was a Wildcat player who could match Bishop's want-to on offense, it was Simoneau on defense.

"As a defensive player, you tried to watch him when he was on the field just to see what he was going to do next," Simoneau said. "Whether in practice, or in a game, his competitiveness was amazing, and the plays he made on the run, or falling backward, were just amazing."

Bishop was a seventh-round draft choice by the New England Patriots in 1999, but the match never meshed.

"Bad timing in the wrong organization," said Bishop, who is planning to complete the final three classes toward his KSU degree. "But I have no regrets. I chose the right school once (KSU), and was drafted by the wrong franchise once (New England). It's been a long road, but I've enjoyed it."