The victory was his 136th in his 17-year career. In the other 93 years K-State has played the game, there have been only 194 other winning Saturdays.
After the Snyder family made an encore appearance on a make-shift stage to say their final thank you's, and to the blaring tune of ''Stand Up For The Champions,'' the Snyders left the field ... for the final time.
Wife Sharon's left arm looped around Bill's left, while her right arm cradled the game ball (The coach would not have been happy with her method of ball security) in the other.
Son Sean gave his father a kiss on the cheek; daughter Shannon dabbed tears; daughter Meredith layed her head on her father's shoulder; while Ross and Whitney were there offering their support.
Entering the KSU offices, Sharon offered to building supervisor Lyle Hasenbank, ''That's a wrap.''
Asked what might be going through his father's mind, Ross offered, ''What's next.''
Only minutes earlier, President Jon Wefald said of Snyder ''He came to Kansas State and simply turned the world upside down.''
And later in introducing Snyder, Wefald said, ''He's not only a great coach, but a great person. He's a man who orchestrated the greatest turnaround in American football history.''
None of the 46,039 in dressed in Powercat Purple were disagreeing as they chanted, ''Bi-ill Snyder; Bi-ll Snyder,'' over, and over, and over, and over again.
Snyder has met thousands of Kansas State fans eye-to-eye, handshake-to-handshake. But there were 10s of thousands who felt they knew him. He had that type of persona, and the gift, through football, to unite Wildcat families around the KSU cmapus, Manhattan community, state of the Sunflower, and all Wildcats who have scattered America-wide.
For 17 years, Snyder's work made football fans — not Wildcat fans, but football fans — and coaches, too, from Stony Brook U. to Notre Dame, believe in miracles.
He, and his Wildcat program, served as a living example that the impossible can be possible.
Today, Kansas State's mission is not be to replace Bill Snyder. The goal is only to find the next coach to carry on the Wildcat banner to the level of what he established, and intended it to be carried on.
To Bill Snyder, the values coached by, and lived by, are worth far more when passed down to others, which is what has been done. Done for the last 17 years as a teacher of football, and more importantly life, to hundreds of players and thousands of fans.
The wins, including Saturday's, were treasured at the moment, but the values displayed during this 17-year era will last for Wildcat generations.
