Sports fans are like Christians; they come in many different forms. There are those rabid fans who sit in the front row of football games with EMAW painted across their chests.

Others may be more reserved during the games but still can recite from memory the most minute details about the newest basketball and football recruiting class.

Still, others pride themselves on their support of the less attended sports. All of these displays of purple pride are commendable, but I believe the best fan is the one who genuinely appreciates K-State success in every field.

Currently, K-State sits at a rare position in our history. Almost all of our major sports are extremely competitive at the national level. With the exception of this year, volleyball almost always ranks atop the Big 12 Conference and national rankings. Last year baseball was a few wins away from going to the College World Series in Omaha. Women's basketball has recently claimed two Big 12 regular season championships. Men's basketball has charged out of its dark age and is enjoying a renaissance.

Nov. 21 the football team will be playing Nebraska on an ESPN network with a chance to play in the Big 12 Championship game.

With all these achievements, do students really grasp where we have come from athletically?

Most spoiled ‘90s Wildcat football fans, myself included, are accustomed to playing in epic games against perennial powerhouses. Yet, anyone who has perused YouTube.com for the latest K-State highlight video has heard the phrase "Futility U." With that title comes horrendous statistics, but stats cannot convey a fan's depression.

Not until the Ron Prince era did I appreciate how demoralizing it is when the excitement for the season painfully evaporates with each mounting loss. As the wins failed to appear under Prince, so did student attendance to the games.

In any sport, this trend will hurt K-State athletics more than anything. Likewise, student appreciation manifested in attendance will help athletics more than anything else.

Throughout its history, Manhattan has been scoffed at for not being a viable option for attracting premiere talent. Let's be honest; that is a pretty accurate observation. The football and women's basketball teams were able to win Big 12 Championships because of Bill Snyder and Deb Patterson.

The genius of those coaches is not in their talent for procuring the best players from Texas and Florida, but their ability to succeed with hometown heroes. Jordy Nelson, Terrence Newman, Nicole Ohlde and Kendra Wecker all hail from small Kansas towns. The most efficient way for students to help attract these heroes is by creating raucous environments to play in.

Of course, the major exception to this recruiting rule is the men's basketball team.

Frank Martin and Dalonte Hill have resurrected a program by acquiring elite talent from around the nation. Anticipation for these players should draw massive crowds, yet the only game to completely fill Bramlage Coliseum last year was the Kansas game.

If Hill can attract talent to a program that only sells out one game a year, then he can attract players to almost anywhere. If the fan support continues to be average, please do not deceive yourself into thinking Martin and Hill will not leave K-State for a more supportive school.

Men's basketball under Martin and a few other sports have the opportunity to bring the first ever national title to Manhattan. And it is not one to be taken lightly.