To the student fans of our Wildcats,
As an alumna and former student -athlete, I try to follow and support our Wildcats as much as I can, in as many sports as I can. My husband and I have been privileged to be able to hold season tickets to the football games for the last five years. As you may or may not be aware, those last years haven’t been the best ones in our football program’s recent history. However, after last Saturday, I am forced to come to the conclusion that apparently next to none of you must know anything about the history of Wildcat football prior to the 1990s.
I was raised a Wildcat by parents who went to all the football games, as students, in the middle and late 70s. For those of you who know nothing about those times, in those days, a single touchdown was sometimes something to celebrate much the same way that we celebrated winning the Big 12 Title by beating “unbeatable” Oklahoma. We cheered for every first down because it used to be a major achievement just to get one, and touchdowns were almost unthinkable.
Today’s games may not be pretty, but they are so far from those days in that we still have things to be positive about when it comes to K-State football. Our offense is pretty good, and our special teams are decent too. And while our defensive schemes are somewhat lacking, the defensive players are still out there playing hard and coming up with some big hits.
You all think it’s hard for us in the stands to watch games like Saturday’s, but it’s even harder for the players. Not a single one of them came to K-State with the attitude that they were going to go out and lose on Saturday to ruin your day. They came here expecting to win and fully willing to go out and get the snot beat out of them in the attempt. The least they can expect is for you, the fans, to get behind them and support them when they go out and do the best they can.
When they came as recruits, they saw stands full of fans backing their Cats. When they were growing up, like you, they saw and heard about the great college fans at K-State who followed their team anywhere, no matter what. I remember a K-State nation that saw their Cats let a Big 12 Title game slip away along with a national championship shot. I remember how that team saw their bowl status fall down from a BCS Bowl to the Alamo Bowl, and yet their fans still came in droves.
I have never thought anything would disappoint me more than hearing that the Nebraska fans booed their players last year when they were having a tough season. I was wrong. I heard the unthinkable on Saturday. I heard K-State “fans” booing their players this past Saturday, and I am ashamed. Hearing the unthinkable was followed by seeing the unthinkable: empty stands, and an even more shocking empty student section. Why on earth would any player want to play for this crowd and these fans, or, if you’re a recruit, why would you come here? Do any of you who were there and participated in this travesty of “fan” support honestly think that the way you behaved will make any of this any better?
Angela Harris
K-State alumna of track and field