As “Joker And The Thief” by Wolfmother plays in the background of his YouTube video, Andrew Sheridan, junior in civil engineering, shows off his Minecraft creation: the Kansas State athletics complex. Slowly, Sheridan flies around Bill Snyder Family Stadium and Bramlage Coliseum — a project that took him approximately seven months to complete.
“I’ve actually been making stadiums for a long time,” Sheridan said. “Since I was 12 years old. I have made several that were OK — they weren’t wonderful but they were OK.”
None of these have been shared before, but he enjoys making them. Sheridan said he attempted to make a full-scale model of the stadium several years ago, but it didn’t go as planned.
“It was a horrible idea — a humongous, horrible idea,” Sheridan said. “I quit on that after a little while.”
When he started to make the athletics complex last spring, he began with Bramlage, but soon decided to add the football stadium. The field and basketball court, he said, is to scale: one block equals one yard. However, everything else is Sheridan’s best estimate.
“I looked at Google Maps and pictures online,” Sheridan said. “K-State also has a 360 degree virtual tour inside that shows certain rooms.”
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Sheridan said he selected songs for the YouTube video that would be recognizable to most K-State Football fans. When “Joker And The Thief” ends, “Proud of the House We Built” by Brooks and Dunn begins, and the tour continues through the locker rooms, offices and other rooms of the complex.
Following the tour, Sheridan — who plays in the drum line for the Kansas State University Marching Band — simulates the route the band travels around the stadium before home games.
“The traveling cadence is what we march to to the stadium,” Sheridan said. “Being in the band, I thought, ‘That would be pretty cool. I can simulate the march we do before the game.'”
Sheridan released the athletics complex video in November. He uploaded his video of the Liberty Bowl on Jan. 17, but began creating it soon after the announcement that K-State would play Navy on Dec. 31.
“I was hoping to have it out by the time the game happened,” Sheridan said. “I thought it would be cool, but that didn’t happen. I would rather it look good than rushed.”
As a busy student, band member and Peters Recreation Complex employee, Sheridan doesn’t have a lot of time to dedicate to creating stadiums, but he enjoys spending some free time on Minecraft when he can.
