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Wefald was force behind K-State’s success
By JASON WHITLOCKThe Kansas City Star
Kansas State fans might find that difficult to believe, considering what I’ve written over the past year about the hiring of basketball coaches Bob Huggins and Frank Martin. But it’s true.
Wefald, president of K-State, is as good as it gets.
He’s smart, passionate, goofy and genuine. He’s everything a sports fan would want in a school president.
I’m going to miss president Wefald, who announced Monday that he’s stepping down as K-State’s leader at the conclusion of the 2008-09 school year.
Wefald’s departure is as significant as Bill Snyder’s was three years ago. There would be no Bill Snyder era without Jon Wefald. No K-State proud. No Powercat. No belief that the Wildcats can accomplish any and everything that more conveniently located, better-financed athletic departments can.
In 1998, I sat inside a St. Louis press box writing a column on deadline comparing Snyder and Wefald to biblical legends. The Wildcats were beating Texas A&M in the Big 12 championship and headed for the national championship game. I thought I was witnessing a modern miracle and was doing my best to chronicle it in King James style.
The Wildcats, as you know, imploded in the final minutes, and the miracle, to some, turned into a nightmare. Not for me. I still believe what the Wildcats accomplished that season and throughout the Snyder era formed an inspiring miracle that still resonates today.
The lives touched and motivated by those Wildcats were real. It felt like a miracle. For longtime Kansas State football fans, 1998 didn’t seem all that different from Moses parting the Red Sea.
That’s how I will remember Wefald, the way we remember all heroes. We recall their grandest triumphs. Hiring Bill Snyder and providing Snyder with unconditional support are Wefald’s lasting legacy.
Snyder’s football teams energized the entire university emotionally and financially. And Wefald’s enthusiasm for those teams engulfed the entire campus and most of the state. I’ll never forget the powerful hug he gave me on the sideline when the Wildcats wrapped up their much-anticipated victory over Nebraska. He had tears of joy, and his elation ran through my body.
Wefald was the perfect K-State ambassador, somewhat masking Snyder’s unwillingness to be the public face of the university.
But my respect for Wefald goes deeper than K-State football. He has a passion for writing and sending his literary efforts to any and everyone he likes. It seemed at least once a year I would receive some manuscript that Wefald had written. The man really needs to start a blog. That’s what he should do in retirement.
Also, whether Ron Prince turns out to be the right successor to Snyder, I respect the fact that Wefald gave a young black man from Kansas the chance to come home and fulfill his dream. Wefald is passionate about equal opportunity and backed up his fervor with action.
No, to me, Wefald’s shortcomings are irrelevant once he retires. You don’t judge a man by his failures. You judge him by the integrity and doggedness of his pursuit of success.
The Bob Huggins-Michael Beasley-Bill Walker experiment blew up in a matter of months. I didn’t like the way Wefald responded to that crisis. He got desperate and doubled his risks. I don’t think it’s going to work.
In no way does that erase all that Jon Wefald accomplished while at K-State. We all fall short of the glory from time to time. I don’t need to re-air my laundry list of failures and mistakes. You know them. We’ve cried and laughed about them right here in this space. I have some private failures that I’m still paying for right now.
I just hope when I reach my career finish line, my victories stack anywhere close to as high as Wefald’s. He raised the bar at K-State. His successor’s challenge will be as difficult as Bill Snyder’s.