The "sin" of purple pride
by Bill Worley

Classic Roman Catholic theology teaches about the seven deadly sins such as avarice, gluttony, and envy. It reserves its greatest condemnation for the very human sin of pride.

Well, I'm here to confess. I have often indulged myself in a peculiar form of that worst of all possible "sins"-Purple Pride. As a former Student Body President of Kansas State University, it would be hard to be otherwise these days.

During my tenure as student leader at KSU, we witnessed the end of the worst aspect of K-State's football ignominy-a 7-7 tie with arch-rival K.U. on a dreary wet day in old Memorial Stadium in Manhattan. It helped little that K.U. sported a running back named Gale Sayers and that our Doug Weaver-coached team had stopped K.U. from beating us. It was an ugly tie.

Then, that winter of 1967-68 Purple Pride came into my life. President James McCain and the Athletic Department hired Vince Gibson, an assistant from Tulane to come north to Kansas State and lead us out of the football wilderness.

Make no mistake about it. We were in the wilderness. K-State had suffered more football losses in the 1950s and 1960s than any other "major college" program. We were "major college" only because we belonged to the Big 8 Conference and usually had an outstanding basketball team.

Vince Gibson began the road to 1998's national prominence now enjoyed by Bill Snyder's impressive squad. In his first season, K-State actually beat Nebraska-at Lincoln-10-0. Then his teams put together back-to-back victories over Oklahoma when that program was close to the top of its prominence.

Most of all, Vince Gibson called on us K-Staters to drape ourselves in the forbidden hue-Purple Pride. While his era as head coach never brought the full turn-around he promised, Gibson must be credited with getting the construction of a new stadium, a new athletic dorm, and several impressive victories on the field.

Back to Purple Pride. It languished for most of the three decades following that fall of 1968. But there were moments when I and others like me succumbed to its siren call.

Fortunately, the student referendum called in the spring of 1968 to endorse a tax on the students to help build the new stadium was not one of them. The vote failed. Corporate and state money had to be raised to build the cathedral [KSU Stadium] in which Purple Pride could be worshipped.

In 1996, as Bill Snyder was rebuilding the basis for Purple Pride, another proposal came from the Athletic Department. They needed to enlarge the cathedral of Purple Pride. KSU Stadium was becoming much too small for the tail-gating folks. Sky boxes, a bigger press box, and, oh yes, a few more seats for students were needed to keep the surge going.

To their credit, this next generation of potential converts to Purple Pride kept at least some of their values straight. They, too, voted down giving student money to expand the altars for Purple Pride. In a huff, the Athletic Department muttered words like "ungrateful" and "screwed-up values." But, you see, K-State students already had taxed themselves to help build a major campus building-a much-needed new library. A library! A majority of those voting apparently believed that helping to build something essential to the University was more important than enlarging the shrine where they could worship by tearing down goal-posts--slowly and deliberately.

This is one story that ends happily. I still indulge in my weekly sinful expeditions into hoping that the resurgent Cats can win one more in that step toward national recognition. I do this from my home in Kansas City. No season tickets at our house. The income of a college teacher is hardly sufficient to pay for that kind of indulgence. Still, I do take Purple Pride in watching the boys in purple and white do in another opponent.

I also take strong Purple Pride in the K-State students of 1968 and of 1996 who decided that if athletics was going to be so overwhelmingly important to alumni such as I have become, then the alumni, friends, corporate sponsors, and the state of Kansas could combine to pay for new accouterments at the cathedral.

Purple Pride is a sin. Make no mistake about it, K-State fans! It's a sin to believe that football on Saturday is more important than learning on all the other days of the week. But, secretly, I have to admit--isn't it fun this year? Everyone a Wildcat! And visit Hale Library in the center of campus whenever you get a chance. It's more spectacular than KSU Stadium!

Bill Worley hangs out in Hyde Park, Kansas City, Missouri, with Kathryn Worley--now there's the REAL example of Purple Pride!

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