Kansas
Kansas State Wildcats football legend, trailblazer Veryl Switzer dies at age 89
**ADVANCE FOR WEEKEND EDITIONS MARCH 30 AND 31** Veryl Switzer, holds an image of himself at his dwelling in Manhattan, Kan., Feb. 27, 2007. Switzer wore the quantity 24 at Kansas State the place he was the one black participant on the 1953 soccer group. (AP Picture/The Kansas State Collegian, Christopher Hanewinckel)
AP
Manhattan
One of the adorned and influential athletes in Kansas State historical past has died.
Veryl Switzer, who starred as a operating again for the Wildcats from 1950 to 1953, handed away on Saturday on the age of 89.
“At the moment is a tragic day for Kansas State College,” Okay-State athletics director Gene Taylor stated in a press release. “Veryl was probably the most influential and impactful Okay-Staters in our lifetime and helped pave the way in which for thus many others to comply with in his footsteps. He can be eternally remembered as a real trailblazer as we hold his household and buddies in our ideas and prayers.”
Switzer was a trailblazer throughout his time in Manhattan, as he grew to become the primary Black scholarship athlete to graduate from Okay-State. He earned a level in bodily training in 1954. He later earned his grasp’s in training from Okay-State in 1974.
His Okay-State legacy started in 1950 when he accepted an athletic scholarship from the Wildcats. It didn’t take him lengthy to change into a star. Switzer earned All-America honors in three consecutive seasons from 1951-53 whereas main his group in a plethora of statistical classes. He piled up yards and touchdowns as each a operating again and a return man.
However he performed extra than simply soccer at Okay-State. He was additionally the Massive Seven Indoor long-jump champion in 1952 and garnered three letters in observe and area.
After his faculty profession got here to an finish, he was the fourth participant chosen within the 1954 NFL Draft. The Inexperienced Bay Packers chosen him with their first-round decide. To today, Switzer stays the highest-drafted soccer participant in Okay-State historical past.
Switzer left the NFL to function a primary lieutenant within the U.S. Air Power from 1956-58, however he returned to the gridiron shortly afterward with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Soccer League.
Later in life, he returned to Okay-State and labored as an administrator in 1969.
Switzer was way back immortalized on this planet of Wildcats sports activities as a constitution member of the Okay-State Athletics Corridor of Fame. His identify can be discovered at Invoice Snyder Household Stadium within the college’s soccer Ring of Honor.