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K-State's TE coachHome On The RangeThe Silver EagleCopper Bowl ClockBig 12 LegendsFamily First

Snyder knows the spotlight will come and go and awards eventually collect dust somewhere in a closet, so that's why most of his office is adorned with family pictures. He calls them his "most important trophies."

There's a picture of his daughter, Whitney, riding a horse as a member of the K-State equestrian team. There's a picture of the day when his son, Sean, was inducted into the Wildcats' Ring of Honor in 2002. There's several from a family vacation Snyder took with his children, grandchildren and other family members shortly after he briefly stepped away from coaching in 2005 and countless pictures of holidays past.

All of those mementos are important to him, but two hold more significance than others.

The first is an autographed picture from his mother, Marionetta Snyder. She raised Bill as a single mother after his parents got divorced when he was 6. Living in a one-room apartment in Saint Joseph, Missouri, Marionetta worked 12-hours a day, seven days a week as a sales clerk in a department store.

"My mother was my guiding light all my life," Snyder said. "She was the most significant person ever in my life."

The other is a picture of his daughter, Meredith, during a ski trip at Big Bear, California, taken two years after she was critically injured in a one-car accident in 1992. The accident initially paralyzed Meredith from the neck down, but through lengthy rehabilitation she able to recover enough to ride down the slopes 12 times that day without falling once.

"I talk about my mother being the most inspirational person in my life, but Meredith is a close, close second," Snyder said. "She's amazing. Amazing girl. Amazing woman. This was after she was told she would never walk again the rest of her life."