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Chris Klieman beat K-State as a player and coordinator before he was named head coach

Even young Kansas State football fans probably remember the last time Chris Klieman visited Manhattan. He was North Dakota State’s defensive coordinator when the Bison upset the Wildcats 24-21 in the opening game of the 2013 season.

But only older, and truly loyal, K-State fans can likely recall his first trip to the Little Apple. That occurred many years earlier: in 1989, when he was a junior defensive back at Northern Iowa. His team won that game, too, defeating the Wildcats 10-8 in Bill Snyder’s first season as coach.

Nearly 30 years have passed since that now fateful game, which featured the most successful football coach in K-State history on one side and his successor on the other, yet it will never be forgotten by those involved.