It adds up that most of the fond memories Julie and Sherwood Taylor carry from their nearly two years in Manhattan, Kan., go far beyond Kansas State football.

Oh, sure. Twenty-one years later they can laugh about the fact that Sherwood probably could have picked any other line of work and had more security than his job as an assistant coach for the Wildcats in 1984 and ’85. But when you’re 25, married and raising a toddler son on a part-time assistant’s salary, accepting a full-time gig at a Big Eight Conference school is a no-brainer.

And, so — ignoring Kansas State’s sink-hole standing in the world of college football and choosing to believe the Wildcats’ appearance in the 1982 Independence Bowl was a sign of change — the Taylors traded the big-time atmosphere in Norman, Okla., for the opportunity to join Jim Dickey and his K-State family.

The “family” stayed together for just 13 games, as, after the second game of the 1985 season, Dickey was fired. The rest of his staff, after negotiating to have their contracts extended from the end of December to the end of April, stayed on to help Lee Moon, who was the school’s assistant athletic director, steer the team the rest of the season.

A freak show, to be sure. Nonetheless, the Taylors’ Manhattan memories aren’t all bittersweet.

For starters, their daughter, Kathryn, was born there, and there’s a funny story behind that involving two young, single K-State assistant coaches the Taylors called to come stay with son Zac when they had to leave for the hospital.

Facing the possibility they might have to change a diaper, the two assistants (one of whom was Dave McGinnis, who went on to become head coach of the Arizona Cardinals and is now with the Tennessee Titans) frantically tried to find someone to come with them and ended up getting to the Taylors’ so late that Julie almost didn’t make it to the delivery room. Kathryn was born 19 minutes after Julie checked in.

There are plenty of stories, too, about Zac, who arrived in Manhattan on his first birthday. Now Nebraska’s senior starting quarterback, Zac has few recollections of his time in the “Little Apple.” He does remember watching Kansas State games from a grassy hill with a small group of kids. And then there was that house.

“I have weird memories about that, more so than the football stuff,” Zac said.

Perhaps, out of convenience, he’s blocked it from his mind. But it has something to do with the playroom that Sherwood built in the basement.

“There were crickets down there,” Julie said, “and Zac was deathly scared of bugs.”

No wonder, Zac was always falling down those stairs. But at least he always reappeared.

Which leads to one of Sherwood’s favorite Wildcat tales — the one about Dennis “Tex” Allen.

It was just before halftime of the seventh game of the 1984 season, a 61-21 loss to Missouri. Allen, a safety, got beat on a touchdown pass in the end zone in front of where the Kansas State locker room was located.

“He just kept running (through the end zone) and just left,” said Sherwood, who was the safeties and special-teams coach. “I never heard from him (after that).”

Allen wasn’t a bad player, either. He ended up playing in the Canadian Football League. Sherwood also coached an All-Big Eight player, Barton Huntley. But this was just another example of the sad state of Kansas State football.

“We were up there (in the lounge) at halftime and (Allen) came in, and I thought ‘How odd,’ ” Julie said. “That right there summed up our experience at K-state. It was a bizarro world.”

Bizarro? How’s this for bizarro?  When the Taylors left Manhattan to move in with Julie’s mother in Oklahoma City, McGinnis came with them. During that time, he got a call from a friend with the Chicago Bears, whom he thought was helping him get an assistant’s job at Wichita State. Turns out the position was with the Bears.

“He goes from Kansas State to the Chicago Bears right after they won the Super Bowl,” said Sherwood, who ended up moving his family back to Norman and working as a stockbroker, in addition to being a volunteer assistant with the Sooners. Not long after, he started a wholesale book company, which he continues to run.

Today, the Taylors will return to Manhattan hoping Zac can help lead the Huskers to their first win there since 1996. It will be just the Taylors’ third trip back since they left in 1985. The most recent was to watch their alma mater, Oklahoma, play the Wildcats in 2000, and that visit left them stunned at how much things have changed.

“We about died. It was fun,” Julie said. “The weird thing was somebody on (Oklahoma’s) staff gave us tickets, and I promised we would not wear red. I wore black, sat down and a lady looked over and said ‘How did you get these tickets?’ They could tell we weren’t from Kansas State, because we didn’t wear purple. We had to ‘high-five’ (for Oklahoma) under the bench.”

And to think, before her first Kansas State game in 1984, Julie Taylor was told by another coach’s wife that all she needed to do in order to get to the stadium on time was to leave home 10 minutes before kickoff.

Today, she and her husband will be on hand hours before the sold-out contest starts at 6:10 p.m., to tailgate with friends.

“It is a remarkable turnaround,” Sherwood said of the atmosphere at Kansas State, which has come about thanks to 11 bowl trips in the past 13 seasons. “But they brought in a president interested in sports and interested in raising money for it. We had absolutely nothing to show a recruit.”

Even so, “We had the best time. We tried everything to motivate the kids — from practicing at 6 in the morning, to 6 at night. Every morning, we’d eat breakfast at this place and Coach Dickey wouldn’t let us all ride in the car. He said if they bombed one car, at least the rest of the staff would still be there.”

The Taylors weren’t around long enough to really get to know Manhattan. Beyond a 13-mile course he regularly ran, the only real part of the city Sherwood got familiar with was the popular “Aggieville” entertainment district. That’s where the K-State coaches would head on Thursdays to make sure players weren’t out too late.

Bizarro, indeed. If only he could run into “Tex” Allen today.

“That,” Sherwood said, “would be full circle for my Kansas State experience.”

Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.