Pretty much to a whistle, all coaches adore Kansas State legend Bill Snyder. He’s the guy who all the best football coaches love, and his story is amazing.

Snyder, who is 83, was in Birmingham on Tuesday to accept the Saban Legacy Award, and it gave me the opportunity to interview someone who I’ve always admired from afar. In its second year, the Saban Legacy Award is a thoughtful addition to the culture and history of college football in America. The Monday Morning Quarterback Club of Birmingham created the award to honor coaches who had historic careers on the field, but also profound impacts on the lives of the players they coached. Georgia coach and Auburn grad Vince Dooley, who passed away last October, was recognized posthumously. The first recipients of the Saban Legacy Award were Steve Spurrier and Eddie Robinson.

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The ceremony for Snyder and the Dooley family was at the new Red Mountain Theatre in downtown Birmingham and it was first class. Consider joining the Monday Morning Quarterback Club. It raises money to support the medical needs of children. “Legacy” is one of the most misused words in sports journalism, and I think Zipp Newman would appreciate me mentioning that every time I write about the Saban Legacy Award. Newman was the former Birmingham News sports editor who established the Monday Morning Quarterback Club of Birmingham way back in 1939.

Wins and losses are not a legacy, and neither are championships. Those things are accomplishments. Legacy is the glowing light of someone’s spirit that shines on through the character of others. Legacy is a memory and a motivation. Legacy is how a life force affects change. Snyder reshaped Kansas State with his ability to inspire those around him. I asked him what the word legacy meant, and it made me love him even more.

“A story to be remembered,” Snyder said.

Guess there’ll always be a job for sportswriters after all.

What’s Snyder’s story? There are a bunch of tough guys in this sport called football, but if you talk about Snyder they all turn into fanboys. It’s because no one ever did more with less, and that’s the Holy Grail of coaching. Nick Saban is universally respected by coaches, and also feared, but beloved by everyone who’s anyone? Nah.

And that’s OK. That’s what makes Saban the best, and helps him create his mystique. Both are great, Saban and Snyder, but they traveled different paths through the valley and up the mountain road. Saban is striving for 300 career victories as a college coach with the best recruits around and the best facilities. He’s at 280 wins between Toledo, Michigan State, LSU and Alabama. Snyder, to hear him tell it, awe-shucks’d his way to 215 career wins, and he did it all at Kansas State.

Before Snyder showed up to Kansas State, the Wildcats had the record for the most losses in college football history. They were talking about killing football all together. At a time when teams could carry 95 scholarships, Kansas State had 45 players on scholarship when Snyder took over.

“But all cared,” Snyder said.

And they all cared because of him.

“The really good coaches always have the players that played for him come back and say how they impacted their life,” Saban said. “And I’ve had numerous people, and I’m not anywhere near Kansas, aight, but I’ve had numerous people wherever I go, when they say, ‘I played at Kansas State,’ I say, ‘Did you play for Coach Snyder?’

“’Yeah, and the guy really changed my life.’

“So, that’s what I admire about him probably the most. I know he won a lot of games, over 200, but I think he got the most out of people and I think that’s always what you’re trying to do as a coach. Can we help these people reach their full potential? And I think he probably did that better than most.”

Real respects real.

This is my kind of award, and I’m thrilled that Birmingham is its home. What an honor for the city and for the state of Alabama. The physical trophy for the Saban Legacy Award is beautiful, too.

How is this for an immediate legacy? I was doing some research on former Alabama and Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts this week leading up to Super Bowl Sunday. Hurts played a lot of games in college. As a starting quarterback, his teams only lost two regular season games over three years.

One was against No.6 Auburn at Jordan-Hare Stadium. That was the 2017 Iron Bowl, and the Tigers were the hottest team in America. The second loss during a regular season for Hurts came at Oklahoma. The Sooners were undefeated and would go on to win the Big 12 and play in the 2019 College Football Playoff. Along the way, Hurts and OU were upset at unranked Kansas State 48-41.

That was one year after Snyder retired. It was homecoming, too, for a place they call the Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium.

Man, that’s the good stuff. College football is the best.

When Snyder showed up to Kansas State in 1989 there wasn’t a single player on the team who had won a football game while playing for the Wildcats. Here’s the real crazy thing of all, though. Before Kansas State, Snyder started out as a swim coach first and a football coach second. All coaches dream of the mountain top. Snyder swam to the base of the range before he ever strapped on his boots and started hiking.

What kind of swim coach was he?

“Terrible,” he said.

I highly doubt it.

Snyder swam in college and then coached swim teams in high school and at Austin College in Sherman, Texas. That’s where he made the permanent switch to the gridiron. He was a swim coach for over 12 years, and at five different stops along the way to full-time football. Bill Snyder, the coach who swam upstream just to get to Kansas State.

Bet on yourself the way Snyder bet on himself. If a legacy is a story, then that’s part of Snyder’s, too.

Does he still swim?

“It’s cold right now in Manhattan, Kansas,” Snyder said. “But I swim every day in the spring and summer.”

Rare are the people who have heard Snyder offer boastful words about himself. He did add this, though, but only for the effect of a good story. At 83, he said he can still outrace his kids in the pool.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama: A season of hope and the making of Nick Saban’s ‘ultimate team’”. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.