Firing Kansas State basketball coach Jim Wooldridge hardly caused a stir.

What came next created a national buzz and sent Kansas State fans stampeding in droves to the season-ticket window. Athletic director Tim Weiser, fearful of neither conflict nor moral condemnation, made the most controversial hire in college sports since Texas Tech resurrected the career of Indiana castoff Bob Knight.

Into Manhattan on March 23, decked out in a purple tie and professing, “I don’t think I’m a bad guy,” came Bob Huggins.

Nothing else that happened on the Kansas sports scene in 2006 made bigger headlines around the state or across the nation.

Official school publications and the video board in Bramlage Coliseum now proclaim, “Welcome to Huggieville.”

With 567 victories, a career winning percentage of .740 and 14 straight trips to the NCAA Tournament, Huggins, 53, brought instant credibility.

But critics say he also brought some heavy baggage. His reputation at Cincinnati, which fired him the year before, included tales of ridiculously low graduation rates and players in trouble with the law.

Nevertheless, Kansas State fans voted their approval in the most affirmative way possible. Season-ticket sales have soared from 6,500 last year to a Bramlage-record 13,000.

While out of coaching for a year, Huggins did not just play golf and fish. Free of NCAA restrictions, Huggins recruited. He knew he would be coaching somewhere this season. He just wasn’t sure where.

Now already joining him in Manhattan have been 7-3 freshman Jason Bennett and 6-6 high school superstar Bill Walker. Even more big names are committed for next fall.

When the brilliantly gifted Walker made his graceful debut in Bramlage Coliseum earlier this month, fans beheld the tallest player, the most highly sought freshman and the most nationally prominent coach in the history of the school.

Everywhere were signs of high times in Huggieville.

Big news was also made at Wichita State. The Shockers enjoyed a long run in the NCAA tournament in March, outdoing both Kansas and Kansas State. Then they rose quickly to the top 10 after coach Mark Turgeon got a contract extension.

In football, too, ’06 was a big year for the Wildcats. Bill Snyder’s replacement may have been only in his mid-30s and merely the offensive coordinator at Virginia. But Ron Prince’s first year was an unqualified success.

With a 7-5 record and an eye-popping victory over defending national champion Texas, the Wildcats qualified for the Texas Bowl, where they were to meet No. 16 Rutgers on Thursday night. And the basketball team is not the only outfit on campus with exciting freshmen.

Of the 64 bowl teams, only Kansas State figured to start a freshman quarterback and a freshman as its leading rusher.

Josh Freeman, who led a dramatic come-from-behind win over Oklahoma State in his first start on Oct. 7, emerged as a star-in-the-making when he passed for 1,651 yards and six touchdowns in the regular season.

At Kansas, it was a year of both good and bad. Bill Self’s Jayhawks went out in the first round of the NCAA tournament for the second season in a row. But another outstanding recruiting class, which included Darrell Arthur, one of the most heralded freshmen in the nation, helped boost Kansas to a preseason No. 3 ranking and a victory in Las Vegas in a preseason tournament over defending national champion Florida.

Self and his football counterpart, Mark Mangino, also got hefty pay hikes. Jon Cornish led the Big 12 with a school-record 1,457 yards rushing, but the football team finished a disappointing 6-6 and failed to get a bowl bid.

The Jayhawks were also hit with sanctions by the NCAA, which cited lack of institutional control. The probation period will run to 2009 and included recruiting and scholarships restrictions in both football and basketball.

Though he would go on to win the Nextel Cup title, Jimmie Johnson left Kansas Speedway in October upset by a penalty that led to a 14th-place finish in the Banquet 400. Tony Stewart, who wasn’t in Cup contention, stayed on the track and ran out of fuel on the last lap – but still coasted to a victory.

Other notable sports stories in Kansas included the Kansas State women winning the NIT title, Johnson County voters rejecting a soccer bond issue, throwing a crimp into the Wizards’ plans to move to Kansas, and Fort Hays State bolting the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference for the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association.