HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
K-State's student-run experimental theater, tucked inside the limestone of World War I Memorial Stadium, where campus legend places the ghost of a football player named Nick.
West Stadium, Kansas State University (World War I Memorial Stadium), Manhattan, KS 66506
Research updated August 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
General admission $9; $7.75 seniors/military/faculty/staff; $5.75 students/youth. Prices vary by production.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Below the stands of a historic stadium; 130-seat thrust-stage theater built into the limestone structure.
Equipment
No Photos
Est. 1922 · World War I Memorial Stadium built 1922 as a tribute to 48 K-State students who died in WWI · Purple Masque Theatre operating as K-State's student experimental theater since 1974 · Relocated from East Stadium to a newly built West Stadium facility around 2014 · Stadium formally rededicated as World War I Memorial Stadium in 2017
World War I Memorial Stadium was built in 1922 at a cost of $500,000, funded and named as a tribute to the 48 Kansas State students and alumni who died in World War I. The west stands went up first in 1922, with the east stands completed two years later; the stadium served as the Wildcats' football home until 1967, when the team moved to what is now Bill Snyder Family Stadium. In 2015-16, both sides of the historic stadium were renovated, with much of the old seating bowl converted to rooftop gardens, and the venue was formally rededicated as World War I Memorial Stadium in a ceremony on April 21, 2017.
The Purple Masque Theatre has operated as K-State's student-run experimental and teaching theater since 1974, historically located on the stadium's east side beneath the stands. As part of the 2010s stadium renovation, the theater relocated to a newly built, larger facility on the west side, with the move completing around 2014. The current 130-seat thrust-stage venue features a 46-foot-3-inch by nearly 15-foot stage, a catwalk system, and audiovisual upgrades added in 2016.
The theater is administered by K-State's School of Music, Theatre, and Dance and is used for second-stage productions, showcases, workshops, stage readings, and Ebony Theatre programming, alongside its role as a teaching space for directing and design students. The building's identity — a theater literally built into the limestone understructure of a 1920s memorial football stadium — is unusual among American university theaters and is part of what has made it a fixture of campus storytelling for decades.
Sources
The best-known K-State campus ghost story centers on "Nick," said in student folklore to have been a football player who was fatally injured during a game in the 1950s and carried to a cafeteria area beneath the stadium stands, where he died. In some tellings his parents were killed in a car accident on the way to watch him play, and his spirit is said to linger in the theater, still waiting for them. Reported phenomena connected to the legend include stomping sounds, chairs and boxes found out of place, and a fire extinguisher and paint cans reportedly disturbed during rehearsals.
The legend traces to Dennis William Hauck's 1996 reference book Haunted Places: The National Directory, which listed the Purple Masque Theater as a haunted site. K-State's own University Archives has stated it can find no record of a football player named Nick, no documented death during a game at the stadium, and no evidence a cafeteria ever existed within Memorial Stadium — directly contradicting the legend's premise. A 2016 K-State Alumni Association piece raised an alternative theory, suggesting the story may be a garbled folk memory of Eddie Wells, a Kansas State Agricultural College football player and World War I veteran who died in combat during the St. Mihiel Offensive on September 12, 1918 — a documented death, but one unconnected to the stadium or a football game.
Because the archival record does not support the Nick story as historical fact, HauntBound presents it here as long-running campus folklore rather than a verified haunting, tied to the theater's original East Stadium location before its 2014 move to the west side of the stadium.
Notable Entities
Attend a second-stage production, showcase, or student-directed scene at this 130-seat thrust theater built into the west side of World War I Memorial Stadium, home to K-State's experimental and student-learning theatre work since 1974.
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