Kansas State University – Manhattan, KS: Nick at the Purple Masque and the Delta Sig House

Midwestern US Haunted Schools

Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, has a ghost named Nick who is said to live in a theatre under a football stadium. The story was already old enough to appear in the 1988 Royal Purple yearbook, and it has a second chapter in a fraternity house that was once a hospital. Both are campus legends, and the documented history behind them is more modest. This guide tells each story as a story and marks what the record can and cannot show.

What the record says

K-State’s Memorial Stadium timeline says construction began in June 1922. The west grandstand was made into a dormitory for 68 veterans in 1946, and the east grandstand was remodeled as a women’s dormitory in July 1947. Plaques for the 47 students and one instructor who died in the First World War were placed in October 1948. The last football game there was November 20, 1967.

The Purple Masque Theatre was later housed in the old dormitory space. K-State Today reported in 2013 that the space in East Stadium began as the scene shop for the old Auditorium until it burned in 1965, later became a black box theatre, and closed in 1978 and 1979 for flooding. The theatre moved to West Stadium in 2014.

The fraternity story rests on a real building. The City of Manhattan’s landmark sheet says the house at 1100 Fremont Street was built in 1907 as a YMCA, became a hospital in 1926, and was converted to a fraternity house in 1955. The Kansas Preservation Alliance gave Delta Sigma Phi an honor award for its rehabilitation of the building.

The legends

Nick. The 1988 Royal Purple’s Halloween feature said the Purple Masque Theatre in East Stadium “was said to be home to a ghost named Nick.” In the telling, East Stadium was an athletic dormitory in the 1950s, and Nick was a football player hurt in a game who died on a cafeteria table. The yearbook said his most active years were 1964 to 1969, with clanging pipes, vanishing costumes and dimming lights, and that four students who spent a night there with a Ouija board heard footsteps in the corridor above. In 2013, K-State Today called him “the football player who is said to haunt the East Stadium digs,” and said theatre staff joked about a seance to move him.

A “what if.” K-State’s alumni article “Ghost Story” describes Nick as a hazy shadow and a presence that knocks over equipment, then wonders whether the spirit might be Edward “Eddie” Wells, a football player and veteran of the First World War killed on September 12, 1918, in the opening assault of the St. Mihiel offensive. Wells is one of the university’s 48 war dead. The article offers this as speculation, not as a claim, and it is no evidence that he haunts anything.

George and the night nurse. Heitz’s Haunted Kansas (1997) has a chapter by that name about the Delta Sigma Phi house. The tale says a patient called George died there when patients were moved and that a night nurse lingers. A 2005 kcghosts.com report said two investigators found nothing and that members admit to some pranks.

Polly. The 1988 yearbook also mentioned “Polly” at the Lambda Chi Alpha house, said to be a Pi Beta Phi member from the 1940s.

What the record does not support

  • A player named Nick. The Manhattan Mercury reported in 2012 that there is “no record of one named Nick having perished there,” and football was played in the stadium from 1922 to 1967. Its list of activity was noise, moved boxes, an emptied fire extinguisher and a bulb that burst.
  • An athletic dormitory in the 1950s. The timeline documents dormitories in the 1940s, one for veterans and one for women, but no source used here confirms the yearbook’s detail.
  • Wells as the ghost. The alumni article only asks the question.
  • A named patient called George. Neither the city’s landmark sheet nor the preservation award names any patient.
  • A confirmed haunting anywhere. Each account is hearsay or a personal report, and the two investigators who looked at the Delta Sigma Phi house reported nothing.

Visiting

The Purple Masque now plays in West Stadium, a 130-seat thrust theatre, according to the department’s page. The ticket page lists plays at $10 for the public and $5 for students, seniors and military, with tickets sold an hour before curtain at the venue. Confirm that before going. The old East Stadium space where Nick was said to dwell is no longer the theatre. Fraternity houses are private homes. Delta Sigma Phi’s house can be viewed only from the street, and no one should enter it or approach residents about ghosts.

FAQ

Who is Nick at Kansas State?

Nick is a campus legend about a football player who died in East Stadium. No record found names such a player, and the story is told as folklore.

Is the Delta Sigma Phi house haunted?

Stories of a patient named George and a night nurse circulate. A 2005 investigation reported nothing, and the house is a private residence.

Can you see the Purple Masque Theatre?

Yes, by attending a production in West Stadium. Check the department’s page for current shows and ticket details.

More haunted schools in Kansas

Kansas has no other posts here yet. For tips on touring a campus after dark, read How to Run a Campus Ghost Walk This Halloween. Across the border, read about Iowa State University in Ames and Coe College in Cedar Rapids.

Sources

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