How Kansas State turned tragedy into a FIRE tradition
In 1968, arsonists set fire to the building housing the Kansas State Music Department. The inferno destroyed every bit of sheet music for the K-State band … except for one. A lone arrangement of a song called “The Wabash Cannonball” had been taken home by the band director on the night of the fire, saving it from destruction.
At a basketball game 3 nights later, the band played the Wabash Cannonball from the surviving sheet music. It then played the song over and over again, with no other alternatives available. Fortunately, the fans loved it and the song quickly became a permanent part of K-State athletics.
Over the years, students began an alternating set of herky-jerky movements to accompany the song, causing the student section at football and basketball games to almost appear as if it were bouncing.
Later, students also took to ending the Cannonball with a vulgar chant of “F— KU,” a jeer directed at Kansas State’s bitter rival, the Kansas Jayhawks. The K-State administration, clearly unenthused by the chant being picked up on TV broadcasts, threatened to end the Wabash Cannonball permanently.
In the end, cooler heads prevailed, aided in part by the encouragement of beloved new basketball coach Jerome Tang. The students now replace the vulgar three-syllable chant with the school’s initials: K-S-U.
And once again, this unique college football tradition has been spared from destruction…
CFB Travel Guy 