Brown: Different season, same chant

Column photo

By Erin Brown

Friday, October 2, 2009

After last year’s football season I was hoping to never need to address this topic again. It was my naive notion that the vulgar football kickoff chant would cease to exist. Unfortunately, several students are still willing to jeopardize the image of the University for a few seconds of immaturity.

KU football is in a place it hasn’t been in years. The success of the team continues to put the program and the University on a national stage.

Although the football team is the focus of this attention, we, the students, are also being looked at, criticized and judged. The students have always had the power to shape the perception of the University, and now with more attention being paid to the football team, the responsibility of the students should be held to a higher standard.

The chant can be distinctly heard when KU games are televised. This has forced networks to bleep out the kickoff, or just not show it. Networks could choose to not broadcast KU football games at all in an effort to uphold a positive image of their station.

Likewise, students should be concerned with what image of the University they are showing to spectators across the country. Students have an obligation to represent their University positively and should remember this obligation when attending any athletic event.

Students are entitled to have fun and enjoy themselves while watching KU athletics. We should be able to participate in traditions and cheer on their favorite athletic teams.

However, the vulgar football chant is hardly comparable to other long-standing KU traditions such as walking through the Campanile on graduation day or jumping in the Chi Omega fountain on your birthday.

Even more so, the chant does not encourage the victory of our team or establish pride in our school like the Rock Chalk Chant. The offensive chant simply demonstrates a lack in judgment and character among a select few students who still seem to consider it necessary.

For the freshmen and transfer students experiencing their first few KU home games, participating in traditions is especially exciting. By choosing to yell the obscene chant, upperclassmen have demonstrated to new students that disrespect is not only tolerated but also encouraged within the student section. Instead of setting a high standard of sportsmanship, the student section has chosen to set a standard of immaturity.

I understand this problem presents no simple solution, as controlling the student section is neither right nor possible. At this stage in our lives we are considered adults and are expected to act accordingly.

I can only encourage as many students as possible to refrain from yelling the offensive chant in hopes that it will simply die out and the real KU traditions can live on.

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Comments

pantheon (anonymous) says...

I find it adorable that you are the arbiter of what a real tradition is or is not. You are just precious!

October 2, 2009 at 11:15 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

KUChiefsFavreFan (anonymous) says...

"choose to not broadcast KU football games at all in an effort to uphold a positive image of their station."

So untrue. As long as KU football games are profitable, TV stations will air them. You see, TV stations care about money, not a barely audible four letter word.

Really UDK? Are you going to try to force your fascist agenda on the students every year? Your efforts failed miserably last year, and I doubt they'll find any success this year.

October 2, 2009 at 12:14 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

KU2008 (anonymous) says...

Actually, you can hear it on the TV...

And they've started to cut the sound for it when the ball is kicked. And you wonder why ESPN hasn't gotten a game with us yet. Just stop the chant... is that too much to ask for?

By god, most of you guys don't even stay for the entire football game (whether it's close or not)... either act with class or don't bother showing up to the damn game at all. Some of you act like Mizzou.

October 2, 2009 at 3:16 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

KUChiefsFavreFan (anonymous) says...

Oh, so that's the reason ESPN didn't air our game against Northern Colorado?! It was because some of the students yell f-u-c-k. If our student section didn't say that word, then ESPN would be airing our games in prime-time instead of Florida, Oklahoma, USC, etc. Get real.

I'm not going to even dignify your Missouri comparison with a response.

October 2, 2009 at 5:23 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

orangehead_83 (anonymous) says...

Erin,

Thank you for writing this. I appreciate someone having the decency to stand up for what many people actually find to be quite annoying. It's amazing how the chant fades after halftime when many of the students leave. Can't we get a little more clever than yelling a chant that not even Coach Mangino nor the players can even hear?

It is true about ESPN not airing us due to the chant. It is also true that ESPN does not televise those with the MUCK FIZZOU t-shirts on. Don't believe that? Read up.

http://www.kansan.com/news/2007/sep/2...

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?s...

October 2, 2009 at 6:11 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

KUChiefsFavreFan (anonymous) says...

Neither one of those links you provided mention anything about ESPN not airing our games because of the RHFHO chant. Furthermore, I have seen KU fans wearing Muck Fizzou shirts plenty on ESPN.

The thing is, only a few thousand students yell the chant. If the rest of the fans really wanted to, they could easily drown out the student section with some other chant. So I find it quite funny that you're implying the students are worse fans than the alumni section. Because the alumni section sit the whole game, are pretty quiet, and are not a factor. I hate students leaving early at half, I never do, but students in one half do ten times as much cheering as the white-hair crowd does the entire game.

The Kansan is not really run by the students. It is a puppet run by the entire Administration and the Athletics Department. The Athletics Department doesn't like the chant, therefore the UDK will publish countless articles and come up with lame contests about trying to end it.

We can't call it the Border War anymore, it's the Showdown. We can't wear Muck Fizzou shirts, we can't yell a harmless chant. It's getting ridiculous how PC and lame everything is becoming.

October 2, 2009 at 7:13 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Hendrix321 (anonymous) says...

So the Athletics Department and the Administration have complete control over the Kansan? What's next, black helicopters landing on top of Snow Hall? If you're going to throw out such strong accusations you ought to provide some specific evidence.

October 4, 2009 at 2:59 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

wbabbit (anonymous) says...

Oh right, well, how many articles saying that the chant is GOOD do you think you'll see? Not going to happen.

October 4, 2009 at 5:40 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

KU2008 (anonymous) says...

Really Hendrix321? Do you honestly believe that? How stupid can you be? There are many students out there that hate the chant. She is one of them (and so am I), since the UDK isn't run by the administration, she is allowed to write whatever the hell she wants.

How about the student section grow up and and act with class for once?

October 4, 2009 at 8:03 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

pantheon (anonymous) says...

KU2008, it's never to late to transfer to a school with classy students. New Delhi U, for instance. I mean, we'd all miss you but if it's that important to you there's really no alternative. I'm sure if you and the other "many students out there that hate the chant" get together and pool your money you could even start a scholarship for people who hate the chant to transfer to other universities.

October 4, 2009 at 1:30 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Hendrix321 (anonymous) says...

Look, I hate the chant too and I never said anything about my feelings about it. I'd recommend working on your reading comprehension.

October 5, 2009 at 8 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

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